rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (07/01/85)
Despite constant threats from weather forecasts, Sunday's parade, rally & street fair on Christopher Street took place under hot (80s) sunny skies. It seemed like there were many more spectators than last year, & the mood was livelier (the numbing number of AIDS deaths in NYC in the last half-year & the grim resulting public mood surprisingly cast no gloom at all on the festivities). All the groups that usually participate were there from NY, the northeast, & farther afield, plus four or more marching bands, majorettes, a large Dykes from Delaware contingent, floats, classic cars, and a Mummer's band (which caused a sensation along the parade route down Fifth Avenue) & large raucous following from Philadelphia. One of the high points of the event was Sybil, a guy in a nearly strapless prom dress with a build that would torment an Arnold Schwarzenegger, who alternately flexed & simpered while seated atop a convertible. The meat rack that resulted down by the docks west of the Village was dazzling, as hordes strolled onto the docks to gaze at the New Jersey shore in the brilliant sunlight, as the rally chugged on next door with virtually no audience (the Boston rally was also deadly with its long program of utterly predictable speechifying). An article on an AIDS breakthrough appeared in the Saturday NYTimes: researchers have discovered a gene in HTLV-III that controls (I think) the rate at which the virus multiplies, in a location where no such gene had been expected. This sounds really major: HTLV-III grows at as many as 1,000 times the rate of the cancer-causing (non-AIDS) HTLV-I, for example. A crucial fact about full-blown AIDS seems to be the sheerly overwhelming nature of the AIDS' virus attack on the immune system. The discovery is promising for the eventual creation of a vaccine and even treatment of AIDS patients. Is Craig Werner or any other netters out there willing to post a detailed article? Regards, Ron Rizzo