Why Vin McCarthy is doubly angry

Loosely Speaking by Nancy Gaines

LOOSELY SPEAKING

Prominent local gay activist and lawyer Vincent P. McCarthy was more than nonplused last week when he saw that the Boston Globe named Vincent P. McCarthy as attorney/spokesman for the conservative, Virginia-based, Pat Robertson-led group fighting the domestic-partner legislation before the state -- with no differentiating ID. "What a pain in the ass," said the Boston McCarthy. As Bay Windows reported a month ago, the local McCarthy, who has been in the news as an activist for 25 years, was annoyed enough when Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly referred to the other McCarthy as "a Boston attorney," an error later corrected.

"But where's the institutional memory here?" asked a spokesman for (local) McCarthy, a partner at Hale & Dorr, after the Globe story appeared.

Dirty birds: an ill-timed prank "If they were going for shock value, it didn't work," said one of the organizers of last weekend's Boys & Girls Club benefit at the Ritz. "This is a pretty jaded crowd. It was just gross." The reference was to a display put together by anonymous fans of the cult film Pink Flamingos that featured video views of the transvestite Divine in porno poses. The display was a unique interpretation of the otherwise creative and amusing "Hollywood legends" theme for the gala, which was staged as a tribute to the late Boston Globe columnist John Robinson. Event chair Doris Yaffe, who said she had no idea the Divine spread was going to appear, called it "vile." Boston interior designer Manuel de Santaren, who was in charge of the displays, said he was sworn to secrecy about its creators. "They thought it was funny," he said, adding that they also assumed it would be deemed offensive because "after all, this is Boston." Program notes included self-descriptions of the display's sponsors as "the filthiest people alive." Party favors at the display table were candies made by Sweet & Nasty, on Mass Ave, depicting bare buttocks (in white chocolate) with a plume of dark chocolate dripping from the anus. Asked why he didn't tell the pranksters that their antics would be out of place at the fundraiser, de Santaren said, "I didn't want to stifle their creativity."

Hog heaven

Congrats to John Atwood, president of Harley-Davidson/Buell of Boston, named the state's 1999 Small Business Person of the Year by the federal Small Business Administration (SBA). Atwood, whose business is based in Everett, will represent the state at ceremonies in Washington next month.

Loneliness of the long-distance runner

The best place to track the runners in Monday's Boston Marathon may be on your computer screen, but the one person you might expect to be doing just that -- after all, he's in charge of the entire project -- won't be watching. Greg Urban, director of network operations for KIVEX.com, the Internet service provider equipping the runners with the microchip that allows updates of their progress every three minutes or so, will be running the race himself.

Urban seems unfazed by the prospect that he will be incommunicado as his new, faster setup gets its first tryout. "I have a well-trained team in place," he says. "We've planned and tested. Now we cross our fingers." Urban says colleagues joked that he should be accompanied by someone on a bike with a cell phone, but he "won't do anything special, except concentrate on the 26.2 miles. I'll have my hands full." So will his team: last year, the Marathon's Web site got 1.9 million hits during the race. This year, KIVEX expects double that.

Correction

Last week's column misstated the matchup in the NCAA women's basketball final: Purdue beat Duke.