What happens when you combine an executive transvestite with an action transvestite? You get Eddie Izzard, a stand-up comedian in full make-up, strutting across the stage in high heels, glossy leather pants and a star-studded kimono. His exaggerated faces, hand motions and signature expression-a wide-mouthed confused look with his tongue sticking out sideways and eyes gazing in the opposite direction-characterize his animated personality.

Lines snaked around the corner and out the door of Rodgers Recreation Center Saturday Nov. 22. There was excited chatter as the queue grew longer and longer to the entrance of the gymnasium. Were the Boston Celtics back in town for one last game on Salve’s courts? Nope.

Tragedies are never pleasant to relive. The story of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay Wyoming man who in 1998 was brutally murdered because of his sexual orientation, is no different. When the dust finally settled, Shepard became a global symbol of unity and solidarity for people of all races, religions and sexual preferences.

In the heat of the recent United States presidential elections, most Americans found themselves holding their breath in anticipation as they waited to discover who would be next in line to serve our country. Obama or McCain? I’ve been asked this question repeatedly throughout the past two months and more specifically in the days leading up to the election.

The charter bus rides along the narrow, twisting road just a few feet away from the steep drop of a rocky Cliffside that lingers over the sparkling Mediterranean Sea. Around the bend hundreds of distant homes chisel into the cliff-side like children’s building blocks, stacked one on top of another.