A good, dramatic cliffhanger has always had a special place in my heart.  I was reminded of this love yesterday upon opening a parcel from my sister Paige.  She had been going through the DVD collection of my father who recently passed away and thought there were a few gems I might enjoy.  Thankfully, there was no Terror of Tiny Town, perhaps the all time worst movie ever produced that my father watched endlessly.  But peeking around Liza-Sally Bowles on the cover of  Cabaret was an entire set of Dick Tracy serials.  Now I’m not talking the Warren Beatty-Madonna version, but the original 1937 campy series with the legendary (to me) Ralph Bird in the marquee role battling the evil villain Spider.

I fell in love with Dick (pun intended) when I was about five and my father took the family every Sunday afternoon to Dallas’ old Grenada Theater to watch a black-and-white classic like Freaks (a horror film about sideshow performers) preceded by an episode of Dick Tracy.  I remember screaming out for my hero about to be killed by San Francisco’s Bay Bridge, collapsing from the villain Spider’s dangerous sonic weapon!  How could I possibly wait until the next week to find out what happened to my detective boyfriend?  My father just smiled knowingly.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized I had left ABCityblog readers with a cliffhanger of sorts.  A friend who was catching up on postings wrote me to say that she couldn’t believe I just left everyone hanging at the end of the Turkey Trouble episode—my fateful encounter with an Istanbul hustler before Tyra’s arrival.

So, here’s the ending to that tale, with a viewer advisory: this will probably be the last excerpt released before the entire book is published in print and e-book form early next year.  How’s that for a cliffhanger?

(Ahh, don’t worry.  I’ll keep posting original stuff.)

CLICK HERE for Second Excerpt from Alphabet City’s Episode 7: Turkey Trouble.

Last week as I was beginning to cook the big Thanksgiving meal and make final preparations for my Spit List, I came across an article in the New York Times about a man named Ahmet Yildiz who was brutally killed in Istanbul by his father for being gay.  The reporter and sociologists refer to it as an “honor” killing—which I find horrific and gruesome.  The premise of the article is that modern Turkey is battling fundamentalist Islamic ideology as can be seen in acceptance of cross-dressing pop-stars but murders of gay men.

I must admit that I had lulled myself into believing that things must have progressed for gays and lesbians in the metropolis of Istanbul since I visited many years ago with Tyra Banks.  I thought it was daring then that I ventured out to find exotic gay nightlife, and would up in a heap of trouble.  But nothing as tragic as Mr. Yildiz.  As an American, I was able to return to a land where I might not be able to marry my partner, but I at least feel free from being hunted down by a family member justifying their action in the name of “honor.”

If it were still Thanksgiving, I’d add “Honor Killings” to my Spit List.  In the meantime, I offer up an excerpt of the story about an experience in Istanbul that caused me years of shame.

CLICK HERE to read an excerpt from Episode 7: Turkey Trouble.