21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: What’s it like to be with someone who is having a sex change? “My partner is transgender and in the process of transitioning from male to female. Because our situation is so uncommon, many of our friends are fascinated by our shared experience of transitioning.”

LONDON MAYOR BORIS JOHNSON hangs in there.

Plus, some photoshop fun. I guess the Romney one was inevitable . . . .

AT AMAZON, markdowns on sports & outdoor clothing.

THE GREATEST MYSTERY OF THE INCA EMPIRE was its strange economy.

HOW TO MAKE THE OLYMPICS FAIR: Use Genetically Identical Clones. Yeah, that’ll sell.

TODAY’S UNBIASED JOURNALISM. Meanwhile, some firsthand reporting by nonjournalists here. And I should note that when I passed the Chick-Fil-A near my house, the line wound out onto Kingston Pike and took up a hundred yards or so of street, after 8 p.m.

I don’t think this can be interpreted as opposition to gay marriage, so much as a response to bullying. But I do think that the bullying has probably tainted the gay-marriage brand, which is too bad. The gay-marriage argument is already winning — there’s no need to engage in Rahm Emanuel-style attacks, and doing so merely invites pushback. And, frankly, I’m happy to live in a country where people’s response to bullying is to push back.

UPDATE: Speaking of bullying: Chick-fil-A in Martinsburg re-opens after bomb threat.

Also: Why Are Liberals So Intolerant?

ANOTHER UPDATE: This Yahoo! News story quotes some trad-marriage supporters, but also captures the anti-bullying angle well:

For those like John Mohler, 50, of Thornton, Colo., eating at Chick-fil-A on Wednesday was about defending free speech. Mohler said he doesn’t share Cathy’s belief–only his rights to air them.

“I’m not sure I agree with his position on gay marriage,” said Mohler, who drove to Englewood from downtown Denver on his lunch break. “But I applaud the owner for speaking his mind, and that’s why I’m here.”

In Chicago, throngs of supporters flocked to the lone Chick-fil-A, where the line of customers snaked through the entrance and around the corner. . . .

Further up the line, Jessica Cather, 29, Dana Haskins, 42, and Sarah Touhy, 43, all stressed that though they support same-sex marriage, they also support the right to believe what anyone wants to believe.

“We support tolerance on both sides,” Haskins said.

“Just because they don’t support gay marriage, it doesn’t make them a bad company,” Touhy said.

Another patron solicited donations to buy lunch for Alderman Joe Moreno, who made headlines last month for opposing a Chick-fil-A in his ward.

Linda Smith, 54, didn’t have time for the line. Instead, she gave someone else in line her money to spend to show her support. Smith said, “It doesn’t matter what the president of the company’s views are, as long as they don’t discriminate in hiring,” Smith said.

I’m actually afraid that the mainstream media will push the marriage angle, and that so will the conservative media, and miss out on the anti-bullying angle, which I see as the most significant. But perhaps they’ll show more balance than I fear.

MORE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “I have noticed in some commentary on the Chick-Fil-A protest that some people seemed surprised by the number of people who apparently shared their desire to make a statement. Isn’t this how preference cascades begin?”

STILL MORE: Ann Althouse comments:

1. I don’t believe the stories of customers saying homophobic things.

2. I’m totally against govt officials getting involved in favoring or disfavoring businesses based on the politics of the owners or the management.

3. Anyone can decide which businesses they want to patronize, and it’s fine to pick businesses that stand for what you like and avoid the ones that don’t.

4. It’s fine to try to get other people to choose what businesses to support/avoid based on political reasons.

5. Don’t assume that efforts to promote/penalize businesses will have the effect you want. You may be stimulating other people to do the opposite.

6. Chick-fil-A has gotten a lot of attention, and it will probably end up with more business. It doesn’t need everyone to be a customer, and now it has a niche, and there are plenty of people who are going to want to keep rewarding them for their values or patronize them because they hate the persecution.

Good points. And, agreeing with Ann Althouse, Jon Ham (Mary Katharine’s dad) comments on Facebook:

Sorry, but I’d bet this guy is lying. He’s Mark Krzos, a reporter for the News Herald in Ft. Myers, Fla. Among a half million people in DC on 9/12/10 I never saw one person act in the manner he describes, and at the Chick-fil-A I went to tonight, it was like a party. Sorry, not buying it, Mark.

Yeah, it seems more like a lefty fantasy than reality. Video or it didn’t happen.

SOBBING OVER SAAB: Jay Leno Reminisces.

ROMNEY BILLBOARDS IN FLORIDA: “Mr. President, I BUILT MY BUSINESS.”

TARGETED MARKETING: In the supermarket, a “Man’s Aisle.”

“People rarely cater to men in the supermarket,” COO Ian Joskowitz told us over the phone. “So I thought let’s do something fun, get people talking, something guys would like. So we started discussion, and it’s funny because most of us came up with a very similar list.”

This was, of course, spawned by a recent ESPN study showing that 31 percent of grocery shoppers are now men, in comparison to the 14 percent in 1985.

I do most of our grocery shopping, but the contents of this aisle seem more aimed at single guys.

SCIENCE: Massachusetts Geniuses Figure Out Why There Are So Many Shark Sightings. It’s an unintended consequence of federal seal protection.

SENATORS CALL FOR Presidential Debate on Debt Reduction.

THE INSTAWIFE HATES ALL THOSE GLOWING DIODES: Too Much Light At Night Can Lead To Depression. “Here’s another reason to log off at a reasonable hour: exposure to dim lighting at night — such as that generated by a TV screen, computer or night-light — may lead to depressive symptoms, new animal research suggests. . . . Mood disorders are by no means the only health condition linked to artificial lighting and screen time at night. Earlier this year, the American Medical Association (AMA) put out a disturbing summary of adverse health effects from nighttime lighting, noting that artificial lights disrupt circadian rhythms and alter the body’s normal hormonal responses. In particular, when people spend too little time in darkness, it seems that the body suppresses release of the hormone melatonin, which — among other things — is thought to fight tumor growth and cancers. Other health conditions affected by changes in circadian rhythms, according to the AMA report, may include obesity, diabetes and reproductive problems.”

SCIENCE: Modern Music Really Does Sound The Same. “For fans of the golden oldies it is confirmation of something they have already known: modern music really is louder and has less variety than 50 years ago. . . . The study, by Spanish researchers, analysed an archive known as the Million Song Dataset to discover how the course of music changed between 1955 and 2010. While loudness has steadily increased since the 1950s, the team found that the variety of chords, melodies and types of sound being used by musicians has become ever smaller.”

The use of heavy compression makes all the songs on an album tend to sound the same — I call it the Superdrag effect, where the first couple of minutes sound great, then it all sounds the same — and of course, the use of samples. I occasionally hear a sample that I used in one of my Mobius Dick tunes in some pop song and laugh. Once I heard Justin Timberlake at the gym and recognized the guitar riff as a sample that — vocoded — I had licensed from Brian Transeau, which makes sense since he was Timberlake’s producer. It was very amusing. But when samples proliferate like that — and especially when a comparatively small number of sound designers produce a lot of them — that adds to the sameness.

MY FAVORITES ARE THE ONES WHO DRESS AS LAND SHARKS: Film fans to flock to beach resort for “Jawsfest.”

FLIPPING THE BIRD TO RAHM: Chicago Chick-Fil-A Mobbed.

More here. And John Lucas sends this picture of the Chick-Fil-A in Maryville, TN. I saw a similar traffic jam outside another Chick-Fil-A near my house.

And, in Massachusetts, Hundreds Wait For Lunch At Burlington Chick-Fil-A.

And Lucas adds: “As I watched this phenomenon, I was struck by two related thoughts. The first is that there is that the force that propelled Ted Cruz to a 13 point victory in Texas ultimately is the same one that is causing thousands of people to turn out to support Chick Fil-A in small towns and large cities across the country. The second is that the people who buck the traffic jams (you should have seen them) just to stand in line for 30 minutes to get a chicken sandwich are people who are going to vote in November. The Democrats will attack or ignore them; the Republicans ignore them at their peril.”

I agree — and as someone who supported gay marriage long before President Obama did (which is to say, long before a couple of months ago), I’m nonetheless gratified to see people standing up to the bullying that the left-political class has aimed at this honest business simply because its owners failed to change their views in synch with President Obama.

UPDATE: A report from Bryan Preston.

ANOTHER UPDATE: From deep in the heart of Blue America: Business Brisk at Hollywood Chick-Fil-A. Report and photos from Gay Patriot at the link.

Meanwhile Luke Pingel sends a photo and report from the Chick-Fil-A in Fairfax, Virginia at 7 p.m.:

Quote of the evening from standing in a 20 minute line: “We’re here to send a message to the President.”

It’s packed and everyone is enthusiastically sharing their stories about dealing with liberal fascists.

And punching back twice as hard, as a famous man once said. Here’s the pic:

And Prof. Jacobson has photos from all over the country, and an interactive map, which is very cool.

And a reader emails from Florida: “My wife manages a Chick-fil-A in the Tampa, FL, area. They were mobbed as soon as the store opened at 6 am and have had one-hour waits for meals all day. At the moment the line is out the door, around the building, and into a nearby Wal-Mart parking lot. She was supposed to be off 2 hours ago but will probably wind up working until they close at 10 pm, which means a 16-hour day for her.”

And from California: Photos: Huge Crowds, Long Lines at Irvine Chick-fil-A.

TEN KICKED CANS that could send the U.S. economy over a cliff.

BANNING TWITTER AT MUSICAL PERFORMANCES?

AT INSIDE HIGHER ED, an interview of Brian Tamanaha about his Failing Law Schools.

HOLD THE PRESSES: Five Guys’ Recipe For Success: Doing It Right. “Jeff Haden, a columnist for Inc.com, says Five Guys is so successful because though it only sells burgers, it does that extremely well.”

That’s the original winning formula for fast food, of course.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The 7 Types Of Non-BFs.

AND THIS WAS BEFORE THE TED CRUZ VICTORY ADDED GLAMOR TO TEXAS: Houston Tops List of America’s Coolest Cities.

Oh, wait, the glamor comes from the fact that people have jobs: “The Bayou City may not be the first place you associate with being hip or trendy. But Houston has something many other major cities don’t: jobs. With the local economy humming through the recession, Houston enjoyed 2.6% job growth last year and nearly 50,000 Americans flocked there in response — particularly young professionals. In fact, the median age of a Houston resident is a youthful 33.”

Hmm. Well, bourgeois values are the new sexy. . . .

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: $30 Million In Unreported GSA Bonuses Uncovered By WUSA9 Investigation, Rep John Mica Plans Congressional Investigation. A culture of entitlement.

READING LIST: Books, Publishers, And The Future of Publishing.

FOUAD AJAMI: The Foreign Policy of David Axelrod. “The subordination of foreign policy to the electoral needs of the Obama campaign stands apart in recent American history.”