SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN, British composer, born (d: 1900); Like the later partnership of Rodgers and Hart, the musical marriage of Gilbert and Sullivan was one of temperamental unequals – Gilbert straight and Sullivan Gay – perfectly matched in the art they jointly created. Sullivan’s sexuality, though widely known to his contemporaries, was practiced discreetly. He played by the rules that permitted the upper classes their “vices” so long as there was no threat of public scandal. That Sullivan, unlike his straight partner, was knighted, shows how well, and how prudently, he played the game. Hypocritical? Perhaps. But the Irish Oscar Wilde might not have died quite so young had he understood the English character as well as Sullivan.

 HALL CAINE (ne Thomas Henry Hall Caine) born (d: 1931); As a novelist, Hall Caine was immensely popular in his own time and almost completely forgotten today. Diminutive and slight as a man in his time, he is rather impossible to read today, his language so stilted, plots so melodramatic as to be rendered unintentionally hilarious. Caine’s novel The Deemster (1887) resets the biblical David-Jonathan story in contemporary England. The chapter called “Passing the Love of Women” is of particular interest, not only for its significant title, but for its Victorian heavy breathing thought to stimulate men in love. Its pages fairly flicker like a silent movie melodrama.

HERB RITTS, American photographer was born on this date (d. 2004); Ritts started taking night classes in photography and decided to dedicate himself to the art in the mid to late 1970s. His first break into the business occurred as a result of taking portraits of his actor friend Richard Gere. These photos gained national exposure on the covers of many magazines. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he worked with magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Vogue on portraits of famous people and artistic photos of models. Subjects of his black-and-white celebrity portraits included Kofi Annan, Cindy Crawford, Tenzin Gyatso (the Dalai Lama), Madonna, Jack Nicholson and Elizabeth Taylor. Herb was this writer's first housemate when I moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco and he shot my headshot.

Ritts started his long term collaboration with Madonna in 1984, when he shot the ad for her movie Desperately Seeking Susan. In 1986 Ritts shot the cover photo of Madonna’s True Blue album. He later ventured into the world of music video at a suggestion of Madonna and filmed her video "Cherish" with its beautiful images of mermen. He photographed Cindy Crawford for the July 1988, and October 1998 issues of Playboy. Ritts proved himself to be successful in directing music videos. In 1991 two of these, Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” and Janet Jackson’s “Love Will Never Do (Without You)”, won MTV Video Music Awards. He co-directed Michael Jackson’s “In The Closet” video which featured supermodel Naomi Campbell. He also directed videos for Mariah Carey's "My All", Britney Spears' "Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know”, Jennifer Lopez’s "Ain’t It Funny" and Shakira's "Underneath Your Clothes", the latter was completed shortly before his death. He died in Los Angeles from pneumonia-related complications. He was HIV-positive. He is survived by his partner Erik Hyman.

JULIA CHILD, American chef and television personality died (b. 1912); Again, not gay, but a goddess, nonetheless. If M.F.K. Fisher is the Juno of my personal pantheon and Joni Mitchell the Aphrodite, Child is Athena with an apron. Child was a favorite of audiences from the moment of her television debut on public television in 1963 and her personage – a striking hybrid of gravitas and camp – was a familiar part of American culture and the subject of numerous references. In 1966, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine with the heading, "Our Lady of the Ladle". In a 1978 Saturday Night Live sketch, she was affectionately parodied by Dan Aykroyd, continuing with a cooking show despite profuse bleeding from a cut to the thumb.

VERTUMNALIA – Roman festival in honor of Vertumnus and Diana, on the Aventine Hill. In Roman mythology, Vertumnus is the god of seasons, change and plant growth, as well as gardens and fruit trees. He could change form, at will; using this power, according to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, he tricked Pomona into talking to him by disguising himself as an old woman and gaining entry to her orchard, then using a narrative warning of the dangers of rejecting a suitor (the embedded tale of Iphis and Anaxarete) to seduce her. The Ides of August was also sacred to Jupiter and known as the feriae Jovi, or Festival of Jove, and to Diana, the goddess of the moon, and called the Festival of Diana. Diana was sometimes viewed as Jupiter's female equivalent (not his wife, who was Juno). On this day, Diana's temple on the Aventine Hill was consecrated; today cow horns (symbols of Hercules), were hung in the front of the temple.

Today is LEFT HANDED DAY. No-one has come up with a definitive reason for WHY some people are left-handed, but about 13% of the population around the world are, and it is thought to be genetic – it definitely runs in families. Researchers have recently located a gene they believe “makes it possible to have a left-handed child” so if you have that gene, one or more of your children may be left-handed, whereas without it, you will only have right-handers. The good news is that if you are left-handed yourself, you have that gene and will pass it on through the generations! Some interesting left-handed facts:

The incidence of left-handedness is more prevalent among gay people than straight people.

Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater.

Left-handers excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing

Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers

4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed

1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed – 250% more than the normal level.

In honor of all the left-handed folks out there today’s entire GayWisdom was typed entirely with my left hand.