“On the Pleasures of Self-Shifting:” a paean to, and manifesto against the alleged demise of, the manual transmission–as noted by the Wall Street Journal–for my column at Vanity Fair.

My piece on Pulitzer Prize-winning automotive journalist Dan Neil’s new $650 collaboration with luxury book-maker Assouline, “The Impossible Collection of Cars”, is out in this month’s Vanity Fair. Click below to see a shitty scan, or buy the magazine, you cheap bitch.

The rains have stopped in Upstate New York, but the over-capacity streams continue to churn in their quest for the Atlantic. This means that the lovely hamlet in which my country house sits is about to be ravaged by the mighty Delaware River, which crested late last night. It also means: Disaster Touring! But what to drive?

Fortunately, this week, I am in possession of a 2012 Mercedes SLK Roadster. Because nothing says prurient-asshole-from-The-City- cruising-about-ogling-ruination-simply-for-sport like a bright read Benz convertible. Let loose with other suggestions in the comments below.

My delicious new slideshow for Vanity Fair is called Chocolate Glamour and covers the ten most gorgeous–and brown–cars spotted on my visit to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Weekend (including this Leather Stutz.)

A new quantitative study suggests that The Gays actually predict what the rest of you will be driving next.
Read my EXCLUSIVE report, in Gawker’s Jalopnik.

Ladies and Hairballs, I would like to introduce Stick Shift’s new recurring feature: Stars & Cars. In our premiere installation, I interview singer and humanitarian activist Sheryl Crow about her vintage Mercedes, her love of Bond Girls, and the time she totaled her Camaro. All at the venerable Vanity Fair.

We’ve been in the shop for much of this summer enduring a ceaseless regimen of cosmetic enhancements (three is the new fifty, darlings.) But stay tuned for fresh loads of sticky, shifty, gear-grinding elegance as we begin our fourth year polluting the information superhighway.

Wherein a new L.A. car blog, The Vehiclist, solicits my expert opinion on Gay Cars. Check it out.

This morning, none other than the New York Times reports that my Big Gay Moms are getting married, again, on the stage of Broadway’s St. James Theater, again. This time legally.

Wherein I play Sissy Bounce expert in Slate/Washington Post’s “The Root.” Check it out!