La Dolce Vita.

Stop and smell the roses, preferably white roses, in honor of Vita Sackville-West, writer and lover of men, women and gardens, who was born on this day in 1892.  Though Sackville-West, who was married and had two sons, was a novelist and poet of note, she may be best known today as the lover of Virginia Woolfe and the inspiration for the gender-bending, time-traveling hero of Woolfe's novel Orlando.  Sackville-West was also an avid, self-taught gardener (with a large gardening staff, one suspects), and her one-color gardens, in particular her White Garden, are still admired at Sissinghurst Castle, purchased by Sackville-West and her husband, journalist and diplomat Harold Nicolson in 1930.   Here's a link to more history about the gardens:  http://www.greatbritishgardens.co.uk/Vita_Sackville_West.htm

And here's a link to a bio:  http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jsackville.htm

The 1992 movie version of Woolfe's novel starred Tilda Swinton as Orlando, a character who changes sexes and time periods willy nilly, and the (probably) male actor Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth I.  Despite the Orlando tie-in and its obvious potential, the film did not inspire a new ride at Disneyworld.  If only Bruckheimer had produced it.  Pirates of the Gender Frontiers, anyone?  Today, let us also consider those possibilities.