CJK

Just to be clear, my issues with DL were not bad customer service. When Leo Mullin ran the airline they adopted bad policies. The result was the airline went bankrupt. American Express financed the post-bankruptcy airline, Mullin and his crew were fired and the airline rebounded. The last time I flew AA was an absolute clusterfluck. I flew up to Philly for a funeral early in the morning and took the last flight back the same day. AA was hundreds of dollars cheaper than any other airline and the flights were direct both ways. Flying back to ATL the airplane had to make an emergency landing in CLT. Several people panicked on the flight. I told the young lady sitting at the window in my row that there was probably nothing to worry about. I pointed out that if it was a real emergency, we would see firetrucks and ambulances as we landed. I spoke too soon. As the plane neared the airport, we saw hundreds of flashing strobe lights. Every emergency vehicle in NC must have been on that runway. The plane rolled to a stop but could not taxi to the gate. We sat for a couple hours before buses came out to get us. We then waited in the airport for several hours while AA arranged for a new plane. We got on the new plane but then the crew timed out, so we went back to the terminal and waited for a new crew. How did they not realize the crew was going to time out? We finally got to ATL at five in the morning. The train was not working so we had to walk a mile to the T Concourse. Our luggage was still in CLT. I actually had checked an empty suitcase, having flown up with funeral clothing for my sister and her family who did not plan on going to a funeral when they had headed north. (My BIL's dad had died.) A week or so later it was reported there had been a maintenance issue, totally AA's screw up. I got an email giving me 1,500 airline points because of the inconvenience. Heck, my entertainment screen did not work once on DL and they credited me 15,000 miles. The AA points were basically useless because I would have to fly AA several more times to get enough points to actually use for anything, so AA really just did nothing to make up for the inconvenience. I grew up flying Allegheny Airlines, which became USAir before folding into AA. Everyone called it Agony Airlines, but AA is worse than Agony ever was.

For years I had top tier status with Delta (Platinum and then Diamond once it was created) and mid-tier status with United. Both were attained based on segments, not miles, which meant 150+ flights on DL and around 30 on United. I would wind up on other airlines several times a year. AA domestic is definitely a step below DL and AA. Domestic First is glorified coach. The difference between Domestic First and International First or Biz is akin to the difference between Dixie cups and Waterford crystal. I could tolerate Spirit by continually reminding myself it was a short flight. Really, the worst part of flying Spirit was the behavior of the other passengers. Southwest was my least favorite airline. FA antics, festival seating and a seemingly higher number of kids on the flights made flying LUV migraine inducing. I have a soft spot for Frontier. When Leo Mullin was running DL into the ground DL became a horrible airline. I moved my business to AirTran, which was a really good operator. Reserved seating, upgrades and professional FAs! Unfortunately, AirTran did not fly everywhere. One of those places was Reno, so I wound up flying DL from ATL. There were only four people on the flight to Reno. While there, my boss had a heart attack and went to the hospital. I was not going to leave her in NV alone, so I told her I would change my flight to the next day, by which time her husband would be in NV from NC. I called DL, explained the situation and they wanted about $3k to change the return flight, which would have included repricing the segment I had already flown to Reno. So I went to the airport thinking a flesh and blood agent would be more helpful than a phone agent. The check-in agent asked me to stand at the side of the check-in area while she got a manager. The station manager came over, heard the situation and still insisted on over $3k. (Is it any wonder DL wound up in bankruptcy with that kind of customer service?) Frontier's check-in desk was next to DL. A man there had been listening to this and motioned me over. He was the Frontier station manager. He said they would fly me back to Atlanta the day after next. They would submit my ticket to DL and whatever they were reimbursed would be the charge. No additional charge for me. The DL manager said, "You cannot do that." The Frontier manager pointed to the floor and said, "See where the green carpet starts? I can do whatever I want when I am on the green carpet." I had no issue paying a change fee, and that year alone had paid hundreds of dollars to change tickets. DL's policy in this case was not only punitive, but it was their attempt to make a huge profit off of my boss' heart attack. It wasn't until Mullin was fired and his anti-customer policies were rescinded that I went back to regularly flying DL. BTW, for international flights, the ME3 (Emirates, Etihad, Qatar), Singapore and Turkish are so much better than any American carrier. Flying over the Pacific, Korean Biz (Prestige) upstairs on an A380 is my fave. The seats are so far from one another, the upstairs is quiet, the bar and coffee lounge are nice places to escape from your seat and the bathrooms are ginormous. Yes, there are middle seats in the middle block, window seats do not open to the aisle, although they do have useful extra storage bins and the seats are lay-almost-flat, but the top deck is often pretty empty so every seat not being an aisle seat rarely matters, I have no problem sleeping at a four-degree angle and the quietness, away from economy which is on the lower level, is awesome.

Thanks for the info. I have gone down the rabbit hole and the situation is murky. Lotus of Siam opened a second location. I know the last time I was at the first location, with my teen nieces and nephew, we made our reservation the day before and the only time available was the last seating. When we were there, they had to turn away dozens of people. And the place was big. From what I read the second location is not quite as good. The first location has been temporarily closed but will be reopening. A third location will be opening by the end of the year at Red Rock's Casino.

For twenty years, my job required my flying about five times a week, three weeks per month, ten months per year. I flew short flights, long flights, good flights and bad flights. As for the shortest: For many years the shortest flight in the continental US was Altoona PA (AOO) to Johnstown's John Murtha (JST), just over 30 miles. Although nobody would actually fly the route - AOO is also the farthest airport from its city in the US and driving to Altoona from Johnstown was fast - the route was bookable. The commuter plane would fly PIT-JST-AOO or PIT-AOO-JST alternatively, letting off and taking on passengers at each stop. There would often be a need to send crew between AOO-JST so the route would be ticketable. The two airports switched to different airlines so the route went away, but when it existed you would take off and land in one motion. When DL used Cinci as a hub, there were flights to Lexington and Louisville that were quite short. I remember being at cruising altitude for five minutes. Pensacola-Atlanta is a very popular route, with several large planes a day, but just after takeoff there is an announcement that because of the short duration of the flight there will be no drink service. People get pissed, but the flight is five minutes too short for drink service. When flying in the other direction, from ATL-PNS, there is drink service as the flight is slightly longer because of the wind. I was once flying into PNS. After landing, the pilot made an announcement that we were to remain in our seats even after the door was opened. As we taxied into the gate, we could see flashing police lights. Some guy in the back yells the S-word, muttering he knew they would be there, running up and down the aisle. Two other guys get up from the back of the plane, intercept the runner and escort him off the plane. Later I found out the runner was AWOL. Days earlier, he reported to the Atlanta airport for his flight to Afghanistan but instead bought a ticket to go see his girlfriend. A few days later, he decided he would fly to PNS to turn himself in. While he was on a layover in ATL, he told a bartender the whole story. The bartender called airport police who called military police, they got two soldiers to follow him on the flight and arrested him when we landed.

I have been on both sides of this, with good and bad outcomes. As adults, we should be able to read the room and do what is right for the particular situation, keeping in mind to always err on the side of not embarrassing anyone. In the late eighties I had a friend who filmed and sold gay wrestling videos. He invited me to watch filming one night. One of the performers did not show. Long story short, I wound up in a singlet and ultimately pounding the guy who lost, all recorded. This was before porn was all over the internet. I wound up doing a second video a month or so later and a staged erotic fight in a bar which was also recorded. Fast forward a year. My friend had a web site where the videos could be purchased, previewed or PPV'ed. I was recognized twice in public. The first time was on a crowded night at the Heretic. The kid who recognized me was in college. He put his hand on me and said the name of the video. It surprised me and I had a quick negative reaction. He apologized and said he watched my scene over and over. Flattered, I wound up bringing him home with me that night. His saying something when he saw me alone and shirtless in an Atlanta cruise bar was appropriate. (At the time, the Heretic had two nights a week where men would openly have sex in the back of the bar. Hundreds of men would pack the place.) The second time I was in Harris Teeter with me toddler niece. She was in my shopping cart. Some guy walked up telling me he recognized me and asking very explicit questions about the video. Very inappropriate to discuss this in front of my niece. A few years ago I was in Montreal for work. My first night there I toured strip bars and wound up getting very up close and personal with a dancer in the back room at Taboo. (I think that was the name - a dive bar across the street from a subway station.) The next night I went to the casino with a coworker and some customers. Of course, the dancer was there with some friends. We actually sat at the same table game for awhile but recognition would have been inappropriate. Later when I went to the men's room he was at the sink. We were the only two in the men's room so it was appropriate to acknowledge each other. He thanked me for not saying anything in front of his friends and I thanked him for the same. Seriously, common sense should guide anyone who finds himself in this predicament.

While you were typing your response I had updated my post having looked at TMZ and seeing it was two different crashed. I had not realized that's what you meant in the last line of your original post.

I have had the national news on TV all day while doing stuff and they have been showing security cam footage of the Mercedes running through the red light and catching on fire. There has been no mention that the driver was Anne Heche. How sad. Added: I just pulled up TMZ and what they were showing on TV was a different LA car accident where a woman driving at an excessive speed was burned when her car ignited. Windsor Hills crash: Mercedes-Benz runs through red light before getting into deadly wreck - Bing video

The tip jar is insulting to the host. It is the bartender's way of saying the host is cheap. I bartended for a caterer when I was in college and could not imagine being that rude to the host. Nobody should accept a job, go into the employer's house and signal to his guests the employer is cheap. Yes, that is tacky. With that said, it reminds me of a slightly off topic story.... I brought my mom to Fort Lauderdale to visit several relatives. Mom's sister, husband and teenager also came down to FL. We were all meeting for dinner, fifteen people total, My Great Uncle Harry made it clear ahead of time he was paying. Uncle Harry was very well off, having invented some now common things everyone uses daily. Uncle Harry made it clear we needed to be seated by 5:30 pm because he had early-bird coupons for everyone. When my Aunt and her family were not there on time, he wanted the rest of us to order so we could use the coupons, but the restaurant assured him they would still honor the coupons if the stragglers were there soon. Knowing my Uncle Harry was not a generous tipper and would base the tip on the total after the coupons' credits were deducted, my mom and I agreed I would slip the waiter $50. At the end of the meal, I cornered him outside the kitchen and gave him the money, thanking him for doing such a great job given how demanding some of my relatives could be. The waiter acted strangely. I thought he might have gotten the impression I was hitting on him. Years later there was a family event. Uncle Harry had passed away - his wife recently turned 104 - and we were sharing Uncle Harry stories. My Aunt's husband told of the time we all had dinner in Fort Lauderdale and he slipped the waiter a tip because he knew Uncle Harry was not a generous tipper. My cousin's husband quickly chimed in that he had done the same. And so had Uncle Harry's sister. Apparently the waiter didn't think I was trying to pick him up. He was reacting to the fact he had already gotten $150 above whatever Harry left and was getting $50 more!

Fifteen or so years ago - a year when work sent me to LV almost 20 times - I was told of a seedy club in a warehouse which had both male strippers and open sex. It was on the west side of the highway. I drove over there, paid the exorbitant cover charge only to find naked women playing with their hoochies instead of the hot men I expected. I left pretty quickly. The guy at the door stopped me on my way out to ask why I was leaving so soon, When I explained he said they used to have men but there was little market for that in LV. He explained the change to women was quick and recent and done out of financial necessity. He directed me to Commercial Center where there were two bathhouses - or technically one bath and one gay gym with open sex. I went to the bathhouse and had a great time. Bonus: after plowing a hot man I invited him to my hotel room. We decided to get something to eat first and went across the parking lot to Lotus of Siam, which turned out to be IMO the best Thai restaurant in the US. I have been back there many times, brought friends and sent people there. Everyone loves the place. A few blatantly asked if I had been to any of the gay establishments in the Center but I usually plead the Fifth.

I was on Trulicity for a few months. In its TV commercials the company brags that it is not a weight loss drug most users lose about ten pounds. Based on my experience, the weight loss makes sense, as I would spend three days uncontrollably vomiting each time I injected the drug.

They switched me to bumentanide a couple days ago. I have done Farxiga but had to get off it because it was causing some other issue. I do not remember what at this point, The other day we discovered the infections on the leg wounds are present internally. Over the past two days I have had various MRIs and tests. Tomorrow I am having a colonoscopy to see if the infection is there. Meantime, the leg wounds keep multiplying. This all stinks!

I take metolazone, too. Unfortunately, I was out of the hospital for three weeks, during which time the diuretics stopped working and I put on twenty pounds in a few days. The wounds on my legs got worse, too. I went back in the hospital on June 6th. They put me on intravenous Lasix and I gained eight more pounds in four days. The diuretics have been changed a few times, (Diuril injections, torsemide injections and pills) It has been almost six weeks, during which time the wounds got infected twice, I was in a wheelchair for a week, and they drained over 70 pounds out. My kidneys got worse from the diuretics, so I have been off of them for a few days, going back on them tomorrow. Once i am out of here I will be getting blood tests twice a week so that we can hopefully catch the issues early and keep the huge weight gain from happening. And by the numbers. over the past three months my weight has gone up and down a few times, with my highest weight 281 lbs and my present weight 188 lbs with a little more water still needing to drain. The docs keep saying because it is water weight it will not have the same impact as gaining and losing "real" weight, but I keep remembering that it was the extreme weight fluctuations that killed Luther Vandross.

We share these memories. But I also remember Charlie Brown doing both fundraising and outreach for AIDS patients before just about anyone else. I remember his working at Burkhart's behind the bar, not in drag, and pleading with customers to donate unused winter coats for AIDS patients. While drag might not be something I particularly go out of my way to watch, Charlie Brown and the other drag queens from the eighties and early nineties deserve our respect and thanks,

This does not answer your question which asks about computer downloads, but about twenty years ago my boyfriend's female friend's father passed away and her mother discovered a trunk full of videotapes and magazines. My boyfriend and I quickly went over to the mom's house and took the trunk of porn, it was never mentioned again.

I will throw in a few more grandma stories - When she was in the nursing home, I went to visit one summer morning. She had a bulletin board with some pictures. I recognized some of the people but not some others. Grandma looked at me at said I looked good for someone who had been dead for forty years. She said a few other odd things. Then I realized the man she was standing with in one of the pics was her late husband. My grandfather died five years before I was born. He was wearing a one-piece full bathing suit. I have his calves, his eyes and his lack of hairline, although he worked one strand all over his head and I shave my head. She thought I was my grandfather. Her room had a small TV. Shortly after I got there Regis and Kathy Lee went on the air. Not knowing what to say, I pointed out Suzanne Somers was substituting for KL Gifford. My grandmother looked up and said, "She is an idiot." While everyone insisted she was thinking of someone who slighted her in 1948, I truly believe my grandmother's last lucid words to me were that Suzanne Somers is an idiot. Shortly after she got to the nursing home she told me Goldie Hawn visited her. I listened, smiled and nodded. Weeks later my mom mentioned that Hawn's father or grandfather was in the same home and grandma had met her. One of the first signs she was getting dementia - She lived in NYC and my aunts lived in DC. She was flying down to visit. My aunt went to the airport to pick her up. No grandma. My aunt waited for several Eastern Shuttle flights. No grandma. Finally someone from the airline called my aunt's partner (my aunt lived with the same woman from 1964 on) and said my grandmother had been riding the shuttle back and forth all day. She would get to National, forget why she was there, fly back to LaGuardia and start the trek over.

Thought others might find this story about my grandmother and gay men interesting. She was considered pretty liberal in her thinking, but things have changed so much that now she would be canceled... In the eighties my grandmother began suffering dementia. In late May 1986 she moved into an assisted living facility with around the clock personal care. Thanksgiving week was the first time I was able to visit. She was sitting in the lobby when I got there. After quickly saying hello, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. In that brief moment I noticed her hair was a disaster. It was dyed its usual fake blond in the front but undyed in the back where she could not see. There was a small salon next to the men's room where this abomination must have happened. When I returned to my grandmother and her aide in the lobby a man came over. He may have been the most flamboyant man I've ever met. He said how much they enjoyed having my grandmother living there. When he walked away, I asked who he was. My grandmother said he is the hairdresser. I laughed to myself thinking he was responsible for my grandmother's hair. Fast forward to 1992. My grandmother was moving to a nursing home. My sister, mom, two aunts and I were packing up her apartment and the flamboyant man stopped by to visit like he did every time one of us was there. He said they would miss her and we should still stop by to visit. When he left I said the obvious - he cannot do hair worth crap but the facility was lucky to have a hairdresser who cared about the patents so much. Suddenly the four women were staring at me. My aunt asked, "A what?" I repeated myself. My aunt said, "He is not a hairdresser, he is the director. What made you think he is a hairdresser?" My response, "Grandma told me." To which my aunt said, "He is a gay man. Your grandmother thinks all gay men are hairdressers!"

I remember when companies like Zenith would run ads for TVs on TV. In the ads, they would turn on their TV and ask viewers to see how clear the picture shines. The thing is most people did not realize the picture would only be as clear as the picture on their present set. Many people actually swore they were seeing a clearer picture on the set being advertised which was, of course, impossible.

I remember when there was no Blockbuster. Or VCRs. We got our first VCR in 1984 when I was already in college. Neighbors got theirs in 1977 which was pretty early. We had B&W TVs in my earliest memories. One day, my dad, who was doctor, mad a housecall to patients who lived in a poor section of town and who he knew were on public assistance. They had a brand-new color TV. My dad thought if they could have a color TV then their doctor should be able to have a color TV. He and my mom went to Penn Furniture the next day and bought a console TV. Note: two more things I remember: Housecalls and console TVs.

I cannot provide an answer about why the drug was popular, but in the mid-seventies it was the drug in Central PA.

we had one of these in sixth grade. You typed out your input on either a ribbon, which i think is on the left the pic, or on punch cards. You dialed a rotary phone (we did not get push button phone in our town until the next year) and listened for the beeps, then rested the phone receiver in a foam rubber cradle and ran your tapes or cards. The result came back and you disconnected so as to not waste computer time. There were five of the units in the district; one in the high school three in the junior highs and the one in our classroom. We took a field trip to the VoTech to see the actual computer. It filled a pretty good size room. Some kids at the VoTech tried to sell us sixth graders quaaludes, so there is a second memory of something I remember - when quaaludes were the drug of choice!

A cigarette vending machine at a restaurant my family frequented sold cigarettes for $0.20/pack. There was one brand that was only $0.19/pack but the machine could not charge two different prices, so the less expensive brand had a penny tucked between the pack wrapper and the cellophane covering.

hand crank phones and party lines. (we had a neighbor who still had both so I actually know how to dial on the hand crank!) Despite being born in 1964, I do not remember having a TV antenna. Our rural mountain area had one of the earliest cable systems. Those without cable could only get one station. With 1964 cable we could get five stations - WFBG Altoona CBS, WJAC Johnstown NBC, WPSX Phillipsburg/State College PBS and the mystery channel, which could be KDKA or WPGH or WQED from Pittsburgh... If there was something you wanted to see you could call the cable company and if nobody had made a request for that time already they would play what you requested. In 1979 the system grew to twelve stations and, if you paid for a box, ESPN, Headline News (Westinghouse), ESPN, TBS and the Movie Channel.

Gosh, one more.... May 1982, a few friends and I got up very early, met in the high school parking lot and put signs on all the doors saying, "School Closed due to Water Main Break. Listen to WF**-am for updates and to find out if school will be open tomorrow." Despite being in a mostly rural area, our high school was huge with thousands of students, five buildings and dozens of doors so this was no small task. It served most of the county, including the medium size city therein. While a dozen or so kids participated in the prank, it was my idea and I made the signs on my dad's office copying machine, got the tape and coordinated who was meeting where and when to pull this off. We sat at the top of the hill and watched people read the signs, turn around and leave. Pretty soon the radio station was reporting that the school was in fact open, which only made the problem worse. People now had an excuse to skip school. Eventually the district announced the school would be closed that day because very few people were there. We spend the day at someone's hunting cabin outside of town listening to the Doobie Brothers, drinking (beer and cold duck!) and smoking pot. Somehow word got out quickly about the party. There were probably a couple hundred people at the hunting cabin. The next day the principal got on the PA and promised the perps would be caught and punished. Fast forward ten years at my high school reunion. I was talking to a former classmate when the principal beelined over and said he wanted to get something off his chest. It seems he knew who planned the prank the day it happened, but he and my dad, who was deceased at that point, decided the worst punishment would be if I continued to be worried about getting caught so i couldn't brag to everyone. They were right.

Little did we know that Ted Haggard reads and posts to this board! My contribution is in a similar vein, but from the other side. It was late at night. August 1989. I was driving from Philly to Bethlehem, PA. The route takes you through Quakertown. When stopped at a light, a guy in a station wagon pulls up next to me and motions for my attention. He was likely in his thirties, not all that hot, but it was the only offer I was going to get that night, so I followed him behind a furniture store, got out of my car and we started going at it. Clothes were quickly off, and he was eating my cock like he was starving. Suddenly a police car pulled up. We were screwed. They asked for our licenses and car registrations. We sat in silence until the cops came back. Addressing the other guy, one cop asked, "Father, is the station wagon registered to the church?" Holy crap, i was doing the deed with a priest. I am going to burn in hell. The police officer then said he did not want to arrest a priest, so he was letting him walk. The cop turned to me and said since he was letting the priest go, he had to let me go, too.

Never thought of it. Right now, in Asia. BL (boy love) tv shows and movies are all the rage, mostly among teen girls and young women. These center on relationships between young men. For example, 2Gether, which was China's most streamed show for a few weeks, is a Thai production that has been huge in Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea. It is on US Netflix and YouTube with English subtitles. I fully expect the trend to move to the US soon. The production centers on two guys and their budding relationship, but both guys have brothers who also get involved with other guys and pretty much all the guys on the university are open to getting involved with other guys. So maybe there would be a mainstream market for a memoir about real gay sleaze in the eighties and nineties centering on strip clubs, bathhouses, sex clubs and backrooms. Of course, I would need a pseudonym. Maybe Rick Rammer? Adam Wildman? The truth is while I have always loved gay sleaze, including strip clubs, bathhouses and sex clubs, I never realized how much experience I had in them until I recently stumbled into this web site. I traveled all over the country and the world for work and would often be able to add an extra day in cities I wanted to explore, which often meant going to the darker establishments in addition to the usual touristy sites. My non-gay friends, family and coworkers would likely be astonished to find this out. I used to have a friend in Atlanta, in the mod-aughts, who was so out of control. He was with different guys every night, always in the seedier clubs, and into electronic sex toys among other things. One evening he and I were meeting for dinner. His roommate wound up joining us but was about ten minutes late. When the roommate showed up my friend and I were having a friendly disagreement. I pointed out he was the most out of control guy I knew when it came to sex. He countered that he wasn't even close to my level, which stunned me, given my friend was just so out of control when it came to sex. When the roommate showed up, I repeated what my friend said expecting the roommate to readily agree with me about our friend being the biggest slut. Instead, the roommate got a deer-in-headlights look and said there was no way to call one of us worse than the other, but we were definitely the two most out of control guys he knew. That was my wake-up call to slow down. I stopped going to the sex clubs and bathhouses and limited my time in strip clubs to no more than twice a month unless I was in Bangkok, Prague, Montreal or Mexico and stopped having anal sex with strippers I brought back to the hotel.