SundayZip

Agree with @JEC regarding lodging charging premium rates because they advertise as gay. Example: Gay MisterBandB.com versus original airbnb.com. I've found instances of the exact same rental on both sites but priced higher on the gay site.

I suspect that Mr @Benjamin_Nicholas knows what he's talking about when stating his preference for Steinways. Bösendorfer and Yamaha are the other top tier grand pianos, but I'm with Benjamin in preferring a Steinway. Regarding German vs NY Steinway, I think my preference would be NY... But only because it is, after all, New York. Also, my Grandmother used to own a NY Steinway, so there is that.

So, if I scheduled a date with you and wanted to start out by taking you the The Carlyle Restaurant on E 76th Street, you would decline? I'm guessing that their Steinway is New York, not German. I'd be so dissapointed if we had to turn around an leave.

I ordinarily love piano music, but not in a restaurant setting. Actually, I'd prefer to have no extraneous noise in the restaurant. I only want to hear the voices of my dinner partners speaking in nicely modulated, inside voices.

I've had similar experiences with dancers at gay strip clubs. A few years ago I finished an awesome set of lap dances and asked the dancer if he'd consider a private hotel show. He answered, "yes, but no sex". I was confused so I told him specifically what I wanted to do during our "hotel show". He agreed, saying that it was all okay, just no penetration. It was a terrific hotel visit, lots of good stuff that I considered sex, but apparently he did not. It's lovely when a mismatch in two people's definition of a word can work to their advantage.

Yes, I've done my share of "flirting" with pretty young things although I doubt they even knew I was flirting. You have to be astute enough to know when you might offend someone and self-aware enough to know when you're acting like a lecherous old creep.

Imagine another man, similar in age and appearance as you except straight, finds a 20 year old female Chipotle employee attractive and gives her his email address in the hopes of a hookup.... What would you think of that guy?

Watched it too. It had an important message, but I found the acting very off-putting. Otherwise great actors played their parts as cartoonish caricatures... not much better than slapstick.

I wish that mostly-straight as a orientation label would have been more prevalent when I was in my twenties. I would get so confused by interactions with some men who identified as straight. They would show an interest in me and want to experiment and I would assume that they're actually gay and just starting to come out of the closet. If I could have only seen it for what it was, I wouldn't have allowed my head to get so screwed up over them.

Yes, there is the mean (aka, average) but there's also median and mode. Seems like the mode would be most meaningful for this exercise. ;)

Here's how the World Health Organization defines gender, "Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as norms, roles, and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed." A couple people posting to this thread seem to be proud of their ignorance regarding gender identity. What's that all about?

Of the cities mentioned so far, I have hiring experience in San Francisco, Chicago, NYC, Miami/Ft Lauderdale and Montreal. For me, NYC is by far the best for hiring. I have better luck finding escorts that appeal to me there. Maybe it's because of the sheer number of escorts in the city, or maybe it's their diversity or maybe it's just the type of guy that chooses live/work there. Montreal is fun for the strip clubs, but escort selections are very limited. Although great places for other reasons, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami/Ft Lauderdale are also limited compared to NYC. I've also hired in Toronto, but that was over 10 years ago, so my experiences there may not reflect the current situation.

@studchaser, it's interesting how your perception of reality is so heavily influenced by your fantasies.

I saw both Neil Patrick Harris and Darren Criss play Hedwig on Broadway. Overall, I think Neil did a better job of disappearing into the character. His performance was awesome. But I preferred Darren's performance of the last song of the show which is a more soulful ballad that suited Darren more than Neil (IMHO). I've only seen John Cameron Mitchell in the movie, but I would have loved (LOVED!) to see him in a live theater production. The clip of Darren Criss singing at The Pantages in LA (posted above) doesn't 't do him justice. His Broadway performance sounded much better.

Calling these events "retirement planning dinners" is inaccurate. They're an opportunity for the host to sell you some product for which they get a commission or percentage. Go for the food but don't get duped into a product that is not in your best interest. I went to one where the host wanted me to move a portion of my assets into a manged account, meaning he'd get a percentage of the account balance regardless of how well it performed. The food was okay but not worth going back a second time.

Hey Benjamin, I'm interested in why you selected R Family Vacations. I've spent some time investigating various LGBT friendly river cruises and had not come across them. But now I'm intrigued. I love that their cruises are for a more diverse demographic (I sometimes get tired of all male venues). I'm not sure I want to tour with lots of children, though. That said, the Uniworld Venice cruise looks nice. Why did you happen to select R Family Vacation? Unless, of course, you have a sponsor that selected this cruise.... then it's none of my business.

I've long given up trying to understand the curtain/no-curtain situation at Campus and Stock Bar. At Campus, the lack of curtains seems to make very little difference in the activities allowed during a lap dance. You get the right dancer in the right lap dance booth and the two of you make up your own rules. Regarding curtains at Stock Bar, they give you more privacy, therefore you'd think that rules about physical contact would be less stringent. But that's certainly not been my experience. It probably makes sense to someone... but not to me.

I had the same concern about traveling solo until I went on a gay river cruise. Although roughly 75% of the passengers were with a partner, I never once felt like the odd man out. To me, it felt a bit like going away to college for the first time... you're suddenly among a new group of people (albeit a bit older than college age) and everyone is a stranger, eager to get to know each other. Of course it helped that it was a more mature crowd that no longer selects friends based on who is the prettiest and has the best body. You only need to be yourself, open and friendly.

No. I've been hiring for years and have never been asked for a deposit.

I knew that dancers are not actually employed by the bar and pay to work there, but I never fully understand the legal reasons for the arrangement. Now I do. Thank-you. It seems that the arrangement has worked for years. Customers have come for the hot dancers and dancers have come because that's where they customers are. But now, if its no longer working, something must have changed. Any idea what that is?

I had a date with him earlier this year. Pictures are accurate.

By the way, @jjkrkwood, I love (LUV) your new avatar! Yummy.

Daily. Unless I have a special date. Then I'll change them right before the date. I keep a supply of at least 14 pairs so I can go a couple weeks without doing an underwear load.

You might find this thread helpful: How to do due diligence on a potential hire

Thank-you for this post. It's great to hear positive comments about a trip to Montreal instead of all the complaining about the condition of the gay village.