BSR

I barely noticed the 4th of July when I was out of the country last year, but this year I’m a bit sad that I’m missing all the festivities. Happy 250th, America! I should *fingerscrossed* be in the US for the next July 4th, but being there to celebrate 251 years as a nation just doesn’t have the same ring to it. To all my fellow Americans on the board, Happy Independence Day!!

He’s aging nicely. I think he’s handsomer now than in his prettyboy youth.

A grizzly can hit 35mph in a short sprint. Usain Bolt at his fastest reached 28mph, and he is light-years faster than I am. Thanks for the tip about triggering a chase response, because I know there is no way I’ll ever outrun a grizzly.

Now that La Sagrada Família is officially open as a functioning church and not just a construction site that allowed visitors, they may have changed the prices. But when I was there at the end of November last year, the least expensive entry fee was 26€ ($29.61 at today’s FX rate).

I do wonder how long the sexy content creator in the original post ends up staying in Vietnam. I honestly can’t imagine staying in a foreign country for the rest of my life without being fluent in the local language, and I mean true fluency — like you can give directions on how to assemble an IKEA bookshelf from first step to last, not “I can order pizza in Vietnamese” fluency. Since I have no desire to commit so completely to learning Vietnamese, if I had to choose between retiring like a king in Vietnam and living as a frugal retiree in the US, frugality here I come. My stay of 1 month in Manila has turned into 13 months. While I’m making the best of it, I just don’t see myself living here for the rest of my life. Even though most Filipinos speak English, I’d have to (re)learn Tagalog if I wanted to retire here, and I just don’t see that happening. Many retirees welcome the chance to learn a new language. With all their newfound free time, they are happy to take on the challenge and keep their mind active. While I can certainly understand that point of view, if I ever had to relearn Tagalog … I’d rather shoot my toe off.

Remember that the chaperos all have to pay the entry fee, no discounts or freebies. Well, they get the same discount everybody gets on Wednesday, which is why business “booms” midweek. If the only day(s) you can go are Sun, Mon, Tue, don’t despair. I’ve gone all 3 “dead” days and still had a good time. While the Sauna is noticeably slower those days, it’s far from dead: fewer chaperos, yes, but also fewer clients to compete against.

It is coming to Manila on July 1. Given the horrendous traffic here, I hope it shows somewhere relatively nearby. Thanks for the recommendation @Rod Hagen. I have grown to hate horror movies because they’re all mindless slasher flicks now, but this looks like a good, old-fashioned horror movie.

I’d say Maluma, but $1K wouldn’t buy even one second of his time.

Obesity wasn’t a problem in 1970s America. In 1970, only 14% of Americans were obese whereas today more than 42% are. More worrisome, less than 5% of kids were obese in 1970, today more than 20%. What changed? The amount of sugar in food, the amount of processed and ultraprocessed food we eat, and yes, portion sizes. Whereas sugar wasn’t a major ingredient in food in the 1970s, it’s packed into everything now: soup, ketchup, salad dressing, protein bars, cereals, yogurt, you name it. Prior to 1970, we ate very little ultraprocessed food; now, yikes! Portion sizes are out of control. The typical appetizer at Cheesecake Factory is definitely enough food for a person’s entire dinner, and the main courses can easily feed two (3? 4?) Even if you reduce portion sizes and exercise more, you’ll still struggle to lose weight if you ignore the hidden sugar in food and/or eat a lot of ultraprocessed food. Both will keep your insulin level high, which traps bodyfat so that you never burn it off.

There has been a worrisome drop in Las Vegas visitor numbers, but fewer foreign tourists is but a tiny fraction of the decrease. The corporate bean counters decided to focus exclusively on high rollers and HNW guests, thereby alienating the middle-class Joe’s and Jane’s who for decades made up 80-90% of Vegas visitors. Your Vegas argument completely misses the mark, by a country mile.

This guy is so handsome I thought the video might be AI …

No mention of the cost of pork … beef is up sharply, chicken is about the same, cost of spare ribs, babybacks, and pork shoulder is up only slightly. By the way, chicken bbq isn’t really a thing. Texas barbecue joints serve up ribs and pulled pork, but beef brisket reigns. Some places also serve beef ribs, which are basically smoked tomahawk ribeyes — imagine what those cost! North Carolina bbq is pulled pork, Memphis is ribs, Kansas City has everything. Growing up in Kansas City, I always order whatever is the best deal, can’t really say I have a favorite. I guess the problem some Texas bbq joints are having is that their customers want brisket, which is prohibitively expensive right now.

I have to think that this has always been the case, seniors who simply don’t have enough saved up for retirement have to find a roommate to share expenses. I wonder if the increase of seniors listing on SpareRoom results from changes in the economy or simply from more seniors discovering the platform.

I avoid watching The View like I avoid pounding my thumb with a hammer. That said, I do find it interesting that Behar is close friend of conservative firebrand Ann Coulter, something akin to the friendship between Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia. I always thought that had I been lucky enough to know RBG, I would have liked her enormously. Don’t know if I can say the same of Joy Behar, but who knows?

Out of curiosity, how does Buff Daddy’s manage to combine full bar with full nudity in NYC?

While dancers can come from all over, I assume most of the Adonis & Buff Daddy regulars live in NYC. According to the 1980 Census, NYC’s population was 52.4% non-Hispanic white. By the 2020 Census, NYC was only 30.9% non-Hispanic white.

I heard a fascinating story the other day … the physical therapist who works at my gym comes from a family of Spanish-speaking Filipinos (only some 3,000 native Spanish speakers in the Philippines, most are 80+). He didn't grow up speaking Spanish, but his mother and aunt did. When I mentioned that the Japanese targeted Spanish-speaking Filipinos when they invaded in WWII (because the hispanohablantes tended to be wealthy and powerful), he told me the story of his grandfather and great-grandfather. When the Japanese stormed through their neighborhood, his grandfather and great-grandfather hid by diving into a pile of dead bodies. The Japanese used to thrust swords into bodies just to make sure they really were dead. While his great-grandfather managed to escape this fate, his grandfather wasn’t so lucky and got stabbed in the leg. Don’t ask me how, but the grandfather managed to contain any noise or physical response such that the Japanese left him for dead. Both men managed to survive although his grandfather had a limp for the rest of his life. If it’s a matter of life and death, you do whatever you have to do. I am nonetheless gobsmacked that the grandfather took a sword in the leg without even flinching or uttering a whisper. War really is hell, in countless different ways.

Eek! The handsomest man in the Philippines is back at Starbucks! I wasn’t imagining things or exaggerating, he really is one of the handsomest men I’ve ever seen in my life, in the Philippines or anywhere else. Last time from where I was sitting, I could only see his face. Now I can see all of him: sleeveless T, shorts … Cowabunga, what a body! When I asked my mom what the difference was between tisoy americano and espanyol, she said it was easy to tell because a tisoy americano is usually lighter because the father tends to be of northern european descent whereas a tisoy espanyol looks Mexican. If you plopped Starbucks Babe into the middle of Mexico City, I don’t know if the locals would spot him as foreign. His eyes look an eensy bit Asian but really not much. The brown skin looks like just about every Mexican-American I’ve ever met. In any case, he is drop-dead gorgeous. PS: in case you’re wondering, yes, I checked for his Grindr profile. No, I don’t see him. He’s giving major straight vibes … [heavy sigh]

You must stay at nicer hotels than I do, LOL. I checked out prices for the month of June at the hotel I stayed at in early October (250€/night) and late November (150€/night) last year. Some days are crazy, 400€+, but about half the nights were more than 300€, half less than, with a low of 217€. It’s a nice 4* right next to La Sagrada Família with modern, spotless rooms. That said, I would avoid Barcelona in the summer because it’s just too hot & humid* whereas winter, if you can call it that, in Barcelona is beautifully mild. * Says the guy living in Manila where it’s 95 degrees with 80% humidity every day.

Yeah, but one smokin’ hot chapero at Thermas and all that will be forgotten.