BSR

The height/weight mismatch & pricey rate don't worry me much, but any escort who puts "PNP" in the title of his ad copy ...

I used to play tennis with a Puerto Rican guy who went to college at Brandeis. His first time at the dining hall, they asked him, "Kosher or not kosher?" He responded, "What's kosher?" Because I know as much about the rules of kosher as my old tennis buddy, I googled it. Since vegetable rennet was developed around 1990, kosher restaurants can indeed make & serve mac & cheese. Even pre-vegetable rennet, Jewish delis cheated & used soft cheeses like cottage cheese to make mac & cheese. (Cottage cheese for m&c?? Gag me with a fork! But I digress ... ) Getting back to the original topic, do Jewish delis serve any spicy food? Pastrami has a pepper crust, but it's not spicy. Call me boring, but I really don't want to see spicy matzo ball soup on any Jewish deli menus any time soon, or ever.

I'd be so nervous about buying in Florida right now. Even if you find a great price on a property, you never know how much your homeowners might increase in the future or if the insurance company will require you to make costly improvements (like replacing your roof). Condo owners are doubly at risk because their individual homeowners premium might increase as well as the building's policy, which will cause the HOA to shoot up.

I don't know what's funnier: his ad copy or his claim that he's 11 inches.

I love spicy food, but I don't want everything spicy, especially not classic comfort food like mac & cheese. If a place is going to spice up dishes like meatloaf and chicken noodle soup, I would hope they also offer a non-spicy version for fuddy-duddies like me.

The Fed needs to raise the prime lending rate, imo, two 25 bp increases in the next 3-4 months because the Fed rate is still low relative to historical highs and because inflation is stubborn as hell. But will Jerome Powell actually do it? The cynic in me says no. I've even heard rumors that the Fed will lower the rate a couple of times this year. Whether those are leaks from insiders or just wishful thinking, time will tell.

True story: pre-Internet era, I was in line at the Tampa Airport rent-a-car when a guy asked how far to Fort Lauderdale, about 30 minutes? His secretary had booked the flight to Tampa because flying into Tampa was a lot cheaper and according to the secretary, Fort Lauderdale was "right next door." All of us within earshot just looked at each other like, "uh, who's gonna tell him?" Finally a woman broke the bad news, that Fort Lauderdale was a 4-hour drive, more with traffic. OK, not as bad as ending up in Austria when you meant to go to Australia, but the pissed-off look on the guy's face was priceless.

A Manhattan townhouse once owned by Frank Sinatra just got listed. The family who bought it from Sinatra has a fascinating story. Photos look beautiful, but at just 16 feet wide, sounds like tight quarters.

The key to a great paella is great stock. If you use canned/boxed stock, which is basically dirty water, surprise surprise, your paella will taste like dirty water. Well, maybe not that bad, but certainly not all that good either. If you make a stock from scratch -- roast meat, bones & veggies for caramelization, then throw everything into a pot of water & simmer for hours -- your paella absorbs all that rich, delicious broth ¡una paella como Dios manda! I'm not familiar with the Puerto Rican version of paella (btw, we Filipinos have our own take as well). At what point do you add the rice? If you simmer the rice for 2 hours, doesn't it get overcooked & mushy? The original Valencian recipe does indeed take hours to make, if you make your own stock. I've watched a few YT videos by Valencian paella masters, and the recipe @jsn102 posted is pretty close. The only discrepancy is that chorizo or spicy sausage is considered a no-no because the flavor is too strong and overwhelms the yummy goodness of the broth. For the record, I tried to make paella once. Eek, total disaster! But that was pre-YT. Watching those Valencian maestros go through the recipe step-by-step reduced the intimidation factor.

Miguel Herrán, hottie from Élite and The Money House, is in a new Prime series Los Farad about a young man who moves to Marbella with a simple dream of starting his own gym but instead falls into the dangerous world of arms trafficking. I wasn't really planning on watching it until I saw this clip. Yeah, definitely piqued my interest. https://twitter.com/Sexytvboys/status/1782903850954834182?t=sc2ZFKFFrnTNNHZkctHgOQ&s=19

Yuck! But I did like his responses in the interview section. He comes off as a very bright, well-spoken guy. His ad is in English but interview responses in Spanish, which makes me wonder about his English fluency. Then again, language barrier is a hurdle easily managed by most on this forum.

I've seen Utopia Bagels featured in a lot of "best NYC bagel" YouTube videos. Despite baking up a massive number of bagels daily, apparently they refuse to cut corners and still make their bagels to the same standard that made them famous. Too bad my aunt no longer lives in Queens because it would have been an easy trip from her house. Nonetheless, thanks for the tip, @BenjaminNicholas. If I'm ever lucky enough to be anywhere near Utopia Bagels, a top-notch bagel is well-worth making a detour.

In the abstract, this guy isn't my type at all. I like daddies not twinks, beefy not slim, furry not smooth. That said, there's always the occasional exception. If I ever saw this young man in person, my head would explode.

Fred Goldman said as recently as 2 years ago that his family had yet to receive a cent of the settlement that OJ owed them. I wonder if they and Nicole Brown's family will get anything now.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: In January, I had the pleasure of attending two holiday parties. Both events were potlucks, to which I gladly contributed dishes. The hosts provided beverages like water, tea and coffee. The parties were well-attended, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. However, a few days after each gathering, I received a message from the hosts. They mentioned the amount they had spent on the party and requested a $10-$30 donation from the guests, providing their financial app details for this purpose. This approach struck me as more akin to a fundraiser than a social gathering among friends. Is this a standard practice in modern times? Is it now customary for hosts to ask for post-event monetary contributions to cover their expenses? I want to ensure I am up to date with current social etiquette. GENTLE READER: Putting aside the audacity of asking guests both to cater the party and to pay for their drinks, Miss Manners cannot imagine how one could even consume $10 of water, tea or coffee. So, it would seem that guests are being charged rent for the use of the venue as well. This borders on extortion. There is nothing wrong with an agreed-upon potluck, but that is where it stops. The act of holding a party must assume some of the responsibility for basic amenities. Even restaurants don’t charge for plain water. OR: In lieu of financial compensation, send both hostesses a bouquet of dead, rotting roses with a beautiful handwritten note that it's tacky as shit to grub for money after a potluck.

I know this thread is supposed to be for good movies/series on Netflix, but hopefully no one minds if I post a public service announcement: avoid Strange Way of Life like a broken petri dish of Ebola! I get the temptation: a short film by legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, two great veterans Ethan Hawke & Pedro Pascal, a gay storyline, and an appearance by Élite heartthrob Manu Rios (he only sings the theme song, doesn't play a role). But eek! it's awful!! Clunky, awkward dialogue that sounds like it was written by an unprecocious high school student, a plot that never develops (even a 30-minute short can portray a full plot), it all feels like a golden opportunity that was foolishly squandered. Maybe it was the challenge of doing an English-language project, but another negative for Almodóvar fans is the short sorely lacks the director's signature style. No dark comedy, no oddball characters, no irreverence, this short might as well have been directed by ChatGPT. Do yourself a huge favor and stay the hell away.

This guy is actually one of the escorts discussed in The Deli (thank you, @ProjectX). I liked his legs so much I had to re-post the pic here.

A friend of a friend made adobo (kind of a stew w/garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, bit of brown sugar -- unofficial national dish of the Philippines) that was the best I ever had (trust me, I've had a lot of adobo in my life). When I begged her for the recipe, she said she couldn't give me one because she just eyeballs everything. I'm sure I could figure out a good recipe for adobo on my own by starting off with a YouTube recipe video and then finessing it. The problem is that because adobo really stinks up the house, I don't want to make it on the regular. Too bad because it's a simple recipe, pretty much the Filipino can't-fail dish.

If the bike lane was barely used, then the college students who fought so hard for its installation didn't actually bother using it. Note that the students didn't bear the negative economic impact, the business owners did. I hope the local government increased the 3 nearby universities' property taxes to pay for the bike lane boondoggle, but I have my doubts. The whole fiasco ended up as just a very expensive exercise in virtue-signaling. If the 3 universities had sent out a letter to all the student activists that their tuition would go up $300 to pay for the bike lane, I wonder how many would still have favored it. Life is so damn easy when you don't have to pay for the consequences of your actions.

The FBI has opened up a criminal probe into the cargo ship's "malfunction" that caused it to crash into the bridge. Who knows what will come out of the criminal investigation, but in civil court lawyers aplenty are pursuing compensation both for repair costs, which will obviously be substantial, as well as for the deaths of the 6 workers.

Ben Shelton became the highest-ranked American male this week after Taylor Fritz lost in the 1st round of Monte Carlo. Shelton is currently #14, Fritz #15. I knew Shelton would end up being the top American, just didn't think it would happen quite this fast. Congrats to Ben and his coach (and dad) Bryan!