BSR

For those unfamiliar, there is a sad but beautiful story behind this photo. The dog is Eli, trained to detect IEDs, with his Marine handler, 20yo Colton Rusk. When Colton was fatally shot by a Taliban sniper in Afghanistan, Eli tried to protect his fallen handler by crawling on top of his body. The panicked Labrador retriever wouldn’t even allow fellow Marines near and bit some who were trying to rescue their comrade. Colton had taken this photo and sent it to his parents, along with stories of how much he loved Eli. The two spent every waking and even sleeping moment together (Colton let Eli sleep at the foot of his mattress). Knowing the bond between the two, a fellow handler reached out to Rusk’s parents and encouraged them to adopt Eli. Even though military working dogs are not adopted out until retirement (Eli was only 4yo, plenty more years of IED detection in him), the family succeeded in getting a special exception. After adoption, Eli always accompanied Kathy Rusk to visit her son’s grave several times a week. Eli remained part of the Rusk family for more than a decade after Colton’s death. R.I.P. Colton & Eli.

I got “video unavailable” on my browser. What movie are you referring to?

Palermo is a huge neighborhood that is divided up into sub-neighborhoods. If I went back to BA, I would stay in Palermo SoHo, the most artsy/trendy of the Palermo divisions, might also be the gayest (although many areas of BA are very gay-friendly). If you’re looking for that upscale Recoleta vibe, I would actually stay in Palermo Chico, where most of the embassies are. Airbnb offers a few asado experiences, where you not only enjoy some of Argentina’s legendary beef but also learn proper asado technique and some of the history/tradition. Also, go ahead and see a tango show if you’re a fan. Sure, they’re for tourists, but the one I went to was fantastic. Last tip: try a medialuna (shaped like a croissant but made with brioche dough) with dulce de leche (a milk caramel spread). I still have dreams about it. Wait, one more: ask a local where to find good coffee, because most of the coffee in BA is shockingly bad.

Van Der Beek & family had been renting the ranch since 2020, but shortly before he died, with the help from friends for the down payment, he purchased it. So it sounds like the family has very little equity in the property. James said that even with insurance, fighting cancer was extremely expensive, which is sadly all too true in America. My guess is that the medical bills wiped out most of his liquid net worth, and the family is left with only the ranch (with little equity) and the $2.3 million raised in the GoFundMe. His widow & 6 kids didn’t exactly make out like bandits. They’ve secured a stable housing situation but will never own the ranch outright. Thanks to the GoFundMe, they have enough money for the near- and medium-term but are far from set for life. I wish them all the best.

Holy sh!t, I can’t believe it. Malinin was the overwhelming favorite! But the ice is so damn slippery, and pressure can get the best of even the strongest competitors. To think, Ilya won 12 international competitions in a row, yet his nerves betrayed him in the biggest one. I’m with @BuffaloKyle, I pray Malinin can bounce back in 2030 à la Nathan Chen because he is far and away the best figure skater in the world.

In Mr. Boston’s case, I stand corrected. Nonetheless, I stand by the general truth of my argument, even if it doesn’t apply to one specific case. That is, I bet some escorts do charge $1000/hour yet still get as many clients as they want. If you’re super-rich, and a fair number of gay men are, a $G is no big whoop.

While I don’t move in such circles, I am reasonably certain that plenty of gay men have plenty of disposable income, such that $1K per hour (who knows how much more for a 5-hour evening or a full-day travel rate) is no big whoop. Yes, there are plenty of other escorts available for (much) less; but if you have that kind of money and Mr. Boston tickles your ivories in a way others don’t, then your time is much more valuable to you than any “savings” gained by hiring someone else. My guess is that Mr. Boston has plenty of clients, or at least as many as he wants, at his rates. Make hay while the sun shines! PS: please note this is the “wisdom” (LOL) from someone who decided he was spending too much on escorts ($200-250 for 2-3 hours) and so cut back from 2 hires a week to just 1.

Even during the depths of the Great Recession (2010-11), I recall $200/hour as the Mendoza Line for escorts. 15 years later, there are escorts charging $150? in the US??

The Pomeranian toward the end is the best …

I used to see beavers all the time as a young Canuck (my parents said I spoke with a Toronto accent so thick you could cut it with a knife) because my dad was an avid fisherman. Yes, a beaver’s tail-slap is incredibly loud, even from 50 yards (closest I ever heard one). Dad fished plenty in the US as well, but I’ve never seen a beaver on this side of the border. While the species is recovering, the beaver population is nowhere near the number that flourished before the fur trade: 100-200 million pre-European settlement, reduced to just ~100K at its lowest point, ~6 million during my childhood (1970s to early 80s), an estimated 10-15 million today.

An interesting variation of the sport of curling. I love how the baby’s face is like, “Dad, get me out of here!”

I discovered a new favorite at Starbucks, the Shakerato Bianco, 4 shots of espresso shaken with ice then topped with sweetened vanilla half & half. I hate that I’ve discovered yet another addictive liquid dessert variation for my morning caffeine fix, but it is delicious!

LOL, reminds me of what Boy George said, “I want to be reincarnated as Matt Dillon’s bicycle seat.”

One of the Manila guys who has become a regular, a straight 21yo, was a bit freaked out the first time I rimmed him. First time anyone had rimmed him, he didn’t know such a thing as rimming even existed. Although he’s since gotten used to it, he remains a bit baffled. Last meet when he asked why I love it so much, I responded, “I don’t know. Why am I gay?”

Please, prior to RentMen his first escorting ad was painted on a cave wall in southwest France.

Yes, but at the same time it could have been so much worse. Plenty of those stories as well, unfortunately. @purplekow, I’m glad you got out of that situation safe & sound, albeit rattled.

I did some googling because your post made me curious. About 1 in every 20,000 eggs is contaminated by salmonella, but it is usually either a multistate outbreak from a single producer or eggs from backyard coops. Nonetheless, salmonella is still a concern — especially if you’re high-risk: young children, elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised — and it causes ~450 deaths a year. With the OP recipe, I wonder if the hot espresso is enough to kill off any possible salmonella. For homemade Caesar dressing, the lemon juice and vinegar in the recipe should be enough to kill it off. No guarantee, unfortunately. When I get back to the US, I really want to try this recipe — basically a blend of eggnog, liqueur, and espresso — except I’ll try a Spanish version using 43 instead of Frangelico.

LOL, you do realize that you totally contradicted yourself, don’t you? You dismiss political correctness — “I didn't know some care so much about political correctness” — but then critique the “white trash” because “he thought he could push his white privilege.” Anyone who accuses someone of pushing his white privilege worships at the altar of political correctness. Back on topic, I’ve never been on a Carnival cruise, but my parents went with all my mom’s siblings. Eek! they were horrified! The food was awful, everything was done on the cheap, and the passengers were Trashy McTrash (of all races and ethnicities). The only things they enjoyed were finding some good restaurants while at port and befriending some Filipino crew members. So the first mistake these (alleged) drug dealers made was going on a Carnival cruise in the first place. That was almost as stupid as thinking they could deal drugs and get away with it.

I couldn’t swear to it, but I think he changed the text of his ad. Whereas it did sound awfully AI-ish before, now it reads like an honest-to-God human being wrote it.

Of the many chaperos I hooked up with at Sauna Thermas, two of the best kissers were straight. Holy sh!t, did they make my toes curl! I couldn’t care less if they were gay, straight, or Martian as long as their tongues turned me on. When I hired one of them for a 5-hour evening, it was fantastic. I knew his limits beforehand, was fine with them, and we both managed to have a great time. Funny, I wouldn’t call it a boyfriend experience, more like a friends-with-benefits experience. Conversation was so easy with him, like we were best friends from high school, with the fuckbuddy angle thrown in. Like you, I’ve hired some real duds who were gay. I didn’t hire the straight Thermas guy because he was straight but because we clicked so well on the premises that I wanted to see him offsite. Whaddya know, he turned out to be one of my best hires ever.

Newly crowned Australian Open men’s doubles champion Christian Harrison …

I just heard about this record-breaking sale from last August: an $87.5 million penthouse in the West Village, the highest price ever for a downtown property. Wow, I’m almost old enough to remember when Jane St, especially that far west, was a dicey neighborhood.

Alas, Kubler & Polmans couldn’t quite get over the finish line. Didn’t watch the match but heard that the American Christian Harrison played out of his skull. Maybe he got a boost from the small but very loud US contingent in the crowd, countering some of the Aussie fans’ enthusiasm. Maybe this will become a thing now at the Australian Open, wild card Aussie doubles teams making a deep run.