BSR

It's so obvious now why Eichner was screaming "homophobia!" at the top of his lungs. The alternative would have meant having to acknowledge that the (vast) majority of moviegoers found him deeply unlikeable. Playing the victim is so much gentler on the ego.

Congratulations on your hat trick.

Congratulations! Two posts in a row that make no sense!

Please calm down. This last post of yours doesn't even make sense. Others are simply pointing out that you are mistaken about the reality of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. While homosexuality is technically illegal in the United Arab Emirates, people are not arrested for it, and they certainly aren't executed. You are simply required to do all sexual activity, no matter how mild like holding hands, in private behind closed doors. If it's any consolation, the straights have to follow the same rules. Stop assuming that all Muslim-majority countries are like Iran. If you don't want to go to the UAE, fine, nobody is forcing you. But the least you could do is stop spewing falsehoods.

Ever wonder what happened to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence? 5 signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. 12 had their homes ransacked and burned. 2 lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had 2 sons captured. 9 of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships from the revolutionary war. What kind of men were they? 24 were lawyers and jurists. 11 were merchants. 9 were farmers and large plantation owners. Men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept away from the seas by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward. Vandals or soldiers, or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt. Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates. Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged, "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

https://x.com/hugyerbuds/status/1806313353834267125?t=DvTHjqz6ySpQzzbTF4SNZw&s=19

Two of my aunts live in one of those 55+ communities in Florida. Their active-adult (don't call it "retirement" because that makes them sound old!) community, and apparently all others, are cauldrons of gossip with a bunch of Gladys Kravitz's snooping into everybody's business. So gay, straight, or any combination, I'm pretty sure your nosey neighbors will be onto you in a New York minute.

This has to be a Photoshop because Rock Hudson hated exercise and working out. I doubt he was ever that sculpted, even in his salad days. Also, according to Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin, Hudson was a massively hung show-er. The cock shown is beautiful, but not massive. That said, it's still a great pic 😁

Killer handsome ... https://x.com/Burbanksteve1/status/1807048330423541819?s=19

The closest thing to hell on earth is to be a convicted pedophile in prison. The charges against Wolf are possession and distribution of child pornography, not pedophilia, but I doubt his fellow inmates will see much of a difference.

While I didn't know about Zuck's elaborate preparations, I did know that rich techies were a significant demographic in the prepper community. The logic behind it is that although the likelihood of a doomsday scenario is slim, if the sh*t does ever hit the fan, you'll be damn grateful that you made the investment. Also, for rich techies the cost of prepping is quite small relative to their net worth. However, if it were just a matter of a small investment relative to net worth, then rich people outside the tech sector would also be preppers, but that's not the case. While there are probably exceptions, in general you don't see a lot of investment fund managers or Hollywood producers into prepping. Maybe it's that a lot of tech geeks grow up playing, and still play, doomsday scenario video games, which foster a prepper mentality. I couldn't come up with any other theory for why rich techies are into prepping whereas rich doctors, lawyers, bankers (for the most part) are not.

Although The View is actually the highest rated daytime show, that's damning with faint praise because their ratings and number of viewers are still rock-bottom, just slightly less awful than the competition. I never thought about the dark money angle, but that makes total sense. Given the hugely inflated salaries the ladies are getting, someone has to be subsidizing the show with monster cash. Hey, like you said, this is America -- if you wanna flush your money down the toilet, it is your 100% your right to do so. The View should be retitled as The Victims because all that henhouse hell of a show ever rants about is victimhood: left, right & center. I can't say I've ever tuned into the show, but I've seen way too many clips of Sunny Hostin's perpetual tirades about supremacy this and oppression that and privilege other thing, all while backup singers Goldberg & Behar chime in their support. Obviously there's a market out there for such dreck because waaaaaaaaaay too many Americans love their victimhood. Nonetheless, that this orgy of self-indulgence has gone on for 27 seasons is, uh, impressive.

I might have been wrong about Novak's chances of playing Wimbledon. Right now, it's looking more likely that he chooses to play. He's in London and practicing on grass. After a 2.5 hour practice session, which included playing 2 practice sets with #71 Fede Coria, apparently the knee is fine. While video showed him playing with much restraint & caution, Novak commented "I like my trajectory." If Novak does pull out, the most likely time would be immediately before the draw ceremony this Friday. If he's still undecided, his first match will be scheduled for next Tuesday, July 2. Since Alcaraz lost early at Queens, he dropped to #3, making Novak the #2 seed at the Big W. That means that there's a 50/50 chance that Alcaraz & Sinner end up in the same half of the draw. If that happens and then Novak pulls out, oooh, fans are going to be royally pissed. But my humble opinion is that Novak's gonna play. The tweet below has the selfies that Fede took after playing his boyhood idol Novak for the first time. Instead of being upset from the shellacking (Novak beat him 61 60), Coria was all smiles and just asked Novak for a selfie. Fede took some flak for his shameless fanboying, but I don't blame the guy. Anyone who meets his childhood idol for the first time is going to be pretty gushy.

Oops, it turns out that Maschile Plurale is available on Amazon Prime in Italy but not in the US. If anyone wants to see it, PM me. PS: I won't be hugely shocked if they make a third & final installment to this series. The ending of Maschile Plurale certainly leaves the door open. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Well, to be fair to the owner socked with a knee-buckling assessment, he bought the condo 10 years ago, well before the post-Surfside legislation that forced condo associations to take on many expensive repair & maintenance measures all at once. But to your point, it is certainly possible if not likely that the owner featured in the video failed to do his due diligence, specifically, research whether the condo association kept up-to-date with repairs & maintenance or was guilty of kicking the can down the road. This poor guy learned the hard way that his association was a bunch of can-kickers whistling past the graveyard.

Yes, he was great in Klute. Then again, he was a great in a lot of things, too many to list. Two of my favorites were the silly but entertaining Dirty Sexy Money as the patriarch of a multibillionaire family and The Rosary Murders, an imperfect thriller worth watching for Sutherland's performance alone. DS struck me as a real actor's actor, someone who loved the work and the craft. He leaves behind a hella impressive body of work.

This 3m18s video is just one condo owner's story, but it very much represents what's happening all over the state: soaring HOAs & 6-figure assessments. The report skips skyrocketing homeowner's insurance, although I'm pretty sure this poor guy has gotten slammed with that as well. This owner's monthly HOA rose from $1500 to $3000 a month, bad enough already. Then he got hit by a special assessment of $224,000 [gulp]! Since the owner doesn't have it (or anywhere near, it seems), he'll be forced to sell. How much he'll net from the sale after paying the assessment & other costs is another matter. Some units in the complex have been hit with assessments $400,000+!! The complex looks nice but not super-luxe. I doubt many owners can just write a check, no sweat. Inventory is booming on the Gulf coast of Florida, with some areas seeing 10x increases in properties on the market. Inventory has yet to surge in South Florida where this owner is (Aventura), but with so many owners finding they simply can no longer afford the crushing costs, it seems just a matter of time.

Yes, the job of an escort is to escort someone, i.e., to keep them company. Usually that means in bed but it can also mean going out to dinner, going to a museum, seeing a Broadway show, windsurfing, a zillion possibilities. What the prospective client is asking @ICTJOCK adds a significant level of complication: to tell and maintain a lie. Keeping someone company while walking through Central Park, even holding hands, does not require any dishonesty. Passers-by might draw their own conclusions about your PDA, but that's on them. But going to a party or whatever "social setting" together and pretending to be a couple does require the escort's participation in dishonesty. The escort & client have to set their story straight in anticipation of questions: how did you meet? who made the first move? how long have you been dating? what's your favorite bar, café, restaurant? have you met (client's best friend) Johnny? isn't he hilarious? and so on. That's not keeping someone company; that is asking someone to lie and keep lying. Even if you agree that the client will answer all inquiries, the escort still has to smile and nod and maintain his "yup, it's all true" face. Personally, I could never do it. I'd be so nervous about getting tripped up in a lie that I'd inevitably mess up. If ICTJOCK felt uncomfortable with the deception, then he made the right decision to decline.

Apparently plenty of people liked Mascarpone, enough for the filmmakers to make a sequel, Maschile Plurale (Masculine Plural, the first film was titled Masculine Singular in Italy). In the 3 years since we last saw the characters, Antonio's baking career has taken off. He's now a star on social media with hundreds of thousands of followers and his own tag line. Luca went in the opposite direction: he gave up baking and the bakery and is now a social worker. In the first scene, we recognize the 3 principals -- Antonio, his best friend Cristina, and his ex-boss & ex-something (relationship is tough to define) Luca. They look the same, but you can tell right away that Antonio & Luca are now very different people. Even though Antonio & Luca haven't seen each other for 3 years, the chemistry is still there, and shortly after reuniting, they decide to revive the old bakery, this time as a coffeeshop. Whereas the old Luca f*cked anything that moved, the new Luca has a boyfriend Tancredi, with whom he's monogamous. As the movie unfolds, we learn why the bond between Luca & Tancredi is so strong and also why old friends & lovers Antonio & Luca went 3 whole years without speaking. The sequel is just as good as the first movie; in fact, I found myself laughing even more this time. I want to say that I didn't like how it ended, except that we're not quite sure exactly how things wrap up. We think we know, but they leave one last uncertainty in the final scene. If you liked Mascarpone, you gotta watch the sequel. The second installment is on Amazon Prime.

Frankly, I'm surprised it's less than 50%, would've guessed 60-70%. Boeing used to be a great company, before a bunch of MBA "geniuses" created the current shitshow.

I love how the water slide makes his swimsuit (what little there is of it) get wedged up his ass, LOL.

The legendary Dakota (co-op that has been home to celebrities such as John Lennon, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Leonard Bernstein) is designated a landmark by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. But if you buy one of the units, apparently you can do whatever da heck you want to the interior as long as your renovation doesn't change the external appearance of the building. This penthouse unit's interior is ultra-modern, in stark contrast to the building's 19th century exterior. It was bought & sold in 2015 and again in 2022. I don't know which purchaser did the renovation, but I gotta give him a big ol' golf clap for getting the co-op board's approval for such a radical transformation.

I just saw Mascarpone (also goes by its original Italian title, Maschile singolare), and I highly recommend it. It's the story of Antonio, who has been a kept househusband his entire adult life, and the changes he deals with after his husband dumps him. Antonio needs to find a place to live, a job, and most of all (cliché alert!) himself. Even though the movie was shot in just 3 weeks, with (I'm guessing) a shoestring budget and a couple of novice actors (first film for the actors who play Antonio and Luca, his boss), Mascarpone comes off as a polished production. The characters are likeable, and the script is really well-written. I'm not nominating it for Best Foreign Film or anything, but the 1h41m flew by. If you can find it on streaming (currently available on Dekkoo), cue it up. Trailer below ...

Uh muh gawd, is global warming frying my brain?? This is the second time in less than a week that I am 100% in agreement with José Soplanucas ... eek! Ok, seriously now, I'm guessing "ladies only" escorts fall into 1 of 3 categories: 1) those who say ""ladies only" in hopes of getting very lucrative offers from men, 2) those who really are "ladies only" ... unless rent's due & they're short, and 3) those who are "ladies only," absolutely no exceptions. If you ask once and he says no, then of course, no means no. Any further communications with a ladies-only escort who has already told you no would indeed be harassment. If he doesn't respond, I would also take that as a no. With plenty of escorts, multiple attempts to contact might be necessary because a lot of guys are just flakey/negligent/too busy to respond. Sometimes the escort never got your message. But with a ladies-only escort, I'm going to assume he did see my text/email/WhatsApp and simply wasn't interested. Additional attempts at contact after non-response don't quite rise to the level of harassment, imo, but I just don't think it's a good idea. This thread is way too similar to the thread started by a stiffed escort where one forum member insisted that nonpayment was equivalent to rape. Yikes! Get a grip! Here, an inquiry to a sex worker is being blown up to sexual harassment. Yikes again!