BSR

Blaming inflation all on Covid is a lie of omission. We also printed $trillions out of thin air, which for obvious reasons causes inflation. Just look at the inflation rate of Switzerland, which maintained fiscal discipline.

If the house sells for close to asking, the realtor should give the photographer a bonus because those photos make the 10-foot width look decently spacious, not cramped at all.

Oops, I switched the first names. You're right, Taylor Zakhar Pérez and Nicholas Galitzine. I've scoured the Internet trying to find out where to apply for the sequel's Intimacy Coordinator position, but no luck so far.

If you set out this kind of spread for a massage appointment, your dinner parties must be off the charts.

Even though I didn't like the first movie, I am looking forward to the sequel because for all of RWRB's flaws, the 2 leads were very good. If nothing else, hopefully we at least see a lot more of NZP's ass (hey, just being honest).

After one of my ~90yo grandmother's friends died, she took it really hard, was depressed for weeks. Two of my aunts were a bit baffled because while they were friends, they weren't really all that close. Then it dawned on them: the friend was the last of grandma's age group. Although she did have other friends, they were all at least a decade younger. It must be hard to start talking about "remember when ..." only to realize that nobody does.

No, and I'm glad to hear that Johnsons didn't. As the Adonis guys once said on a webcam show, they have a brand, and their customers expect a certain "caliber" of dancer at their establishment. If an applicant has a meltdown after getting turned down, then that's the price of doing business. It's not Matt's fault that this guy got way too many participation trophies in his childhood.

Tennis player Borna Coric

"supermarket prices are now 25% higher than in January 2020, while inflation has increased 19% over that same time" If food prices had increased at 2% per year from Jan 2020 to Feb 2024, that would be a total increase of 8.24%. So yeah, 25% more at the supermarket is a heckuva jump.

Getting back to the original post, yes, neglecting to mention insurance & healthcare was a glaring omission, at least for those of us of a certain age. I'm guessing that the obviously fit young man has never needed to see a doctor during his time in Da Nang.

Filipinos suffer from a pathological fear of any and all confrontation, even the mildest and most minor. For example, if you schedule a handyman to make a repair but something comes up such that he can't make it, he will never call or even text you because of this Filipino dread of confrontation. He just won't show up while you're left wondering what happened. He won't respond to any voicemails or texts. If you run into him and try to ask what happened, instead of a quick apology & explanation, he'll flee like you're a serial killer. I wish I were exaggerating, but that's actually how Filipinos are. Bad enough with the handyman, now imagine every single acquaintance, coworker, neighbor, friend, and family member suffering from this same fear of confrontation. Nothing is ever resolved, nothing is ever talked about, everything just gets buried. Or worse, suppressed -- resentment, hurt feelings, anger, all of it. Filipinos think that's normal, but as an American, it makes my head explode. Even my aunt & uncle, who were born & raised in the Philippines, had a tough time re-adjusting. As much as I do sometimes envy my aunt & uncle's "newfound wealth," I know I could never put up with it.

When an aunt & uncle lived in Queens, money was always tight even though they had decent pensions plus rental income. They dreamed of traveling, fine dining, and playing golf in retirement but couldn't afford to do much of anything. After much deliberation (they had lived in the US for 30+ years), they decided to move back to the Philippines. After they sold their house, they had enough to buy a luxury hi-rise condo in a posh Manila neighborhood, with a nice chunk of change left over. They sold the Queens rentals & bought units in Florida to save on taxes. Note that measured by GDP per capita, the Philippines is even poorer than Vietnam ($12,192 Philippines vs. $15,470 Vietnam, $85,373 in US btw). Now I tease my aunt & uncle that they live like the Marcoses: constantly traveling, eating out in Manila's finest restaurants, not lifting a finger (a live-in does all the cooking & cleaning). The only catch is my uncle still doesn't play golf, but only because of the heat & humidity (he's OK with it). They encourage me to do the same, but I'm not sure I could take the adjustment. Since we left the Philippines when I was just 4, I'm basically 100% American, and one big aspect of Filipino culture is so frustrating it makes my head explode. But who knows, my aunt & uncle never saw themselves moving back either. I wonder how long the guy in the video plans to stay in Vietnam. I think it would be great to do for a year or so, especially if you work remotely & make an American salary but pay a Vietnamese cost of living. But after a while, I'd want to either find a new adventure or move back stateside.

In 1973, after being absent from the limelight for several years, Fabian posed nude for Playgirl to raise his profile. He was quoted as saying, "I knew it was a mistake the minute I saw the thing sold in a paper bag." By his own admission, Fabian Forte wasn't much of a singer, but he was cute as sh*t ...

My first thought when I saw the ad was "these pics look stolen off some random guy's Instagram." Thanks for confirming.

I disagree. When a black/brown person dies because of a white person's malice or malfeasance, wall-to-wall 24/7. We even build monuments to George Floyd. But when a black/brown person dies at the hands of other black/brown people, nothing. Hundreds of murders in Chicago's South Side -> deafening silence

When I was a lad before my first trip to Europe, a friend who had done a year abroad in France told me to make sure when entering a store to find the shop owner or shopkeeper, smile, and say "bonjour!" (or "bon soir!" depending on the time). In French culture when coming into a store, you must say hello to the shop owner/keeper. Failure to do so is considered extremely rude, like going into someone's house without greeting the homeowner. I'm amazed by the number of Americans who are ignorant about this small but critical detail. After Americans totally ignore the store owner/staff, they are baffled and a bit miffed that the French are cold as ice. By the way, I always had good experiences in French businesses, even though my French sucks.

For fans of Carlos Cuevas (Merlí, Merlí: sapere aude, Smiley), he has another series on Netflix, 45 rpm, about a young man who moves to Madrid in 1960 to become a rock star and the record company exec who takes a risk on him, set in the context of Franco's ultra-traditionalist Spain. Cuevas does all his own singing, and gotta say, his voice is pretty good. I liked that it has a closed ending, i.e., resolution instead of some stupid cliffhanger in hopes of a Season 2. My only eensy complaint is that neither the sexy Cuevas nor Iván Marcos (the hot daddy record exec) take their clothes off nearly as much as they should 😄

Even though Miguel Angel Silvestre is so handsome, fantastic body, for whatever reason the actor doesn't do it for me. But his character Alberto Márquez (Velvet on Netflix, great series) makes my head spin. Whenever Alberto was on screen, I'd stare like a lovesick schoolboy. A $G to be with Alberto Márquez? Pffft, a bargain at twice the price, but the actor's gotta stay in character the whole time, LOL.

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.