BSR

His ad links to his X account, but he hasn't posted there since early July. He promotes his OnlyFans, but you gotta wonder how often he uploads new content. Ah well, the good news is he's as beautiful as ever, in great shape and aging very nicely.

I normally read a book in a week or less, but it took me a long time to push through RW&RB. I had to renew it at the library, and it took all 6 weeks to finish it. The author is a clever writer with a cute way of phrasing things. The romantic parts, the interaction between Alex and Henry, were sweet, funny, at times touching. The problem, at least for me, was that she delves into politics too much. She wrote the book to help herself and others get over the 2016 election results, and she jams her politics into the storyline way too much. The author aces romantic comedy but fails political science. I liked the book more than the movie, but that's damning with faint praise. I'll watch the sequel to the movie for the 2 leads, but if she writes a sequel to the book, I shan't bother.

Because Florida insurance rates went through the roof, 15-20% of the state's homeowners "go bare," compared to just ~7% nationwide. Now Helene just caused a sh!t-ton of flooding on the Gulf coast. One has to wonder how many flooded homeowners were going bare, whether because they decided to take a calculated risk or because they simply lacked the funds to pay the sky-high premiums. Either/or, I fear a lot of Floridians are royally screwed.

Have you ever cooked with All Clad's less expensive D3 collection (or any similar 3-ply cookware)? I was wondering if the Copper Clad performance is noticeably better, enough to justify the price difference.

Kris Kristofferson was a truly great songwriter. Me and Bobby McGee is his greatest success, one of the greatest songs of all time, but he write so many more. I listened to this CD 87 quadrillion times, every track is pure gold.

A Grand Canyon gap separates the well-to-do and from the billionaire class. To be in the top 1% of net worth, one needs only $5.8 million. $5.8M ain't chump change, but I would have guessed the cutoff for the top 1% a LOT higher than that. By the way, according to both Forbes and UBS, about 70% of billionaires are self-made, 30% inherited. Judging by the responses in this thread and the "most you've ever paid" thread, I'm guessing there are no billionaires on this forum. Or if so, they're awfully quiet.

Oh, the impure thoughts that would race through my mind and other body parts if this guy were my parish priest ...

This guy is smokin' hot, but it looks his cock was photoshopped to 2x actual size, which makes the photo itself a bit of a turnoff.

I wonder if requiring businesses to accept cash should be a federal issue because all currency is US legal tender. I agree that the trend to a cashless society discriminates against the poor. The poor have it tough enough as it is. I hate seeing anything, like not accepting cash, that makes things even harder for them.

@TonyDown & @azdr0710 Thanks for the posts. Despite his enormous success, I admit that I didn't really know who Sergio Mendes was, probably because he was the songwriter not the front man. But wow, he wrote some truly great songs. R.I.P.

I think there's an old thread about Hot Rods. Reviews weren't positive, and the club didn't last long, but I enjoyed it. A "bad" full monty strip club is a helluva lot better than nothing at all. If Swinging Richard's in its prime was a 10, Hot Rods was maybe a 4, which makes HR sound really lame, but I'd much rather have a 4 than the 0 we have now in Las Vegas. I got friendly with a dancer there who became a regular hire, about once a week. He was married to a woman but exploring his bi side, and we had a lot of fun. We hung out socially off the clock as well. Unfortunately, he moved to Florida. A month or so after he moved, Hot Rods closed. All good things come to an end.

Virtually no college students become financially successful enough by 23yo to buy a $60K watch, so they flex by showing off more affordable status symbols like expensive sneakers or flagship smartphones. But once entrepreneurs, lawyers, MBA types are making serious money, not just "I can make my student loan payment and still afford EDC tickets!", I can't imagine they're flashing their affluence with Air Jordans. More like an AP, or for the arriviste a Rolex* * That sound you just heard was @pubic_assistance throwing up in his mouth

Except that Ricky Pearsall is hardly your typical 23yo. He was a 1st-round draft pick who signed a 4-year deal for $12.5 million guaranteed. Plenty of the young men you work with will buy a fancy traditional watch once they've "made it." Women have plenty of options to show off their affluence -- a designer wardrobe, a pair of Louboutins, jewelry, a Louis Vuitton bag -- whereas men are kinda sorta limited to one flex: an expensive watch. I say this as someone who can't afford even an entry-level model, but I gotta agree with @pubic_assistance ... I find Rolexes a bit tacky.

As much as I didn't like most aspects of RWRB, I did like the 2 actors and loved their sexual chemistry. Of course I'll watch Part Deux, albeit with lowered expectations. I didn't know about TZP's marital status either. Wow, lucky hubby.

Even though I follow/post in a lot of threads, I still ignore ~90% of them. I'm guessing the ignore rate far exceeds 90% for most forum members. Now imagine if we all posted "don't care" in every single thread that doesn't interest us. Every thread would disintegrate into an endless stream of don't care's & not interested's. If I don't care about a thread, I just click out and skip past. Nobody cares that I don't care.

My eyes popped when I read the recent entries in this thread because I had no idea anyone still cared about Covid. I got the initial 2-shot vaccine in Mar&Apr 2021, got the booster in October 2021. I got Covid in Feb 2022 (got tested) and then probably again in Nov 2022. The first bout took a while to get over, ~3 weeks, but I've had colds that were worse. I think I got it again Nov 2022 because my mom got it and needed more help than usual. I never bothered to get tested because my symptoms were just a day of the mildest cold symptoms. Since then, I figured I had natural immunity.and never thought about Covid again until I saw this thread. When I told my rheumatologist about my 2 bouts, he didn't even mention getting additional boosters, nor did my primary care physician. Wow, Covid's still a thing ... who knew?

I hate this lie. The pandemic didn’t cause inflation. We printed $trillions out of thin air, which -- oh shock! -- caused runaway inflation. When you ram $trillions of fake money into the monetary system, the value of people's hard-earned money declines --> inflation.

Sometimes you read something so shocking that you initially don't know how to respond ... Inflation is a stealth tax, one that no one votes for but everyone has to pay. The government prints itself "free" money, but the value of people's cash holdings devalues by the rate of inflation. If you were one of the lucky few who locked in a really high CD rate or T-bill, you might come out ahead, but for the vast majority, you just eat the loss. One of the demographics worst hit are seniors, who tend keep their assets in conservative fixed-income securities. CD & T-bill rates were jumpin' the last year, but inflation started soaring much earlier and faster than interest rates. Of course, everyone who kept money in low-interest savings accounts and zero-interest checking accounts got totally screwed. Even for "high-yield" savings and interest-bearing checking, the interest rates lag badly behind inflation. To rub salt in the wound, the government taxes you on all interest earned, even if your yield is far below the inflation rate. Also, some important tax breaks/thresholds are not adjusted for inflation. Social Security is taxed starting st $32,000 for couples, $25,000 for single filers, but that threshold has remained stagnant for decades. Same with the home sale tax exclusion, which has stayed the same amount for 25 years. A couple of Obamacare surtaxes haven't been changed for years. In other words, the thresholds stay the same amount, but because of inflation, more and more people pay more taxes over the years. So no, don't believe the people who tell you inflation is a good thing or inflation is harmless. Inflation is a tax, pure and simple.

Two sexy gymnasts get stuck on the high bar. More arousing than amusing, but I had to put it somewhere ...

The story of this baby chimp melted, then broke my heart ...

Michael Sam might have been dealing with mental health issues, but that wasn't the reason he left football. Frankly, he just wasn't good enough. Plenty of good college players don't make it in the NFL. Sam feared he was shut out/passed over because of homophobia, which is understandable but unfounded. The gay sports website Outsports published a recent article about Sam, written by someone who knows him personally. Some interesting insights, it's a good read.

By December 31, 2024, condos must pass the first round of structural inspections (not sure of the details) and must have fully funded reserves. I've read that a LOT of older buildings won't be able to comply by the deadline. I guess the state could give buildings more time by postponing the deadline, but condo associations have already had 2 years to get their act together. What's the alternative? Shut down all noncompliant buildings, and force the current owners to ... move to a trailer park? Sorry, don't mean to be flip, but if the state gives owners in old buildings more time, they're just kicking the can down the road. If an older building needs $millions in repairs and has woefully underfunded reserves, the owners won't have the money in a year or even a decade. Who knows what will end up happening, but it won't be pretty.