BSR

History buffs, is this true? Or did some guy on the Internet just make it up? It sounds made-up, but ya never know ... "Throwing in the towel" does not owe its origin to boxing... Today the belief predominates that the origin of the expression "throw in the towel" lies in the world of boxing. It is true that it is used in this sport to point to the gesture in which one of the trainers forces his fighter to quit. Everyone knows that the phrase means to give up a purpose or fight. But where can we find its origin? The truth is that the gesture that gave rise to this locution is much older than most imagine. It is said that the famous Roman baths of the former empire were not a place exclusively for bathing, as we have seen in different films it was a place to meet, and ideal for political conspiracies of those that abounded in ancient Rome. But they were also the ideal place to meet the most attractive young men in the city who, seeking fame, riches, and sometimes power, yielded to the wishes of older men who sought their company. All this gave rise to a ritual that can be traced back to the first century AD. When one of these adolescents received a proposal either through third parties or directly from one of the older men, he stood in front of his applicant and either tied a second knot in the towel that wrapped him, making it clear that he was rejecting the proposal, or threw in the towel, to which those present applauded and celebrated the beginning of a relationship. In present-day Turkey some hot springs are preserved in which a plaque was discovered that reads: "Hic Antinous Hadriano linteum suum iactavit", that is, "This was where Antinous threw his towel at Hadrian," thus alluding to the relationship between the emperor Hadrian and the young musical artist Antinous. Perhaps that was the moment in which the meaning of the phrase began to vary, finally being seen as a gesture of submission to the conqueror, which led the boxing world to adopt it to refer to surrender, which has led to gradually losing track of the true origin of the term.

I used to have the same problem. When it got to the point that I was waking up every 1.5-2 hours, I sought out a urologist. He gave me a couple of prescriptions, 1 to shrink my prostate, 1 to calm down my bladder muscles. Now occasionally I have to wake up once per night to pee, but most nights I sleep through no problem. My overall health, including my mental health, is much improved now that I am sleeping 8 hours uninterrupted.

The original Merlí is available again on RTVE. Just download the RTVE app, set your VPN to Spain, and start binging. Unfortunately, still no English dubbing or subtitles available, only Spanish and Catalan. I've grown even more fond of the series since the last time I watched it. Last December when I knew it was going off RTVE, I must have re-watched the final episode a half-dozen times. Yes, because Bruno and Pol are the sexiest, most beautiful gay couple I've ever seen on screen (big or small), but also because I grew to love all the characters. if your Spanish is even half-decent, you gotta give Merlí a try. I can't recommend it enough.

Too much cuteness ...

Not sure we're on the same page ... Despite its abundance of top-notch language schools, Salamanca would be a bad fit for @menaughty because of his affinity for Latin America. Colombia, on the other hand, would suit him for that same reason, not because of the similarity between Mexican and Colombian Spanish. I think you're exaggerating the differences between countries. First of all, Spanish grammar is pretty much the same everywhere. The exceptions of vos & vosotros are negligible. When a Spaniard uses vosotros in Mexico or an Argentine uses vos in Madrid, nobody blinks an eye. Yes, pronunciation does vary, but wherever menaughty studies, people from every other country will understand him just fine. The greatest differences are slang & colloquialisms, but once people pick up that you're a 2nd-language speaker, they stop using them (consciously or not). Besides, the best way to learn slang from other countries is watching TV, like I heard Juanes say chévere umpteen times when he was a coach on La Voz España. Yes, Québécois is very different from Gallic French and Swiss German very different from High German, but as @pubic_assistance said, Spanish is Spanish the whole world 'round, just like we can understand English from every every other English-speaking country. Sure, there are occasional problems, like a super-thick Cockney accent or his example of areas where vocabulary comes from indigenous languages, but those exceptions are few and far between. The OP has so many issues to consider: study or party (of course you can do both, but the emphasis usually ends up being one or the other), budget, visa, length of stay, climate, big or small city, finding a top-notch school, and most of all, figuring out what place appeals to him the most. Once he sorts out all those issues, the "issue" of Mexican vs. Castilian vs. Porteño becomes a non-issue.

Yes, when I studied in Salamanca, I remember everyone kept saying that nearby Valladolid was where the best Spanish is spoken, but Salamanca was a close 2nd. Honestly, I assumed it was just a marketing gimmick. Looking back on it, I'm not sure what the "best" or "purest" Spanish even means. I actually learned some nonstandard pronunciations in Salamanca, like lisping Ds at the end of words and syllables (imagine: thiudath, vothka) and skipping Cs before a C or T (so I say dotor, perfeto, atheso instead of doctor, perfecto, acceso). The former is a bit unusual even in Spain, and I'm convinced the latter is nonexistent outside of Salamanca. But in the end, no big whoop because everyone understands me just fine. Unless you need to learn Spanish for work, I don't think it much matters where you study. What does matter is figuring out the location that best suits you and finding a top-notch school. Since the OP has expressed an affinity for Latino Spanish and music, Salamanca won't work no matter how many DELE-certified & Instituto de Cervantes-accredited schools it has. But let's say @menaughty wants to experience the hot!hot!hot! rentboys of Medellín for his immersion program yet has a long-term plan of retiring in Mexico. This one time, you can have your cake & eat it too. You'll have a hella good time in Colombia, and you'll get used to Mexican Spanish quickly enough. On a more personal note, I became very close to my English-speaking "cuadrilla" (foursome) in Salamanca. Because I was in a new country learning a new language, away from family/friends, loneliness & homesickness hit hard. I spent a lot of time hanging out & speaking English because I needed it at the time. Yet shortly after our year abroad ended, my friendships with the Anglo foursome faded fast because being strangers in a strange land was really all we had in common. In contrast, 3+ decades later, I'm still close with my 2 Spanish friends from that year; we Skype, email, and Whatsapp all the time. I've heard the same from others, that friendships with their countrymen while studying abroad weren't "real." Of course, your mileage may vary.

That beautiful porteño accent but with tú instead of vos??

I've heard a theory that listening to music helps open your mind to better learn a language. Proponents of this theory suggest you listen to music in the language you're studying before attending class, doing homework, etc. Dont know if that's true or not. If it is, great! Even if it's not, you love Latin American music anyway, so hardly time wasted. When you return to the US after your immersion program, follow @Rudynate's advice and watch Spanish-language TV & movies to keep your Spanish up. About 10 years ago, I ran into 3 Spanish tourists who were looking for advice from a Las Vegas local. Unfortunately, my Spanish had gotten so rusty that while I could understand them just fine, I couldn't speak to them in Spanish (eek!). I had to speak English even though their English wasn't very good. I was so depressed that my español had turned to sh*t, but I had no idea how to recover it since I wasn't in a position to hop back to Spain for a month or two. Then ~8 years ago, I happed upon a Spanish TV series on the Internet and noticed how quickly it knocked the rust off. I made it a point to watch something in Spanish every day: some days hours of binging, others just a 10-minute YouTube video , but I never miss a day. Thanks to my hobby, I am far more fluent now than at the end of my year in Salamanca, and my listening comprehension is 10x better. You'll learn little if any slang, idiomatic expressions, and colloquialisms in class, but you'll learn tons & tons watching TV & movies. Also, Spaniards (or Mexicans or Colombians or ... ) have one way of speaking with foreigners (more slowly, simpler vocabulary, clearer pronunciation, no slang/colloquialisms) and a very different way when speaking with each other. Even if you're friends with native speakers, they'll speak differently with you (perhaps not consciously, but they will). If you want to understand real-world Spanish, you gotta watch TV. Best of luck with finding the city/country right for you. Whether Colombia or Mexico, Medellín or Mexico City (or San Miguel de Allende or Bogotá or ... ), I'm sure you'll have a great experience.

Gotta disagree, people will be able to understand you no matter where you study. Because I started as a total beginner and because the teachers in Salamanca were quite strict, I learned Castilian Spanish with all the proper lisps and rasps. Once back stateside, I never bothered to learn Latino pronunciations and use vosotros (when appropriate, of course) instead of ustedes. I've had extended conversations with people from almost every single Spanish-speaking country since, and everyone understands me perfectly. Where you study will have some impact on your listening comprehension. Americans who had studied Spanish for 6 years really struggled to understand the teachers in Salamanca whereas I, who had studied for all of 1 month, understood them just fine. If you want to go to Buenos Aires for the experience, don't hesitate, absolutely go! (I shall be green with envy.) Just expect most Spanish speakers when you get back to the US to sound verrrrrrrrrry different from your porteño teachers. But that can be easily remedied by watching TV/movies. Get hooked on a Mexican telenovela if you live in Phoenix or start watching La casa de papel if you plan to travel to Spain, and you'll get used to the different accent & pronunciation pretty quickly.

I learned Spanish in Salamanca Spain, showing up at my first day of class with zero knowledge of Spanish. It was a great experience that changed my life, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to do it. But as much as I enjoyed it, I don't necessarily recommend Salamanca, or even Spain. With 20 Spanish-speaking countries, good language schools can be found all over. I suggest that you figure out where you want to go because learning Spanish will be only half the experience. The other half will be getting to know the place and hopefully some of the local people. If you want to hit the beach after spending all morning in class, Puerto Vallarta and Cancún have language schools. If you want the big city experience, Madrid, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City await. For smokin' hot rentboys, go to Medellín. If you want something really different, head to Havana (might be problematic for US citizens). After you pick a spot, finding a good language school is actually the easy part because most decent-sized cities have at least one if not several. If you do go to Spain, make sure the school is DELE-certified (even if you're not taking a DELE course) and Instituto de Cervantes accredited. If you've studied Spanish some, then I suggest watching as much Spanish-language TV and movies as you can before going because classroom Spanish doesn't really prepare you for real-world Spanish. Activate the Spanish subtitles if you can't quite keep up, but absolutely do not resort to English subtitles. You'll never learn the language that way. Even if you're starting from scratch, try to watch Spanish programming for children (Netflix has a bunch of movies for kids) as you're learning the language. Beginners tend to translate from their native tongue word-for-word to Spanish, which comes off really awkward and stilted. The more TV/movies you watch, the more you'll learn to speak real Spanish, not English badly translated. When are you going? For how long? Is your motivation for learning Spanish work-related, or just something you've always wanted to do? Whatever you end up doing, please tell us all about it.

LOL

Holy Toledo! I just came across the man of my dreams!! Professional soccer player Sebastian Lletget was born in San Francisco to 2 Argentine parents. He's in the news because of some asunto de faldas. I don't give a sh*t about the details, just glad I saw his gorgeous mug ...

Better with sound turned up ...

Hoverboards have been banned on the NYC subway since 2016 because of fire hazard. Forget riding one, you can't even carry one on board.

Yeah, I mentioned in the Tony Dow R.I.P. thread that my 8yo self got totally hooked on Leave It To Beaver reruns because of Beav's hunky older brother, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. But I knew something was up when all the boys in my 6th grade class went apesh*t over Daisy Duke while I couldn't stop staring at Beau & Luke. Scenes like these damn near made my head explode.

Thanks for the review. I decided against renting Firebird because I didn't want to pay the $5.99 rental just to get all depressed, even if the two leads are eye-poppingly handsome. On the other hand, the video of Tom Prior (Sergey) and his beefcake photoshoot put quite a bounce in my step, plus it's free!

Watching a series set in 1930s Spain, I noticed that when arranging to meet or do something, instead of setting a time, the characters always said dawn, noon, or sunset. Oh right, only the wealthy had clocks/watches back then. If the poor were out of earshot from the hourly ring of church bells, their only way of "telling time" was the position of the sun.

By the way, NYC does not assess property taxes at a fixed percentage of the property's value. Different types of property get assessed at different rates. For example, single-family homes (townhouses or brownstones) are assessed at a lower rate per square foot than condos. Even units in the same building get assessed at different percentages. A small 2-bedroom on a lower floor in Central Park Tower is assessed at 0.81% of the condo's value ($59,616 on a $7.35 million apartment) whereas the triplex penthouse is a "bargain" at just 0.23% ($572,232 on $250 million). Maybe a long-time New Yorker can explain the crazy system 'cuz I sure as heck can't. True, Californians pay a much higher rate initially, but you also have Proposition 13. NYC does have a cap on the percentage increase of your property tax, but it's much higher -- 6% in 1 year, 20% in 5 years.

The $47,686 is the property tax per month. Annual property tax is $572,232. Yikes! Are you paying half a $million per year in property taxes?!

When you click on the link to the trailer, YouTube offers the option to rent ($4) or buy ($10) right below.

The original CSI was set in Las Vegas but shot in Los Angeles (except for the occasional location shot). One giveaway is that all the houses seen on the show have a grass front lawn. In Las Vegas grass in front of the house was banned many years ago. Backyards can be up to 50% covered in natural grass (for kids, pets), but even for backyards the Southern NV Water Authority is pushing artificial grass pretty hard.

Not for the faint of heart, here are the monthlies for Central Park Tower's triplex penthouse ... Common charges ("HOA" outside of NYC) are high, of course, but less than what I would have guessed: $26,952. Given the over-the-top amenities, that's actually, dare I say, reasonable. Plus think how much they have to pay those window-cleaners. Property tax: $47,686. Keep in mind that NYC gets ~60% of its revenue from commercial and residential property taxes. If you own a place like this, the taxman will exact his pound of flesh. Here's the Big Kahuna ... homeowners insurance: $86,792 *gulp* So your fixed costs per month add up to $161,430. Annually, get ready to cough up *drumroll please* $1,937,160.* PS: the building does vanity floor numbering. Central Park Tower actually has only 98 floors, but according to the listing this penthouse occupies Floors 129, 130, and 131. Hey, only a sucker would pay a $quarter-billion for a 98th floor apartment, but a $quarter-billion for a 131st floor apartment is tooooootally worth it. * Section 8 not accepted

Even with a shirt on, Borna is so damn yummy ...

Oh my, so insistent!