BSR

Allow me to share what happened to someone I know (no, not "a friend," literally just someone I know). "John" and "Sam" meet and fall madly in love, or at least John does. In his mid-30s, John thinks he has finally found true love. Of course John introduced Sam to his 2 best friends, his adopted family since he wasn't that close to his biological family. After a few times out to dinner & drinks, John's 2 friends tried to warn him that something was off, that Sam's body language just didn't feel right. John just shrugged it off as Sam being less demonstrative or less comfortable with PDA. After all, he and Sam had mind-blowing sex every night, which was far more important to him than some vague intuition. Then when Sam asked John to lend him $20,000 (to start a business or some such), the 2 friends rang all the alarm bells, but too late. The last 6 months with Sam had been the happiest of John's life. As soon as the check cleared, so did Sam (oh, shock!). John got a "Dear John" letter from Australia, where Sam had gone to join his true love. Sam was terribly sorry (uh huh), but don't worry, he promised to pay John back every penny of the $20K (more uh huh). @Statham, I realize some elements of this story differ (significantly) from your current situation, but I notice that most of the advice given is all about just the 2 of you and how you should deal with things. Why not get a 2nd (3rd, 4th) opinion? Trusted friends or family members will get a far more objective read on this guy. Maybe they'll get to know him and think he's awesome and you're hella lucky. Or maybe not.

The Cruise Critic message board has meet-up threads for almost every cruise. While the threads are not LGBT-specific, you can always post saying you're looking to meet other LGBTs on the sailing. Here is the meet-up thread for Wonder of the Seas July 16-23, 2023: Sorry, you do not have permission for that! BOARDS.CRUISECRITIC.COM Oops, forgot, you have to create an account on Cruise Critic to be able to access the thread.

Does it cost that much more to keep a person in a mental health facility vs. prison?

That "dumb two-minute video" is now up to 78.1 million views. Again, no point in pissing back & forth. Let's revisit Tucker Carlson's situation in 2 years when we'll have some cold hard numbers to look at. We can also look at the election results on November 6, 2024 to see if MAGA is "toast." Note who we're not talking about: the subject of this thread Don Nadie, er, Lemon.

One of the best moments I had in Boston was seeing the Old North Church for the first time, when it hit me that Paul Revere was a real-life person, not just some story I heard in grade school. I was surprised by how short the steeple was and doubted that you could actually see a couple of lamps all the way over in Charlestown until I noticed that it is indeed quite a bit taller than all the surrounding structures. The pews are tiny -- were people that much smaller in the 1700s? Anyway, even though I can't really say I'm a history buff, I really enjoyed all the history to be discovered and enjoyed in Boston.

Let's revisit this thread in 2 years and compare predictions to hard numbers. Note that Don Lemon is such a zero that in a thread about his termination, all we can talk about is Tucker Carlson.

Bill O'Reilly was never a force in American politics, never led a political movement. O'Reilly, a self-described traditionalist independent (whatever that is), had no following of fellow traditionalist independents, because no such movement exists in this country. "Tucker wields no power or influence "?? He single-handedly got Donald Trump to do a 180 on his Covid policy by browbeating the president at a party. Without even speaking to Trump in person, Carlson succeeded in jettisoning shadow president Jared Kushner from the Trump White House. Wow, I wish I were so "powerless." Love it or hate it, America First nationalist populism, a.k.a. MAGA, is a force in American politics, and Tucker Carlson is its spiritual leader. Just as Rush Limbaugh thrived 100% independently from Fox News and any other establishment media, Tucker will (eventually) build his own platform. Because you dislike Tucker, you're wishcasting his future irrelevance. But the 76 million (and counting!) views Carlson got on his last tweet indicate that he's just getting started.

Morgan Freeman disagrees ...

I've lived in both NYC & Boston. Humidity is a tick or two higher in Boston, but not a huge difference. I think you notice the heat more in NYC, especially when you go into subway stations. As someone pointed out in another thread, Boston's gay scene is surprisingly small for a city its size. Maybe the SF gay scene ain't what it used to be, but it's gotta be better than Boston's.

Can you recommend an LGBT forum with an active Politics subforum? The other site's Politics section is all but dead. I started engaging in political discussion in Men's Tennis Forum (not LGBT obviously but it has a ~20% gay membership). At first it was kinda fun because conservatives actually outnumber liberals at MTF, but I quickly grew bored because the liberals cave so easily, no challenge at all.

"Lemon did not" ... yeah, and water isn't wet. Lemon openly hated Trumpers, championed the victimhood narrative, etc. The difference is that Tucker Carlson rubbed you the wrong way whereas Don Lemon did not. The other difference, as previously stated, is that Carlson wields serious power in American politics whereas Lemon is a total nobody. Lemon's career will go the way of Chris Cuomo, now an "independent" journalist, a euphemism for "producing his own videos that nobody watches." Tucker, on the other hand, will build a following even larger than Rush Limbaugh's. Of course it will take some time, especially since he'll have to navigate a way around the non-compete clause of his Fox News contract. But eventually Carlson will be followed by tens of millions whereas Lemon will be (very) lucky to reach tens of thousands.

Love him or hate him, Tucker Carlson wields great power & influence. Trump didn't kick into gear about Covid until Tucker cornered him at a party and read him the riot act. Jared Kushner was basically a shadow president in the Trump administration until Carlson excoriated Kushner on his (now defunct) ahow, for a few reasons but most of all because Kushner actually hates Trump voters. Shortly thereafter, Kushner was ushered out. Second only to DJT, Tucker is the most powerful figure in the MAGA movement. Don Lemon, on the other hand, is a zero in American politics. Lemon himself thinks he's awfully important, but nobody else does.

If this doesn't melt your heart ...

Tucker Carlson is a national treasure.

Boston is a great city for so many reasons: history, architecture, culture, European charm, great seafood, great sports town. But you hit on the 2 cons: it's expensive, and the weather SUCKS!! Winter lasts forever, spring lasts ~48 hours, and summer humidity is unbearable. The 8 beautiful weeks of fall don't make up for the other 44 weeks of suckitude. If you make a good salary or at least are good at managing your money, the high cost of living is tolerable. But the weather, ugh, no thanks. That said, a night at Fenway Park, once summer stickiness gives way to cooler fall temps, is heaven on earth.

Tucker Carlson is, er, was the king of cable news. His ratings were far higher than his Fox peers (Hannity, Ingraham, Watters) and multiple times higher than the highest-rated shows on CNN & MSNBC, e.g., Carlson 3.3 million vs. Anderson Cooper 868K. Wherever he goes, it might take a bit for him to rebuild his following, but I expect him to gain far more followers in the long run. He should do at least as well as Joe Rogan, for example, whose Spotify podcast averages 11 million. Rush Limbaugh used to get 15.5 million listeners who tuned in at least once a week and earned $84.5 million a year. Tucker should shoot for, at the very least, 20 million listeners and $100 million.

I first saw Dolly Parton when she performed at a rodeo, ~50 years ago. No one in my family had ever heard of her. After her set, my parents & brother were indifferent at best whereas I fell in love, with country music in general and Dolly in particular.

Lemon was quite adamant that his switch to mornings was not a demotion, which makes me think that yup, it was a demotion.

Wow, I totally agree! Except that the problem was leftist extremists using the forum to push their lies and hate.

What prevents an OP from blocking people simply because they say things the OP dislikes or disagrees with? @RadioRob, how about getting participants in a revived Politics forum to enter at your own risk? I participate in another forum (not the other site) where the mods are much more hands off. Insults and personal attacks abound, and the mods take action only when things get extreme. I wish debate were more civil but understand that there simply isn't the manpower to regulate the politics section more strictly. Basically, grow a thick skin and put your big boy pants on, 'cuz things are gonna get rough. That said, discussing escorts, not politics, is the raison d'être of this forum. Since I never cared for the other forum, I am glad we have this one.

The greatest popera performance of all time.

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.