BSR

Miguel Herrán had an interesting start to his acting career. He was hanging out with a couple of friends & chugging a liter of beer on a Madrid sidewalk 2am on a school night when director Daniel Guzmán walked by. Guzmán called his attention and asked him if he would audition for him. Herrán auditioned the next day, got the part, and ended up winning the Goya (Spain's Oscar) for Best New Talent. The rest is history.

Please don't misunderstand ... nothing funny about happened to this soldier, but I have to crack up at the description of "wounded." Make sure to click on the video to get the full picture.

Thanks for the heads-up that Season 4 is now available. I subscribe to Netflix only sporadically because I end up watching it way too much. A continuous subscription is like keeping too much junk food in the house. But Élite Season 4 is definitely worth watching, plus I think Money Heist posted its final season. An anecdote about Money Heist's popularity: cast member Enrique Arce said that when he was in Buenos Aires, the president of Argentina asked him to come to the presidential residence because he was such a fan of the show. When heads of state are summoning you to meet with them, you know your show has hit the big time.

Don't ask me how he pulled it off, but Novak will play the 2022 Australian Open with an "exemption permission." If you're wondering what's an "exemption permission," you have plenty of company. Nobody seems to know, and Novak will never say. Given how super-strict Australia is with their Covid policies, he must have done some serious tough negotiating to get this mysterious exemption permission. A medical exemption is impossible; in any case, note that Novak did not say he got one. Some exceptions are made for the unvaccinated, for example, a person with "critical skills" or "in the national interest." I know the Australian Open is important to Australia, but "in the national interest" is a stretch. Does winning the AO nine times qualify as a "critical skill"? Some Australians were shut out of their country for months. When Ash Barty left Australia after the AO to compete on the tour, she knew she would not be able to return for 9 months. Now they allow Novak this "exemption permission" just because he won it 9 times and the tournament is starved for star power?? Some Aussies are already spouting off on Twitter. We'll see over the next few days what the general consensus is on this odd little exemption. Speaking selfishly as a die-hard Novak fan, I'm tickled pink that he's playing. On the other hand, if the country imposes a vaccine mandate, then everyone should have to follow it -- even the world #1 and 9-time champion. I'm pretty sure that if #97 ranked Pablo Cuevas had asked for an exemption permission, the government of Victoria would have laughed in his face.

I was going to comment on the controversy, but unfortunately, once I see Antonio Brown shirtless, I struggle ... thoughts ... sentences ...

Tennis player (or at least he used to be) Milos Raonic sets the thermostat at 67° for sleeping because he heard it was the optimal temperature for physical recovery. Whether he heard it from Milos (they are friends) or someone else, I think world #1 Novak Djokovic started doing it too. I'll bet plenty of other tennis pros jumped on the bandwagon.

I suspect that some clients think that if they get nasty and attack escorts who have raised their rates, they can intimidate escorts in general into lowering their rates. Of course, that's ridiculous, but that won't stop these clients. They're on a mission!

German Cornejo's dance company does some of the best tango I've ever seen. I love this number ...

Happy New Year!

Here is a clip of world champion swing dancer and "So You Think You Can Dance" winner Benji Schwimmer with a male partner. Benji has some great moves!

In contrast to all the uncertainty about Novak & the Australian Open, he is certainly carrying on like someone who has every intention of playing. He has moved from Belgrade to Marbella and is practicing with intensity on the Plexicushion (same surface as the AO) courts at the Puente Romano Tennis Club, even using the official AO tennis balls. So, either Novak persists in the deluded belief that the Victoria government will ease up on its Covid restrictions (ha!), or he's actually vaccinated and just being really weird about refusing to disclose it.

None, really. If Novak isn't already vaccinated, then he will have to skip this year's AO. Novak's only chance of playing is if he is already vaxxed and is just being super-secretive about it (remember how weird he is about privacy). What's odd is that all 3 Serbian sports papers report that he is in Belgrade and is practicing hard -- something they've seen for themselves, not just some crazy rumor they heard. If he knew he was skipping Australia, then he'd be on the ski slopes, not the practice court.

I'm reading conflicting reports from Serbian news sources. Because the Serbian press has whipped itself into a frenzy over this issue, they're reporting every single rumor they come across. One of the Serbian sports papers even cited Emilio Sanchez as a "source." WTF?! Since when is Emilio Sanchez the definitive authority on Novak Djokovic?? According to the guys over on Men's Tennis Forum, of the 3 big Serbian sports newspapers, 2 are saying Novak is skipping the 2022 AO, 1 says he is playing. None of the 3 is getting their news from the horse's mouth. I'll wait to hear what Novak has to say. Apparently he has no chance of getting a medical exemption. If he has not gotten the jab yet, it's already too late because a player needs to get the 2nd shot at least 2 weeks before arriving in Australia.

Since the university paper was 19 pages, I admit that I only skimmed it, but the writer made a distinction between mainstream news orgs and sensationalist tabloids, not between mainstream and alternative journalism, like Tim Pool or Substack.

I tried a search in Spanish but got the same result: Romanian 39yo w/9 priors & Moroccan 29yo w/17 priors, but no information beyond that. I read 3 news reports, none gave names or photographs. Plenty of other links, but I stopped after 3 because I assumed they all withheld further info. I also found a paper written by a university student (I can't figure out how to link the PDF) where he states that the ethical standard for Spanish mainstream news orgs is to not identify suspects by their name or image in order to maintain presumption of innocence and to avoid trial by public opinion. However, it does not look like there are any laws prohibiting the publication of names & photos.

I saw a recipe on YouTube for Filipino chicken salad that called for Miracle Whip, condensed milk, canned pineapple (drained) and sweet relish. I mentioned it to my mother and commented that it sounded disgusting. She responded that that's how Filipinos make it, and in fact, I had eaten & enjoyed that recipe many times at various relatives' homes. Imagine my horror.

Dominic Thiem announced via Twitter that he was withdrawing from the Australian Open. His first tournament back will be Córdoba, Argentina.

You won $10 million from a scratch ticket?! I didn't think scratch tickets had such big payouts. A friend back in Boston won $100K off a scratch ticket, and I thought that was huge.

True, with so much competition, building up a successful OnlyFans is hard for any newcomer. A face-less newbie doesn't have a snowball's chance in H-E-double hockey sticks. Has @nycboi considered go-go dancing? Plenty of go-go gigs in NYC for a guy with the right look. Some dancers make a decent amount just in tips. Others make even more working "off the premises." He could be selective about clients without offending anyone. His list of restrictions will annoy most rent.men browsers, but bar clientele looking to hookup with a dancer will be more accepting (just my opinion).

Uh oh, the likelihood that Novak will the Australian Open just dropped like a rock. While he has not officially withdrawn from the ATP Cup, a member of his team leaked, "It is 99 percent sure that Novak won't go to the ATP Cup. He is training here (in Belgrade) but he has decided to give that tournament a miss." If Novak skips the ATP Cup, then he's not playing the AO either. Roger is definitely out, Rafa is a maybe, Novak is looking far less likely. If none of the Big 3 plays the Australian, then that is the end of an era, or at least the beginning of the end. Until recently, the Big 3 not only played every Slam but won almost all of them as well. I don't know if Roger ever makes it back. Rafa should be back on tour, just maybe not in time for the AO. Novak has no physical issues, but who knows if the other 3 Slams will impose vaccine mandates in the future. Given their ages (Roger 40, Rafa 35, Novak 34), the Big 3 Era had to end at some point, but I still hate to see it.

I saw an interesting stat from Madrid: 12/23/2020: 2,621 new cases, 210 new hospitalizations 12/23/2021: 20,195 new cases, 144 new hospitalizations I wish they had a breakdown of how many of those 144 hospitalizations were Omicron vs. Delta.

From the horse's mouth: Rafa says he's experiencing only mild symptoms. He doesn't worry about the Covid itself, more how long it will take to recover and how long he is unable to train and practice. Even if he recovers in time to make it to Australia, he will have missed precious preparation time before a Slam and after a 6-month layoff. That would be tough for any player, even more so for a 35-year-old.

An interesting wrinkle in Rafa's comeback from injury: he has tested positive for Covid. No word on how he's feeling, but given his age, fitness, and 2 vaccine shots, I'm guessing that physically he's fine. He has enough time before the start of the AO (Jan 17) to shed the virus and test negative, but his participation in the warm-up tournament (Melbourne, Jan 4) he planned on playing might be in jeopardy. On the podcast I'm listening to, they said that once a player tests positive, first he has to test negative then wait 7 days before he can board a plane for Australia. If he can't play Melbourne, his only other tune-up option is Sydney, but that's the week right before the AO, and top players almost never play the week before a Slam. Another option is going into the AO with no competitive match play (Novak often has before both the AO and Wimbledon yet has gone on to win the tournament). No warmup is far from ideal, however, for a player who's been out with injury for 6 months. No word yet on whether Novak is vaccinated, but we'll find out soon because he's entered in the ATP Cup, which starts Jan 1. Dominic Thiem caught a cold while in Dubai (tested negative for Covid) and has withdrawn from both the ATP Cup and Sydney. His participation in the AO is a wait & see.

"I'm into everything" can also mean "that'll be extra."