BSR

If you see him again, maybe you could invite him to your hotel room to clean up/shower/nap(?) while making it clear that you will wait for him in the hotel bar/lobby. I wouldn’t feel comfortable extending such an invitation to just any random stranger, but he seems like a trustworthy sort. Plus his need for a long hot shower likely far exceeds whatever slight unease I’d feel.

While in Manila I remember seeing Lukasxyz_PINOY’s ad, cute enough to make me consider him but I opted for another guy. Phew! dodged a bullet … Sorry about what happened to you. It is so sh!tty, but it happens, and far too often.

Even though Wimbledon qualifying is held off-site, they do charge for tickets as do the Australian and Roland Garros. The AO is the cheapest of the paid entries at just AU$10 (US$6.46) while RG charges 25€ ($28.10) and Wimbledon £15-20 ($20.04-26.72). The US Open qualies have long been known as the best bargain in tennis, with a can’t-beat-the-price admission fee of $0.00. However, given the jaw-dropping amount the USTA will invest in upgrades, I suspect that the US Open will start charging soon enough.

Here is the funniest bit I’ve seen from this guy. I’ve seen it a half-dozen times and crack up every single time. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro highlights the clip, but there’s no actual political content.

While Makati is home to the poshest neighborhood in all of the Philippines (boxer Manny Pacquiao and multibillionaire Manny Villar, richest Filipino on the planet, live in Forbes Park, Makati), I would stay in BGC (Bonifacio Global City), the city next door (Makati and BGC are technically cities, not neighborhoods). BGC is cleaner, quieter, and believe it or not safer (imho). When I return to Manila in December, I’m planning to get an AirBnB in the Grand Hyatt condos because you can get one week in an AirBnB for the same price as one night in the GH hotel, $300-350. The Dusit and the Grand Hyatt are about the same distance from Población, the gay district in Makati, but the Dusit is much closer to Remedios Circle, another gay district in Manila proper. I’ve read that BGC supposedly has its own little gay district but don’t ask me where because I couldn’t find it for the life of me. As for bringing a cute pinoy (Filipino guy) up to your room, trust me, every hotel security guard and front desk clerk knows the score. You will likely have to show your room key to the security guard to get into the lobby front door and/or to go up the elevator (most 4- & 5-star hotels work like the casino hotels in Las Vegas), but they couldn’t care less about your companion in tow ‘cuz they’ve already seen it 287 quadrillion times. If you’re puti (white), their only response might be a concealed smirk. Some nonhotel-related travel tips: 1) when you exchange money, ask for a whole lotta 50p and 100p bills because tipping in the Philippines can only be cash, no way to add the tip onto a credit card transaction. Please tip your Uber/taxi driver (10%, rounded up, minimum 50p), Starbucks barista (50p per transaction), restaurant server (10%), and anyone else you would tip in the US. Keep in mind 50p is only 90 cents. If you knew how little they’re making, it’d break your heart. Tip your escort, just flat out ask him how much he’s expecting. The guy I hired had a “manager” who took 40% of his fee (didn’t know this until the end of our last session). 2) download the app eGovPH and fill it out before landing, it will make going thru customs a lot quicker & easier. 3) download Grab, the app for Uber (there is no Uber in the Philippines, their equivalent is Grab) and taxis. I found out the hard way that it’s pretty much impossible to hail a cab on the street. The app will give you cost estimates for private cars (like an Uber in the US) and metered taxis, plus estimated arrival time for each option. If you’re feeling adventurous, download Move It, an app for motorcycle or scooter “taxis,” for when you’re going somewhere solo. It can be a bit of a fright because they weave in between cars like maniacs, but in heavy traffic (brace yourself for 3rd World traffic) it’s by far the quickest option. 4) check Grab for how much it should cost to get from the airport to your hotel. The drivers were quoting 1,200p until my aunt (who’s lived in Manila almost 20 years) called bullsh!t, then they dropped the price to 400p

Most of this Matteo Lane bit is about a straight couple with a 14-year age difference, but his mention of a May-December gay couple applies to Geffen & his soon-to-be ex. 86K views · 1.9K reactions | Matteo Lane - Gay vs Straight Dating (1)... WWW.FACEBOOK.COM Matteo Lane - Gay vs Straight Dating (1) #matteolane #standupcomedy #crowdwork #comedy #humor #improv #jokes #reaction #podcast #podcastshow...

Log into Facebook WWW.FACEBOOK.COM Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know. I don’t know if this link words, hope so ‘cuz it cracked me up!

I don’t watch much doubles … hmm, maybe I need to start. The team linked in the previous post are Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul. Reboul is featured in another thread because he is the first ATP player to come out publicly. Fabien is hot, but his partner slays me … those eyes, those full lips, that ripped physique, zoinks!

I went to Cáceres last weekend and highly recommend it. It’s 3h by car, 3h20m by train, or 4h by bus from Madrid in Extremadura, a region in western Spain bordering Portugal. While Cáceres has become more popular lately because it’s one of the shooting locations for “Game of Thrones,” it’s still not that touristy. My fave teacher at the language school recommended it because of its historical center, one of Spain’s best-preserved medieval towns. Like Venice or Bruges, you feel like you’ve traveled back in time walking around the narrow cobblestone streets of Cáceres. There’s also remarkably good eats all over town, some pricey spots but also surprisingly good inexpensive fare. My secondary motivation for visiting was to find the grave of my tatarabuelo (great-great-grandfather). He went to the Philippines and lived most of his adult life there but returned to Spain near the end because he wanted to be buried here. I found out only after arriving in Cáceres that he wasn’t from the city but a small town in the province 25km away. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go because there’s no bus service on weekends and a taxi would have been 100€+. I liked Cáceres so much that I plan to return in the fall. I’ll reserve a rental car to get out to Torremocha, but whether or not I find tatarabuelo’s grave, Cáceres is worth a return trip.

While just 1/4 of the way through, I’m sure this will end up as “least surprising news of the 21st century,” or at least top 5. While I couldn’t care less about the details of their relationship, I am a bit curious as to just how much PYT ends up with. If it is as little as the TMZ article indicates is likely, oh my, he really isn’t the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.

No, not a news show, but they do pretend to be a political analisis show, which is laughable given the abject ignorance of some members of the panel. For example, Whoopi Goldberg once proposed that Dr. Jill Biden should become US Surgeon General.

Crap! why don’t I ever get invited to parties like that??

For most of her career, Joan Rivers was obnoxious but funny as hell. Unfortunately, in her later years, she was sometimes just obnoxious and not really funny. That said, I look at her whole career and think of all the times I was doubled over with laughter, plus I’ll always be grateful for her publicly embracing the gays decades before it was fashionable to do so. As for her old apartment, I actually liked her over-the-top Marie Antoinette decor. Not for me, at all, but if you’re going for that style, go whole hog, no apologies or half-assing it. The new decor is like a wimpy, watered-down Marie Antoinette that leaves me totally “meh.”

I also add toppings to frozen pizza because: 1) there are no decent pizza places near me (Las Vegas has a depressing dearth of good pizza), and 2) because takeout pizza is really pricey. I get a cheapo frozen pizza (Jack’s) and throw on mozzarella (you have to shred it yourself because the pre-shredded stuff doesn’t melt as well), pepperoni, and chopped baby bellos, sometimes gruyere or bits of brie if I’m feeling gourmetish. Even if I go a bit posh with the added toppings, it’s super-economical, quick, easy, and quite yummy. But I try to limit how often I do it because it has a truckload of calories and because I’m trying to cut ultra-processed food from my diet. But dang, it’s so damn tempting!

When I typed “sauna gran vía” into Google Maps, it shows up as “Permanently closed.” Are we talking about the sauna at Calle del Barco, 6?

I’m hearing conflicting reports, some saying that Pope Leo will be almost as progressive as Francis, others that the traditionalists, although a minority, have far more sway with the new Pope than they ever had with the previous one. Just as we had to wait & see who would be elected, I think the same holds true for Pope Leo’s political leanings. Once again, we’ll know when we know.

Wow, that was quick! I heard that the selection process was expected to be brief, but this fast?? I was rooting for Filipino Cardinal Tagle for obvious reasons. Oh well, given that I haven’t attended mass regularly for ~20 years, I can’t say I had much invested in Francis’s successor. It’s just that it would have meant the world to the 90 million Catholics of my birth country.

Hmm, I’m always suspicious of politicians in every aspect but especially when they claim that the taxpayer money given to billionaire team owners will be “recouped by the economic activity the team generates.” Study after study proves that’s simply not true (oh shock!). But politicians fear that they’ll be committing career suicide if a beloved team leaves when their demands aren’t met. So they come up with some “report” showing that the government will get its money back by means of future tax revenue, never mind that the report would make any self-respecting accountant spray his coffee across the room.

The Chicago PD spent more than 3,000 hours investigating Smollett’s false police report, time they could and should have devoted to investigating real crimes, of which Chicago has plenty. Chicago taxpayers had every right to be angry. I can only imagine the hurt & frustration of families of victims whose cases gathered dust while CPD wasted valuable time & resources on Smollett. Hate crime hoaxes abound, and every bullsh*t claim, especially one as high-profile as Smollett’s, casts doubt on all future reports. Blacks & gays were right to be furious at Smollett. The comparison to Luigi Mangione is problematic for many reasons. For one, while no civilized person (I hope!) condones murder as the solution to a problem, Mangione tapped into a deep-seated and long-festering rage about the greed of health insurance corporations and the dysfunction of our health care system. Please remember that for every Luigi supporter/groupie (yes, his physical beauty factors in), there is at least one detractor if not many who unconditionally condemns what he did — they just tend to be a lot more quiet about it (imo).

I can only imagine the Krakatoa of outrage if Luigi were to get the death penalty. If you think his fans are over the top now, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

Hmm, I’ve read different, that even though Pope Francis chose the majority of voting cardinals, they are not necessarily as progressive as he was. But hey, I can’t vouch for my source, just some guy who follows the Vatican with great interest. In any case, we won’t know until we know. The voting cardinals are obliged to secrecy about the voting process, and any cardinal caught leaking is automatically excommunicated. As for the rule that only cardinals less than 80yo can vote, the rule is simply practical. Since a number of cardinals have to travel quite a distance to Rome, the rule was established and re-approved several times to spare very elderly cardinals the hardship.