leeper

FYI - "Bros" started streaming today on Peacock.  I haven't watched it yet, but intend to.

FYI - "Bros" started streaming today on Peacock.  I haven't watched it yet, but intend to.

I always wear the classic two-piece pajamas, I have many pairs, with short bottoms for summer.  I tried sleeping naked and it was not for me.  They are easy to buy online.

So sad to hear this - I only knew him from the few PS gatherings I was able to attend, but I chatted with him each time.  I will miss seeing his Dying Gaul avatar as I was always interested in what he had to say even if the comment was "curmudgeonly".  He was full of information and certainly had an eye for pointing out new talent.

Loved F. Murray Abraham's response to his entitled, smartass Zillenial Grandson: “It’s not like it was ever so beautiful to look at anyway.  It's a penis, not a sunset."  !!

As promised (threatened?) I will give a rundown on the festivities as the first of my sons was married two weeks ago, with another engaged and the third playing the field. 
For those who hadn't been around, I am a widower with three boys who came late to acknowledging any male/male attraction, and I struggled with coming out later in life than some do. My oldest now works on Capitol Hill, and my younger two are twins, one of whom is in the Navy and the other of whom lives in Chicago after getting his degree from DePaul-- thus their nicknames in this chronicle.
Navy Twin and his fiancee had been together since high school, and they survived his years at the Naval Academy and long separation to reach this point. It was a beautiful, simple wedding, they are both no-nonsense people with little patience for anything too fancy. That mean it was not too expensive, which was nice since I was hosting the rehearsal dinner. They got married in the Chapel at the Academy, and we had the dinner the evening before at the Officers' Club, where my dad is a member. My parents and siblings were there, and my late wife's family likewise. Some of you may remember that my brother-in-law, who came out as gay when he was young, was the first person I confided in. He had eased the way with his side of the family, and they've been nothing but supportive, perhaps because the boys have been. Similarly my son's fiancee's family-- a couple of them didn't say much but I didn't really know them, so that may have been all it was. As I said in an earlier post, I don't think my daughter-in-law to be would have put up with any attitude about it. The evening was pretty relaxed overall.
Naturally everyone was very conscious of who was missing-- the boys' mom. We all talked about her and told the bride's family stories, and if I wasn't already puzzling them, that must have done it, since so much of the talk was about what a wonderful marriage we had, which is true.
I stayed up late back at the hotel talking to the boys about nothing in particular, but we did bring up the last time we all stayed in an Annapolis hotel, when we dropped Navy Twin off for plebe summer. You may remember the last thing he murmured to me before marching in to start the summer, "Be happy." Everyone here, me included, wondered if that meant he had suspected what was going on with me. But after I came out to them, I asked him if he remembered saying that, and he said he did. I asked him why, and blunt as ever, he said, "Because I didn't think you were very happy then."  Smart kid. That was the trip where DePaul Twin, his brother, quietly cried all the way back to DC.
More to come, the wedding, and everybody meets my "friend."

So sad to hear this - I only knew him from the few PS gatherings I was able to attend, but I chatted with him each time.  I will miss seeing his Dying Gaul avatar as I was always interested in what he had to say even if the comment was "curmudgeonly".  He was full of information and certainly had an eye for pointing out new talent.

So sad to hear this - I only knew him from the few PS gatherings I was able to attend, but I chatted with him each time.  I will miss seeing his Dying Gaul avatar as I was always interested in what he had to say even if the comment was "curmudgeonly".  He was full of information and certainly had an eye for pointing out new talent.

So sad to hear this - I only knew him from the few PS gatherings I was able to attend, but I chatted with him each time.  I will miss seeing his Dying Gaul avatar as I was always interested in what he had to say even if the comment was "curmudgeonly".  He was full of information and certainly had an eye for pointing out new talent.

I'm stunned, grieved and in the same place with you, Oliver. Through this forum, Epigonos became one of my best friends ever in this life. Not just the PS events. He regularly invited me to stay at his home; shared countless meals, took vacations together. We were planning another 10 day trip in the spring. We were always calling each other talking about life inside and outside of the hobby. I can hear his laugh right now, along with peppering me with a bazillion questions about everything. But what I especially loved about our phone calls is, when the call was over, it was over, time to hang up and move along with the day. I could always count on him to get to the point!
Despite the gruff, funny persona PS attendees got to know, Epigonos was a loving and generous man. I experienced it and saw it in so many private interactions, involving his family, friends, and neighbors. Epigonos was completely satisfied with his life, and I assure you he had no regrets about his major life decisions. He lived, and he died in full satisfaction with who he was, who he loved, and how he lived. To him, I say, "well done, my friend"!
I will miss him for the rest of my life, and hope that my life decisions will leave me just as satisfied when my departure date arrives. I will have a good cry today, and will raise a glass and toast him tomorrow. He would have it no other way.

I only knew him through the Palm Springs gatherings and by his posts here.  When I was in his company, he was gracious, welcoming and he generated a real sense of personal warmth.  He spoke in a way that assured me that he had enjoyed his life in his younger years working in education and in retirement, living the life of a man of leisure and embracing each minute.   
I find myself moved beyond that which I would expect under these circumstances and I think that reflects his ability to make a large impact even in short encounters.  
I know he will be missed and remembered.  
Oliver, stay strong.  I believe he would only want you to celebrate his life and not grieve his passing.   
 

It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that my very dear friend, Epigonos, is no longer with us.  I was informed this evening by a close friend that it occured apparently last night in his sleep.  Ironically yesterday was his birthday.
Please help me through this.  Thank you.

Thanks for all these tributes which add so much dimension and heart to my already vivid memories of @Epigonos -- his presence, his banter, his gruffness, his generosity, his deviled eggs -- at a PS gathering some years back... 

Warm thoughts to all who are feeling this loss today.

 

good points and I entirely agree with all you say........thanks for the mention of scenes I didn't include in my post......

I watched it as well last evening - it's long, nearly three hours.  I didn't know a lot about Marilyn Monroe, so I wasn't entirely sure what was fact and what was fiction.  I also found some of what I will term the "artsy-fartsy" visual effects annoying, in particular, the threesome scene  in which it seemed like viewer was sent on acid trip and totally obscured what should have been beautiful bodies in various forms of coupling.    I too had a hard time understanding the NC-17 rating since the potential scenes that might merit it were more like flashes where if you blinked, you'd miss it.  I also thought the floating fetus pregnancy/abortion scenes were overdone.  That said, I appreciated Ana de Armas' commitment to her performance and didn't regret watching the movie.

One night of passion with the heir to the Iron Throne and apparently many years of angst, guilt and celibacy after. They need this character to get freaky and this actor to go full frontal with an impressive Member of the King's Guard  if this show is to be saved.

RTVE (Spain's public TV network) just recently added Spanish captioning to the original Merli.  If you can read Spanish half-decently (and have a VPN), it's definitely worth watching.  I've never been one for twinks, but both Pol and Bruno were so damn cute as youngsters.  Don't worry, it's OK to lust after them since the actors were both (barely) legal at the time of shooting.
Maria Pujalte starred in a very popular series, Los misterios de Laura, the first Spanish series that Hollywood picked up and re-made into a series for American TV (starring Debra Messing and Josh Lucas).  Note that her daughter in Sapere Aude is named Laura, in a nod to her old show.

I am about half-way through Season 2 of Merli Sapere Aude.  Really like this show and and find the philosophy classes actually quite thought provoking.  Having seen Maria Pujalte, as the lawyer in Toy Boy and now as the alcoholic teacher makes me want to see more from her.  And course, Carlos Cuevas alone makes it worth watching.  He is also in the show Leonardo which is currently being broadcast on the CW network.  I just wish we had access to an English-captioned version of the original Merli.

I just finished Season 2 of Industry - less explicit (especially for the men) than Season 1, more girl-on-girl action, but also a romance between two male characters.  It also had one of the best lines I've heard in a long time: "Sadly my looks have declined to the point that only women will sleep with me", spoken by the character Jesse Bloom. 

I just finished Season 2 of Industry - less explicit (especially for the men) than Season 1, more girl-on-girl action, but also a romance between two male characters.  It also had one of the best lines I've heard in a long time: "Sadly my looks have declined to the point that only women will sleep with me", spoken by the character Jesse Bloom. 

The problem with "dumping the lounge" is that it would mean if a topic did not fit perfectly into something already pre-created, it could not be posted.  The Lounge has generally been the "catch all" for conversation.  
New forums are added when over time the moderators see a large number of topics on a specific area.  The cooking forum and sports forum were examples of this.  There was enough interest in being able to peel these areas out.  
Simply having fewer posts in the Lounge is not a bad thing.  Instead, the question becomes is there less OVERALL total posting.  When excluding the Legacy Gallery, the number of posts per day is generally pretty consistent within about 5% when looking over the last year.  Based on that statistic, we're not losing a whole bunch of people posting because of too many forums.  
With that being said... if you don't like needing to look for content in different logically grouped locations, you can choose to combine all forums into one single display if you like.  
From the homepage...  simply choose the "Fluid" view next to the "Start new topic" button.  

That will change your view to combine posts from all forums (or whatever forums you select) into a single view like the following:

But no...  we're not going to be dumping the lounge or the political issues forum.  You're welcome to not use those forums if they don't make sense for you, but there are enough people here that it makes sense for them to remain.  

One of the beauties of the Forums is you only have to read things that you think might be interesting.  The rest you can ignore.

One of the beauties of the Forums is you only have to read things that you think might be interesting.  The rest you can ignore.

One of the beauties of the Forums is you only have to read things that you think might be interesting.  The rest you can ignore.

One of the beauties of the Forums is you only have to read things that you think might be interesting.  The rest you can ignore.