actor61

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxayhMn6YAU

Yes, but - they MEANT at the end of the day. If was a song about their work ending at the end of the day. So, I give them a pass. Gotcha! Another phrase that should be buried - "give them a pass".

Like.

Phrases I just never want to hear again:

At the end of the day

In terms of

How did this impact you?

and finally,

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families and friends.

I cannot wait!

Why remake it? The original was superb, and we all know whodunnit.

I finally listened to the new cast recording.

 

Gavin Creel sounds wonderful as Cornelius. Despite some questions of contemporary styling, Kate Baldwin makes for a nice Irene.

 

Midler, frankly, is very disappointing. She sings everything basically fine (some odd rhythmic choices notwithstanding), but it's generally very workmanlike, nothing more. Glimmers of joy here and there, but generally she's just "hitting her marks." Not a star turn whatsoever. But really, most of the album feels that way to me - the sound of the recording in general feels like no one (including the orchestra, who play the notes just fine, but...) was particularly excited to be in the recording studio. And when the ensemble comes in with those wonderful harmonies in "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" (one of my favorite parts of the score), it sounds like they all must have better things to do. (I was thinking they sound a bit like the Ray Conniff Singers might have sounded at 6am, lol. Smooth and precisely drilled, but dramatically uninvolved.)

 

Give me the irresistible energy - the "full of shine and full of sparkle" - of the original Channing recording any day.

 

This one - it's a little lumpy, but it doesn't ring.

 

(And by the way, why does Midler meddle with some cheap channelling of Channing in "march, march march" in the Motherhood number?)

I had the great good fortune to be directed by the late, great Charles Nelson Reilly in the 1980s, and the even greater good fortune to count him as a friend. He told us (the cast of the show he was directing) many wonderful stories of the original Hello Dolly and how surprised he, Channing and Eileen Brennan were when they were cast in the leading roles, as they were considered such "quirky" performers. But that was the ultimate charm of the show as originally staged. Charles and Brennan were not your "normal" ingenues, and Channing was eccentric in her performance style to say the least, but their idiosyncracies, personalities, professionalism and talent made what is a rather ordinary musical into something very special. But the ultimate success and enduring popularity of Hello Dolly lies in Gower Champion's ingenious direction and choreography. Even fully "reconceived" productions of the show cannot escape his legacy.

It is also a shame when they wont even move the bags for elderly people. I had to applaud an Elderly woman who could barely walk, she just shoved the bags onto the girls lap, and sat down.

Oh how I wish I had the nerve to do that!!

Ah yes, The Children's Hour". Fabulous.

Yossi and Jagger is one of the most moving films I've seen in a long, long time. It stayed with me for a long time, just like Moonlight did.

I ride the Chicago "L" every day and witness non sexual man and woman spreading on every trip. Women tend to sit in one seat, put their purse on the one next to them and if they have a shopping bag and a third seat is free, then they deposit it there. Then, they pull out their cell phones and plug in their headsets so that they can ignore any comments or looks they might receive. And it's usually younger woman who do this. I have been on trains so crowded that you can barely move and still they won't relinquish the 2 seats occupied by their bags.

Man spreading is usually a sprawl. The guy slumps down in his seat, spreads his legs, then drapes his arm(s) over adjoining seats. If he has a backpack, that gets deposited on the empty seat next to him but for the most part, it's the full body sprawl that prevents you from taking the seat next to him.

I like the signs posted on the trains that say, "Did your purse buy a ticket?" that everybody ignores.

It is always hard to decide what is a "gay movie." Putting that aside and hoping not to repeat and in no particular order, I have really liked:

 

1. Beautiful Thing

2. The Opposite of Sex

3. Happy Endings

4. The Day Trippers

5. My Beautiful Laundrette

6. Beginners

7. Bound

8. Gods and Monsters

9. Prick Up Your Ears

 

I have to admit that Angels in America is my favorite in general.

My Beautiful Laundrette is wonderful. It was the first gay film I ever saw in which the gay people were not stereotypes or objects of derision and that made me cry in the dark. When Daniel Day Lewis pushed the Indian guy (can't remember his name - sorry) up against the wall and started making out with him, I almost fainted. What a moment.

No one has mentioned In and Out. It's a horrible movie with some truly funny bits. Matt Dillon and Joan Cusack are wonderfully funny, and Debbie Reynolds is a precious hoot. Kline and Selleck are fine, I guess, but I just didn't buy either one of them.

The Boathouse Scene. Sigh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p0wzNZTa6g

Maurice based on the novel by E.M. Forster. Great movie.

The last scene of Maurice when he and Rupert Graves finally find each other in the boathouse is one of the most erotic and romantic gay scenes ever filmed and has become my happy place! I go there whenever I think romance has died.

Mission: Impossible Peter Lupus.

 

The nude, full frontal shot of Peter Lupus in Playgirl was a life changer for me. Stuff happened in my head and my pants that had never happened before! I think it was the moment I realized that I was irrevocably, 100% gay and that my "type" was definitely what Peter Lupus had going on in that photo!

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LJGolcNF97g/UziZblS-jxI/AAAAAAAC79M/1ap7bUK4ezQ/s1600/BestOfPG-1974-71-PeterLupus+-+Copy.jpg

Toss up between Jim Palmer in the Jockey ads or Sam Elliot

When I was a kid, the old Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movies were shown on t.v. every Saturday night. He was the most perfect man I'd ever seen until Johnny Sheffield as Boy grew up and got his own series of films. Holy shit! That boy had it all - deep voice, amazing body, and the most beautiful thighs I've ever seen on a man.

W

I love that the cast members of "Applause" wore "I survived the Bitch of Broadway" t-shirts.

We actually had a party when she left!! Not a nice lady.

Pacific Overtures is a special memory for me. I was sitting accross the aisle from Sondheim and Lauren Bacall when his hat fell behind him. I got up to return it to him and was given the ugliest "How dare you disturb me?" look from Bacall before she realized that I was only picking up his hat. Couldn't stand her ever after!

Oh the stories I could tell about Betty Bacall!!!!!!

Wow! That was the first "big theatre" production I experienced--at the age of 13. It was truly unforgettable & the highlight of our family's visit to merry old London. Hey, was Elaine Paige in the cast??? We still have the programme in my parent's travel albums---years ago, I remember looking through the cast names and Elaine Paige was listed as one of the angels.

Yes. She was. There were quite a few up and comers in that company who later became stalwarts of British musical theatre, Paul Nicholas being one of them. Jeremy Irons and David Essex were doing Godspell around that time too, both of them unknown but not for long.

Hello Gents,

I'd like to add my theatre recollections to this great thread. Since 1973, I've seen the following (at least the ones I can remember):

 

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR - Palace Theatre, London

THE SEAGULL w/Nina Foch at Seattle Repertory

THE MOUSETRAP - London

EQUUS - Broadway w/Leonard Nimoy

EVITA w/Marti Webb (Elaine Page's successor)

TWELFTH NIGHT - RSC

MY FAIR LADY revival w/ Liz Robertson and Anna Neagle (as Mrs. Higgins)

BEFORE THE PARTY w/Michael Gough

DOCTOR FAUSTUS w/ Patrick Magee

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE - Broadway w/ Kevin Kline, Rex Smith, Linda Ronstadt

COLETTE w/ Diana Rigg (which premiered in Seattle, but died a quick death thereafter)

ALW's SONG & DANCE w/ Lulu - Palace Theatre

AREN'T WE ALL? w/Rex Harrison and Claudette Colbert - Curran Theater, San Francisco

BRONTE w/Julie Harris -- a terrific performance directed by Charles Nelson Reilly (!)

NOISES OFF w/Dorothy Loudon - Curran, San Francisco

DRIVING MISS DAISY w/Brock Peters and another memorable performance by Julie Harris

I'M NOT RAPPAPORT w/ Judd Hirsch - SF

STEEL MAGNOLIAS w/Rosemary Harris - West End

METROPOLIS - Piccadilly Theater

ASPECTS OF LOVE - Prince of Wales, London

THREE TALL WOMEN w/Maggie Smith, London

DESIGN FOR LIVING w/a very young Rachel Weiss & uber-hot Rupert Graves - Gielgud Theater

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE w/Glenn Close and Ian Glen - National Theater

BREATH OF LIFE w/Dame Maggie and Dame Judi, West End

SHOW BOAT w/Tom Bosley (as Capt'n Andy)

HELLO, DOLLY w/ Carol what's-her-name

ANGELS IN AMERICA - San Francisco

THE BLACK RIDER w/Marianne Faithfull - SF

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE - w/Nancy Opel - Touring production, SF

WICKED w/Kristin and Idina during its premiere at the Orpheum, SF

A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER - Orpheum, SF

KING CHARLES III - American Conservatory, SF

MATILDA - Cambridge Theater

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY - Drury Lane -- Sam Mendes directed this knock-out show with incredible sets; a highlight of my recent visit to London!

 

Also, the standard touring productions of PHANTOM, LES MIZ, CATS, STARLIGHT, 42nd STREET, SPAMALOT.

 

One of my favorite plays of all: SHOCKHEADED PETER -- droll, macabre tales of Heinrich Hoffmann set to music by the Tiger Lillies. Hideously funny!

Iwas in JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at the Palace in London. So glad it's on your list! Magical professional experience.

I love this thread! I moved to Los Angeles from London in 1977 and saw some of the productions quoted above. I had seen The Beaux Stratagem at the Old Vic in London but thought the L.A. production was somehow better; maybe because Maggie Smith by then was world famous and people were so happy to see her being so funny, and she seemed very relaxed. The Crucible with Heston was horrendous. I also saw him do A Man for All Seasons and Long Day's Journey Into Night. I just always thought he was terrible in everything he did. Streetcar with Dunaway and Voight was very odd. She was so over-the-top that I lost interest, and he was far too cerebral. You mentioned seeing musicals in their pre-Broadway tryouts and I saw a lot of those too. They're Playing Our Song was at the Ahmanson prior to moving to New York and it was delightful with Lucie Arnaz and Robert Klein. Evita at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was thrilling and everybody knew it was going to be a huge hit. Raul Esparza and Brooke Shields did a musical version of a Steve Martin film about a huckster preacher that was so horrible I can't remember the name. They replaced her and took the show to New York but it still flopped - deservedly. I also saw the pre Broadway tryout of Nine to Five at the Ahmanson with Alison Janney in the Jane Fonda role. The night I was there, Dolly Parton was in the audience taking notes. I mentioned seeing the musical version of Gone With the Wind in London and there was a production of it at the Dorothy Chandler with Leslie Ann Warren as Scarlett that closed in L.A. It was as dreadful as the London production had been. I liked Night of the Iguana quite a bit and think Chamberlain can be quite splendid in the right roles. I have also seen him in Cyrano, The Sound of Music, and he was excellent as the malevolent father in a production of The Heiress at the Pasadena Playhouse a few years ago. The Geffen Theatre used to be called the Westwood Playhouse and they did some very interesting things. I worked there when it was still the Westwood and it was a jewel box of a theatre. I saw David Hyde Pierce and Uta Hagen in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks there (did I get that right?). Lousy play but they were magnificent together. Streamers had Richard Thomas, Bruce Davison, Pat Hingle and Ralph Meeker and was chilling and powerful. Annette Benning did Hedda Gabler there and was lovely but badly directed. One of the best performances I have ever seen on a stage was given by Laurie Metcalfe as the mother in All My Sons at the Geffen with Len Cariou and Neil Patrick Harris. Speaking of Richard Chamberlain, he and Brooke Shields did a stage version of The Exorcist at the Geffen that was pretty awful. While the Westwood was undergoing its transformation into the Geffen Playhouse, they used a theatre near the Veterans Hospital and that's where I saw a superb production of Take Me Out with Jeremy Sisto.

The Pasadena Playhouse can be interesting but it's hit or miss. They tend do do "star casting" and some of the stars just shouldn't have been offered contracts. Chamberlain was good in the aforementioned production of The Heiress but the soap opera star, Heather Toms, who played Catherine was really bad. They did a terrible production of The Glass Menagerie with Susan Sullivan as Amanda. The apartment looked like it had been done by Design on a Dime - all shabby chic - and Sullivan didn't have a hair out of place. They did a revival of Camelot as a sort of chamber production; no ensemble, and 3 major characters - King Pellinore, Merlin and Morgan Le Fey - were cut. Guinevere and Lancelot had a nude scene at the end of Act One. I'm still shuddering. I quite liked 110 In the Shade there with Marin Mazzie. She was far too pretty for the role but she sang the hell out of it. There was a superb performance by the man who played her oldest brother, and the rain at the end of the show was very moving in an odd way.

Los Angeles is a bit of a theatrical wasteland. Apart from the major Equity houses, which don't hire many local actors, there is the dreaded Equity waiver scene, which is undergoing a major overhaul of its policies by the union at the moment. A lot of the theatres are hole-in-the-wall venues that seat under 100 (which means salaries and union conditions are waived) and a lot of them are dues paying companies. I made the mistake of joining one of them out of a desire to do anything in between Equity paying gigs and paid $85 a month for the privilege of maybe being cast in something. That being said, I have seen some really wonderful stuff in Equity waiver houses but usually they were wonderful because of the acting and not any production values. For example, I saw a production of Shakespeare's Henry IV at the Banshee that was done on a tiny stage without sets and was stunning and the Colony in Burbank (before it went Equity) did some very good stuff too but the majority of the non-Union, actor subsidized productions was crap.

I would love to read whatever you can recall of TAKE ME ALONG. Jackie Gleason got a Tony for it and I've heard the score but have never seen a production. Also, was Elizabeth Ashley as special as everyone claims when she became a star in TAKE HER SHE'S MINE?

My young niece who is in drama school is coming for a visit, and so I'm getting out old programs and playbills to share with her as one of her subjects is Theatre History and she wants to do some research. I'm 64 and trained for the theatre in London from 1970 to 1972, then embarked on a long and really fascinating career all over the world. The theatre in London was cheap in those days and on nights when I didn't have rehearsals at school, I bolted for the West End to see anything and everything. You could sit in the second balcony (Upper Circle) for 50 pence and with a good pair of opera glasses or binoculars, you didn't miss a thing. The National Theatre was still at the Old Vic as their new facility on the South Bank hadn't yet opened, and the Young Vic was at a smaller theatre also in Waterloo, as I remember. The Royal Shakespare Company played fall and winter seasons at the Aldwych, and they also did performances at a converted train station called the Roundhouse. A lot of the National's and RSC's productions transferred to the West End, so I saw various things by them at the New and Wyndham's. Here's a list of some of the remarkable things I saw.

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT at the New Theatre with Laurence Olivier, Constance Cumming, Ronald Pickup and Dennis Quilly. Unforgettable

THE BEAUX STRATAGEM at the Old Vic with Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens.

TWELFTH NIGHT at the Aldwych with Judi Dench, Donald Sinden and Michael Williams

Peter Brook's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at the Aldwych with, among others, Ben Kingsley

ROMEO & JULIET at the Young Vic

TAMING OF THE SHREW at the Young Vic with Jim Dale

THE MAIDS at the Young Vic with an all male cast including Nicki Henson

JUMPERS at the Old Vic with Michael Hordern and Diana Rigg

COMPANY at Her Majesty's with the B'way cast, including Larry Kert and Elaine Stritch

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at Her Majesty's with Alfie Bass and then Lex Gouldsmit

VIVAT, VIVAT REGINA with Eileen Atkins and Sarah Miles

CHARLEY'S AUNT with Tom Courtenay

SHOWBOAT with Cleo Laine as Julie

WHEN THOU ART KING - Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V in one evening at the Roundhouse with Michael Williams

PETER PAN with Dorothy Tutin at the Coliseum

TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, Bejart ballet with Jorge Donn and Suzanne Farrell at Sadlers Wells

A BEQUEST TO THE NATION at the Haymarket with Zoe Caldwell

A VOYAGE AROUND MY FATHER at the Haymarket with Alec Guiness and then Michael Redgrave

MAN IS MAN at the Royal Court with Georgia Brown

PROMISES, PROMISES at the Prince of Wales with Tony Roberts and Betty Buckley

HOME with Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud

LLOYD GEORGE KNEW MY FATHER at the Savoy with Ralph Richardson and Peggy Ashcroft

CHILD'S PLAY at the Globe (now the Gielgud, I think)

HEDDA GABLER with Maggie Smith directed by Ingmar Bergman at the Old Vic

BUTLEY with Richard Briers

HAIR at the Shafstbury

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at the Palace

ABELARD AND HELOISE with Keith Michell and Diana Rigg at the New

GONE WITH THE WIND, the Musical (I'm not kidding!) at the Drury Lane with Harve Presnell as Rhett, June Ritchie as Scarlett and Bessie Love as Aunt Pittypat

I'd love to hear from others on their theatregoing experiences, especially Broadway, as I spent so much of my career in Europe and didn't see a lot of the very famous B'way shows unless they transferred overseas.

As a former trained chef, I am admittedly critical when it comes to the cooking shows. I detest the false competitions and drama which is demeaning and designed to drive ratings. I won't say there is plenty of drama that happens in a restaurant kitchen, but that isn't what is being presented. I actually like, or in some ways used to like, Ina Garten and Tyler Florence's shows. I admire that they would be about the food, where it came from, differentiated what made them good, and were somewhat relatable, though I am not a millionaire with a beautiful house in the Hamptons or Mill Valley. I appreciated that they made good food, shared some solid recipes, and they were easy to watch. You can't quite find that today at all on the network.

 

As for HGTV, I really miss shows about gardening which seem to be a thing of the past, and there is far too much focus now on flipping a house and very little on actual design and what goes into it. I was a big fan of those that actually showed someone making something like Design on a Dime or those that walked you through a process where Candice Olsen was a favorite. I like the eye candy of the guys just as much, but they rarely break a sweat, never take their shirts off, and are careful to keep their assess covered. Where's the fun in that?

As I wrote earlier, I was also a big fan of Ina's but she just got way too precious for me. Her lifestyle is so out of reach for most of us watching the show that it became somewhat surreal. As for Tyler Florence - yikes! So annoying. He talks way too fast, and looks like he has sipped too much coffee while getting his mis en place in order. But Ann Burrell wins the trophy for most annoying. When she tastes something and then puts on that growly voice to say how good it is, I grab the remote.

I adored the Two Fat Ladies. I went to college in London in the 1970s and their recipes and way of doing things just brought back so many wonderful memories when I watched them. I'm a sucker for any stewed fruit dessert with custard on top, and they did a lot of those. I love steak and kidney pies, mashed potatoes with leeks, Bubble and Squeak, fish pies, Yorkshire pudding, and pastry made with lard. I can't eat any of it anymore but it still makes my mouth water when I see old episodes of the Two Fat Ladies, and there's one of them crumbling fat into flour or the other separating eggs through her fingers for a vanilla custard.

I'm a fan of Nigella Lawson too. She's a bit of a buxom glamour puss but she's all about the food and really knows her stuff. But most of the American "chefs" on the food shows are about personalities and not recipes. I've never understood Guy Fiere's popularity. The Deen brothers are competent but nothing extraordinary. One of them had a show based in New York where he made healthy versions of his mother's drek but it was still drek, just with less calories. "Chopped", "Iron Chef", and the rest of the competition shows leave me cold. Bobby Flay reminds me of Howdy Doody, and Giada (with whom he is purportedly having an affair) also looks like a puppet - Bride of Chuckie. I have to say that some of her stuff is pretty good but her presentation is smug and irritating.

But I'm a fussy curmudgeon and horribly hard to please, so nobody should go by my opinions!

Sadly gone but not forgotten...THE TWO FAT LADIES RULE!

Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson were great.

 

The Great british Baking Show has moved networks in the UK and will no longer be broadcast on the BBC. The host(essex) Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc have exited the show. news reports say they quit. no world on wether this is contract related or not. they may have exclusive contracts with the BBC. No word on Paul or Mary remaining as judges.

 

MSN reports:

 

It's a sad day in the Great British Baking Show tent. Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc, two of the popular baking competition's hosts, announced their departure in light of the show's move from its home on the BBC to Channel 4 for its next season in 2017.

 

After a bidding war -- in which the BBC was said to offer £15 million (nearly $20 million) per year to keep the show on its commercial-free network -- the broadcasting corporation ultimately lost out to Channel 4, when the production company behind the show, Love Productions, rejected any offers below £25 million annually, the BBC reported. With the news of the move, the hosts announced on Monday they had opted to not renew their contracts for GBBS, which is known as the Great British Bake Off in the U.K. And with the help of a pun or two, they explained in a joint statement why they won't follow the show to Channel 4.

 

"We've had the most amazing time on Bake Off, and have loved seeing it rise and rise like a pair of yeasted Latvian baps," said Perkins and Giedroyc in a statement published by the BBC. "We're not going with the dough. We wish all the future bakers every success."

As always, something good gets commercialized and becomes something bad. I'm dreading what Chanel 4 will do with it.

@actor61 , although I empathize with your being irate and with most of the feelings in your post, I cannot bring myself to like it. I just can't do so when your word choices are filled with such venom. It is shameful to see a gifted writer like yourself (who can storytell like no other) shame back a woman who has made an error in judgment. Im not cutting her a break, what she did is shameful, but your word choices just leave me baffled and steal away the power of your post. I know (think?) you are better than this.

You're absolutely right. I got carried away and became way too vitriolic. My sentiments haven't changed but my choice of words is very poor. Thanks for pointing it out. I'm usually much classier than that! But she just had me hopping mad!!!

There are all kinds of ways in which older people subtly apologize for being old: feeling ashamed of their appearance without clothes, spending thousands of dollars getting cosmetic procedures, dying their hair, feeling out of place around younger people, etc., etc. In other words, they agree with the world at large that being old is something negative that needs to be covered up, concealed, excused.

 

Some people, though, are able to age without feeling like it is something they have to apologize for. I saw a great documentary the other day on Netflix, titled "Iris," about a 90+-year-old fashion icon named Iris Apfel. Everyone should watch it. Iris is 91 or 92 and still having the time of her life.

 

I enjoy hanging out with adults of any age - young college students to the old old. I'm sure there are people who harbor negative thoughts about me because I am well into my seventh decade, but as they say, "What you think of me is none of my business."

 

Believe me, if anyone knew how great this stage of life is, they would be lining up for it.

Here! Here! I'm mad at myself for allowing the negative comments about my age affect me so. You're absolutely right that we shouldn't apologize for being old and I'm going to embroider that on a pillow! Thank you for the wise words.

A former Playboy Playmate could possibly face jail time for posting a picture of an older naked woman in a gym locker room on Snapchat with a caption to the effect, "I can't unsee this!". Per the news, she has been banned from all L.A. Fitness gyms and charges against her are being considered.

This is all so sad. When are we, both gay and straight people, going to stop entitling the very young and super attractive? Ryan Lochte perpetrates a criminal hoax in Rio but is now a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. It's a dubious honor, of course, but he's getting a pass for a shameful act. This bleached blond, silicone breasted bimbo at the gym takes a secret shot of an older lady changing in the locker room and then sends it out as though it were shameful to be old and at the gym, and she's going to get a huge chunk of free publicity even though it's pretty much negative. She thinks being old is shameful. I kind of think hanging your twat out for all to see in the pages of a men's magazine, as she has done, is kind of shameful too, but that's just me.

I'm a 64 year old professional dancer, still working. In fact, I open in a major revival of a musical tomorrow night. I take 4 to 5 classes a week. I'm 5'10", 155 pounds and in excellent shape. But I'm still 64 years old. My hair is very gray, I have lines around my mouth, a couple of bags under the eyes, and age spots on my arms and legs. For about the last 10 years, I've stopped taking showers or changing clothes in public locker or dressing rooms because I've seen the looks from the younger dancers, and heard the remarks, most of them along the lines of "People should know when to retire." Or "They should have classes just for the old guys." What I want to say to them is "Are you in a show at the moment? I am." or "Have you danced on Broadway? I've done 6 musicals in new York." or "Got your union card? I've had mine since 1959." But that's pompous, arrogant and mean and I don't want to go there, as tempting as it is!

What I would like to say to them and to the bitch who shuddered at the sight of an older woman at the gym is this: You'll be that age someday and no facelift, boob job, botox injection or hair dye will stop the process of time. And it feels like it happens in an instant. One day you're 34, and the next day you're 64. It happens, God willing, to everybody and you should be very grateful that you get the chance to age. And when you do, I hope you can drag your droopy ass and pendulous tits to the gym the way that lady you victimized did.

I have an 82 year old friend who hasn't been to a pool or a beach in 20 years because he's ashamed of his aging body. That's what cunts like the Playmate this morning do to people by being so callous about a normal process - they make people feel that they no longer have any right to exist after 40. That somehow a body that is no longer young but that has done its duty - given life, given love, worked, played, been sexual - is now past its sell by date and doesn't have the right to be seen in public. I am irate about this incident. This young woman's face is all over t.v. and the internet at the moment and I want to smack her into Tuesday, as my ancient father used to say. We HAVE to stop this ageism. We were all young once and we'll all be old someday and there is NO SHAME in any of it. I hope that old lady goes to the gym every day, just as I go to dance class, and I hope she continues to change in the locker room. I might even give up my misplaced shame now and start doing the same. I have a fantasy of standing naked in the changing room and saying to the young guys who think I should be invisible, 'Here's your future, fellas. Enjoy."