actor61

I stand corrected. Thanks.

Get a sense of humor along with your coffee.

If you use an apostrophe as in "monster's only" that means that you are looking for a monster's cock. If you want to use monsters as an adjective as in "monsters only", meaning you are looking for huge cocks, then lose the apostrophe. I'm an English teacher. Just sayin'. Otherwise, you might get a lot of Frankenstein monsters knocking at your door.

Where the food network went wrong is that it's not about food anymore. It's about contests and personalities. They've created so many star chefs with their own shows that it's gotten way out of hand. I'm pretty sick of all of them. I used to love Ina Garten but she became so precious as the years went on. "How bad can that be?" "Don't have any fun until I get back." "It's not a barbecue until the Fire Department arrives." Giada drives me fuckin nuts. I couldn't afford half the ingredients she recommends and when she gives a birthday party around her pool overlooking Los Angeles and tells me how to keep the gelato cold, I just want to choke her. Martha Stewart is also an entitled bitch (I watch her cooking and baking shows on Create) but her stuff is doable and the ingredients are reasonable. I made her blackberry buckle once for a dinner party and it was out of this world. There was a terrific article in the L.A. Times Food Section many years ago about Rachel Ray. The author wrote about how Ray's gimmick was that she would teach us how to make "healthful" meals in 30 minutes and then proceeded to concoct a carbonara that began with fried bacon to which she added butter, then her fuckin' EVOO, then heavy cream, then cooked pasta, then grated parmesan. The writer said he prepared the recipe exactly as she instructed and it took nearly 50 minutes not 30 (I can't remember why), and when he added up the calories, it nearly gave him cardiac arrest. So much for quick and healthful. In general, I think the British "cookery programs" are better than the American because they stick to cookery. Even Nigella Lawson in her excessive way kept to the basics and her stuff turns out well every time I make it. I have her recipe for lemon pasta and it's a perfect meal, and her recipes for angel food cake and cherry trifle can't be bettered. At Christmas, I do her ham and it is always a hit (gambon? I think that's the British term for it.) I kind of like Lidia what's-her-name too, and America's Test Kitchen can be useful. That's probably the show that comes closest to the English model; it's simply about the preparation of recipes and that's all I want.

I watched the second episode of the new season of The Great British Baking Show on Friday night and was once again completely hypnotized. Nothing much happens. The contestants bake 3 recipes, they're judged by Mary and Paul, somebody gets Star Baker, somebody goes home, and I'm totally addicted. Maybe it's that there are no ridiculous "celebrity chefs" running around giving orders, they don't pull sheep's ball out of a mystery basket from which they're supposed to make an appetizer, they don't tell nauseating anecdotes about their dog's death, or soppy stories about Granma making brownies - they just bake, wait for the results, and then it's on to the next challenge. Paul and Mary don't go on and on when they're tasting. They take a nibble and then say something like, "It has a good bake," "Nice color", "Good crunch" or "It's raw in the middle. I think it needed another 5 minutes" or "What a shame it didn't turn out better". There's no blathering from either one of them. They taste. They comment. They move on. The show's filmed in a tent. There's no mansion in the Hamptons, loft in Manhattan, or seaside villa in Italy. It's a fuckin' tent. I guess I've answered my own question. The show's good because it's about what it's about - baking. No frills, no fits, no fuss. I wish MY life were that simple.

"Waitress" - must see.

I used to love the fake names the Ballet Trocadero "ballerinas" gave themselves: Natasha Chickaboomskya. Olga Getcharoxoff. Sonya Whitetrachski.

We should swap stories. I did a regional production of "Funny Girl" with Kazan about 100 years ago. Diva does not even begin to describe her. I rarely use this word, but she's a cunt. I adore Pat Carroll. I saw her one woman show as Gertrude Stein and she was magnificent. I've also seen her in "Nunsense" and you're right, the show can be very funny in the right hands but the sequels are just terrible. About the only memory I have of Ghostley in the show was her delivery of the line "Now, sister" when one of the nuns was taking too long to tell a story. It brought the house down. Just 2 words in her inimitable way: "Now, sister."

Ah, the dreaded "Nunsense". I once saw a production of it with Alice Ghostley, Jane Connell, and Carol Burnett's daughter (can't remember her name). As you said, "excruciating"! But "Gotta Dance" is not excruciating, although it certainly had the potential to be so. It's actually quite good and none of the older ladies in the company once uses cutesiness as a performance tool. Had it been a show about cute old ladies, I'd have left at intermission. As for Andre de Shields, I admit that he's a very talented man but I have seen him in many interviews, and he's just too convinced of his own greatness. Even in his current program bio, he refers to himself as a "legend". But Stefanie Powers' bio is equally obnoxious. She states that her credits are too numerous to mention and refers the reader to her web site!!!! I also saw Georgia Engel in "The Drowsy Chaperone" and thought she was terrific. Her voice is her voice and you either like that whispery quality she has or you don't. She doesn't trade in on it in "Gotta Dance" and you never once get Georgette Does a Musical. Her performance is wonderfully conceived and she's a real person. Likewise, Stefanie Powers. She plays a rather bitter, lonely woman who isn't at all happy about getting older by herself and there isn't an ounce of a star turn or self indulgence in what she does. I think credit has to be given to Jerry Mitchell; he seems to have directed these people very, very capably and kept all of them from becoming easy stereotypes. As I said before, this is not a show that breaks any new ground but it's a lot of fun and being the same age as some of the dancers in the show, I related to it very easily and am not ashamed to say that I'm the target audience they're trying to hit and they did extremely effectively.

I saw the new Jerry Mitchell directed/choreographed musical "Gotta Dance" last night in Chicago where it is running until moving to New York. It's a very traditional, by-the-book Broadway musical but the songs are tuneful, the lyrics are moderately clever, the script is pretty funny, and it was superbly performed by a cast of really seasoned veteran pros such as Stefanie Powers, Georgia Engel, Andre de Shields (the only older male in the show) and Lenora Nemetz complemented by an ensemble of 20 something male and female dancers. Stefanie Powers states in the show that she is 73 and has had a really tight face lift that makes her almost unrecognizable (WHY do these women do that to themselves????). She gives a terrific performance, and surprised everyone with her voice. The bitch can belt! Georgia Engel is the lead and is wonderful. Lenora Nemetz is the youngest in the cast at just 60 and is by far the best dancer, having played Velma in "Chicago" for years in addition to other musicals. She has a show stopping dance with a 25 year old partner in the second act and tore up the stage. The opening number is a tribute/parody to "A Chorus Line", complete with mirrors and the young choreographer yelling, "Now, away from the mirror!" but the audience didn't seem to get the joke, which was a shame. I'm a 63 year old dancer, still taking classes, still auditioning for age appropriate roles (surprisingly, there are quite a few!), and was in ACL in the 1980s, so I loved the reference. "Gotta Dance" doesn't break any new ground as a musical other than it's about performers over 60, but that was fine with me. The show has some lovely, touching moments, as well as being pretty consistently funny. Georgia Engel, in particular, is delightful as an aging white kindergarten teacher who has a secret passion for rap music. There's a beautiful song done by an Asian lady whose husband has Alzheimer's but loves to see her dance, and you could hear a pin drop as she sang it alone in a spotlight. Andre de Shields does a number called "Prince of Swing" that is joyous and clever. I've never been a fan of his, having seen him in "Ain't Misbehavin'", "The Wize", etc. but he gives a very honest and witty performance in this show, especially in his small romantic scenes with Engel. The show is full of little messages about staying healthy, loving dance, and "age is just a number" that went right to my heart, as corny as the messages were. The entire cast is made up of former dancers and so the numbers are beautifully performed with no excuses given for the advanced ages of the performers. In the finale, each character comes out dancing in a t-shirt with her age blazoned on it in glitter letters. It brought tears to my eyes when I saw, 67, 73, 68, 60, 78, etc. As I was riding home on the train, I chuckled to myself thinking that if the show runs a while on Broadway, every aging ex dancer in New York is going to be frantically calling his/her agent to get an audition lined up to replace the original cast members. I can't wait to see who they eventually get. And then deciphering the face lifts!!!

If I feel like spending a ridiculous amount of money needlessly on groceries, then it's Gelsens for me.

I once bought kale one day and the cashier said, "How can you eat that crap?" as she rang it up.

My grandfater used to say someone was "hoist by his own petard" when a person got into trouble over a stupid action. When I was a kid, I thought he was saying something dirty. I finally found the meaning and the origin in a high school English lit class. I love the expression and use it often; the baffled looks on people's faces is always worth the trouble! Other expressions that the older generation of my youth used to use: High as a kite. Fresh as a daisy. Sweet as a rose. In like Flynn. Paramour. Water closet.

I turned 62 this year and although fit, active, involved and vital, I felt pretty invisible. A 25 year old in a class I was taking came onto me so blatantly 1 evening that I thought I was being punked but to my everlasting surprise, he meant it and I've been having a fun relationship with him ever since. It won't last forever, I'm not in love with him and I don't think he is with me, but there is genuine affection, great sex and astoundingly, we have a lot in common and many mutual interests. I feel like it might be my last fling and I'm enjoying every second of it. Getting older is difficult for everybody but growing older gay is especially tricky. The consolation is that it happens to EVERYone eventually.

Bodies have been lying in the fields around the crash site nearly 4 days days now, apparently decomposing. They've started putting them in bags and loading them onto trucks and refrigerated rail cars "like cord wood" as one American reporter on the scene put it. The agony the families must be going through is unimaginable. I can't think what my reaction would be if I knew that a loved one was lying dead and decomposing in the dirt while drunken, masked thugs strutted around the area with guns denying access to the site for dignified removal of the corpses. It's barbaric and disgusting, and I have no idea what can possibly be done about it.

If I had a dime for every time an escort has said to me, "We can work something out", I'd have a few dimes.

I saw him a few years ago and he just talked too damn much. He never shut up - yabber, yabber, yabber. I got really irritated. He was a nice guy, though, and the massage wasn't bad. But I get really disgusted when a masseur/escort has an a la carte menu. I paid a substantial fee and was then told how much extra it would cost me for other "activities". I stuck to what I'd paid for and agreed on. I've never seen him again.

Goofus: Sup? Galland: It's nice to meet you.

lmao!!!!

The dry cleaner near Monica Lewinsky's place was cheap and convenient but you always had to yell because he was very hard of hearing. One day, she brought in a dark blue dress and showed it to him, saying, "I have a big stain on the front of this dress." Cupping his ear, the dry cleaner said, "Come again?" "No," she replied, "it's just red wine."

I'm just so thrilled to find people who actually read! I devour books but hardly ever have anyone with whom I can discuss them. Right now, I'm reading "A Royal Passion", the history of the marriage between Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France. I know it sounds boring but it's absolutely fascinating and exciting. I read that on the beach and at home, I'm reading "Apollo's Angeles", a history of ballet. I usually only read history and bios, although I love reading and reading classic novels - Hugo, Dickens, Melville, Poe - when I have the time to sit and read for hours. Winter is a really good time to dive into "Moby Dick" or "Last of the Mohicans" Rainy days too. I got into Arthur Conan Doyle last summer; the original Sherlock Holmes stories are wonderful. I love Elmore Leonard novels; he just died last week. What a loss. Sometimes, I feel that my head is so full of stories, characters, words and images that it's going to burst - I love that feeling.