Rudynate

I use simple algebra all the time. I took calculus in college but I don't remember much about it.

It used to be easy to distinguish Americans from Europeans at a glance. Movement, mannerisms, dress were all distinctive. Not so much anymore.

It's become commonplace for women to nurse in public. It's true that I would rather not see it, but thats easily solved by not gawking at nursing moms. Anything that eases the burdens of motherhood is a good thing.

There's nothing wrong with subscribing to canned meaning.

And the combination of variables didn't lead inevitably to the evolution of life, it favored it. Which means that the same combination of variables could occur on some distant planet in some distant galaxy and it might not lead to the evolution of life. The universe is so immense that it is likely that life has evolved elsewhere in the universe.

Agree completely, but that combination of variables itself was probabalistic.

Natural selection is a random process. It doesn't have a direction or goal. That's a problem with the way evolution is talked about when it's being taught in schools. Evolution/natural selection is not going in a particular direction. We can only see the direction ex post facto its going by looking how it got us to where we are now. We have no idea where it will take us from here. And because evolution is a mindless statistical process, evolution also has no idea where it is taking us.

Humans seem to be wired to need meaning. The fact that we need to impose order on the universe doesn't mean that there is an inherent order to the universe. The Existentialists hold that the universe is random and meaningless. Any meaning is something that we made up. I can live with that - that there is no supplied meaning to life and that it's my job to find my own meaning in life. There are all kinds of groups and organizations that are willing to supply the lazy with canned meaning. There are those who are fine with providing their own meaning.

Years ago, the food in hospital cafeterias was outstanding and absurdly cheap, I suppose because they were subsidized. In my first job ever, I was an orderly at a VA Hospital. The food in the canteen at the VA was crappy, but across the street, there was a Jewish hospital that had a superb cafeteria. We used to sneak over there for lunch and pretend we worked there to get the employee price. My mother was hospitalized at Emory University Hospital a few years ago, and the cafeteria reminded me of the hospital cafeterias of years gone by.

Easily a full day's calories at a single meal.

My office is in my home, so I rarely eat lunch out. Lunch at home probably costs a couple bucks. I fix a turkey or tuna sandwich on a nice sandwich roll- french or ciabatta- some nuts and some berries. When the cleaning lady comes, I go to the gym and eat lunch out. A sandwich is typically about 12 bucks.

And I would also say that an ignorance of pop culture is a poor indicator of general ignorance. There are plenty of educated cultivated people who find pop culture repellant.

In what context do these conversations occur that a third person's comments about a companion's looks embarrass you? I'm trying to imagine having lunch with two other people where one can't stop commenting on the others looks. Of course, maybe I run with the wrong crowd, I'm not sure I know any MGLs.

He's contrasting himself with the hoardes of insincere fawning goldseekers wealthy men must have to wade through. He's positioning himself as that breath of fresh air, who's not interested in them for their money.

Best not to make assumptions about how they live. Warren Buffet is reputed to live a decidedly middle-class lifestyle. Donald Trump, with considerably less wealth than Buffet, when he's not busy wrecking the country, lives in a cheesy penthouse on Fifth Avenue in NYC.

So you don't click with unusually nice looking men. You think it's because they are deficient in some way?

I may have changed my mind about close fitting clothes. I like 90s style loose fitting jeans. And I've always had the opinion that older men look a little silly in up to the minute fashion. But a while ago, I got a made-to-measure suit from Indochino and I love it. The jacket has natural shoulders and sort of hugs my torso. The trousers are tailored to fit close in the butt and thighs. Fits me like a glove. The fabric is a nice soft merino wool. I love the way I feel in it.

I think getting built is (1) evidence of a strong character and (2) helps to further develop a man's character. And I find men with strong characters to be very sexy. But the sexual marketplace doesn't place a premium on character.

You're looking to be entertained?

That's true, they do sometimes.

Not an escort. I last visited Canada a couple years ago. Although they didn't specify in their ads, the Canadian escorts I talked to said their advertised rate was Canadian. They preferred to be paid in Canadian to avoid exchange fees.

None of that would have mattered if he had died. It would have been at least a manslaughter charge for you.

The communication snafu shows that "safe" isn't safe.

Exactly. Everybody seems to forget that we can't read each other's minds.

Here in SF, if you get out and about at all, you will see escorts and masseurs. In particular, if you go to a popular SOMA gym, you will see LOTS of escorts and masseurs. It becomes a commonplace experience. One time, I saw my favorite porn actor of all time, Tom Vaccaro, on a treadmill. He glanced over at me, we smiled at each other and we each went back to what we were doing. Only a couple weeks ago, I was waiting in line at Kaiser to pick up a script and right behind me was a masseur I had seen a few months before. It was an exceptional massage with a nice erotic component. We said Hi, I reminded him what my name was and we chatted in line while we were waiting - no discomfort at all.