Rudynate

It's a weird preoccupation.

I had a friend years ago who had red hair and blue eyes and was able to document sufficient native ancestry that he got a regular check for his share of the tribe's oil royalties.

A few, not very many. What you see a lot of are regularly scheduled sex parties.

The whole notion of "gay" businesses is kind of last century. There was actually, for a time, an "anything goes" bathhouse here in San Francisco, called the Sutra Bathhouse, on Valencia in the Mission- men, women, gay, bi, straight. I never went. I heard the clientele was mostly straight women looking to fuck gay guys.

I don't understand how the small ones make any money. I don't have a feel for how many private rooms a big place like the Steamworks has, but I imagine it is at least 100 and there is probably twice that number of lockers. As I said, the place is just chock full of men 24/7 and the rooms turn over constantly.

I think overhead is low. The buildings are usually warehouse or light industrial space. Building out to make into a bathhouse involves creating a bunch of little cubes from drywall and plywood. Put in a steam room and a spa and you're there. Some have gyms that are pretty nice. I went to the Steamworks in Berkeley a couple of years ago and I was impressed with their workout facility.

Actually, according to the New Yorker article, the mayor of AC is openly gay. He and his partner apparently did pretty well in nightclubs that served the casino trade in better times. They are now trying to promote AC as a gay destination.

That's the one.

Just skimmed an article from the New Yorker on AC's predicament. Not pretty. Detroit in miniature.

As far as I know, there are only two bathhouses in the Bay Area- Steamworks in Berkeley and Water Garden in San Jose. Both have been there for decades, both are big, nice, well-run places, and both are busy 24/7. Can't believe they aren't profitable. Part of the reason that those places are so busy is that bathhouses are not permitted in San Francisco, so if you live in SF, you have to go to Berkeley or San Jose if you want to go to a bathhouse. The barriers to entry for new players must be formidable because there haven't been any new entrants in the Bay Area. Part of that would be that space is so expensive here.

In San Francisco, the airport Travelodge is pretty cheap. It's really a toilet, though.

I can't describe it, but it isn't at all like armpit odor. All I can say is that it's a very male odor. I smell like crotch in the morning before I shower. It's a sweaty smell without the sharpness of armpit odor.

I guess there are deadbeats and there are deadbeats.

I used to think that my uncle was a deadbeat until I thought things through recently. He never worked very much and his family got by on a small disability pension from a WWII injury. He was hit by a truck as a young man and seriously injured. He was hospitalized for months. One of his legs was so badly injured that his doctors wanted to amputate. He refused to let them remove the leg. That leg gave him problems for his entire life. He wore a leg brace and even with the brace had a bad limp. One time, he got a union construction job that paid very well. He had to quit after a few months because he just couldn't handle it. Everyone thought he was lazy. And it occurred to me like a thunderclap only recently that he was handicapped and that he may have been doing the best he could.

Pharmaceutically-produced methamphetamine is available by prescription, brand name Desoxyn, for narcolepsy and severe attention deficits.

Ephedrine, although a stimulant is not an amphetamine. It is an amine. I believe it is a precursor substance in at least some synthesis processes for meth.

Are you talking about illicit sources or by prescription? They haven't been readily available by prescription for 40 or 50 years. Given the number of students and techies who fuel themselves w/adderall to binge work/study, there must be illicit sources for it. It used to be very easy to buy modafinil offshore, but no longer.

The aesthetic is eternal. The buildings, obviously, are not. Around here, the Marin County Civic Center was designed by Wright. From a distance it looks wonderful, like something you would see on one of those idyllic planets the Enterprise visited on Star Trek. But up close, it looks seedy and rundown.

The very best of any style seems to last. People will still be awestruck by the best deco 100 years from now. Bauhaus architecture from the 20s-30s still looks fresh. Buildings from Fascist Italy look like they were built yesterday. Some of the best mid-century architecture still looks relevant. Wright's masterpieces are eternal.

I like that he's going bald and doesn't seem to care. Just keeps it buzzed - no comb-overs, fussy haircuts or shaving bald. He looks great.

Same as above plus no blood, no breath play.

Last summer, I worked with a special trainer at a fitness studio in SOMA to prepare for a fitness event. Every Thursday morning I would see a tall redhead working out who had the most beautiful build. It was the kind of build you see only on tall men - broad shoulders, long arms, softball biceps, big hands, long legs, big calves, lean and athletic. I looked forward to seeing him every Thursday. When my trainer told me he was a firefighter, I thought, "Yep, makes sense." I saw him just the other day in a completely different part of town and my heart leapt.

I think they said he took a spill while cycling or something like that.

No, I don't fetishize military guys either.