Rudynate

My French teacher was an old lady, close to retirement who spoke French with this godawful American accent. She made no attempt to speak with an authentic accent. Even as a kid, I used to ask myself, "What's wrong with this picture?' Many years ago, I knew a wealthy old lady. She was the widow of a Texas oilman and seemed to have piles of money - she drove around in a Bentley and had a small household staff. She spoke French fluently, but with that same godawful American accent that my French teacher used. She liked to surround herself with people who spoke French, preferably native speakers, but non-native speakers who were skilled enough were OK , too. She would have lunches and dinners with 10-12 guests where only French was spoken. It was incongruous to hear her speak, because, on the one hand, her command of the language was so good, but on the other hand, her accent was so bad. I could never understand how somebody could have made the effort to become fluent in the language and yet make no attempt to speak with an authentic accent.

I was at a Meetup in Mountain View and I talked with a guy from a tech startup in Mexico. His English was outstanding and what was particularly interesting was how rapidly he spoke. He said he learned most of his English by watching English-language TV.

I took four years of Latin in high school. Our teacher made it very easy to learn because we had quizzes all the time and she didn't tolerate kids not doing their homework. In Latin, if you don't keep up with assignments and memorize the vocabulary, you're dead in the water.

High German or "Hochdeutsch" is just Standard German. I don't have much difficulty understanding Swiss German.

Some years ago I worked for a global company. We had German and Austrian subsidiaries. It was just amazing how good the Europeans' English was. The executives could deliver long, detailed presentations in flawless English. They knew business terminology, engineering terminology, scientific terminology, they understood idioms perfectly. I was always in awe of them.

Close to the US/Canadian border, the accents, as you've noted are nearly indistinguishable. The farther away you get from the border, the Canadian accent becomes pretty pronounced. Some Canadians sound almost like Scots.

We have quite a large Brazilian community in San Francisco. When I first heard Portuguese, it sounded like complete gibberish. I have a little bit of an ear for it now, so I can distinguish individual words and it does sound like Spanish spoken in a very peculiar accent.

That's interesting. Thank you.

I have always wondered if a native Spanish speaker would be able to understand Italian. What about Portuguese?

I'm one of those people who learns languages easily. I learned French in high school - completed four years in only three years. I wasn't fluent but I was able to converse easily and French people often complimented my accent. Alas, I never used it much, so I'm very rusty, although I still understand spoken French easily. I have devoted quite a bit of effort to German. I took a couple years of college-level German, several courses at the Goethe Institut, and an intensive course of several weeks in Germany. I also worked one-on-one with a tutor for awhile. During the time with the tutor, I got really good, although not quite fluent. I could sit and converse with him easily on nearly any topic. Again, I rarely use it, so speaking isn't completely comfortable. I listen to the news in German and understand most of it. I watch German movies and understand most of the dialog without looking at the sub-titles. I love the way Mandarin sounds when spoken by non-native western speakers, so I am pondering learning Mandarin.

By about 14, I had decided I was going to try male-male sex as soon as I got the chance. I reasoned that, if I didn't like it, I didn't need to keep doing it. Looking back, I realize I had opportunities galore that I was too dumb to recognize at the time. Finally did it for the first time at 17 with a tennis pro at a local country club who started chatting me up when he came into the place where I worked after school.

I had forgotten about Hercules movies. I was so infatuated with Steve Reeves that it was upsetting. I would sit there, in the movie theater, on a Saturday afternoon, at age 7 or 8, and watch him in his loincloth with this incredible longing that I didn't understand - I wanted him to pick me up, to carry me on his shoulders, to be my friend; to admire me, to go places with me, I wanted to be like him, etc. etc. etc.

Getting boners over the pictures of Charles Atlas on the back of comic books at age 6-7.

I'm very curious about Kobe Raphael. Wonderful looking guy.

Pradaxa is big offender.

I got pill esophagitis once from taking a pill with a small sip of water and then going straight to bed. I woke up a couple hours later with the worst sore throat in memory. I had a lot of difficulty swallowing food for three or four days after.

I mostly stay out of such places, but now and again, I like to splurge. I kind of like Cal-Mart in the Laurel Heights neighborhood. Down the street from them, there's a place called Bryan's that sells esoteric stuff like real Japanese Kobe beef.

In San Francisco, there are high-end grocery stores that make shopping at WF feel about like Safeway or Luckys.

All the advice nurse ever does is tell you to come in.

+1 I luv 'em all.

Wonderful build!!

I thought he lived in San Francisco. It seems, though, that once someone reaches a certain age, they move from SF to Palm Springs. They will have to revise the Oscar Wilde epigram: “It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco" to "It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in Palm Springs." What have we come to?

I haven't thought about him in years. My partner used to do erotic glass sculptures of hot guys' torsos. I remember that Donny commissioned at least one piece from him. Donny, as I recall, was concerned that his dick be depicted in its full glory, with appropriate attention to the size.

No question about it - My all-time favorite would be Gordon Grant. Even as a young 20-something, I had an enduring fantasy of hiring Gordon and putting him through his paces. I knew a guy who knew him and told me he could make that happen, but I never really believed so didn't follow up. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hQmCKD51OrI/UiSHZNMcCYI/AAAAAAAAZHk/XC6uNuHpCoI/s320/4085_002.jpg

"Strong Hands."