Rudynate

There was a very popular bathhouse that I never got to called the 8709. I wonder if the 3rd Street Athletic Club was a predecessor to the 8709? You're right. They were really fussy who they let in. I got in because a guy in line, who was a regular, said to me, "Just pretend we're friends." They let me right in.

Here, in the case of a global pandemic, the government interest would be "compelling."

But even textualists know that the Constitution has to bend sometimes. It is a well-recognized principal of Constitutional law that the rights guaranteed in the constitution aren't absolute. I would argue that a sudden and massive public health emergency justified a certain degree of infringement of individual rights. I'm not sure, I'm rusty on Constitutional law, but I think the test would be that a mandate would need to be "narrowly tailored to achieve an important government interest" or something like that. There are several tests for this kind of thing and the wording in all of them is very similar. Here, the scale and urgency of the pandemic would justify a pretty broad interference in certain Constitutional rights - the right of free association for example. I was nauseated that an amateur like her had the authority to decide such an important issue.

She's thinking "The Constitution is the Constitution. Somebody has to make the hard choices."

Oh Unicorn, Unicorn, it must be a terrible drain always needing to have the last word, compulsively making others wrong, showing the world how much you know. Why don't you just take a break some time.

I wonder if we're talking about the same place - the 3rd Street Athletic Club, as I remember it, was a bathhouse. It was long enough ago that most people don't even remember it.

I noticed that too - very interesting.

I found this: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/us-airline-employees-report-lower-rate-covid-19/story?id=73149839 According to this article, the incidence of COVID among flight crews is reported by the industry and the flight attendants' union as being approximately half that in the general population. I wouldn't trust industry data. And the union data might be specious too - the union has a vested interest in maintaining full employment among its members. Nonetheless, it's a persuasive data point.

I'm sure there is data somewhere about the incidence of COVID among flight crews. Given the controversy around COVID and air travel, there must have been some sort of study.

So that's it. I think it was summer of '75 that I was there. I walked in and was astounded at this sea of handsome men everywhere I looked.

Fortunately, being invisible to younger men doesn't bother me. I just accept it as the way of the world. Some of our friends are really bothered by it. When they start complaining, I don't say anything, but I think "You've known this day was coming since you were in your 20s, why didn't you prepare better?"

One of the best-looking men I ever had sex with picked me up in front of Studio One after closing. He walked up to me, said 'You want to come over to my place?" I said yes and he took me home to his cute little bungalow in West Hollywood.

Is that the same as the 3rd St. Athletic Club?

A well-built black man.

2K per night would be a 5-star resort.

You haven't been to Petaluma in a while, I guess. Very upscale - not quite like Healdsburg or Napa, but close. We had dinner at an Italian Place - Cucina Paradiso - that was one of the best restaurant meals I have ever had.

This is true - those things are affected by time and place. When I was a kid, pretty much any discussion of money with people outside of the immediate family was considered impolite. You definitely wouldn't ask somebody how much they made or what they paid in rent. In the 70's and 80's all of that seemed OK. Now those again are taboo, except with people you know very well.

That's an odd question - unforgivably nosy. I can't imagine myself asking someone if they've had cosmetic surgery - possibly OK if he had brought the subject up first so that it was apparent that he was OK with talking about it. But that's another issue - people being only too willing to share every last detail of their health, whether you're interested or not.

They are great - dentists tend not to like them - they sort of dismiss them. Using a water pik once daily works wonders for the health of your gums. And I agree that they are not a substitute for flossing. Occasionally, I get little sore spots. I fill the water pik with warm salt water and irrigate the sore spot a couple times a day and it always goes away.

My sister is a CRNA and used to do the anesthesia for a lot of face-lift patients. She noticed that one surgeon produced a consistently outstanding result and she asked his patients how much he charged - low 20's - with inflation, maybe 30K now. I knew a woman several years ago who was approaching 70 and got a face lift - I first a saw her a couple weeks after the surgery - while she was still healing - she was still a little swollen but she looked amazing - just great. And she continued to look better as she healed. She told me she had paid 17K. With inflation that might be high 20's now. This is all academic - I decided a long time ago that I wasn't going under the knife just to look better - botox, fillers, peels, OK,, but no surgery. I do a clay mask once a week and I look terrific afterward.

Bending over is probably my favorite - whether I'm top or bottom. Doggy is great, missionary is great. I had forgotten about on side - another one I like.

Agree that this is the time for such undertakings, as opposed to the depth of a massive public health emergency.

In spite of the eyeroll from the infectious disease amateur, the numbers are going in the wrong direction for a disease that is becoming endemic. Hospitalizations are up nationally. We will have to wait a week or so to see what happens with deaths.

That doesn't mean Covid is over you.

I agree with Dr. Wachter, who is going back to masking indoors.