Lucky

Wasn't it in March of last year when @Cooperwas saving the website? Once it was known that Guy Fawkes had passed, efforts were made to secure the site. I think without @Coopernone of us would be posting today. Granted, others came along. A guy named, I think, @RadioRobbecame very helpful too.🙂 Anyway, thanks to all who saved the site. But it starts with @Cooper!

It didn't stay in great shape! Today's LA Times reports: Since Dec. 1, Southern California has recorded 10,103 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people — the highest of the state’s five regions, according to a Times analysis of data from the California Department of Public Health. Infection rates were 7,714 per 100,000 people in the Bay Area, 7,341 in the San Joaquin Valley, 6,459 in Greater Sacramento and 4,892 in Northern California, data showed.... ...Of California’s 58 counties, L.A. had the highest overall case rate during the Omicron surge. San Diego was third; Imperial, fourth; San Bernardino, eighth; Riverside, ninth; Santa Barbara, 10th; and Ventura, 11th. These high case rates reflect a staggering number of infections. Combined, the seven Southern California counties tallied 2.1 million new coronavirus cases in the last three and a half months — including 1.2 million in L.A. County alone. The massive caseload was fueled by Southern California’s testing — the most per capita of any region, The Times’ analysis showed. But experts have long noted that official infection counts are likely to be incomplete, as some people may never get screened or have their results disclosed to public health agencies. Exacerbating that issue is the availability of at-home tests, which were widely used during the Omicron surge but are not reliably reported. Regardless of the actual count, the sheer enormity of cases had devastating effects throughout the region. More than 7,500 Southern Californians died from COVID-19 — a rate of 32.2 per 100,000 people from Dec. 1 through March 14.https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-18/omicron-deaths-cases-hit-southern-california-hardest-in-state

Story on the news tonight was that airport workers in South America were collaborating with workers at JFK to smuggle cocaine...in the cockpit! Apparently the pilots didn't know it was there. Maybe that's why the police met this flight.

President Obama isn't the only DC resident to get COVID. Biden had to cancel a meeting with the Irish Prime Minister when the latter tested positive. He had just spent time with Nancy Pelosi! From the nytimes.com: A flurry of high-profile coronavirus cases in the nation’s capital — including in people who have been around President Biden — has raised new questions about the trajectory of the two-year-old pandemic, even as the White House has signaled confidence in the country’s ability to resume normal activities... ...In the past week, Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, tested positive for the virus, ...At least nine House Democrats received positive tests this week after a party retreat in Philadelphia and late-night voting at the Capitol. But the recent cases in Washington, and the spread of yet another variant around the world, highlight a challenge for Mr. Biden and his team: how to embrace the country’s desire to move on while being careful not to declare victory over a virus that is still making people sick and killing more than 1,000 Americans each day. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/17/us/politics/washington-coronavirus-cases.html

Sleep experts say that regular time works best! I agree. From wapo.com: Sleep experts widely agree with the Senate that the country should abandon its twice-yearly seasonal time changes. But they disagree on one key point: which time system should be permanent. Unlike the Senate, many sleep experts believe the country should adopt year-round standard time. After the Senate voted unanimously and with little discussion Tuesday to make daylight saving time permanent, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a statement cautioning that the move overlooks potential health risks associated with that time system. (The legislation, which would take effect next year, must get through the House and be signed by President Biden to become law.) “We do applaud stopping the switching during the course of the year and settling on a permanent time,” said Jocelyn Cheng, a member of the AASM’s public safety committee. But, she added, “standard time, for so many scientific and circadian rationales and public health safety reasons, should really be what the permanent time is set to.” Senate votes unanimously to make daylight saving time permanent The AASM made this stance clear in 2020 when it released a position statement recommending that the country institute year-round standard time. Its reasoning, in part, is that standard time is more closely associated with humans’ intrinsic circadian rhythm, and that disrupting that rhythm, as happens with daylight saving time, has been associated with increased risks of obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and depression. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/03/16/daylight-saving-bill-health-effects/

The Washington Post reports that the surge in Europe is worrisome to the US, as previous surges there moved on to the States. Excerpts: A surge in coronavirus infections in Western Europe has experts and health authorities on alert for another wave of the pandemic in the United States, even as most of the country has done away with restrictions after a sharp decline in cases. Infectious-disease experts are closely watching the subvariant of omicron known as BA.2, which appears to be more transmissible than the original strain, BA.1, and is fueling the outbreak overseas. In the past two years, a widespread outbreak like the one now being seen in Europe has been followed by a similar surge in the United States some weeks later. Many, but not all, experts interviewed for this story predicted that is likely to happen. China and Hong Kong, on the other hand, are experiencing rapid and severe outbreaks, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/03/16/covid-ba2-omicron-surge/

I doubt escorts are ready, willing, and able to sell out their clients. Granted, some kind of coercion would make that different.

From nytimes.com: A year and a half ago, when it came time to cast a particular scene in the pilot episode of “Minx,” the showrunner Ellen Rapoport sifted through hundreds of photos of background actors, which had already been sorted into piles. “Like: small ones, big ones, crooked ones, foreskin,” Rapoport recalled. “I just wanted it all.” (The photos were not of the actors’ faces.) “Minx,” a cheeky comedy set in 1970s Southern California, swaggers onto HBO Max on Thursday. ...the pilot includes a minute-long scene in which about 18 men audition, bottomless, for the privilege. As Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff” plays, the men strip off. They strut. They dance. They karate chop. ...While breasts are a common locus of desire, a flaccid penis often has a more comic or pathetic aspect. (“They’re kind of funny,” Rapoport said.) And current standards permit that only flaccid penises can be shown in any sexual situation. ... Most of the ones that appear in mainstream TV or film are silicon prosthetics, and they are often oddly large. “It’s very rare to just see a normal penis,” Horeck said. Enter “Minx.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/arts/television/minx-hbo-max-male-nudity.html

Cases of COVID infection are arising in Asia and Europe following the loosening of restrictions designed to prevent its spread. From NY Times: As the Asia-Pacific region struggles with its first Omicron surge, it appears that Europe may be heading for a second jump, just as countries on both continents have rapidly lifted most pandemic restrictions. Global cases, which bottomed out in early March, are rising again, driven by high caseloads in Asia and Europe, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Cases per capita in Europe were already far higher than any other region in the world when they began creeping up again recently... ...In Europe, some are bracing for what could be another Omicron wave, with cases on the rise again in France, Britain, Italy and elsewhere and again approaching record levels in Germany. Austria, the first Western democracy to impose a general Covid vaccine mandate, abandoned the requirement last week. Caseloads have now surged to record levels there, according to Our World in Data. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/16/world/covid-19-mandates-cases-vaccine#asia-is-still-enduring-its-first-omicron-surge-while-europe-may-get-a-second

Why are you so insistent on this? You didn't see it, I didn't see it.

I like #1. What a great hat he has on!

If you carefully read what I wrote, you will note that I did not say it never happened. I wasn't in every restaurant all of the time. I also think that drug use increased after AIDS came along. Many were suffering, and many thought what was there t lose if they were going to die soon anyway.

Why would we?

Your idea of a perfect relationship may need adjusting. The reality is that perfect bodies are rare. As are perfect relationships.

I lived in San Francisco for 19 years and never once saw anyone doing lines at a Castro restaurant.

My favorite Yankee has been traded! To the Twins! For yucky Josh Donaldson! Horrors! https://www.instagram.com/p/B9W1x9LJR4e/

I think West Point cadets are held to a higher standard.

Tell that to my niece and her husband. Both fully vaccinated and boosted, they just got it.

I can see where an individual might have a drug problem, but a whole group of cadets do it together? That indicates a real problem at West Point. You wonder how many cadets are on drugs.

My thread is just a month old. Did you do a search? https://www.companyofmen.org/topic/132500-palm-springs-masseurs/#comment-1960845

NY Post: "“Four cadets were taken to hospital. Of the six people involved, one person was not taken to hospital, and one was not a cadet. Five USMA cadets in total were involved. Two of the cadets remain hospitalized,” a West Point spokesman told The Post Saturday." What does this say about our military today if the best ones rush to do drugs once on break? What does it say about the people running West Point? I hope that the cadets are expelled. The two still hospitalized are reportedly in critical condition, and I hope that they recover. Not everyone who lives in Wilton Manors is gay! It appears that this house is an Airbnb rental.

On my visits to PV, I have not had a problem with crime. I've always thought that the police knew what a dollar mecca it was and kept everyone safe. Crime deters tourism, and PV doesn't want that!

The next day Costco went up to 5.33.9!

COVID may have disappeared from Palm Springs by April. From the Desert Sun: Riverside County's COVID-19 cases continued to decline this week, putting the numbers at 7.5% of what they were about a month ago. Between Jan. 31 and Feb. 4, Riverside County reported 8,861 cases. Since then, cases have "dropped dramatically," Public Health Officer Dr. Geoffrey Leung said. There were just 667 new COVID-19 cases between Monday and Friday. That's down 47% from the previous week, when there were 1,252 cases reported between Feb. 28 and March 4. On Friday, the county's case rate was 7.9 per 100,000 residents, with a positivity rate of 3.7%. Both rates are down from Monday: 12.0 per 100,000 and 5.3%.

It seems odd to see a moderator posting as a regular member in a forum, then turning around with a Moderator warning in that forum. Just saying!