Despardo

I had a friendly and highly satisfactory email exchange with Matt. I was favorably impressed.

She looked like an ostrich in heels trying to do ballet. She was a great physical comedian among other things.

Saw it first with Betty Grable then later with Channing in a Broadway revival. She was amazing. Would love to see it with Bette. The show is so perfect and so simple it is timeless.

A number of years ago he became infamous for using fake pics in his ads, although people who hired him said he was hot, just not the guy in the pictures. The set of pics in the link by the OP do not resemble the pics I remember from older ads. The current pics might be accurate I suppose, but I certainly wouldn't bet on it.

Nope, no anger here.

I survived NYC between 1972 and 1992, so I have some street smarts and am familiar with seedy. These days I don't go to bars or participate in the "gay scene" even here in Seattle. Got all that out of my system during my 20 years in Manhattan. I appreciate the info on NOLA.

Well, did you have a good time or not?

Odd isn't it? I haven't been into bars for, oh 25 years. Seattle has no strip clubs either--nothing like that. Not the best collection of local escorts either (some exceptions.) We do get drop-ins. In NOLA, I think I can make do. I get the impression that people love the city or hate it--either they get it or they don't. Thanks for your input.

I asked my niece which neighborhoods were safe, and she told me it is more complicated than that--varies from block to block as you say.

What is the escort scene like in New Orleans? For a town know for decadence, the selection of escorts on RM is not particularly interesting. I may have an opportunity to move there at some point. Also interested in general reflections on life in that city.

Thanks, Jay. I may have an opportunity to move to New Orleans and have never even been there. Will have to visit before making that kind of decision. I find the prospect intriguing but requiring further research. All I know is that the rents are low, the food is great, and the climate is horrible. People are said to be very friendly unlike Seattle. I can tolerate a certain amount of "grit" having spent the 1970s in NYC.

I've never been to New Orleans. What kind of action can be found there? Any strip clubs? Are any of them really hot? What is the scene there like?

On the NJ side of the Delaware it is "Youze guys." Just like east of Scranton it is "soda," west of Scranton it is "pop."

Who keeps the metric system down? WE DO!

Vancouver is beautiful. Friendly people. Great food. It is also damn expensive (pricier than Seattle.) Montreal by comparison is quite cheap. As far as I know, there are no strip clubs in Vancouver like those in Toronto or Montreal, which is a shame since I live 140 miles from Vancouver it and can easily be reached in 2.5 hours by car or train. It takes an entire day to get from Seattle to Montreal about 3000 miles away and involve a change of planes.

This is great for setting a romantic mood:

There are an awful lot of escorts in Brazil. Or was that coffee? Brazilians are one of my favorite flavors.

Our boy Brian Kevin!

Strunk and White is dated and overly fussy.

Hell yeah! One of the many great things about Brazilians is that they tend to deliver.

I went to Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar one October--tail end of the rainy season. Not the "hot" season--could have fooled me. The humidity was crippling. Think south Florida in the summertime. I learned to put my camera in a zip lock bag so it could warm up on the street from the hotel AC. Otherwise, water condensed inside the camera! When I stepped out of the hotel, my glasses steamed up so I could not see. Temperatures in October were in the high 80s. During the hot season, they go into the 100s. Great if you are a mango. January to March should be perfect! Suvarnabhumi Airport is the finest airport I have ever experienced. If you are traveling around Bangkok consider travel by water--ferries and water taxis on the river and some of the canals. It is cheap, fun, and you will get to your destination much faster. Cabs are comfortable, reasonable and generally air conditioned, however, at certain times of the day, you will just sit in traffic. I did take a tuk-tuk when I could get nothing else. Did not have a problem. The general issue with tuk-tuks in Bangkok is that the driver may very well not take you where you asked to go, but to a silk emporium or gem showroom where he gets a kickback if you buy anything. The sky train is an excellent option and not too hard to figure out. Avoid motorcycle taxis (as distinct from tuk-tuks) unless you have a death wish. If you are a shopper, Bangkok is paradise!--beautiful things, amazingly cheap. Great place to buy gifts or have clothes made to order. Bangkok also boasts the most aggressive and persistent street vendors of any place I have visited. They offer a wide variety of goods and services. The words, "No, thank you!" have no meaning for them. To avoid hucksters, say nothing even if directly addressed, avoid eye contact, behave as if they do not exist, and they will lose interest. Any flicker of attention from you and it is like blood in the water to a shark. This advice from my Thai guide. I spent my life in customer service industries and it is incredibly hard for me to treat people rudely, but it was in fact the only thing that worked. Basically, you snub them completely. You are expected to haggle over everything (which I hate)--pay no more than 50% of the original asking price and offer 25% to 30% to start the haggling. Good luck. They are pros at this. You need to get them down at least 25% just to save face. Most often, the original inflated asking price seemed pretty reasonable to me. In department stores and high end designer shops, one generally does not haggle. Given that my hotel was across the street from the red light district, I should not have been surprised when every time I walked out of the hotel, I would be approached with, "Hi, you want girl?" or if that didn't work, "You want boy?--no problem!" There are in fact a great many very friendly Thais on the street who will greet you with a cheerful "Hi, Where you from?" The English translation of that question is, "Hi, How much money are you willing to part with?" If you answer America, you will have a new best friend. If you answer Russia or India, when you look up, the guy will have already vanished. Many of these guys just want to help you out of the kindness of their hearts. They are or have a friend who is a guide and will take you around or they have a brother/cousin who is a tuk-tuk driver and will take you where you are going. If you tell them where you are going and how you are going to get there, they will give you all sorts of reasons why you should not do that and will suggest an alternative involving said brother/cousin. Bangkok is not a particularly dangerous city. If you go off with one of these people, you will probably not be murdered. You may be robbed, and best case scenario is that you will wind up spending a lot of money. (But, of course you knew that.) These hucksters are easier to shake than the ones selling products. Just tell them that you know exactly where you are going and how to get there even if that is a barefaced lie. Have fun!

I am no expert on Bangkok having spent only 3 days there and there are hundreds of hotels. I was with a tour group and we stayed at the Montien https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293916-d301388-Reviews-Montien_Hotel_Bangkok-Bangkok.html It is a large, traditional tourist hotel. Rooms are in need of updating, but they were clean and comfortable. I believe the hotel is not expensive. It's main attraction would be its location right across the street from the main red light district were all the gay clubs are (including Tawan, which I liked a lot.) Also across the street is a huge night market and a large and popular city park as well as the sky train. I don't know what their policy is regarding overnight guests, since I did not bring anyone back with me. Some hotels charge a $15 guest fee. The Montien's location right in the middle of the sex circus suggests that the staff there is probably shock proof. Not a bad choice, but you might find something better. Still the Montien had some convenient features:

John in Atlanta is a super nice guy with a big thick one.

I have never been to Silverado. I have some real questions before I go out of my way to visit. Does anything go on there that your grandmother couldn't watch? I mean, do you get much bang for the buck?