mike carey

Moderators Note Gentlemen, we've all had our say about each other's opinions and motives for posting here. It's time to return to discussions of Mark himself.

Engaging and cheeky entry into the forum, and welcome aboard Travis. The forum can be engaging but at times annoying (well, 'some posters' rather than 'the forum'), and you can get as much from it as you're prepared to contribute. But I think you have already assessed the lie of the land here. I hope you get someone to take you up on your offer, alas I'll be unable to be one of them!

Please don't be shocked that someone is posting here on an actual Friday. Despite their use going back a long time (think FDR, JFK and LBJ), the Economist has published a light hearted lament at the increasing use of TLAs (and other sometimes indecipherable abbreviations and acronyms), from RGB, MBS and MTG to the endless list employed and understood (or not) in social media. For those who have access to the site, it's here. The author notes wryly (and I suspect falsely) TBH IDK WTF a PSA is.

And in 3... 2... 1... 'But it's still Queens'. Or as it should now be called, 'Kings'. I'll show myself out ...

Maybe they think a tongue indicates they'll use it?

The word 'relationship' is very flexible, so I wouldn't read too much into it. A professional relationship is still a relationship if it involves periodic contact, whether it's your doctor, accountant or masseur. If you go to the same cafe every morning, your relationship with your barista is probably one of your closest (and they may know more about you than anyone else!).

'When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more nor less.’

And as such, he is no doubt aware that there is no forum requirement to @ someone when you talk about them. And no, it is not a 'common courtesy' to do so. Rather it is rude to demand that people do so.

Gosh, someone needs to tell our resident doomsayers!

Pfft, those are Easter buns, not eggs!

Thread moved.

I keep finding reasons to go to London again.

Maybe donuts but perhaps pizza later. But in the meantime ... I acknowledge that members are entitled to respond by suggesting ways of finding an escort who can speak with a Boston or east coast accent rather than one naturally blessed with one, or to comment on whether finding one in the California wild is a reasonable aspiration, but I think we're done those variations on the theme of the thread to death. So if anyone has a suggestion of a suitable Bostonian (or north-eastern) escort, please speak up. Absent that we always have @LocallySocally's solution to fall back on.

To clarify in case it isn't clear, Nordkapp is level with Helsinki in Longitude (it's actually slightly further east) but it's over 10 degrees of Latitude further north (11 to be precise). That's 660 nautical miles or over 1,200km.

I see what you did there!

For me, 'Hi there' is fine as an opening line to a longer message. Saying just 'Hi there' and expecting a response is what people might take issue with

It's hard to shake the habits of a lifetime, whether that is tipping or not. If you think about it too much, either way, it can be anxiety inducing. I know the lay of the land, and am aware of it in the moment in restaurants in the US, but in hotels for the most part it occurs to me that I 'should' have tipped in a hotel at about the time I check into the next hotel. Now you can see why!

You mean like those gas buggies they supposedly have in Kansas City? The saints preserve us!

WHAT?? Who knew?

Yes, Red Square, or as it was known before the Revolution ... Red Square. I agree that there is much to impress visitors in Moscow. The Metro is up there on the list of those.. Although we in the west know about the Kremlin in Moscow, but kremlin is the word for a citadel in a city so Moscow's isn't the only one in Russia.

I wonder whether theatre in New York and London suffers from the competition between different productions and the one audience pool imposing a single narrative over everything that is available. Perhaps smaller, second tier markets have less jaded and more receptive audiences, and shorter runs for productions so the audience doesn't have time to tire of them.

@BenjaminNicholas and @Simon Suraci I agree absolutely that it's all work. The escort(s) may have their own reasons for accepting a lower rate than they could otherwise expect, but that doesn't detract from the basic fact that it is still work, not vacation. I wouldn't try to second guess what any one escort was thinking when they accepted such an arrangement and nor should a client presume that it was in any way a vacation. When I read the post that prompted this discussion I read it as reporting what the escort(s) said, although you interventions makes me doubt my initial reading of it. (To be clear, I didn't think the quote marks indicated their direct words, rather, I thought they meant it wasn't literally a vacation, just something a bit like one.) But then what I think doesn't matter.

There will be a variety of opinions about what 'should be' the going price in any city, but 'should be' doesn't make it so. Escorts have the option of setting any price they want, and clients have the option of paying it or not. The going rate in a market is what it is, what someone thinks it should be won't change that. Is hiring an escort a luxury? Maybe, maybe not. Not all escort experiences feel like a luxury, and from reading these forums as long as I have, a luxury price tag is no guarantee of a luxury experience. Businesses like to portray their products or services as luxurious but reality bites, and they have to offer a product that's truly outstanding or offer a service tailored to a price point they can achieve. Escorts are not exempt from that economic reality. As @BuffaloKyle said $300-400 seems to be where the NYC market has landed. You can wish it were otherwise (higher or lower) but don't hold your breath. I'm not altogether sure that this thread will elicit any new insights that threads about prices haven't already offered, but we can hope.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll get onto it. Seriously, when the topic was started there was a, probably small, chance that it would discus a link between happiness and the general level of well-being in society, which is a health issue of sorts, so a fit for the Men's Health Forum. It has not. It has remained a general discussion of the factors that might affect how happy people in various counties were with their circumstances. That discussion fits better in the Lounge.

This is a great tragedy the details of which will play out in the coming hours. For Australians of a certain age it brings to mind the collapse of spans of the Tasman Bridge in Hobart after it was hit by the bulk carrier Lake Illawarra in 1975. Twelve people died, seven of the ship's company and five people in cars that fell 45m from the bridge into the River Derwent. This disaster has the potential to have far more victims who were doing no more than driving along a major highway. We can but hope that there are far fewer casualties than is now feared. Requiescat in pace.