mike carey

That's how it appears on my laptop as well.

Yeah, it does sound odd. It fairly quickly became something that was in the background. It may have come and gone rather than being constant, but it's a consistent recollection. Time may have clouded my memories, of course. I've heard people say they enjoy eating durian.

The international cricket community has been rocked by the death in Thailand, apparently from a heart attack, at 52 of Shane Warne, a retired Australian bowler widely regarded as one of the best players of all time. I had not planned to post anything about it as it is of potentially zero interest to forum members, but a member sent me a PM about it, so I changed my mind. Cricket is a game that cherishes its history and traditions more than many sports seem to do. Where it's played widely cricket references have slipped into the language. 'That's not cricket' means that was not the way you should do things. It is the second most popular sport in the world. It remembers its heroes, the great and the not so great, even some of the obscure. You often see teams wearing black arm bands to mark the passing of a national player who lived to their 90s and had faded from the public consciousness. That is far from the case with Warne. He still coached teams, appeared as a commentator on cricket broadcasts and could be described as a celebrity. He was a legend still very much in the public eye, at his prime not in my childhood but my middle age. Within minutes of the story breaking, Twitter exploded, with tributes from ordinary people who knew him or had been inspired by him and from the great and good of international cricket, names like Brian Lara, Sir Vivian Richards, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kholi (perhaps not household names to readers here). On TV hardened veterans of the game, including a former England and a former Australian captain fought back tears. It has to some extent overshadowed what is a historic first Australian tour to Pakistan since 1998. Players and the crowd at the first test in Rawalpindi paused for a minute's silence before start of play on the second day, and both teams wore those black arm bands. So did both teams in the Australia-England game in the women's world cup in New Zealand. This New York Times staff sports writer (not some random writer from a cricket playing nation) captured the moment well, and in words that will make more sense to most people in this forum than mine probably could. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/sports/cricket/shane-warne-dead.html

You should never be surprised what you see in the deep north. It may, of course be a concession given that hundreds of Brisbane houses have been flooded out over the last week or so. Easier to wade through the floodwaters if you aren't constrained by clothes.

With Freddy Mercury fronting it? How is that possible. The name of the band wasn't a clue, of course.

Really? I thought it was an Abba reference. Oh, wait, that was 'A rich man's world'! Silly me.

Moderator's comment: Comments are starting to drift to the political. How current events may affect the role of Russian performers is no doubt of interest to those who follow events at the Met, but there are several threads in the Political Issues forum where we can continue to canvass such issues. The national anthem performed at the opening of one performance had already been mentioned there.

I disagree. It is possible for the two relationships to exist simultaneously. I have read people in here recount friendships with escorts enduring when the escort retired. I have friendships with escorts with whom I have discussed hiring (and not done so yet) and others where I have had social interactions and even travelled with, where we have kept the sexual part of our interactions professional without compromising the friendship. Not all escorts are open to that, but don't discount the idea that some may be. If I had a mate who was a lawyer or a plumber, would I engage them professionally without expecting free or discounted service? Of course I would.

I logged out of the site and that's one of the details that doesn't show up unless you are logged in to RM (don't know if being a premium member makes a difference).

Moderator's note: This thread is about Company. Let's not have it go down the rabbit warren of a general discussion about standing ovations. It's fine to comment about whether this performance deserves one, but if you want to have a broader discussion, start a new thread on Standing Ovations.

Well, his profile says he's a bottom, so perhaps not!

Given that it's a remake of a somewhat older love story in a different time and on a different continent, remaking the film for a new time seems unexceptional. I haven't seen this recent version, but I have seen and enjoyed versions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas placed in a contemporary context*, so I'm quite open to a remake. I realise remaking a film has a different 'feel' than re-staging a live performance, they are not all that different. *A Canadian production of the Pirates with the major-general singing about matters bilingual in that patter song made me laugh.

Good for you. Choosing to wear nothing in the spa is liberating.

Quite so. There are places that do and those that don't. As I have mentioned, I have an Amex card and others for places that don't accept Amex. It's not a 'one or the other' thing. If the 'other' cards have transferable points that's a bonus, if you have to use one that is tied to an airline or other loyalty program, so be it.

I know that you used the term in here, but you are far from the first, or the only person to use it. Don't assume that I was using the term in respect of your comments, I was not, I was using it about its use more generally. I specifically acknowledged that people choose a 'lifestyle' that may be at odds with their Kinsey scale position. Everyone is 'born this way', and I was born gay and am gay in my identification. Not everyone lives the way they were 'born', and none of us should care if they do or not. How you were born and how you choose to live should be, and is, of no concern to me or anyone else.

There certainly is a 'gay lifestyle' but it is open to dispute what that is. It was easier to understand when there were gay ghettos or areas where gay people congregated. It can also be argued that it can be where a person makes their identity as gay the core of who they are. I certainly don't do that, and I would say I lead a middle class suburban lifestyle, but I don't conform to what others may say are essential elements of that like having an opposite sex partner, 2.3 kids and a golden retriever. The trouble with the term 'gay lifestyle' is that it has become code for homophobes and people who resent the idea that LGBTIQ+ people exist. It is used to tell them that all aspects of their existence, including the fact of their sexual orientation, are matters of choice, and choices they should not have made. I have no doubt that everyone comes in at one position or another on the Kinsey scale (is it fixed for life, I doubt it), but that being a 5.5 is what you are, not a decision you make. Of course, given any position on the scale what you chose to do with that and how you live your life, such as who you choose as sexual partners and life partners are decisions you make, and decisions that you may make differently in different parts of your life. There is no guarantee that the public manifestations of how a person lives are any indication of where on the Kinsey scale they are. For that reason I view 'gay lifestyle' as a loaded term that I should avoid, and if someone uses it to describe how I live my life I wonder if it's an accusation rather than a description. I know (roughly) my position on the scale and know how I identify. Others should be free to identify as gay, bi or straight without having to prove their identification matches their Kinsey scale position. Why they identify as they do is none of my business, nor is it any of my business if they later change how they identify, and I have no right to read anything into such a change.

@samhexum Should the eggs have gone in at Step 6?

But I doubt the encounter would be like drawing teeth.

That's unrelated. Full reviews are visible only outside the US. This can be achieved either by being in another country or by using a VPN or proxy server that places you in one. I had to search to find what someone had posted to find some details. Here's what another member posted a while back. I haven't tried it as I'm not in the US (you don't have to use Germany). go here https://hide.me/en/proxy and use the "browse anonymously on the fly" box at right....set country to Germany.....enter RM profile URL and click "go".....accept the RM privacy thing up to a couple or three times......should then get to the regular profile, but text in the reviews, if even offered by the reviewer, is now visible.......

I should have commented on this at the same time as I made my previous comment. I also think it's a great card even though it is far less generous here in the number of points you get than the US version. The other benefits are comparable. I have an airline visa card for places that don't accept Amex, and it returns roughly the same number of miles per dollar spent as Amex MR points would yield. Qantas has some useful (although I wouldn't say 'valuable') benefits from certain levels of ground-based earning (including from MR transfers) so I'm not strict in using Amex when I can rather than the visa card. There are lots of detailed consideration you can give to which cards, airlines and FF programs you use (and it can become a hobby [or an obsession]), so do that if you want, or just work out a plan that works for you and stick to it.

I've been a premium member on and off for a couple of years (I don't have it set to auto-renew and there's usually a few days or weeks between my periods of membership). It only costs me $AU49.95 for six months, well worth it for the reasons others have enumerated.

Moderator's Note: Please keep the discussion here about the effects the war might have on your business, or on Rentmen, not on the progress of, or factors affecting the war itself.

This is a case where YMMV is literally true. Using MR points to pay for tickets is an option. If you are close to the line of qualifying for elite status at any particular level and won't otherwise qualify it makes sense regardless of the economics. If those loyalty points won't make an appreciable difference (say, you have no prospect of qualifying that year, or you have already done so), then you should compare the number of points it takes to buy a ticket directly, with the number you need to transfer to claim an award ticket. (My recent experience is that using MR points directly is significantly more expensive than transferring, but it's been a moot point as I've had enough FF points not to need to transfer any. If I've needed airline loyalty points [or there have been attractive offers of bonus loyalty points, as I had recently] I've tended to pay cash. YMMV!) So, by all means consider paying directly with MR points, but consider your other options.

The thing you are 'doing wrong', and it's not you, it's RM, is that you live in the US (assumption on my part). Text comments on RM reviews are not visible there (reviewers don't always write one, BTW). Short of moving to Canada, you need to use a VPN or a proxy server so you can log on as if you were in another country. I can't recall an address to use (I'm in Australia and don't need to use one), but there are some that are simple to use. I'm sure others will chime in.