alrajee

Chat Show hosts are characters played by the actor who shares the same name.
They do it because they are good at it on camera, and because it pays extremely well. Not because they are highly moral, generous, and considerate. They might be, but with similar limits to their social gifts and obligations as we have.
Artistic Temprament, it’s called.
Johnny Carson had his favorite guests, but in person he was rarely the smiley sorta goofy Midwest boy making it in the big City, and was often grumpy, short tempered and potty-mouthed with staff.
Letterman was known to have a few anger issues as well.
Oprah, who seems to be intensely engaged with her guests, retreats to seclusion at every break, and has been known for being dismissive of guests that she doesn’t know.
Fallon is not nearly the carefree upbeat funny man he plays during his show. How could he, or anyone, maintain that?
 
Beware confusing the public personna with the human being who plays him/her. They are the same only in our minds. (Lucy Ricardo is not Lucille Ball. Both go by Lucy, however...)
But, as the face of The Program they are always going to have to answer for trouble and gossip about backstage life and their staff, in order to protect the Brand.
 
The sort of insensitive or mean behaviors in these work environments are not new nor exclusive to show biz. But somehow we react with shock as though it were a relative or close friend,
“oh no, Not Ellen!! I know her! She’s too nice!!”
Well, you don’t and she isn’t. She’s a fiercely driven business woman who is also a real estate shark. With great comic timing.
I can’t see how this revelation affects anyone who’s not currently in the show’s employ.
 
Just like the Tonight Show, The Late Show, and Oprah, “The Ellen Degeneris Show” is a performance. Period. Try not to elevate the artists above the work they share with you.

As someone who lives alone and is from a tight knit Italian family who would get together often for meals and visits, I’m having difficulty dealing with this as well. I saw them last month for the first time since February and at that, it was outdoors. I haven’t seen friends in person since before this all started either. Taking advantage of the limited businesses that are open is frustrating and difficult due to the restrictions imposed on them and because people are on edge and appear to be too confrontational with others. It’s really house arrest with no end in sight.
 
I understand the need to continue this course but you can’t discount the mental and emotional toll it’s taking on everyone.

@MidwestCoastal pretty much summed up how life nowadays is like for me.
 
I haven't seen any of my friends, save for two that I had beers with on separate occasions last July, since the pandemic reared its ugly head. While I'm confident that most of them will survive in the wake of Covid-19, there's one friendship that I'm not sure will still be there in 2021. And it's a tough one: I made a conscious decision that I would cultivate that friendship this year, but because of SAH orders, we have not been able to hang out at all. The travel ban is also taking its toll on me: spring and late summer are the usual times when I'd visit friends abroad.
 
On the dating front, I just came out of a two-year, mostly long-distance, relationship last year. This year was supposed to be my comeback year—I focused on improving my outlook, being more outgoing, working out a lot, so that when I come back to the pool, I'm at my best both physically and emotionally. I have been on zero dates and have not had sex for the same length of time.
 
I'm fine with not being in a relationship but not seeing my friends has been brutal.
 
I'm here, dazed and a little bit depressed, wondering how I'm going to deal with the new normal. But on the flip side, I'm in the best shape of my life (abs!) and I have saved a good amount of my salary from not going out. (Fortunately, I don't really buy a lot of things so I have never succumbed to retail therapy.)

Hard to find the words about my emotional state over the last 5 months. I'm very lucky in the practical regard, but definitely suffering from some flavor of depression.
 
I still have my great paying job where I can almost work from anywhere, a little bit of job security for the next 6 to 18 months, savings in the banks, family that I can quarantine with, and I'm in generally good health. The flip side is that my social and dating life have totally disappeared. I was living in Philly and wasn't hugely connected to 'the scene' but I had a small group of straight and gay friends that I saw on a semi-regular basis, mostly couples to have dinner with, movies, day trips to NYC, game nights... more homebodies than 'bar/club friends'. I had just started dating again and found a couple guys that I thought 'could go somewhere'.....then... BOOM.... Corona-virus hits. After spending a month in my apartment relatively alone, I decamped to live with my 75 year old Mom in the rural south. She's in good health, we're super tight, but we were both getting very lonely so we decided to become roomies for both our mental and physical health.`
 
My in-person social group has dissolved. Almost all my city friends headed for the suburbs or even rural enclaves. Some, with SF and NYC emptying out and rents dropping, pursued their dream to try living in 'the big city'. A few even headed to foreign destinations for a year. We have tried to keep up with video chatting, texts, and the like, but to your point, there isn't much to talk about other than what you're binge watching, how work life has changed, and sharing experiences about what life is like when you do choose to 'venture out' of your home bunker. One of the guys I was dating went back to his ex-boyfriend, another headed to Canada, and the last wasn't interested in a long distance relationship (I wasn't really either) so we're now just online gaming buddies.
 
I'm 47 years old, single, and I am feeling totally disconnected from the world. The 'being single' is what is really hitting me hard. I feel like my dating life is over. I'm trying to think about this chapter in my life as a chance to reinvent myself and challenge myself to really understand 'what will make me happy' or more likely, figure out 'what really doesn't make me happy'. I'm just not there yet....
 
On a more positive note, the quarantine helped me discover I like being 'mostly vegan', I have figured out how to be healthier and more active after two surgeries last year and this year made working out almost impossible - but I've lost almost 20 pounds since quarantining, and I am saving a ton of money, but damn, I miss my friends, I miss sex, and I'm tired of wearing comfy, casual clothes all the time! But I also fully acknowledge, my so-called problems others would likely trade me for in a microsecond.
 
We're not alone! Thanks for the thread and letting me share.

Did you get any phone numbers?

Exercising (lost 30 pounds already and I take a lot more shirtless selfies), cooking, and saving money.

I think that's a complicated question to answer just because the term "rich" is, like what many others here have said, a very subjective term.
 
I don't consider myself rich, even though 40 percent of my take-home pay covers my rent, groceries, public transportation, and other monthly bills. I do consider myself fortunate that I don't remember the last time when I seriously worried about money.

So you’re saying ... I am a Trust Fund Baby?? Oh my god, oh my god, oh my GOD!!! ??
 
I do see your point. Which is why it is shocking that in 2018, an estimated 1 in 9 Americans were food insecure, equating to over 37 million Americans, including more than 11 million children. ? https://hungerandhealth.feedingamerica.org/understand-food-insecurity/

I don't want to speak for a prior poster that you commented on but i think what he meant to say is that a foot fetish is a very common fetish. Meaning that if you have a pronouced fetish, feet happens to be a common one. I am linking this one article https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201405/in-feet-first as an example. This lone article is not intended to be the absolute authority but i can tell you for someone who has had a foot fetish since early childhood and have explored it over a few decades, it has been professionally researched and of fetishes is listed as being one of the most prevalent.
 
I could easily post links of dozens of fetish sites specifically for feet from around the world. I am NOT saying though that a plurality or majority of men have foot fetishes. I am saying that if one has a pronouced fetish that, feet as an object related to that fetish, (in some shape or form) is quite common.

Corbin Fisher caters to the foot fetish market more than Sean Cody, IMO. They go beyond showing close-ups of the guys' feet, and actually include worship as part of the foreplay. I am incredibly into feet, and for this reason I prefer subsribing to CF than SC.

A stigmata instantly appears on their forehead reading "165 qechmeyDaj Huj chuvmey vIchel tuj jIH."

why haven't I long since died of food poisoning by now??!!......all these rules.......
 

Mostly yay but in very small quantities.

I have visited Pere Lachaise in Paris, placed flowers on the grave of Edith Piaf & wandered for hours in its peace & tranquility.
I occasionally visit the grave of a colleague & friend but never visited those of family, most of whom I didn't know.

When I was in Paris, I spent an entire day visiting two of the “big” cemeteries of the city: Père Lachaise and Cimetière de Montparnasse. I enjoyed the decorations and how peaceful the places were.

When I was in Paris, I spent an entire day visiting two of the “big” cemeteries of the city: Père Lachaise and Cimetière de Montparnasse. I enjoyed the decorations and how peaceful the places were.

Honestly I think while I'm gay I'm not totally sure I want a full-time relationship as I prefer a fair amount of alone time. I would probably be fairly content to be the exclusive side piece to a bi guy married to a woman(with her knowledge). I sort of wish when I was younger I'd have had the courage to seek this out openly.

I wish you all the best Gman!
 
I am bisexual. I enjoy having sex with both men and women, but only have been in meaningful emotional relationships with women. While there may come a time in the future when I'd be in a relationship with a man, I don't see it happening at this juncture in my life.

I may not have seen everything but this guy is certainly something else.

That's not a bad idea, but I gotta find a photographer that's up for some fun. Know anyone @RealAvalon? I am no Rick Day material though haha.

I have hired (and rehired) handymen based solely on their looks, absolutely.
 
What hasn't happened yet is them staying for extra help.I guess I don't even know how to bring it up even if I've had somebody over several times and we're in friendly speaking terms.

What an interesting survey!
 
== Results from bdsmtest.org ==
99% Switch
96% Brat tamer
90% Voyeur
59% Exhibitionist
58% Master/Mistress
56% Dominant
51% Submissive
50% Rigger
49% Vanilla
49% Ageplayer
45% Owner
42% Daddy/Mommy
38% Slave
37% Rope bunny
26% Pet
24% Primal (Prey)
21% Non-monogamist
20% Boy/Girl
19% Primal (Hunter)
11% Sadist
7% Brat
6% Experimentalist
4% Masochist
0% Degradee
0% Degrader

Chrome hogs the least amount of memory of the three (this, Firefox, and Safari) that I have on my Mac.

Can I give the three things I'll do? Sorry I've been cooped up way too long.

Meet up with my buddy and fuck.
Do a naked photoshoot. I've been working out like a madman (partly because there's nothing else to do) and I'm pretty happy with what I am seeing so far. By the time the shelter in place order in NYC is eased, I should be ready to face the camera.
Visit my parents in New Jersey. God I miss them.

My routine during weekdays has not changed that much. I wake up at 9 to start work, WFH for 8 hours, workout for 30-60 minutes immediately after closing Microsoft Teams, dinner, shower, then relax with a glass of wine to an episode (or two) of whatever I feel like watching.
 
Weekends are now quite meaningless days for me, because I normally am out Friday and Saturday nights with friends. Zoom Happy Hours only was fun on the first two weeks of SAH orders; it lost its novelty pretty quickly.
 
So on the weekends, I cook up a storm in the morning, watch even more TV, and that's about it. One weekend I was so unmotivated to do anything that I napped in the different couches of my house for kicks and giggles.
 
I can only wait for this pandemic to be over, because the quarantine is ever so slowly eating at me.