Charlie

I always wonder when there is a difference between the info in the stats and in the text: is he 6'7" or 6'8"? Did he grow an inch between the time he wrote the former and the latter? Or is he really 6'5" but trying to exaggerate it, knowing that you will probably be shorter than he is no matter what?

My weight has actually decreased a bit during the pandemic, because I didn't change anything about my eating and drinking patterns at home, and I stopped eating those lovely meals in restaurants. My exercise pattern didn't change, either: 4 hours per week of tennis.

The massage ad indicates that he is in Harrisburg, not Philly, and the rent.men ad says he is in Columbus. He certainly is moving around a lot.

My best friend and I were competitive from our high school days. I think I had a lot of sex over the years just because I thought it would make a good story to entertain him, and I think he did much of the same. ("Guess what I did last night...":po_O)

I need new glasses: I thought you were asking about setting up a "statue site"!

When Lucky told me first thing this morning that the site had disappeared with no explanation, I wondered what to do with my day. So I did some chores, shopped for essentials, changed the beds, did three loads of laundry, watched some TV, and finally finished all the work on my taxes. All the while I had a kind of empty feeling in my stomach, which wasn't assuaged by going to a neighbor's home for drinks and dinner. Would I have to get through tomorrow, and the next day and the next, with the same kinds of mundane activities? When I got home this evening, opened my email, and found the message from Lucky that the site was back, a weight was lifted from my spirit: one of the most dependable pleasures of my daily routine had been restored! Thank you, RadioRob and Orin?

I started teaching at 24, but my school had no pension plan. Instead, a requirement of my contract was that I pay a certain percentage of my salary into a TIAA-CREF retirement plan, and my employer would match my payment. I also paid Social Security. So when I retired after 36 years with the same employer, I annuitized much of the collected amount in TIAA, turned the rest into a regular retirement account, and started collecting Social Security at 63 (I also took a part-time consulting job until I was 75). It was a winning formula for me and for my employer, who didn't have to deal with a pension plan.

My mother retired with a pension of $36/mo. It never changed during during the 37 years she survived after retirement.

I remember another source saying he was 53 at the time of his death.

I guess I am too late to suggest "HooGirl."

I had a dog named Maggie, whose official Kennel Club name was: Greta Garbo.

There is no assurance that this site will continue, but if it doesn't, all the material that accumulated here over the past two decades may be lost, and there is also no assurance that a new site will be formed. Hooboy's site continued only because Bill had access to everything that constituted the site--both the contents and the technology--and was willing to keep it going. There doesn't seem to be any individual in a position to seamlessly keep things going, but there also doesn't seem to be anyone prepared to start a completely new site in which the current members will be welcome and will also feel at home. I would prefer the attempt to keep the current site on life support rather than count on the possibility that a satisfactory new site will somehow appear.

If the Map Me function is accurate, he is in a residential neighborhood not far from where I used to live rather than a commercial building, so perhaps that is why he looks vaguely familiar to me.

"That Girl!" with Marlo Thomas was popular at the time.

If I get a dog that already has a name, I usually stick with it, unless it's one I dislike--I definitely renamed a dog who had been called Snuggels. When I think of a black Lab, the names that always come to my mind seem to start with M, probably because my mother-in-law had lovable black Labs named Marlo (after "That Girl" star) and Molly. I am partial to Mabel, Myrtle and Millie.

What a tree-hugger!

Is this an ad for Nike, Wilson,or Calvin Klein?

Yes, the originator of the site, Hooboy, died suddenly in 2005.

Can we get this thread pinned?

Wouldn't it make more sense to ask where the alumni of the Ivy League school live rather than where the schools are located? How many Brown grads live in RI? How many Yale grads live in CT? (There are probably many more of them in the DC area.) Likewise, just using percentages of residents with college degrees doesn't tell one much; e.g., many Californians have degrees because the state has the biggest systems of public colleges and universities in the nation, and they work in occupations where a degree is required. Many bottles of wine are consumed there because that is where most of the wine in the country is produced, and much is consumed by visitors. Mississippi doesn't have much higher education available, or jobs that require it; it also doesn't have vineyards, or large numbers of visitors who order wine. When I first moved to Philadelphia, I was impressed by how friendly and relaxed they seemed compared to New Yorkers; then I discovered that most people in the rest of Pennsylvania thought Philadelphians were snobby.

I have always thought Cuevas was incredibly sexy, since I first started watching him play doubles with Luis Horna. There is something about his nose that turns me on.

When I first answered this thread three years ago, I was one of those without a smart phone, though I did have an old flip phone for traveling. I finally broke down and bought an old SE through Consumer Cellular, because I didn't expect to use it very often. It was better than the flip phone, but I took both with me when I was traveling far from home, because the flip phone was AT&T, and I worried about Consumer Cellular coverage; I did have one experience at a small town on the northern California coast when I did have to resort to the flip phone. I liked the SE because it was small, but that also made it hard to use. About six months ago, the flip phone stopped working, so I decided it was time to upgrade my AT&T account to a bigger phone, and I got a new iPhone 11. I don't like the way it works--I hate the swiping instead of the home button--but it is easier to read and type. But it is also inconveniently big and heavy to carry around, so I often leave it home and take the old SE in my pocket. The thing is, I now have two smart phones, WHICH I HARDLY EVER USE. At home I use a landline for phone calls and my desktop computer for anything I do online. I am retired and spend the majority of my time in my house, even without a pandemic lockdown. I feel insecure if I leave the house without a phone, but in fact I almost never need it. And the only phone calls I get are spam, because everyone I want to talk to has my landline number. Yes, I do know people who don't have smart phones, and it is usually because they have no practical need for them yet. However, I am concerned about the future, which is obviously being designed to be sure that anyone who doesn't have a smart phone will find it difficult to function in society.

Roman in L.A.

I don't think I have ever seen an ad with no text or hashmarks before.

"Abandon" is a rather dramatic English translation of Dante's "Lasciate ogni speranza," which would more colloquially be "let go of all hope."