Charlie

At the first Palm Springs Weekend dinner, we made a joyful toast to Hooboy. Little did we imagine that a month later he would suddenly be gone. We were lucky that Daddy picked up the torch and kept the Message Board going for sixteen more years. This year's toast will be a lot different, as we mourn his loss and wonder where we all go from here.

I have owned dogs of all sizes, from 10 lbs to 70 lbs. I have never left any of them outside unattended at any time, even though I have usually had fenced or walled yards. The biggest danger for them here in southern California has not been that they might get out, but that other animals have gotten in. One day I looked out the glass slider to the yard, and a large coyote stood there staring back at me. At one time I had a pool, and an old dog who was going blind; one day he fell into the pool, and if I hadn't been present to jump in and take him out, he could have eventually drowned.

Many PS restaurants have always had outdoor dining areas, and some have expanded the size of them during the pandemic.

I ate there the night after it re-opened for indoor dining last week. I had forgotten how incredibly noisy it is, and I was disappointed: service was very slow, the prices have gone up and the food wasn't great. E.g., a "potato & chorizo salad", which turned out to be a big pile of aruguila with two little fingerling potatoes, two small slices of chorizo, and four cherry tomatoes, for $13. To be fair, everyone I have spoken with about restaurants in town has said that prices have gone up and quality has declined--I've experienced the same thing at a couple of other old favorites during the pandemic. Maybe as they get up to speed again, staffing and supply will improve, though I'll bet the prices won't be reduced.

The University of Pennsylvania rowing crew, but probably before Jack Kelly, Jr.s time (Grace's brother).

I would have to experience the entire context of the second remark to know how to take it: a condescending putdown, a juvenile attempt to be funny yet friendly, a thoughtless expression of what was occurring in his mind, etc. Tone of voice, facial expression, and body language would tell me as much as the words themselves. I had a senior professional colleague who often greeted me with, "How are you, young man?" but I could tell it was friendly banter rather than condescension.

One of my favorite places in NYC is the Lower East Side Tenement Museum on Orchard Street, if you want to see how the other class lived in Manhattan in the 19th century.

His name didn't happen to be Bill, did it? If so, PM me and we'll dish.

I read through the entire brochure, and it seemed to me that they have thought of everything and are trying to find the optimum situation FOR THE DOG! That's fine with me, if they can do it. Most rescue operations can't operate with that much control, because they are not handling a specific breed that is fashionable, as Labradoodles are these days, and they need to find homes for their dogs. However, the supply of Labradoodles is probably smaller than the demand, which often comes from people who haven't given much thought to a lot of the issues that the writer mentions. If one goes to a rescue organization because one actually wants to rescue a dog rather than because one wants to save money, then as @shadowcatzxxx mentions above, the breed is less important than finding the right individual dog which fits your situation. If one will be satisfied with only a specific breed, then it is best to go to a reputable breeder (who may ask the same kinds of questions than the Doodle rescue organization does before they will sell a dog).

A classic!

It's a tricky thing to deal with when trying to explain to young kids, who tend to generalize from their own experience. Until hormones start to kick in at puberty, many kids "like" friends of their own gender more than the opposite gender, so trying to explain the relationship between adult gays is confusing if the kids still don't understand anything about sexual attraction as opposed to friendship.

Depending on where you are staying downtown and how much luggage you have, you could actually walk from the airport to your destination. Unlike many cities, the airport is across the street from City Hall.

I purposely got out of the city at the beginning of July that year, because I expected it to be overloaded with tourists, and went to Italy.

I was amused to read a similar account in the NYT of the wedding of my Palm Springs eye doctor's daughter.

Marlon Brando! Love the white socks and loafers.

When I was in my early 20s, I knew someone who organized orgies at his apartment in Baltimore. One time I took part in a ten man orgy that turned into a gang bang, because one of the group was an insatiable bottom, and he just happened to be the most gorgeous guy in the room, so almost everyone took a turn fucking him (I actually fucked him twice). Sigh!....pleasant memories of my youth.

You can't say we weren't warned!

I can't answer the exact question about naming, since I have never advertised on rentmen , but when looking at an ad in a city I know well, like Philly, I like to use the "map me" feature. I almost always see the location pinpointed as the City Hall area--which is unlikely for an escort--but occasionally I see the pin in some other neighborhood, so the advertiser must have some opportunity to choose something more specific.

"The panda eats, shoots, and leaves." Who is this escort who calls himself The Panda?

For some reason, one of my great-grandmothers saved the fancy garters she was wearing when she stepped off the boat in America in 1865, and I found them in a small box, with a piece of paper explaining what they were, among my father's effects after he died. I have no idea why he saved them or what to do with them. I also have my grandfather's pocket watch and his pistol. The one useful heirloom was my grandfather's gold wedding ring, which has my grandparents' initials and wedding date (1904) engraved inside the band. It sat in a little box in my dresser until I got married in 2013, when I decided to re-purpose it as my own wedding ring. A jeweler was able to re-size it to fit me without disturbing the engraving. Unfortunately, I have no family member to hand it down to, so it will probably end up in an estate sale someday.

The one in the hat.

The whole Independence Park is definitely worth visiting, including the new Constitution Museum. It's the Liberty Bell itself that I think is overrated, especially creating a special building just for the bell (it used to be simply one of the items within Independence Hall).

I have a friend who lives on Cape Cod but comes to spend the winter in Palm Springs every year.

We stayed in Ogunquit once, but the gay life was so subtle that we couldn't find it. Of course, that was more than a half century ago, so things have probably changed.

One of my great-great-grandmothers had children by three husbands over such a long time span that her youngest daughter was younger than her oldest grandchild, my grandmother. It was funny hearing my grandmother call this younger woman "Auntie." My mother was twenty years older than her youngest sibling, but her parents spaced out their six children so that the three oldest were fairly close in age and so were the three youngest. It seemed like a good idea for bonding within the two groups, but it meant that when their father died suddenly at the beginning of the Depression, the older group had to take responsibility for supporting the younger group financially.