Charlie

That is certainly an exaggeration, but it is true that at any time in history there has always been somewhere in the world where normal conditions have been truly horrendous for most people. I have just finished a book about the "Black Death" in Europe in the 14th century, when no one understood what they were dealing with, how to prevent it or how to treat it, and people were dropping dead within a day or two of developing repulsive physical symptoms. Plagues have ruined lives throughout human history, and we are lucky to understand and have as much control as we do over our situation.

During the first week that I was online in 1999, I stumbled across the Hooboy review site while looking for porn (that was my real reason for learning how to get online), and I was excited to find a place to write about my numerous past escort experiences. I immediately wrote a bunch of reviews and submitted them, and Hooboy rejected most of them because they didn't fit the requirements (several were about out-of-date experiences). However, he told me that I might want to join the message board, which I didn't even realize existed. So I did, and I've been here ever since.

Well, since it is an 18th century opera, Don Giovanni had to be denounced at the end to satisfy the censor, but it is hard to deny that he really does think of himself as an heroic rather than an evil character, and the story would be rather boring without him at the center.

Oh, yes, you definitely are too influenced by opera! However, I think I am hearing strains of Don Giovanni here.

Yes. I was living in London in 1973-74. and remember the miners' strike well.

The first time I saw her was at Covent Garden as Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, in 1974. The voice was so gorgeous then that I went back twice that week.

Considering that you met him as a clerk checking you into a hotel room, what made you think that he would be interested in a personal relationship? Was there some kind of electricity in the initial encounter, some subtle hint in the words or looks exchanged over the counter that made your heart (or another organ) flutter? "Lindoro," after all, is the aggressor in the opera; were you "Rosina"? As someone who believes in love at first meeting, because my own marriage began that way, I can't deny the possibility, but there is usually some kind of mutual understanding right at the start that I haven't seen expressed here.

I expected that losing a lot of the things I enjoyed and took for granted when I was younger would be part of growing old, but I thought the changes would be gradual, and would be based on my declining health or financial ability, not on something unrelated to my own condition. I figured I wouldn't be likely to have sex when I was in the mood, but I didn't expect I would not be able to go to dinner at a favorite restaurant when I was hungry for a good meal. I expected that international travel might be more expensive, but I didn't expect that the places I enjoyed going to when I got there--like performing venues or museums--would be closed. I certainly didn't expect that admission to the countries themselves might be denied. I didn't expect that I would be reluctant to take my usual long driving vacations for fear that I wouldn't find places to eat or or sleep or go to the bathroom. The worst part is that I don't know when or if I will be able to do those things again. I am not angry--I can't get angry at a virus--but I am increasingly depressed at the loss of opportunities that will not come again.

We got our flu shots at the doctor's office yesterday. I am feeling slightly under the weather today, but otherwise no reaction. I have been getting flu shots for years, no bad reactions, and I haven't had a case of the flu since sometime in the last century.

There were no "gay" magazines in the 1950s, except the Mattachine Society newsletter, but there were "physique" magazines, and the only place I knew of to buy them was around Times Square. I still have a few copies. When the Janus Society in Philly started to publish Drum as an openly gay magazine in the 1960s, I used to put copies of it in the trunk of my car and take them to NY to supply the magazine stores on 42nd St. I still have a copy of the issue with a tasteful nude color photo of my partner at that time on the back cover.

??The I-95 doesn't go through West Virginia.

What a fascinating piece of photoshopped art!

Sprinkler systems are required in new construction in our area, but older houses are not required to be retro-fitted.

Me. too.

I stayed at the Marquis only once, because a friend who was going to NYC to use up Marriott Rewards points invited me to go with him and stay there. It was not the kind of place I normally stayed in New York, and I wasn't impressed. (Not because I was used to something more high class--I frequently slept on the floor of an old friend's studio on CPW.)

I do remember going to Boys Club in Amsterdam in the 1990s.

I get the print LA Times and The Desert Sun, because I don't like to get local news from TV, and my spouse does the crosswords. I have the digital NY Times for $15/mo. because the price for the print version is ridiculous, and there is a lot in it that I never read anyway.

Hooboy believed that if someone hired a named escort and wished to report details of what had happened during their meeting, positive or negative, it should be submitted for oversight as a review, and not simply discussed as scuttlebutt on the message board. He thought the escort had a right to know what was said about him by a client, and to respond to it.

"No negative public assessment" is too vague. No negative claims about the writer's personal experience with the escort.

The review site was structured so that the administration could verify the legitimacy of the review, and if the reviewer made claims about what happened at the meeting that reflected negatively on the escort, the escort could be contacted and given a chance to reply to the review. In this site, however, anyone can join and post unvetted comments about an escort, which the escort may not be aware of, if he is not a member, so they would pass unchallenged. Therefore, if a post here seems to be a review that makes claims about negative behavior by an escort during a meeting, the poster is directed to submit a review to the other site instead of posting it on the Message Board.

A review on Daddy's site is supposed to be about one meeting with the escort, on a given date, and if the description contains negative details about the meeting, the escort is contacted and given an opportunity to respond. If a post on this site seems to fit those parameters, it will probably be considered a review.

A review is basically a report of a specific meeting with an escort, just as a theater review would be of a specific performance.

Although the title of the article used the term "gay," the statistics are actually for "same-sex" marriages, and more than half of the total are female couples. They also counted only couples who were living together in the same household.

I think that was the Greek way. I would have bought a ticket for their Olympic Games.

No, that is not quarantining. You are exposing yourself to a stranger in an enclosed space without distancing or masks. He is exposing himself to you, and then going back out to expose himself to others. Daniel House was kicked out of the NBA for having an unauthorized guest in his hotel room when he was supposed to be in a protected bubble, which is a form of quarantine.