Charlie

Richard Gasquet (1st photo) had a lot more hair then. I saw him playing live yesterday, and he was sweating profusely, so the thinness of his hair was very noticeable.

That photo of Andy Murray must have been taken before he bulked up.

Sorry. They haven't been declassified yet.

I have met several good friends through this site, and one special friend, who has become an integral part of my social life for many years. Is your curiosity prompted by a desire to meet some of the people on this site? Many members are open to private messages or "conversations" (see the envelope in the bar at top next to your name), which is a way to initiate a connection. If they block messages, it probably means that they are members who prefer to "keep a low profile," as you say. Most of the time, members would be more open to meeting someone who has maintained an active presence on here for a fairly long time.

You don't like the natural look?

I I ask because if it was the same guy, he was an opera singer by profession, and did the escorting only on the side. His favorite role was "Barber of Seville."

Are there tunnels to Rochester?

Did he sing for you?

And hotels are much more restrictive than they used to be about allowing anyone in but the person who is registered in the room.

It was probably not the same person, although it might have been the same barber chair. I just checked my records, and the experience was in 1981.

No, but it reminded me that I once went to the apartment of an escort in NYC, and he had a barber chair in his living room, which we used for something other than a haircut.

This morning I am watching another tennis "tournament" in Belgrade, but very different from the first. There are only a few spectators scattered in the stands, and no ballkids on court, only the two players and the umpire. However, no one seems to be wearing a mask, and the players shake hands. Some of those in attendance were also at yesterday's tournament. It will be interesting to see if there are any notable differences in the epidemiological results from the two tournaments in the same city. There is also a women's tournament going on in Prague this morning. There are people in the stands, but it is a Monday and the weather isn't as good as it was in Serbia (cooler and wetter), so they are not packed together the way they were in Belgrade yesterday, and there are some masks visible among the spectators. Yet another men's tournament is going on in France, where the conditions seem to be much more restrictive. All these unofficial "tournaments" popping up in Europe this month should produce some interesting public health results. BTW, in my post yesterday about the Adria tournament in Belgrade, I said there were 20,000 spectators in the stands, but on re-consideration I think that figure which the broadcasters gave had to refer to the total number of spectators who attended all four sessions of the two day tournament, because that stadium could not have held that many people; even the two largest tennis stadiums, in NYC and Indian Wells, hold only about 17,000 spectators at one time.

Correct.

1. I knew I was attracted to men (FOD was not one of the acronyms he taught me), but.... 2. I had no sexual experience other than fumbling as an adolescent with friends. 3. Sort of 4. The fact that I seemed to be hanging around the public men's room? 5. No. He gave me a phone number (which I still have), but I never called it.

Sixty years ago today, I was approached in the Port Authority bus terminal in New York by an attractive young man who introduced himself as "Michel." He was tall and slender, with black hair and blue eyes, and he asked, "Are you gay?" I wasn't sure what he was asking--he had a slight accent (I later learned he was French Canadian), but I thought perhaps there was a slight language problem, and he was probably asking whether I was feeling light-hearted and in a mood for some friendly fun. "Yes!" I beamed back. He suggested that we go back to his place, which turned out to be a room in an old tenement on the Lower East Side, with a communal bathroom down the hall. As soon as the door closed behind us, he practically ripped my clothes off, and proceeded to take me through the standard repertoire of male-on-male sexual acts: oral/anal/top/bottom. I had never had sex with a man before, and to me the most thrilling part was the passionate kissing during much of it. After a couple of hours and several climaxes, we finally started to get dressed again. "Wow!" I gushed. "I didn't know some of those things were possible!" He stopped and gave me a puzzled look. "But you said you were gay?" It was my turn to look confused. "Umm, maybe I don't understand what you meant...." It suddenly dawned on him that I was much less experienced than he had assumed. For the next half hour he gave me a vocabulary lesson about what we had been doing (e.g., I thought that 'rim' was a noun, not a verb), and explained what it meant to say that I was "gay." By the time I got back on the bus to my home in the suburbs (I learned I was a "bridge and tunnel queen"), I felt much more sophisticated than when I had arrived, and I had a new word to identify myself. So wherever you are, Michel, thank you for teaching me what it meant to be "gay."

This weekend I have been watching a live tennis tournament taking place in Belgrade, with some top international players, and it is like a throwback to a year ago. Serbia apparently has no CoVid restrictions: there are 20,000 cheering spectators tightly packed together in the stadium, no one is wearing a mask, no one's temperature is being taken, the ballkids are not wearing masks or gloves and are handling the players' sweaty towels, and the players are embracing at the net at the end of the match. It looks like the old normal, and the sensation is weird, because all I can think about is what the effects will be a few weeks from now. Will there be a spike of cases connected to the event? If so, will it convince people that this was a dangerous experiment? If not, will there be a surge of demand to go back to go back to the traditional conditions of the sport? BTW, the third leg of the tournament was supposed to be held two weeks from now in Montenegro, but Montenegro has cancelled it and announced that no Serbians are allowed to cross into their country.

But why? I have often replied to a post in the Gallery that is just a a link, and I have never had anything that weird happen. Whitman also found it odd, which is why he deleted the original post after I told him about it, and he said it happened to him, too, when he tried to open the link again.

It was in the "Guiding hand" thread in the Gallery, but Whitman removed the post as soon as I mentioned it to him.

Free service????

When I clicked on a link in a new post in the gallery, a strange clicking noise started, and the link started to transform into a Russian address. Any idea what this is all about?

But what could it mean?

When I clicked on this link, I got a strange sound, and the id on the pic started to transform into a Russian address!

I don't understand how some places, like one of my Visa card suppliers or my auto dealer, know my birthday, but they always email birthday greetings. I have never even visited Facebook.

I think that all it means is that they offer more flavors than vanilla, but you have to ask to find out specifically what is available.

It has turned unusually hot early in parts of the south and southwest, which means that people who were outside in April and May could be retreating back into air conditioned insides.