Charlie

Another book you might enjoy is My Father and Myself by J.D. Ackerley, a gay English writer in the first half of the 20th century, who discovered that his father had been the Edwardian equivalent of a male escort in his younger days. The original American edition was published by Coward-McCann in 1969, and was later reprinted in paperback by Harcourt Brace.

Does the virus behave differently in warmer months, or do people behave differently? In places where winter months are cold, people are likely to spend more time indoors, i.e. in enclosed spaces with other people, where they are more likely to come in contact with whatever virus is being spread through the air.

I'm trying to think whether there is anyone who doesn't know I'm gay ? No, I don't think so.

I have known a number of gay men who had biological children. Most of them came out as guy after their children were born. I have known some of their children. All were straight. Some had good relationships with their fathers, others did not. In general, the daughters seemed to have better relationships with their fathers than the sons did. None of my gay male friends had a gay father, at least as far as he knew.

Good catch! I couldn't remember exactly when the currency changed. That definitely puts it somewhere between 1971 and 1959, when my last copy of the mag cost 35 cents.

I just pulled out my copy of Body Beautiful from May 1955; the price then was 25 cents. I wonder when the copies in posts #82/83 above were published, at a cost of 75 cents--late 1960s?

One of the old physique magazines in the 1950s used to print the names and contact info for the photographers in the back pages. That was how I learned about a photographer who lived very near me. I got to know him--long story which I won't go into here--and he admitted that most of the guys he photographed were amateurs who posed solely because he usually gave them blowjobs along with a few dollars. (Yes, he did photograph me, but all I got was the blowjob.)

That looks like Montgomery Clift!

I would like to know why "services offered by sex workers" are OK, but "sports competitions involving close physical contact are not." What if I want to wrestle with a sex worker?

By "get over this" I assume you mean "survive." But it is not like getting over the common cold. We are already learning that many COVID "survivors" have serious medical after effects that may be lifelong disabilities. People who survive heart attacks and strokes and lung cancer, etc., may be alive, but they don't usually go back to the same level of health they experienced before their illness. For those sick enough to be hospitalized, COVID-19 is not just a minor inconvenience. Death isn't the only thing worth avoiding.

One only needed to use an area code in those days if one wanted to dial a long distance call, and many of us didn't even have services that allowed dialing long distance--one had to go through a live operator, who would know the right code. As @sniper says above, one didn't use an area code to dial a number from within that code until the 1990s. Also, NYC had only a single area code (which most of us didn't even know) in those days, so he wouldn't have needed to write it down for me anyway.

You have reminded me that I have a similar collection somewhere in this house. Mine were usually from bars, restaurants or hotels, and were basically free souvenirs. They stopped being produced years ago when smoking was prohibited in most of those places. The first guy I ever had sex with wrote his name and phone # on the inside of a matchbook cover. I never called him, but I still have the matchbook. It is so old that it was before numbers had area codes.

I think I still have the original of that magazine photo somewhere.

Probably the same way my partner and I have always paid those kinds of bills: out of a joint bank account, to which we contribute an equal amount. Each of us has his own account for his personal expenses.

OMG. He looks just like my first boyfriend.

I was amazed to go into my local Von's (Safeway) yesterday morning and find the paper products aisle completely stocked!

Could be. I have not been able to find the sweet pickle relish that I usually get for my spouse in most local stores, and where I have found it, it is only in enormous jars that I would expect to usually be bought only by restaurants.

"Normal" is a term that refers to a specific point in time, and what most of us consider normal is already outdated even as we think about it. If we think that "normal" means returning to May 2019, then we are mistaken, because it probably will never happen.

Hmm...I wonder whether that means I am low class or high class??

Salad bars and buffets are currently banned in CA.

I would still look both ways if I were you. Because of the lack of trafffic, many drivers are traveling much faster than the speed limit.

The problem with depending exclusively on "test, trace, treat" is that the first two are extremely expensive and labor-intensive, all for the purpose of gathering information for the third, but what does "treat" mean? If every Californian could be tested today, and everyone who tests positive could provide all contact information for those to be traced, we would be drowning in information, much of it useless except for future statistical analysis, because by the time the contacts could be found, most would be ill, dead, or no longer infectious. It may be done effectively in a small country, or one with an authoritarian government that can ruthlessly control its citizens and outsiders, but not in a democratic state with 39 million people and porous borders. What "treatment" do we have to offer those we find through the tracing? We have no cure, so the only logical option would be isolation for those we find who are infected, especially those with no symptoms. It's a catchy mantra, and it might be effective early in an epidemic, but it is a little too late as an all-purpose solution in places where the virus is already widely established in a large population.

He seems to have shrunk 2 inches.

Gyms are open in Florida. A friend told me that at her gym in Tampa they now need to wear masks, use only machines that have not been blocked off to create social distancing, and clean the equipment before and after use. She already had to complain to management about a member who was not cleaning after use.

This should be true in theory, but whether it is in reality is not so clear. Certainly in a society in which everyone has the same religious convictions it is probably true: death was accepted much more easily in pre-modern societies which were culturally homogeneous, in which one was taught that death served an accepted purpose. However, in modern societies which are predominantly secular, religion is often a superficial identity badge rather than an absolute conviction for most people. It is very difficult to genuinely believe that death is the portal to "a better place" when you have spent a lifetime being exposed to overwhelming evidence that it isn't. A society that places the highest value on the right of the individual to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is hard to reconcile with death, which negates it all.