Charlie

Shoes off first, then socks.

Aha! The "British" version substitutes "rebels" for "bloody British," to obscure who the opposing forces were for the non-American audience.

Although I remember hearing this song when I was younger, this is the first time I have ever listened to the words as an historical narrative, and it is strange. There were no "rebels" involved: it was a battle between the armies of two independent nations. Why it is called a "British version" is a mystery, since the singer is obviously an American giving the American perspective.

Always having a phone or something like LifeAlert with you, even in the shower, is wise when you live alone. An acquaintance of mine recently was stuck in her bathtub for almost three days when she was too weak to get out because of a bladder infection. A neighbor finally investigated when he noticed that her newspapers hadn't been taken in. An elderly friend of mine lay on his kitchen floor for 36 hours because he was too weak to get to a phone.

I stayed in Nebraska City once. It is pretty dull the other 364 days in the year.

If you don't actually need nursing care yet, it would be better to look into an assisted living facility, which is much cheaper than a nursing home.

My father swore by Chevy and Pontiac, and owned nothing else in my lifetime. Of course, he has been dead for 40 years, so if he were still in the market, he could no longer buy a Pontiac, and I wonder if he would still buy only a GM car. I have owned 6 Toyotas, 4 Mercedes, 3 Renaults, 1 Volkswagen, 1 Chevy, 1 Pontiac, 1 Ford, 1 Mercury, 1 Plymouth, 1 Honda, 1 Mazda, and 1 car badged as a Toyota Yaris iA, which was designed and engineered by Mazda, has a Mazda engine, is built in a Mazda factory and sold as a Mazda2 in most countries. The latter is typical of cars these days, which are rarely pure products of the company that sells them.

The last Ford sedan I bought was a 1966 model. It was such a lemon that I got rid of it after only three months. The last full-size sedan I bought was a 1995 Mercedes E-class. Sedans have been declining as a percentage of all vehicles sold for years, and the majority of passenger cars sold now are SUVs, crossovers or compacts. American manufacturers have been dealing with the issue for decades by eliminating entire brands: Ford stopped making Mercurys, GM stopped the Saturn, Oldsmobile and Pontiac, and Chrysler eliminated DeSoto, Plymouth, and the short-lived Eagle. The trend seems obvious. When the Camry and Accord reach a critical number, Toyota and Honda will go the same way.

Atlantic City was considered a destination for gays from Philly in the 1960s. There was a large strip of beach in front of one of the major hotels that was known as a gay beach, there were bars and gay guest houses. The last time I went there was in 1965, and I assume things are different now.

The ad on Zillow has no photos of the rooms one would actually live in--bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen. It is hard to recognize as a house.

My great-great-great grandfather was considered a hero in the 18th century, but would probably be considered a black sheep today, because he was put in charge of suppressing a slave rebellion on the sugar plantations in British Guiana, and his methods--as one would expect--were pretty brutal. My grandmother, on the other hand, was considered a black sheep by her family in the late 19th century, because she had an affair with a much older famous man, but today she would probably just be considered a feminist.

Gee, it sure is hard to figure out what turns you on.

OMG! In that photo he looks exactly like one of my early lovers.

Caravaggio's models probably didn't age well either.

It's not good news, but I'm glad that you are taking the perspective that it could be much worse news.

Maybe she meant, "who in the world would want to do THAT to HIM!"

Well, I think he is cuter clean shaven.

I would interpret her comment to mean that your relationships with people are more important than the things you can list on your CV. I would agree on that as a message to young people graduating from college.

I made a cameo appearance at the pool event, but was incognito (no wig).

I thought it looked like Japan, but I wasn't sure where (my first thought was Osaka).

There are no direct flights between PHL and PSP. Having traveled between the two cities many times, I have always found AA via DFW to be the most practical route. If one is unwilling to make a connection anywhere, then a non-stop flight PHL to PHX, and a rental car to drive to Palm Springs would be my choice. It's a longer drive than from LAX, but a lot easier, because it is a relatively uncrowded Interstate 10 across empty desert at 70-75mph for most of the distance (I did it just last week).

To elaborate on deej's comment that reviews have never been allowed on the MC: when Hooboy founded the site, he purposely had separate sections for reviews and for discussions, because the reviews were subjected to a much higher level of scrutiny than the forums. The review had to be about an actual meeting between client and escort, on a specific date, and had to include specified details about the escort. Hooboy (and later Daddy) tried to verify that the encounter actually happened, and to verify the identity of the reviewer. If the review was negative, Hooboy (and later Daddy) attempted to contact the escort, and gave him an opportunity to supply a written response which was added to the review. A review does not appear until it has been vetted in this way. The review is like a published review of a specific performance of a play, which has been read by an editor, while the forum posts are like chatter in a bar among persons who claim to know something about the play. There is no way the monitors can examine every post in the MC to make judgments about whether its contents are really a review of a paid encounter, and unless the escort is a site member and regular reader, he won't necessarily know what claims are being made against him in the MC. (In fact, the monitors depend on site members to alert them to all kinds of problematic posts.) In fairness to the escort, the reviews need to be labelled as such, and accessible by the escort.

A bit of history is in order here. The annual event is held in Palm Springs mainly because Lucky and I live here, and in 2005 Lucky said to me, "Why don't we organize a weekend event and invite people on the Hooboy site to come? We can arrange a dinner at a restaurant on Saturday night, then all go to a show at the Palm Canyon Theater afterwards. Then on Sunday afternoon I will host a party at my house." He made the theater arrangement, and I made the dinner reservation. A handful of people showed up (one of whom, BTW, was TomCal), all of them from California except for Oliver, who was staying here to escape the Midwest winter. It was fun, so we did it again the next year, and more people came. Then Oliver said, "Why don't we have the Sunday party at my place, because I have a pool?" Even more important, Oliver offered to pay for the increasingly large Sunday party. Then in 2009, Daddy finally responded to the invitation, and suddenly escorts started showing up in bigger numbers. After Lucky left the website, Oliver graciously agreed to take over all responsibility for organizing the entire event, with the help of Epigonos, including hosting and paying for the party on Sunday. And like Topsy, the event "has just growed." There is no paid entertainment, and no charge for admission. Attendees are required to RSVP to Oliver's invitation in order to take part, but they are responsible for making their own arrangements for transportation and lodging. If someone wants to go to the trouble of arranging a similar event in Orlando or anywhere else, more power to them--there is no exclusive copywright on the format. But it does require a host, who is willing to assume the duty of organizing the whole event, and paying for the costs associated with it.

Is that supposed to be a metaphor for something? Happy Birthday, Ace!

The wind has stopped. It is supposed to resume on Monday. Oliver must have paid off someone to get perfect weather for the weekend.