Charlie

I recycle the things that our waste disposal company tells me to recycle (paper, glass, plastic, etc.)

I couldn't begin to list all the things I have bought since the first IKEA stores appeared in this country, from packets of sauce for the Swedish meatballs to chairs, beds, dressers, tv stands, CD towers, and at least 80 linear feet of 6'6" high bookcases (we have a lot of books). Everything isn't of the highest quality, but I have never bought anything that didn't fulfill its function and last for as long as I needed it; as I sit here and look around me, I can see seven pieces of furniture in this room alone that came from IKEA stores in Pennsylvania and California, including one low bookcase I bought for a former bedroom twenty years ago. [A quick walk-through of the house turns up 38 individual pieces of furniture that came from IKEA.] Most of the things I put together myself, including the bookcases, which would have cost a fortune if I had bought them assembled at a furniture store. BTW, if one is driving on the 10 between Palm Springs and LA, the IKEA at the exit in West Covina is a convenient place to stop to use the bathrooms, since California Interstate rest stops are often closed. And if you are looking for a different kind of fast food than McD et al., , the cafeteria there has the meatballs and other interesting choices.

Likewise for Ryan Harrison, who has a sexy voice. His brother Christian is also cute.

Grigor Dimitrov is certainly one of the prettiest faces on the ATP tour--no wonder Sharapova kept him as her boytoy for awhile. Kyle Edmund is also very cute if you like the pale blond English-type.

We rarely use our dishwasher, since I like to wash things as soon as I have used them, and it takes us a long time to accumulate enough things to justify running a machine. We recently had dinner guests and used a lot of the best china, so we decided to run the washer for only the second time since we have lived in this house (six months). It is a GE Profile, and I suspect it is the same age as the house--8 years--but I don't know how much the previous owners used it (they were a male couple, an interior decorator and an artist). I thought the machine did a much better cleaning job than any other dishwasher we have owned over the years. In our last house the original washer was OK--I don't remember the make--but when we replaced all the old appliances with stainless steel, we bought an LG that took twice as long as this GE to do a normal load, and everything still came out looking less clean than if I had washed it by hand.

If he had a photo of me when I was 13 that he jacked off to, he was a sicko.

Elvis. I was 13 years old and he was a new rock star (he hadn't made any movies yet), and I was able to buy one of the little fanzines, which had a black and white photo of him shirtless. I think it was the first time I ever jacked off to a photo.

Harry Pitts. Peter Licker.

Pugin's fake gothic!

I can't match it any British gothic cathedral that I am familiar with. I thought it might be someplace like King's College Chapel at Cambridge, but it doesn't seem to match that either. There are indications that it is British and somewhat urban, but I can't think of anyplace that really fits.

I often offer things for others to use, but I always hesitate when someone asks to use something I haven't offered, especially if it is something of value. I understand your reaction.

I've only seen the promos, but he does look good.

Sometime in my early 20s, I made a list of all the men I had sex with whom I could remember. There were 168 names or descriptions on the list (I still have it). When I turned 30, I started to keep a daily journal of my activities, which of course included the men I had sex with, including those whose names I didn't catch. I have never tried to count them, but occasionally I go back to read those narratives, and sometimes I can't even remember the ones with whom I apparently had lengthy relationships!

"To give" and "to gift" do not mean the same thing. The first simply describes a physical act, while the latter implies a motive for the act. "Affect" and "effect" are particularly complicated, because each one can be either a noun or a verb, with a total of four different meanings.

I suspect that "hep" is a typo for "herpes."

I thought I did not get chicken pox as a child, but I probably had such a mild case that I wasn't diagnosed, because I did get shingles after I turned 60--twice. The first time was awful, and I didn't know what it was, until I went to my dermatologist. The second time the symptoms were so different, and in a different place, that I didn't realize it was a recurrence until my doctor saw it.

When I was young--and maybe it is still true--there was no federal drinking age: each state set its own age. In New York State, you could drink at 18, but you couldn't vote until you were 21. Now the qualifications have been reversed.

I remember how all the kids in the neighborhood came running when they heard the Good Humor man driving slowly through. My favorite was an orange ice popsicle with vanilla ice cream center.

Don't forget to bring the pooper scooper on his walk.

I hardly ever eat fast food except when I am on the road and want to stop for a quick lunch. I don't find any chain absolutely reliable; e.g., Wendy's is usually OK, but I ate at an awful one recently. I think Subway is the most consistent from one location to another, and I like the fact that I can get something other than fried fat there (although I like fried fat at times). If I stop at a highway interchange that contains a pizza place as well as a couple of burger places, I will choose the pizza.

I hired an escort one evening, with whom I had a wonderful time, and we seemed to have great social rapport. The very next day, I ran into him as we were both preparing to cross the street at a red light, and I greeted him in a casually friendly way. He was alone, but his reaction was very cold; he appeared uneasy about being acknowledged in public, and moved away as quickly as possible. So I don't think there is one tried and true answer to the question of how to approach an escort in public.

I was never very impressed by their stable of escorts, but they were easy to use and very reasonably priced.

I know at least one poster here who is 82, and I suspect there are others.

Damn! I logged on too late, because I recognized Positano the instant I saw the photo.

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