Charlie

Moody Blues.

I had my first hard-on when I was 5. I discovered that if I rubbed myself against a mattress, I would eventually experience a very pleasant relaxation of tension in my tummy, but it was not something I did regularly. After the beginning of puberty, however, I found myself doing it more and more often, and then one day when I was about 13, I suddenly experienced an ejaculation. Then the hormones began to rage, and I was constantly seeking opportunities to indulge several times every day in my mid-teens. The act was always accompanied by fantasies about boys and men whom I found attractive, so I understand quickly that I was gay. The masturbation tailed off in frequency once I started having sex with other males when I was 17, but I still did it at least once a day until I was in my 40s.

My grandfather was a private detective, and my father worked for him when he was a young man. People have always wanted to know more about other people than those people want them to know. Nowadays it is just easier to find the info yourself.

In casual conversation once with an escort after the act, I happened to mention something that another escort, a friend of his, had told me about him. While it was nothing embarrassing or intimate, the atmosphere in our chat quickly turned frosty. I would avoid speaking about anything personal that he hasn't already told you or at least implied.

I have been to many national parks in this country, but have actually stayed within them only three times, in Zion in winter when the lodge was nearly empty and the price was a bargain, at the Grand Canyon as part of a deal including the train ride to the park from Williams, AZ, and at one of the cabins at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. The quality of the lodging never bothered me--I wasn't looking for luxury--but I did get horrible spider bites in the bed at Furnace Creek. Of course, I had the same spider experience at Cradle Mountain NP in Tasmania, so it is not just the US parks that have less than comfortable accommodations. (Accommodations at the Plitvice Lakes NP in Croatia were also pretty bad.) I have mixed feelings about cellphone service. I have often been in parts of Joshua Tree NP where there is no service, and I wonder what I would do if the car broke down in an isolated area in the summer heat, since there are almost no facilities of any kind in the park. However, it would be hard to hide or camouflage a cell tower there, and it would certainly disturb the views more than it would in a place with high trees, like Sequoia NP.

My Mercedes also has an "eco" button, but as far as I can tell, all it does is shut down the engine to save gas whenever I am stopped at a light (which happens a lot here in SoCal). I traded my last Mercedes for a Prius during the gas panic in 2008, and bought another in 2010. They got fabulous gas mileage and were very reliable, but boring as hell to drive. Then I got a Mazda3, which was lots of fun to drive and also got remarkable mileage, but it was too small for old men to get in and out easily, so now it is back to the M-B.

If you like horse racing, you might enjoy going to Kranji Park. My spouse was one of the architects.

Are we sure that beer is what #14 is drinking?

Getting the scramble consistency just right is not easy, and I often miss--a little too wet or a little too dry. Sometimes I don't try, and just make an omelet, with either cheese or ham.

I have even your father beat. I was shocked the first time I pulled up to the pump at our local station and discovered that the price had risen from 25 cents to 27 cents.

I just started reading Gore Vidal's memoir Palimpsest, and I am fascinated by it. I hadn't read anything by him in years--Myra Breckinridge when it was published may have been the last novel--and I had forgot what a viciously witty writer he was.

I recently visited the newly renovated Rijksmuzeum in Amsterdam and found it greatly improved as a museum-going experience. I also cast another vote for seeing the new Barnes, where it is much easier to actually see the art than it was in the old building in Bala Cynwyd. (I'll admit it: I am one of those who often finds museum buildings more interesting than the art within them.)

I am a frequent museum goer, but I have the same problem. I can sprint around a tennis court, or hike for an hour, but the slow walking in a museum makes my back and legs ache.

Still the longest running thread in site history, because the subject is as eternal as escort prices. Whatever became of the lovely Talvin? By the way, in Palm Springs we are still paying about $2.80 for unleaded regular.

I am not normally a reader of science fiction, but A Wizard of Earthsea is one of my favorite books.

I hated to have it end. It was one of the best, most memorable, most informative books I have ever read.

My spouse loved The Wright Brothers, so it's on my list for the near future.

I read only Swann's Way, many years ago, and I don't remember a word of it.

I think you and I may be the only persons on this site (maybe on the Internet) who have ever read Wieland. When I wanted to teach it in an AmLit course a couple of decades ago, I found it had been out of print for years. (Any other Brockden Brown fans out there?)

I knew we must have something in common: I wrote my undergraduate honors thesis on Jane Austen, tried to write a novel once about a lost manuscript by her sister Cassandra, and still re-read her novels occasionally (I recently finished Sense and Sensibility again). I visited her home at Chawton several times, and did some research in the Austen papers at St. John's College, Cambridge. But I never joined the Jane Austen Society, because zealots make me uncomfortable. At the moment, I am working my way through Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner, which I was given as a gift when it was first published, but somehow sat unread on my bookshelf for the last half century. However, I don't read much fiction anymore. I prefer history and biography instead. Concurrent with the Styron, I am reading Augustus to Constantine: The Thrust of the Christian Movement into the Roman World, which is dry and academic, but informative. I am learning more about the theological positions of Eusebius and Tertullian than I ever knew before (and I am sure I will have forgotten it by next week). As WilliamM noted, Lucky used to prod us to talk about books we were reading--he is a voracious reader, but our tastes and interests are totally different--but I have seen little about books since he left. He hoped that the Comedy&Tragedy forum would provide a home for book discussion, because it tends to get lost in the Lounge.

The mere contemplation of the subject makes me weak in the knees, and not from pleasurable anticipation.

My first serious sexual experience was with someone who picked me up in the Port Authority Terminal in 1960, so I think of it fondly.

I was assigned "The Power Broker" in a graduate political science class, and it was the most enlightening text I read in any course that whole year.

I was in the new one in Liege, Belgium, a few months ago. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava, and is spectacular.

I used to commute daily in and out of Penn Station in the 1960s, while the new one was being built aboveground. It was a mess, but I figured that once they were finished with the rebuilding, it would be OK. It wasn't.