Charlie

When I offered her the money, she made it clear that she wanted it to be a loan. I don't know whether she was afraid that her husband would be upset (technically, it is his car) about her taking a large gift from me, or whether she was just uncomfortable about needing the help. I suspect she may need to believe that she could pay me back before I decline to accept the payment. I like the suggestion that I tell her to hold onto the money in case she needs it again, although I think splurging on something self-indulgent would be good for her.

They look like they may have been light wool, not uncommon for bathing suits (my father had a couple from his youth). The guy on the right is quite daring, wearing something that would have been considered the equivalent of a thong in those days.

I'm pretty sure it is not Vilnius.

I believe those are bathing suits rather than underwear.

It certainly isn't the typical circuit for a visiting European escort. No NYC, SF or LA?

That sounds like E. M. Forster meets D. H. Lawrence.

There are plenty of rentals in Palm Springs that are as depressing to live in as they would be in the poorer neighborhoods of any town.

Hmm. Razielcik's ad also says he is from Vilnius, but one of his hashtags is #russian. I wonder if some of the Russian escorts are relocating to places like Vilnius because it is hard for Russians to get visas from Russia now.

I resent that imputation: I'm old, but I'm not slow!

It's a lot better life than showing up on the menu in the hotel restaurant.

😦But Unicorn, surely as a medical professional, you know that the cause of hairy palms is adolescent masturbation!

Hairy hands, but on the backs, not the palms.

I don't believe that the standards for male beauty were that different a century ago!

Borna Coric, Cristian Garin and Marcos Giron could all make a decent living as escorts.

I am dealing with the same conundrum at this time, but for a somewhat different reason. I have a woman friend who has been my regular tennis partner for a number of years. She has never had much money, but when I met her she had what many people would consider a glamorous lifestyle. She lived on the weekends with a sexy husband in Palm Springs, who had his own glamorous but not financially sound career (race car photographer). During the week she lived in San Francisco, where she owned a small public relations business. She had to close the business, because now she lives fulltime in PS with same husband, who has become a semi-invalid and is almost completely dependent on her, and pretty grouchy about it. She used to be very social, involved in all sorts of community activities, but I have noticed lately that she has become unusually quiet and probably depressed. I was particularly aware of that yesterday, when we were playing with a couple of friends of ours, each of whom was talking about their recent frequent travels, and the simultaneous major remodeling of their homes. She and her husband lost their house during the Great Recession, and they now live in a rental. I don't know what their income is, but I suspect it is small and not altogether dependable. She drives a 1998 Honda, and she became almost hysterical a few months ago when she was having car trouble, so I offered to loan her $1000 to deal with it; she accepted it gratefully, and she still hasn't paid me back. When she is ready to do so, I am considering telling her to use the money instead to indulge in something like a weekend at a resort to restore her spirits, but I wonder if she would consider that condescending. She has always been fiercely proud of her ability to take care of herself and others, and I don't want to add offense to injury.

You should discuss this with Unicorn.

I was inspired by your experience trying to set up financial help for gay students at your university.

I think it would benefit more people if I left my estate to a fund to provide grants to deserving clients who wish to purchase the services of escorts. There would be a list of approved escorts (perhaps maintained on this site), and a vetted client could apply for a grant, which would be paid to the chosen escort upon receipt of a satisfactory review of the intercourse from the client. A non-partisan judge would be appointed by the trustees of the fund to settle disputes between escorts and clients, and the results would be published in a sub-forum in the Deli.

Sounds like he's "aspiring" rather than "inspiring."

I don't know what you consider "huge." Mine are the same size they have been since the beginning of the new opening page.

My friend in Tampa just let me know that her area suffered tree damage, but the flooding that she prepared for never materialized, so she was glad that she hadn't evacuated. She had lived through one of the really bad hurricanes in Puerto Rico, when they were without power for a month, so she knew what to possibly expect.

I stopped hiring years ago, but when I did, I usually preferred to have someone new, because I found novelty more exciting. However, there were a few who were so good that I would repeat when there was no one new on the market whose ad appealed to me. I wouldn't have called any of them a "regular," since the most I ever hired anyone was eight times, and that was over a period of ten years.

The son of old friends of mine had a sport fishing business in the Florida keys. When a hurricane hit there several years ago, his boat was destroyed, along with his business. When someone asked him why he didn't just sail somewhere else to wait out the storm, he pointed out that sailing anywhere takes some time and preparation, but predictions of the storm's path are constantly changing and often inaccurate. That was certainly true of Ian, which was supposed to come ashore at Tampa, but instead came in much farther south at Ft. Myers. I called a friend who lives in the Tampa Bay area the day before predicted landfall, to ask if she was going to evacuate, but she said that she didn't know where would be safe to go, and she was right--many of the inland areas that she might have gone to ended up with more severe damage than the area around her. As for the guy whose sport fishing business was destroyed, the insurance wasn't near enough to resuscitate it; he ended up working as a bartender in Jacksonville.

I leafed through my saved messages yesterday and found posters whom I can no longer remember, posters who are long deceased, and topics that left me baffled. I save too much old communication as it is (I still have a huge box of personal letters I received when I was in college, before computers were invented), so I probably won't miss much if you clean out the files.

We are all praying for your continued good health!!