Charlie

I met Howard Dean when he was running for President, and was impressed enough to vote for him in a primary.

There weren't as many alternative fora in which to post in those days.

My mother's hair became very thin in her old age, and her younger sisters persuaded her to get a wig, which she wore when she accompanied me on a vacation trip to California. While there, I took her to visit old friends near San Francisco whom she hadn't seen in decades. Her friend said, "Oh, I wish I still had hair like yours!" My mother replied, "But you can, my dear. It didn't cost that much."

Djokovic was beaten in the final by a Russian (Rublev) in his own tournament in Belgrade yesterday, but Serbia is virtually the only country in Europe that remains friendly toward Russia. I can understand why Wimbledon, which is basically a British national championship, would not welcome a win by Medvedev or Sabalenka while Britain is practically at war with Russia and Belarus. But banning players based on their nationality would certainly put the lie to the claim that professional sports are politically neutral.

U of Michigan grad?

I love the list of places he is "traveling to": they are all neighborhoods within London😄. He seems to be located in E.C.2, and they are all places he can get to easily by tube or bus.

There seems to be only one gorilla now.

On a trip to NYC a number of years ago, I called a well-known escort and made a date for the following afternoon. However, during the night, I developed severe diarrhea and woke with a sore throat. I called him at 9am to explain that I was ill and would have to cancel. Then I checked out of the hotel and returned home to recuperate. The next day I called from home to apologize again, and discovered that he had blocked calls from me. The next time I was in NYC, I called again, and found that calls from me were still blocked. I guess he didn't believe me. So I moved on to someone else, and I assume he had done the same.

Let's hope that all you wanted was a massage.

I had forgotten about those things. I rarely saw English cars in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, except for sports cars like MGs and Austin Healeys, and the occasional Jaguar. A girlfriend of mine bought a new 1965 Austin Healey, and I drove us from Philly to Boston for her twin sister's wedding. The young people at the wedding thought we were really cool, but I hated driving that thing for any length of time.

The most impressive technology in a business office was an IBM Selectric typewriter. At home, I was still using my father's big Underwood manual, which he got after my grandfather closed his office during the Depression. Putting in a new print ribbon was always tricky. Turn signals were an available option on new cars, so you didn't have to stick your left arm out the window to signal which direction you intended to turn. I remember my uncle showing off the turn signals on his new 1950 Plymouth, to my father, who did not have them on his 1947 Pontiac--both popular auto brands that had disappeared by the end of the century.

I had forgotten about him, but I now remember that he did it also; I was thinking of Wolf von Wernsdorff (who, rumor had it, had all male "parties" at his house--I was never invited).

He has been on RM since Aug. 2015, and he is now only 25? Hmmm...

I find the Wimbledon decision surprising, since the tournament is not like the Olympics, where the athletes compete as official representatives of their countries. At Wimbledon, the athletes are individuals, whose nationality seems unconnected to their qualifications to compete. Some of the players, like Azarenka, have minimal current connection to the country in which they hold citizenship. It doesn't seem fair to hold every citizen responsible for the actions of their governments, which they may not even support.

When I was a college student, one of my professors chain-smoked cigars in class. One time, W.H. Auden was invited to a class; he smoked his own terrible-smelling hand-rolled cigarettes while he spoke. When I started teaching, there was still an ashtray attached to the lectern in case the professor wanted to smoke while lecturing, which some of my colleagues did. I missed the first walk on the moon--I was down in the "meat rack" on Fire Island having fun that night.

Cooper, I feel your anxiety. Last year our independent financial advisor, Nick, who had handled our accounts since 1985, retired, but he advised us to switch to a younger independent financial advisor, whom he had known and sometimes worked with for many years, in whom he had total confidence. He told the new guy exactly what we were like and what we were used to, and when I spoke with him, I got the same vibe that I had always had from Nick. He actually keeps us as regularly advised about what he is doing as Nick did, and after almost 6 months, I have seen nothing to make me regret the change. The key is definitely full communication about what you want and are comfortable with.

It was a BuffBoys event at Heaven ($25 admission).

A number of years ago, I made a trip to NYC with a fellow West Coast poster here, who had only recently come out at an advanced age. Cooper took us to a strip club, a first-time experience for my companion. It was a momentous occasion for him😲. Cooper definitely knows what to do in the city.

I was told I had flat feet by a shoe salesman when I was an adolescent, and he advised that I always wear shoes that have good supportive insoles. So I have always avoided sandals and flipflops, and always check to see how much arch support there is in a pair of shoes before I buy them. I won't buy any shoes that I can't try on first, so I never buy them online.

When I was having problems, my podiatrist told me to go to the store where I buy my tennis shoes and simply buy SUPERfeet inserts, which I did. I now wear them in all my shoes that have removable insoles.

You probably flew Icelandic for the same reason that I did: it was the cheapest way to fly to Europe, because the airline did not belong to IATA, and flew from Keflavik to Luxembourg and back to avoid IATA restrictions on budget fares; therefore, one had to fly from New York or Luxembourg to Keflavik, and technically change planes there. Icelandic also offered things like open dates for return flights, for up to a year. I made several trips to Europe that way, and on a few occasions I did layovers in Reykjavik for a few days. Those things changed when it later became Icelandair and joined IATA.

Whenever I go back to a place where I once lived, I go to see the buildings I once lived in. When I was in Philadelphia several years ago, I stopped by the first house we owned, which we had sold 30 years previously. As I was taking a photo, the front door opened and a couple came out. I said," Don't worry, I am not casing the house for a burglary--we lived in this house for a dozen years." They said, "Oh, would you like to see what it is like inside now?" Of course I did! Considering that it had sold recently for almost three times as much as we had sold it for, I was surprised that it had changed very little since we left it. I pointed out to them where I had torn down a wall, the windows we had installed ourselves, the floor we had laid, the bathroom my father had helped us rebuild ourselves, etc. (we had been DIY gentrifiers). I couldn't wait to get back to CA and show the photos to my spouse. In one of our later houses, I looked out the front window and saw a man and a young girl looking at our house. I opened the door to speak to him, and he introduced himself as the architect, who had designed the house for his own home. The girl was born while they lived there, which was why he was showing it to her. So naturally I let them in so she could see what had been her first bedroom; she was obviously excited by the view from her window. Our first apartment in NYC was in a brownstone in Chelsea that had been converted to apartments. When we went to look at it several years ago, we discovered the whole building wrapped in construction netting. By looking up the address on Google (which didn't exist when we lived there in the 1960s), I discovered to my great surprise that the building was historically certified--not because we lived there, but because it was the only surviving building in the city that had been used as a station on the underground railroad by abolitionists in the 1850s.

It was older than I was.

That's good. When I made that flight almost a half century ago, it was a real nail-biter.

I couldn't help thinking of By Saam, longtime sportscaster for the Phillies.