Charlie

My experiences were all at least a dozen years ago, so I would not be surprised if a lot has changed. I believe there are also fewer First Class seats on most flights than there used to be.

It's been so long since the first rumors that someone famous had bought the rights to make it into a movie that I have forgotten all the details about why it never got made. I read the novel when it was new, and I honestly don't remember the characters or the plot. Aside from the fact that the main character was a gay athlete, an unusual twist in those days, it didn't make much impression on me.

When you become the first world-famous sports figure in your home country at the age of 17, and that brings immediate wealth and adulation, which continues for years, it is not so surprising that you may develop a screwed up system of moral standards. His sex life is legendary: he married his first wife, actress Barbara Feltus, when she was 8 months pregnant, and has five acknowledged children, not all by his wives. Money has come easily, much of it not really "earned." Of course, if he had never won Wimbledon, he may still have turned out to be a jerk, but no one outside of his his small home town would have cared.

I am not indigent, but I have been upgraded to First Class a few times for different reasons (e.g., I had voluntarily given up my seat on a sold-out earlier flight for someone who needed it). I also remember a time when my partner and I were the only booked passengers in First Class on a long distance flight, and they upgraded some other passengers to First Class in order to balance the weight load (at least, that's what the flight attendant told us when they moved people to seats behind us).

We did it for one year several years ago, then decided it wasn't worth the money. It is getting very hard to find, because the insurance companies were losing money on those who ended up using it, so premiums became too expensive for new buyers who didn't want to spend that much on insurance they might never need; therefore, many companies dropped the longterm care option. One elderly friend was not happy with the service they gave when her husband was dying, and decided to drop the policy for herself.

When he was in Downingtown, the "map me" function on RM went to what looked like a real residential location. In Philly, it just goes to the generic location in Center City that many Philly advertisers use. My guess would be that he still lives in D-town but gets more traffic if he advertises his base as Philly, and may even have a place that he utilizes in Philly when he gets a request to do business there.

By 7am, I have already walked the dog, eaten breakfast, and am preparing for my 7:30 tennis match.

Yes, the heat does get to me after a few days around 120 degrees. That's when I head for the mountains or the coast. One of the advantages of Palm Springs is that it is pretty close to a lot of alternative climates. If one is really in a hurry, one can just get on the tram from the valley floor to the state park 6000 feet higher in a matter of minutes. In winter, one can be sunbathing by the pool in the morning, and tramping through snow in a mountain meadow in the afternoon. The coast takes longer to get to, but last summer on one of those 123 degree days, I got in the car and after several hours in traffic, I was in Morro Bay on the Pacific, where the temperature was 60. But on most summer days, I am a typical local: I get everything done outdoors between 5-9am, and spend the rest of the day indoors in air-conditioning.

Nice '55 Chrysler. But why is the dog looking at the wrong thing?

And the name of this product is....?

The US, Britain and France do not "govern" the three slams. You seem confused about how any of this works.

Would you expect the Americans, English, French and Australians to have welcomed players from the countries against which they were actually fighting a war?! The UK is not technically at war with Russia or Belarus, regardless of their protests against Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The AELTC is essentially a a private club, which is closing its doors against persons of whom they disapprove, regardless of whether or not the UK government allows the players to enter the country, whereas the Australian Open welcomed Djokovic, but it was the Australian government which denied him entry to the country to play. BTW, the four "slams" were not even "open" in the 1940s: only amateurs were allowed to compete, not the professional tennis players who are now represented by the ATP and WTA. Any comparison to the World War 2 situation is really irrelevant.

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...