Charlie

Although it would have been in character for me to name a dog after Mats Wilander, he is actually named after a very cute Swedish classmate of ours at a language school in Austria.

Ten years ago today I hired for the last time. I hadn't planned it that way, so I didn't recognize it as a milestone until much later. I had been hiring for over three decades, sometimes as often as a dozen times per year in the early years, but my hires had become much less frequent, since I no longer lived in a major escort hub and I was doing less traveling than when I was younger. It was not a "bad experience" in the typical sense. He was a mature, reputable professional, and the meeting took place in his room at a nice hotel in LA. However, after about twenty minutes, what started out as a hot sex scene transitioned unexpectedly into me holding and comforting an emotionally distraught man who could not maintain the pretense that he was enjoying what he was doing, and eventually I put him to bed and left. He called me the next day to apologize, and offered me a free appointment to make up for it, but I gently declined the offer. I didn't realize that meant I had passed the milestone. My attitude toward sex was always that it was a kind of sport. (The spiritually or romantically inclined probably would not agree with me on that.) Hiring an escort was kind of like hiring a pro to play one-on-one. But for that to be satisfying, the pro had to at least pretend that it was serious competition. I was finding it harder and harder to pretend to myself that I was still a player, and at some place in my psyche that experience had finally flipped a switch that was ready to turn. I'm still attracted to many of the pros on sites like Rent.men, but I no longer feel a need to actually have sex with them. Of course, I am still interested in escorts and clients, and wish them well, but I am cheering in the stands, rather than rushing onto the court to join them in the scrum.

I have known many dogs with the various names listed, but I am flattered by the number that are named after me: "Charlie" is apparently the second most popular male dog name around the world, from Iceland to New Zealand. However, I have owned only two dogs with any of the names: "Duke" (2nd most popular male name in North Macedonia), and "Greta" (3rd most popular female name in Latvia). "Max" is the most popular dog name around the world, which may be why so many people seem to mishear my dog's name (it's actually "Mats").

Intelligence is a complicated subject, and very hard to measure objectively, since it is dependent on what the person who designs the test and scores it believes intelligence is. The SAT is not a true intelligence test, since its purpose is to measure what someone has learned--and retained--from what he/she has been taught. Someone with an excellent memory, determination, and good teachers of the subjects which are included on the test will always do better than anyone else. My best friend in high school and his brother both aced the SAT, while their sister never did as well because she just wasn't interested in the same subjects, but she had much better understanding of people and ability to interact with them than either of her brothers did, which to me was a more important kind of intelligence. (Full disclosure: I was an independent consultant to ETS for one of the revisions of the SAT at the beginning of this century.) I was always considered the smartest kid in my class in elementary school, so the fifth grade teacher recommended that I skip that year and be moved directly into the sixth grade. I was never the top student in my class again, because I never managed to make up what I had lost in that critical year in math instruction ☹️.

Gayest gym is World at Sunrise and Vista Chino.

Ah! The adorable Bruno. I have mentioned here before that I sat next to him once on the ferry to Cherry Grove. He seemed very shy, but later a friend told me that it was because he was embarrassed by his very limited English-speaking ability.

Nice Sunbeam Alpine. I also see a '58 Plymouth Fury in the distance.

This is worth a serious philosophical discussion, but not here.

He is not only wearing Cristiano Ronaldo shorts, he IS Cristiano Ronaldo!! (Love the classic Fiat, too.)

I love that he labels himself "Former porn star"! Extra points for candor.

When my spouse worked on a project in Singapore with a local architectural firm, he was surprised to discover that all of the professionals spoke English with one another when they were working in the office, although they all went back to their native languages when they went out to lunch.

Before English became the common international language in the 20th century, international relations were normally conducted in French wherever Europeans or those of European ancestry were dominant, regardless of the native language of the speakers. One of the main reasons why Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were the prominent citizens usually chosen for diplomatic missions to Europe was because they were among the few leading Americans who could speak passable French. (Franklin taught himself French as a young man.) Few Americans then would have imagined that the most common second language in the US in the 21st century would turn out to be Spanish (Franklin thought it would probably be German).

Only two reviews in more than two years?

Aren't we "interfering where we shouldn't be" when we create vaccines to prevent the natural spread of viral diseases?

The Info says he is 6'7" and his text says 6'8"--does that extra inch really make a difference?

It sounds basically like a desire to return to one's childhood, when one really was much smaller than the "grown ups," and was not merely controlled but dependent upon parents and other adults.

The actual seating capacity of JFK Stadium was only 72,000. (My spouse was a stadium architect, and worked on its replacement, the Linc.)

I doubt it for a Miele.

The last time I made a change in my music-listening technology was when I changed from LPs to CDs, which I still play on a Bose radio/CD player. But most of the time I just listen to a classical music station on the radio.

I am tired of not traveling, too, but the anxiety of traveling all the way to London without knowing whether we would end up having to spend most of the time in quarantine would be too stressful to make it an enjoyable trip.

And that is why I don't intend to return to London until these conditions no longer are necessary.

What happens if you arrive at LHR, take the test, and the result is positive?

Strange: he uses a Spanish handle and describes his ethnicity as "Latin," yet has an Arab name and doesn't claim Spanish as one of his spoken languages. He also has only two reviews, both only one star.

I have had a Miele for years, and never had a problem with it. When I had a cleaning lady, she liked it, too.

From his text: "Going to the gym is like therapy to me." I guess you can claim to be a therapist.