Charlie

This map looked so different when I started traveling internationally a half century ago, that I probably wouldn't have gone anywhere if I had eliminated places where gay sex was illegal--it was illegal here in the US, where I was born and lived then! I have never been to a brown country, but I have been to a few of the orange ones (e.g., Morocco and Malaysia), and I would probably go back to them. On the whole, however, the countries where gays are seriously persecuted are ones where I probably wouldn't have been interested in traveling anyway.

...als man sagt in Berlin. (BTW, you have a typo there)

When we moved from Pennsylvania to California, we took a week to do the drive, partly because we had our cat with us. He was a very quiet, easygoing old housecat (14 years), but you don't want a cat loose in the car. He stayed in his crate on the back seat, but we had to stop regularly to give him a chance to move around in the car and avail himself of the litter box that was on the floor of the back seat; we brought enough fresh litter and bags to dispose of the litter each day, because we didn't want to be driving in an enclosed vehicle with an unchanged litter box day after day. Feed him what he is used to at his regular times. Bring enough bottled water, because you don't want to keep giving him water from new local sources all the time, which might upset his digestive system. If you stay overnight anywhere along the way, make sure he can't get out of the motel room, and try not to leave him alone in the room, even if it means bringing your own food or getting fast food take-out to eat in the room or the car. Check to make sure the room doesn't have a bed so low to the floor that he can get out and hide under it when it's time to leave. If he has his own bed, bring it with you. Although we arrived two weeks before our furniture, there were chaises longues outside by the pool; we brought them inside and slept on them in sleeping bags which we brought with us. If you are not used to sleeping in a sleeping bag, google the nearest sporting goods store to your new residence and buy an inflatable mattress when you arrive. If you don't have a sleeping bag, remember that you will need at least a blanket and a pillow on that inflatable mattress. That tv may not work for entertainment until you can get a hook-up, so bring a good book.

OMG! I knew one of the guys in that photo.

The nerves in my foot are tingling as I write this. My problems with sciatica are episodic, and I have been going through a bad patch lately, especially in my lower back and right hip/leg/foot, so I have been getting physical therapy. It is working, but I have found in past episodes that the therapy takes time to produce results: they come slowly rather than dramatically. I use the least drastic pain-killer, which for me is usually ibuprofen, because stronger drugs make me lethargic, and I have found from my experience that movement is more effective than rest to alleviate my pain; the worst time for me is often when I get up in the morning. Because the pain in my foot makes it hard to do very much, the physio for the past two weeks has focused on massage, ultrasound and icing of the foot, and as soon as I was able to start playing tennis again, all the related pain in the calf subsided. Doing exercises regularly at home and not just at the therapy appointment is important, as is conscious control of posture, especially when sitting at the computer. If you are overweight, losing some of it is supposed to help, though I have never been overweight, so I have no personal experience about that. Strangely, no doctor has ever suggested an epidural to me.

It's unincorporated, as is Sky Valley.

DHS is a typical California suburban-type community. It is about 5 miles north of Palm Springs, the westernmost and northernmost town in the valley, and the only one on the north side of Interstate 10; a lot of the residents actually work to the west in the Los Angeles area, because housing is cheaper in DHS than it is on the other side of the Banning Pass, while others work in Palm Springs or other towns in the west end of the Coachella Valley. Cathedral City has what is referred to officially as "downtown" on the southern end of town, along route 111 (all the towns in the Coachella Valley, except DHS, are strung out between I-10 on the north and 111 on the south), but it is not recognizable as "downtown" in the typical sense other than as the location of city hall. There is a new large casino there, a couple of movie theaters, and a smattering of commercial activity, but you are more likely to be aware of the numerous car dealerships. CC doesn't have any real center for restaurants or entertainment. Almost all of the gay activity for tourists is located in PS.

Be sure to ask to see the photo in his closet.

The PS city council is no longer completely LGBTQ+--one council member is an openly straight woman! Cathedral City is the most densely populated city in the western end of the valley, and still has a reputation as the least expensive place to live at that end (other than Desert Hot Springs or unincorporated areas), so it is still home to much of the working class in Palm Springs to the west and Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert to the east of it.

I don't remember the details. I do know that night clubs and gambling establishments were not allowed within PS city limits for a long time, so most of the night life entertainment was situated in Cat City.

There used to be some kind of ordinance in PS that caused the bars to all be across the line in Cat City, but I believe that was changed in the early 21st century; the bars were here when I moved here in 2004.

1953 Oldsmobile 88.

I am currently immersed in a book which I doubt that anyone here has read, or ever will. It is Maynard Mack's magisterial (975 pages) biography of poet Alexander Pope, published in 1986. A good friend of mine, a fellow lover of 18th century British literature, was a graduate student at Yale when Mack started writing the book in the 1960s, and he recommended that I not plan to read the book until I was retired and had a long spell of freedom to read whatever I wanted, so I have put if off for years. It will probably take me at least a few weeks to finish. Last night I was stunned to discover a reference to my friend, long since deceased, in the 109 pages of footnotes at the end. Many people recognize lines from Pope's works ("To err is human, to forgive, divine...", "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread...", "Hope springs eternal in the human breast...", "A little learning is a dangerous thing...", etc. etc.), but few are aware of the source of the quotes, because hardly anyone reads the full poems anymore.

I'd say early 20s. Oh, you mean the car! It's a 1952 Pontiac, but I don't know when the photo was taken--after all, I was still driving a '52 Pontiac in 1960. (That's not me in the picture.)

What really is amazing is that the two saunas are still operating after all these years. The bathhouses that I knew in other cities back in those days are long gone.

The ad is gone already.

Hmm...those photos of him wearing a crown: I wonder if he is hoping to marry into the Dutch royal family?

I discovered the site in Sept. 1999, when it was still relatively new. Other old-timers also seem to think it began in 1999, and at one time Bill/Daddy seemed to agree with that year, although even he was not part of the initial start-up.

I wonder what the four of them are planning to do in the back of that 1955 Plymouth Plaza station wagon?

I always keep a can of pumpkin in the pantry, because my vet told me years ago that it is the best thing to feed a dog when it has an upset stomach.

I think I will suggest to Lucky that we go together on the 60th anniversary, and revisit all the places that each of of saw in 1971. However, we will fly first class, and take our portable walkers with us.

Discipline yourself, dammit! Just make 235 posts per day and you will be over 100,000 in less than a year.

I woke this morning from a dream in which my screened porch was being invaded by Aedes mosquitos and I couldn't find a swatter. I have never had a screened porch.

I love "Bizarro." and always look for the items. I also love salt, and often salt prepared foods that taste bland to me without salt (for the record, I do not have hypertension). The one thing my mother always complained about in her retirement home was that they never put enough salt in the food, and never put a salt shaker on the table in the dining room (she didn't have hypertension either).

Having been to two family weddings in Austin, I fully agree with Ben's last two sentences.