Lookin

As a gay only child, I just assumed it was a case of great good luck.

Not in my case (gross). I have an older brother who is a hardcore Trunp supporter, retired Army Captain, and has children all over the world. I guess I just didn't want to be him. My two youngest brothers, one of them came out to me (only me) as bisexual. He says that he likes men, but he loves his wife and son with down syndrome more than venturing getting involved with men, but he talks to me about men he finds attractive and things alike, and I'm happy that he has me to feel safe talking about it.
I have heard of similar stories about gay men having older siblings, but I also know many gay men who are only-child in the family, or who are the oldest in the family.
Personally, it's good to research and study, but I don't need any scientific explanation for me baing gay. I am, and I love it.

I have seen similar stories, and it has to do with the mother's built up resistance to a protein made by the Y chromosome from the previous sons.  Mothers build up antibodies with each male fetus.  The presence of those antibodies in later pregnancies affects the development of the male's brain to become homosexual.
We may know why younger brothers are more likely to be gay
WWW.NEWSCIENTIST.COM An immune response in some pregnant women’s bodies may explain the “fraternal birth order...  

This story was on NPR this afternoon - sorry, I’m traveling and just barely was able to get the title. Perhaps some kind member can post the link.  Interesting story about gays (both men and women) and the frequency of having older brothers. The more older brothers you have, the higher the chance of the youngest male/female being gay. I have two older brothers, both straight.  My gay cousin has 3 older brothers. And several friends all fall in this category. 

Great to have met you, @BodeBrentwood, I'm so glad you enjoyed the weekend.

Thanks to all who worked  hard to make the entire weekend a success. It was great fun catching up with people I’ve met before and meeting new people and making new friends.

Sorry I missed this year's event. I had a travel conflict last week. I love your reports and was privileged to be phoned by samfitzpatrick yesterday while he was lounging around the Inndulge pool with sfwestcoaster and mikecarey. Sam updated me on some of the participant's naughtiness and the talent that strutted around the pool.  😘  Sounds like I missed a good time. 😁
Hope to see y'all again soon!

Me and maturedmuscle/Steve had a wonderful time (PM me if you want to know more), but I'm actually tired and glad it's over (there were a few setbacks on my trip), and as always, it's the people we met that made the biggest difference and joy. Making friends and meeting new people is the highlight of the trip, and I can't thank @Oliver @azdr0710 @sam.fitzpatrick and @David-SF enough for their kindness, attention to detail, gregariousness, and all in all making this year a wonderful success.

Another amazing year! Unfortunately, I am still recovering from a touch of sun poisoning on Sunday so I missed the breakfast yesterday, and had to call out of work today but overall, it was definitely worth it. 😈A huge thank you to @David-SF who always kicks the weekend off in style and to @Oliver for making sure it ends with a bang. Also a special thank you to @purplekow and Vin for allowing @Robster and I to invade their space while we were 'visiting' Inndulge. 

Wonderful weekend as always! I've lost track of how many of these I've attended, but it's become the highlight of the year for me. Really sorry to have missed @David-SF's pool party and the dinner, but it was great to see everyone. Thank you @Oliver and his Hot Helpers for keeping it going. Always so much fun!

Climbing into my bed after an eventful and adventurous weekend. It was so incredible getting to meet everyone and feel welcomed. Thank you to @David-SF and @Oliver for throwing such wonderful get togethers and thank you to @Summerson for the invitation in the first place. I'm sad that I'm not more west coast oriented, but if anyone ever would like to connect or chat between now and next year, I'm always a message/text/DM away.
 
PS-I will never be able to look at grapefruits with a straight face again.

I just got home to LA and I already miss the warm weather of Palm Springs. Thank you again for a fun weekend. Everyone who hosted @David-SF and @Oliver! Plus everyone who I connected and re-connected after the year! It was my 3rd time going in a row and it was my favorite year yet! Hope to see you all again and maaaaaybe ill find myself at Inndugle next year 💞

I will plan to be at next year’s since I had such a fine time in 2019!

Spectacularly awesome pool party. Thank you to Oliver as well as his helpers with the delicious food and fun pool toys. It's a secret joy about the party I like with the video montage of clothes-less hotties on the computer screen while we're waiting our turn to use the potty. I so enjoyed meeting new people, catching up with people I saw last year, and just "letting it all stub out" a bit before heading home. The heavy wind blew quite a bit of White Claw into the water, so I may be a little tipsy as I'm typing this! 😃

Fifty 😳 years ago , I worked on a number of consumer product brands that sold in the millions of units annually.  We tried to keep the prices steady but, when the cost of an ingredient went up even a little, it could take a hundred grand off the bottom line.  When that happened, we had four choices:
Absorb the loss, which was easier then since executive compensation wasn't as closely tied to stock price (profitability) as it is today.  If we expected costs to go down again, we could hold on for better days ahead.
  Raise the price and hope we didn't lose too many customers.  We had lots of data and could predict volume loss pretty well.
  Reduce the amount of product.  'Shrinkflation' wasn't a word then, but that's what it was.  It was more difficult than simply raising the price, but it was a way to lower ingredient costs, packaging costs and shipping costs all at once.
  Reformulate the product, using cheaper ingredients.  That was a riskier proposition, although we did extensive consumer testing to ensure there wasn't a statistical difference in consumer preference.  What that can lead to is a gradual deterioration in product quality over the course of many years of cheapening the product.  There are products today that bear only a slight resemblance to the same brands a decade or two ago.  Looking at an ingredient list these days often requires a degree in chemistry. 👨‍🔬  
The choices these days are pretty similar to the choices we had a half-century ago, except that companies are much less tolerant of any cost increases that would lead to a miss on quarterly earnings, and the resulting hit to the stock price.
It's also my opinion that customers have become more accepting of price increases, smaller portions, and lower quality.  I wouldn't want to manage a consumer brand these days.  Nor do I continue to buy products that have been degraded over the years.  That's led me away from many packaged food products and back to unprocessed foods, like beets and carrots.
As long as I don't eat too many.  

 

just a few weeks ago, I felt like having a donut for dessert while driving around......drove into the KK drive-thru and ordered a couple standard raised glazed at the speaker box.......got to the window and the staffperson handed me a bag of six with no charge!!.......I said "what?!", insisted on paying, and he explained something about the red "hot" sign was on and that means free -- or something???......I knew about the "hot" sign story at KK, but certainly didn't know it meant "free"!........not a member of any Krispy Kreme club...
(this true story is in no way confirmation that you will receive the same treatment at Krispy Kreme) 

I checked the price of a dozen Krispy Kremes because this thread piqued my curiosity.  Summer of 2020, a dozen plain glazed was $10.99; a dozen today is $16.49!  A 50% increase in less than 4 years 😳 

Just FYI:  the capirote originated in the Middle Ages as a means of public humiliation, punishment by Church officials for those who violated Catholic doctrine.  Spanish & Portuguese religious brotherhoods later adopted el capirote to mark the humility of a penitent.  The tradition persists today in Iberian Holy Week celebrations.

Fifty 😳 years ago , I worked on a number of consumer product brands that sold in the millions of units annually.  We tried to keep the prices steady but, when the cost of an ingredient went up even a little, it could take a hundred grand off the bottom line.  When that happened, we had four choices:
Absorb the loss, which was easier then since executive compensation wasn't as closely tied to stock price (profitability) as it is today.  If we expected costs to go down again, we could hold on for better days ahead.
  Raise the price and hope we didn't lose too many customers.  We had lots of data and could predict volume loss pretty well.
  Reduce the amount of product.  'Shrinkflation' wasn't a word then, but that's what it was.  It was more difficult than simply raising the price, but it was a way to lower ingredient costs, packaging costs and shipping costs all at once.
  Reformulate the product, using cheaper ingredients.  That was a riskier proposition, although we did extensive consumer testing to ensure there wasn't a statistical difference in consumer preference.  What that can lead to is a gradual deterioration in product quality over the course of many years of cheapening the product.  There are products today that bear only a slight resemblance to the same brands a decade or two ago.  Looking at an ingredient list these days often requires a degree in chemistry. 👨‍🔬  
The choices these days are pretty similar to the choices we had a half-century ago, except that companies are much less tolerant of any cost increases that would lead to a miss on quarterly earnings, and the resulting hit to the stock price.
It's also my opinion that customers have become more accepting of price increases, smaller portions, and lower quality.  I wouldn't want to manage a consumer brand these days.  Nor do I continue to buy products that have been degraded over the years.  That's led me away from many packaged food products and back to unprocessed foods, like beets and carrots.
As long as I don't eat too many.  

 

Fifty 😳 years ago , I worked on a number of consumer product brands that sold in the millions of units annually.  We tried to keep the prices steady but, when the cost of an ingredient went up even a little, it could take a hundred grand off the bottom line.  When that happened, we had four choices:
Absorb the loss, which was easier then since executive compensation wasn't as closely tied to stock price (profitability) as it is today.  If we expected costs to go down again, we could hold on for better days ahead.
  Raise the price and hope we didn't lose too many customers.  We had lots of data and could predict volume loss pretty well.
  Reduce the amount of product.  'Shrinkflation' wasn't a word then, but that's what it was.  It was more difficult than simply raising the price, but it was a way to lower ingredient costs, packaging costs and shipping costs all at once.
  Reformulate the product, using cheaper ingredients.  That was a riskier proposition, although we did extensive consumer testing to ensure there wasn't a statistical difference in consumer preference.  What that can lead to is a gradual deterioration in product quality over the course of many years of cheapening the product.  There are products today that bear only a slight resemblance to the same brands a decade or two ago.  Looking at an ingredient list these days often requires a degree in chemistry. 👨‍🔬  
The choices these days are pretty similar to the choices we had a half-century ago, except that companies are much less tolerant of any cost increases that would lead to a miss on quarterly earnings, and the resulting hit to the stock price.
It's also my opinion that customers have become more accepting of price increases, smaller portions, and lower quality.  I wouldn't want to manage a consumer brand these days.  Nor do I continue to buy products that have been degraded over the years.  That's led me away from many packaged food products and back to unprocessed foods, like beets and carrots.
As long as I don't eat too many.  

 

Marriott's CEO has been on record about wanting to insure cutbacks and service unbundling are maintained post-pandemic, taking cues from the airlines.  He's been the most up-front about it, but the big hotel chains all appear to want to boost the hotel owners revenue streams by locking in a lower baseline level of service and allowing them to charge for things like daily housekeeping, access to certain hotel amenities, etc.  This isn't just limited to the budget/business travel brands either.
I think it's a bad idea, especially when competing with Airbnb, but consumer opinion doesn't seem to be driving the priorities now.
 
 

I also suspect that the pandemic is being used as an excuse to cut services that will never be restored. We’re going to have to get used to a meaner world, I fear, except for the uber-rich.

as usual, I'll be offering various very casual morning outings this year......look over my thoughts below and, if even vaguely interested, contact me here in the forum via the message system......I plan to be in the Coachella valley area from late Wednesday the 10th to early Wednesday the 17th and will think of something for most of those mornings, scheduling, of course, around standing forum weekend events.......I can pick up and drop off anybody in the central Palm Springs area until my vehicle is full!......
Sunnylands Center And Gardens - this is a free, non-reservation area of the sprawling Walter Annenberg estate......longer for-fee tours of the estate and house are also available, but I won't be doing that.....  https://sunnylands.org/visit-the-gardens/
Whitewater Preserve -  last year, heavy runoff from the Mt. San Gorgonio area (southern California's highest mountain) prevented us from hiking much here....this year, we'll try again for a very bright and sunny out-and-back stroll on the world-famous Pacific Crest Trail (very gradual incline) and spend some time in the preserve area itself, remarkably cooler than down in the Palm Springs area.... https://wildlandsconservancy.org/preserves/whitewater    
Indian Canyons - on the lands of the Agua Caliente band of the Cahuilla Indians, this very popular close-in area includes easy-moderate hikes to rare stands of native palms and waterfalls along running creeks in rugged desert canyons....may try for an easy ranger-led hike if our scheduling allows....$12 or $7 for seniors (62).....  https://www.indian-canyons.com/indian_canyons 
other suggestions welcome!.....
 



 

with the recent resurrection of this thread, I was able to re-read @Phil_musc's fantastic review of the Brooklyn bathhouse's "Virginia branch" upthread .......fantastic!......shades of the rare humor@Lookinand @Fin Fang Foom (from the forum's "colonial" days of yore) possessed much to the delight of forum members.......I'm sure John D Rockefeller would be proud to see his recreated colonial capital of the Old Dominion still includes this little known side of colonial life

Do these fake ears look stupid?             They look like Yoda on crank.