Lucky

But, truthfully, I like the lonely highway in fall...

Did you say fall photos?

A picture says a thousand words- and no need for spacing!

So Satan did us gays a favor while leaving straights to their Idi Amin's and Adolf Hitlers. All those roving straight men just don't know what Satan could have done for them.

Greece has backed off of plans to hold a referendum on the Euro deal. Still and all, it indicates lots of troubles ahead.

The girl claims that the Bieb impregnated her in a 30-second blast of virginity-busting sex- on a shelf in a backstage area of an LA arena. Given all of the girls that he could probably have, I doubt he would have picked this one.

Death has been on my mind lately, having attended a funeral last week. In the course of my travels, I read a novel by James Lee Burke, an author whom I quite admire. He has a comment in the novel, Feast Day of Fools, that mortality is the price of admission to the ballpark. I think of it more as a carnival than a ballgame, though. Hitoall is not alone if fearing pain. Modern medicine has come a long way in keeping one's final days relatively painless, if possible. Ultimately we have to accept that we do not control our demise- it's going to happen no matter how we feel about it. Once accepted, then it probably becomes a little less disquieting...of course, I don't know yet.

Not only that, but Justin performed live on Dancing with the Stars last night, so, yes, he is in publicity mode. As he performed, I thought of how young he looked. I cannot picture him engaging in an act of impregnation. He has a nice haircut, though.

Congratulations, EXPAT. 1000 posts and hopefully thousands more to come. You have made great contributions here and deserve the commendation of your colleagues. I am getting very close to identifying my favorite EXPAT photo category.

Well, you said you would miss me if I took a week off. So I am trying to post enough to make you wish I'd take another week off!

Dancing shirtless tonight on Dancing with the Stars, professional dancer Derek Hough did not need a shirt. He sizzled so much that it would only have burned. He danced a special number with another professional dancer- a female, I think- and was able to let loose, unencumbered by his less talented Dancing partner, Rikki Lake. My guess is that Hough, with his multiple appearances on the popular show, has been seen my more people than any dancer in history, even Nureyev or Baryshnikov. Now, if he would just lose the cheesy moustache...he'd look real sexy again:

You have a good point, KYTOP. I, too, would like to see a more unified and coherent protest. But the US Congress was given an opportunity to forge a solution in the form of the Dodd-Frank bill which allowed for multiple banking reforms. What we are getting instead is a watered down list of nothing. The committee assigned to delineate the reforms cannot do it. The banks are exercising their right to protest, and they are telling Congress no dice- don't you dare reform us. So how can the guys in the street be expected to come up with solutions when our own Congress cannot? From politico.com: President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill into law 15 months ago, saying he was anxious to put new rules of the road in place for Wall Street. But federal agencies have blown about 77 percent of the rule-making deadlines for the massive overhaul, according to a recent progress report by the law firm Davis Polk — meaning key parts of the bill are far from implementation...GOP lawmakers also have introduced bills to repeal all or part of the 848-page Dodd-Frank law. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67192.html#ixzz1cWJvkPNF

Last week I encountered two New York police officers, and had a friendly, if brief, chat with both. I ended up getting a smile from each of them. But on the same day, in a Bronx courtroom, smiles from police officers were not to be found. There was found "a stunning display of vitriol by hundreds of off-duty officers...incensed colleagues organized by their union cursed and taunted prosecutors and investigators...The assembled police officers blocked cameras from filming their colleagues, in one instance grabbing lenses and shoving television camera operators backward." Eugene J. O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said: “The Police Department is a very angry work force, and that is something that should concern people, because it translates into hostile interactions with people.” NYT The Times reports further: The charged officers, accused of extending favors, seemed to have received a favor of their own from the authorities. They were spared a “perp walk,” the ritual in which suspects are walked to their booking or arraignment while photographers and videographers document their shame. Instead, the officers were loaded into black vans at the Central Booking garage, then driven into a garage in the courthouse." The department had been rocked by news that Federal agents earlier in the week arrested eight current and former officers on accusations that they had brought illegal firearms, slot machines and black-market cigarettes into New York City. None of this bodes well. How a resolution can be found is a mystery, as the officers have been charged for fixing tickets and these charges cannot just be dismissed. Even if a satisfactory resolution of these cases is found, the other cases speak to a serious problem with corrupt officers. Fixing tickets looks minimal in the face of planting evidence or running guns. The days of cops working a side job as Mafia hit men may be over, but how does a large department police itself? It's all very troubling, and I feel for the pleasant officers I encountered on the streets of lower Manhattan.

Did I just hear someone say that they want to know what happens when they die? On a site about gay male escorts? Well, I happen to know the answer. It's a myth that that the Quran specifies 72 virgins, but here are some quotes that may have you converting tomorrow: QURAN 52:24): "And there will go round boy-servants of theirs, to serve them as if they were preserved pearls." (QURAN 56:17): "They will be served by immortal boys." (QURAN 76:19): "And round about them will (serve) boys of everlasting youth. If you see them, you would think them scattered pearls." (albatrus.org- and no, I didn't verify the quotes.)

Interesting story, nice paragraphing...what's not to like?

ihpguy, methinks there is a suck alley in many towns, but I like your terminology!

My eyes drool over the pics, and glaze over the lack of white space in the stories. I realize I am a party of one on this, but paragraphing has its purpose! Yes, it does! Even for young guys. Not to mention old guys. Like me... :)

What made me hire for the first time? Desire, what else? In my case it was a smiling young guy on the beach in Acapulco. Never having been through it before, I developed a crush. Reality set in when he came to me asking for emergency money to keep from losing his apartment. I went to the bank with him and made my first cash withdrawal on a credit card. $50. I didn't see him for days, then he finally reappeared, unchagrined at having blown my dough in Mexico City. I was expected to go along with the laugh, and I did, but he didn't get any more money. In the long run, it cost him more than me. After all, there were plenty of smiling beach boys.

Well, I can't argue with that. The UN seems to be a bureaucrats dream. Yet the concept of 7 billion people is a hard one to get around, so forming it as one person actually born today makes it a little easier to grasp. I think all 7 billion were in New York last week.

Well, excuse me. The banks ripped off the country and ruined the lives of multitudes, but far be it from us to protest it. The park that I saw was quite clean, and yes, I have hard that some homeless have moved in. Good for them. Now they can stay in clean and safe places, get medical care, and have something to eat. The way that the economy is going, these tent cities will multiply soon. For those unscathed by the economic collapse, think of all of those folks who thought they were secure in their homes too. The worst of it may be yet to come. Yet Wall Streeters continue to rip people off, the latest example being Jon Corzine, former governor of New Jersey. He ruined his company, yet was set up to get a $12 million severance when it was sold. You complain of these protesters, but let's hear about the corporate predators in their nice suits who go home at night to nice homes that they "earned" off the backs of Joe Citizen.

Well, yes, I guess I was!

My guess is that Greece may be the first country to leave the Euro union. Would we then see a domino effect, with Ireland and Italy, Spain maybe also, leaving the union and the Euro thrown into chaos? This is something I never thought would happen, and here we are discussing it as a real possibility. The suffering of individuals as a result would be enormous. It would take years to recover, and I probably would not live to see a thriving economy ever again. Who would have thought...wasn't this kind of economic failure supposed to all be in the past?

Reading the responses, I realize that I did not do a very good job of framing the issue. The ensuing discussion did not go where I had thought it might, and trying to rephrase my question at this point seems futile. I can't win them all.

i did read another gay novel recently. Alan Hollinghurst published his first novel in seven years: The Stranger's Child. I can see that he put a lot of work into it, creating a story that spanned decades, and populating it with unique characters. But, as many novels involving the upper classes of Britain go, it can be tedious and many of these unique characters utterly unlikable. The novel centers on the possibility that a heralded poet who died young may have been gay. It gives us a look at how gay writers lived before the days of gay liberation, and that facet of it is quite interesting. His previous novel, The Line of Beauty, appealed to me more than this one did, but I don't regret reading it. An interview with the author and a review of the book: Book Lucky Read

Yes, the 7th person ever born was born yesterday. Well, the 7 billionth person. Only 12 years ago number 6 was born, so at this rate we should be getting more posters in about 18 years. What would you advise number 7? The Guardian of London delves into that: Hey, Number 7... Here's what Salmon Rushdie had to say to number 6: The ancient wisdoms are modern nonsenses. Live in your own time, use what we know, and as you grow up, perhaps the human race will finally grow up with you, and put aside childish things. Sheer nonsense, right?