Lucky

I didn't know that they covered their butts!

Now, mvan, don't start that guessing! I only meant to use a generic website owner. Could be anyone, except Oz!

It appears that over 30 people will attend Saturday night's dinner, and close to 40 will come to the pool party on Sunday. Our first Palm Springs Weekend we had 14 for dinner, and about 20 on Sunday. Once Oliver began his pool event the second year, the event continued to grow. Why, we are even having folks fly in from the east coast! This is something I never imagined when I first thought of holding the event. I just wanted to get to know some of my fellow posters,and apparently so do a lot of other guys. Many thanks to Oliver for keeping the event running. All are welcome, as long as you are a regular poster or an established escort. I hope everyone has a great time. The event would be nothing if not for the people who attend. I make much the same argument about message boards. They would be nothing if not for the people contributing to them. So take Pride in what you have accomplished! If you hear an owner say "it's my message board" just ask him what he would have if none of us posted!

This isn't Mary on a piece of toast, or a statue suddenly weeping. This isn't the Virgin Mary appearing to remote peasant girls. This is an actual trip to heaven where an almost 4 year old boy saw his great-grandfather; the biblical figure Samson; John the Baptist; and Jesus, who had eyes that “were just sort of a sea-blue and they seemed to sparkle,” Colton Burpo, now 11 years old, recalled. Using Sarah Palin's ghost writer, he has written a book of his experiences that is selling like hotcakes as people starved for a look into heaven want to read his story. More than one and a half million copies are in print. His father, a minister, has rebuffed allegations that the family is in it for the money. Even the parents were skeptical of the story at first, saying that he and his wife, Sonja, were not sure if they could believe their son’s story, which came out slowly, months and years after his sudden illness and operation in 2003. The details persuaded them, Mr. Burpo said. Colton told his parents that he had met his younger sister in heaven, describing her as a dark-haired girl who resembled his older sister, Cassie. When the Burpos questioned him, he asked his mother, “You had a baby die in your tummy, didn’t you?” While his wife had suffered a miscarriage years before, Mr. Burpo said, they had not told Colton about it. “There’s just no way he could have known,” Mr. Burpo said. And the Burpos said that Colton painstakingly described images that he said he saw in heaven — like the bloody wounds on Jesus’ palms — that he had not been shown before. How one could verify exactly what these wounds look like is not stated. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/books/heaven-is-for-real-is-publishing-phenomenon.html?hpw

The NY Times reports on what you could do with 36 hours in Sao Paolo. No saunas are included, but some art and food reports do entice: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/travel/13hours-saopaulo.html?hpw

Thanks for the reports. Those of us stuck at home enjoy reading them!

If not all, at least it is a start!

Did he even write his latest novel?

I suspect no one. After a while the email address gets on different lists. What I hate is that recently my niece sent everyone on her contact list an email...a group email. Now all of those hundred people are in my Gmail contacts...added automatically. So when I try to type a name, these names of people -I have no idea who they are- pop up as suggestions to shortcut my typing. I hate group emails. As for this one, I did not hit send once I saw that they didn't really give a shit about my desire to "unsubscribe." That, in itself, is an insult as I never subscribed to any of the multitude of junk mail I get.

The Broadway musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, ain't what it used to be. The show, now in previews, has had several stops before New York, and there can be no doubt that the show has been tamed a bit for New York audiences. The New York Times takes you through the history of the show, pointing out the things deemed not suitable for the Americans: A Tamer Priscilla

"Father DiGregorio went on the offensive on Friday, saying he is angry and intends to fight, Action News reports. “Angry, very angry, and I intend to fight these accusations with every legal means at my disposal,” claims Father DiGregorio. (CathNewsUSA.com)" Fr. DiGFregorio was apparently NOT one of these priests suspended, so he may well have had every right to be angry at the accusations. 8 of the 37 priests were cleared of suspicion. UPDATE: I spoke too soon. He was one of 3 suspended on a day before the 21 were suspended. "Father DiGregorio went on the offensive on Friday, saying he is angry and intends to fight, Action News reports. DiGregorio was accused of molesting a 16-year-old girl four times in 1967 or 1968 in the Our Lady of Loreto rectory in Southwest Philadelphia and in his car. Another priest confirmed the allegations against DiGregorio, who also failed a lie-detector test when queried in 2005, grand jurors found. Yet, archdiocesan investigators cleared him. Until (Feb. 16th), DiGregorio remained a parochial vicar at Stella Maris parish, in South Philadelphia.

I got some spam for a quilting newsletter, spam that came to the address I use only for this site. I didn't want the quilting newsletter, so I hit the unsubscribe button, here is how I was greeted: Hi Cunt On this page, you can update your e-mail address, change the frequency of the newsletter or completely unsubscribe.

20 year old Anton Hysen, a star in Sweden's soccer world, announced that he is gay: Hysen: I'm Gay He is the son of a former football star. Swedish soccer is no more liberal than any other country, so this is a bold move. Anton Hysén, 20: Jag är homosexuell Futbolista sueco Anton Hysen se declara gay Fotbollsspelaren Anton Hysén kommer ut Coming-out: Le footballeur suédois Anton Hysén sort du placard And with his father:

Having met him, I'd say kjun looks much younger than 66!

In reading the posts from Tampa Yankee and lookin, I would have thought we were pretty much in the same line of thinking, but here I am glad to see the death penalty imposed. I know the objections to it, and I agree that it has to be imposed rarely and fairly. But some people are just evil. The acts they commit deserve our highest punishment. Gacy, for example. Here's my best example for the death penalty: William George Bonin (January 8, 1947 – February 23, 1996) was an American serial killer and a twice-paroled sex offender,[1] also known as the Freeway Killer, a nickname he shares with two other serial killers. Between 1979 and 1980, Bonin tortured, raped and killed a minimum of 21 boys and young men, and is suspected of committing a further fifteen. Bonin was convicted and eventually executed in 1996 for 14 of these murders.- Bonin had a preference for young boys. The LA Times once printed the pictures of many of his victims, and it was one of the most heartbreaking things you ever saw. He actually stuck hot pokers up their asses in his cruelty. So yes, some guys deserve to die. The victims whose lives were cut short:

Warm and cuddly- isn't that how people usually describe me? I know that there are no schools for learning either how to manage or post on a message board. So there are always going to be rough spots as we learn what works and what doesn't. But I agree with Oz that we have a good group of guys on this site, and we all are pretty good about tolerating each other's mistakes, never, of course, shying from an opportunity to lighten things up. But I like that I get to express my opinions and not have the site shutdown for two weeks!

1. I wouldn't make them privately, I'd want all my posters knowing that when someone accomplishes something that helps my website, I let the world know. 2. You sure looked like you needed it when you posted 7 threads and ignored this one. 3. I am happy for you to post. But a thread dump that pushed everyone else's thread down the list doesn't encourage people to post. 4. And Daddy works 16 hours a day. At least that's what he says when he is being criticized. The post for MsGuy was up now. You had time to post 7 new threads, maybe one of them could have been sacrificed to get to MsGuy's thread. 5. Nice. Buried at number 5, but still. 6. Yes, it might have been bitchy. But there are those of us who come here every day and try to keep this message board thriving. It's not easy. There are many days when we feel we are talking to ourselves. So when a frequent contributor is being honored by his colleagues but gets ignored by the management, I do get a little bitchy. When the posts of those who do try to keep the place going get dumped down the line, I don't like that either. I encourage everyone not to just start threads, but to contribute to them. When people don't get responses to their threads, they give up. I love you too. Loving families occasionally get on the opposite side of each other.

I am sure that Totally Oz meant to comment on your rise in status but was simply burdened by all the new threads he had to post. So I will bump it back up to give him another opportunity!

From today's NYTimes, on airplane germs: In 2007, Charles P. Gerba, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona, swabbed airplane bathrooms and tray tables on eight flights to see what bugs might be lurking onboard. Four out of six tray tables tested positive for the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and norovirus, the highly contagious group of viruses that can cause a miserable one- or two-day bout of vomiting, diarrhea and cramping, was found on one tray. Most of the bathrooms he swabbed had E. coli bacteria. Thirty percent of sinks, flush handles and faucet handles had E. coli, as did 20 percent of toilet seats, according to his research.

Congratulations, twinklover! In 11 years of posting I think I have finally seen a truly gross post! At least I doubt anyone can top it.

We noted this way down at the bottom of a thread in another forum, so you might have missed it. Our colleague MsGuy has reached the height of posting. He is now an Olympian! Now, lest you think we take these things too seriously, note that it is all in good humor. It's not like he can go to the local porn shop and get a discount because of it. But I would buy him a drink should he show up in Palm Springs! After all, I have been enlightened and entertained by his posts and wish him a thousand more. Someday he might even become a lucky member! PS- not sure which Olympian he wants to be, so I thought Hermes might do...lookin says this pic best fits an Olympian:

Lookin, knowing that you are a) from the Bay Area, and don't like encounters of the turd kind, then it is my duty to advise you NOT to ride BART, the Bay Area Transit system. Reports have shown that the seats harbor all kinds of bacteria and fecal matter. People urinate and poop on them. So stay away, even if this means you have to ride your bike to Polk Street or Castro Street. Here's the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/us/06bcseats.html?hp

I would have to! A sloppy drunk is no fun.

A little harsh, zipperzone. It's possible that there are some innocent guys here. Allegations are easy to make, harder to prove. Can you imagine the pain that an innocent priest would be going through? Granted, the situation does not look good, but I don't assume they are all guilty.

Rob Bell, a popular evangelical preacher in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has ruffled many feathers among his brethren with his new book “A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.” He "describes as 'misguided and toxic' the dogma that “a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better.” He indeed asks if Gandhi is rotting in hell. His answer did not please many evangelicals. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/us/05bell.html?hpw Bell is no stranger to controversy. His previous book, Velvet Elvis, a book that Bell described as for people who are "fascinated with Jesus, but can't do the standard Christian package". The son of a federal judge, he has built his church up to 10,000 members in a relatively conservative area of the country.