lookin

I agree, and this is one of the main reasons I'd prefer to see decriminalization rather than legalization. Once the cigarette companies get their hooks into marijuana, I can't see any reason why they wouldn't start loading it up with flavorings and chemicals and preservatives and going for a selling price that's ten times the cost of goods. I expect they'll have to budget for packaging costs, legal costs, marketing costs, distribution costs, and - wait for it - lobbying costs, just like they do now with tobacco. But it will be the slow and steady deterioration of the product that will be the real buzzkill. Also, it wouldn't surprise me to see Monsanto come along and patent a hundred varieties and sue the tie-dyes off of anyone who ends up with one of the genes in their backyard grow.

Lapdance. For those who believe it is better to give than to receive.

I hope you didn't have to give back the toaster.

I believe they later added the BatShit, when Gotham did away with public toilets.

It's been a while since I've enjoyed a serving of yak piss, so I'm grateful to those whose memories are fresher than mine. But what I can say is that, like much of the U. S. food and beverage supply, mainstream beers seem to have been formulated primarily to withstand several years in our national distribution system so they're stripped of as many perishable ingredients as possible and dosed with sufficient preservatives to keep them from further deterioration should they find themselves at the back of a hundred-twenty degree warehouse for several months at a time. In general, I think the closer you can get to where the beer is actually made, and the more you can avoid the U. S. mass-market distribution system, the better the beer is going to be. Craft beers are generally better but even a craft beer bottled for wide distribution is going to have some flavor problems. I first discovered this in the late sixties when I stumbled into the Löwenbräukeller in Munich and stumbled out again an hour later full of mein host's weisswurst and a liter of the best dark beer I had enjoyed up till then. I was surprised to find a bottle of the stuff in the U. S. when I returned and, while it was good, it was not much like its velvety namesake in Bavaria. Same with Belgian beer which, in situ, is the best beer I've ever had. The stuff that makes it over here in a bottle is only distantly related to the original. Grateful also to AdamSmith for the insight on hops. I've recently discovered that the difference between a beer I can drink and one I can't is the amount of hops they put in it. Hops are just way too harsh for me and I was wondering why folks seemed to like the taste so much. Now that I learn it's the manufacturers' way of making an extra penny or two, rather than catering to American tastes, it all makes much more sense. Kind of amazing to think of how much care the old brewmasters put into creating the best products they knew how and building brand names that lasted for centuries, and then to realize how quickly the quest for profits can undo their efforts. Scheisse!

Lucky you indeed! Your brief announcement nearly got lost in amongst the lyrics. How wonderful to have such a long lasting relationship! And to top it off with marriage would be the icing on the cake. Congrats to you both!

I know it's been easy finding things wrong with the government lately, but here's something the government's doing right! The Social Security Administration announced today that it's going to start processing disability claims in days, rather than years, for folks who have been diagnosed with cancer, early-onset Alzheimer's, and Lou Gerhig's disease. The Compassionate Allowances program is designed to get claims processed in 10 - 15 days, instead of a year or more. Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said, "If somebody's got a confirmed diagnosis of ALS . . . there is no use burdening them with paperwork. Good thing they didn't have to go to the Senate for approval!

Sorry for the delay in responding to this most worthy thread. Fifty guys is a lot to go through in one day, for anyone but AdamSmith I should say, and I still haven't made it through the first page. But that was plenty, as Tony Dow appears halfway down. When I first saw him on the cover of TV Guide in my early adolescence, I stopped wondering whether I liked boys or girls better. He set the gold standard for me then, and he sets it for me now. Lucky, your delightful website is not friendly to hotlinking. I use a Mac too and usually, when I right-click on an image and tell it I want it to open in a new window of its own, it will do so with a web address that ends in .jpg. Not on your website. It's some awful hash of a web address that doesn't want to be found and displayed by our forum software. EXPAT's alternative of downloading it has the happy consequence of saving it as a ,jpg file and when he uploads it to all the waiting BoyToys, you should pardon the expression, it displays just fine. Nothing you're doing wrong, it's just that I think you'll have to use the download/upload trick if you want to show something from that site.

As soon as he finds Rudolph and hoses off the roof, Santa plans to put in a call to his dealer.

AdamSmith, you regularly find little trinkets in my posts that I never recall putting in there. Too bad Samuel Johnson didn't meet you instead of that hack Boswell. Samuel Johnson reflects on his luncheon with AdamSmith and wonders if he might persuade him to craft a little memoir.

Congrats, guys! :thumbsup:

Wouldn't bother me if Prince Harry tracks back to Lookin the Cocksucker.

I recently got rid of most of my cable offerings, and have now become an avid follower of The Washing Channel. As this just happens to be Dirty Laundry Week, you might want to tune in for some of the upcoming specials:. Ten Things You Should Know About Surfactants Procter & Gamble's Dirty Little Secrets Removing Grease Stains From Your Delicates What's In Your Child's Closet? Piss Stains And The Men Who Make Them Lint Filters: Your Dryer's Best Friend Should You Really Put All That In There? Getting To The Bottom Of Hampers Skid Marks: They're No Laughing Matter! A New Spin On Washday Blues . The Washing Channel ® - when you've seen it all!

Harking to Karl Rove, Sheldon Adelson agrees to extend an olive branch to the Log Cabin Republicans.

Listening to Karl Rove rail against divisiveness is sort of like listening to Samuel J. Carter rail against little liver pills.

Perhaps he's tied up.

My fault entirely for not properly baiting the hook. Wannabe Golden Boy Toys figured they had two months to make twenty-five posts. But now they wonder. Will a kindly Wizard come to the rescue, or are they screwed?

Hito, the last time I saw anybody with as many rings as you have, he was tickling the ivories in Vegas. Entranced as I am by your suggestion, I think I'll just stay on the sidelines until you're finished shopping it around on MER. I'm not a Mormon, you know.

Other than that he stick with semiotics and hotel critiques, not a one. Though I wouldn't count on him to give you away should Hito fancy a Church wedding.

Did find this: In discussing homosexuality and the church, here is what Eco says: "I confess that homosexuals who want to be recognized by the Church and priests who want to get married exasperate me. I take off my shoes when I enter a mosque, and when I'm in Jerusalem I accept that in some buildings, on Saturday, the elevators run on automatic and stop on every floor. If I want to keep my shoes on or control the elevator, I go somewhere else." Very interesting.

How to turn off predictive text in the iPad and Samsung Galaxy. No knead to think me.

A boytoy is neither a boy nor a toy. Discuss.

That's some pretty clear thinking, Mister! Very well said.

Believe it or not, I did read the New York Times reviews before seeing the two films, especially Cloud Atlas. What they had to say about that one was not especially enlightening: Together the filmmakers try so hard to give you everything — the secrets of the universe and the human heart; action, laughs and romance; tragedy and mystery — that you may wind up feeling both grateful and disappointed. Well, I knew from reading the book that there wasn't much else they could do. Many believed there wasn't any way they could make the book into a movie, including David Mitchell, the author. One pundit predicted it might be a dog's breakfast of a film. The New Yorker review was a bit more useful: . . . the best thing about “Cloud Atlas” is that it could, and should, turn into a properly divisive film, touching off feuds between the fervid and the splenetic, but one has to ask: does it allow for immersion? Well, yes it does, especially if you remember to take adequate precautions in the parking lot just prior. But, in the end, both reviews encouraged you to go see for yourself, which I had every intention of doing since I enjoyed the book so much. Oh, and did I mention Ben Wishaw? Famous composer Vivyan Ayers doesn't know he needs an amanuensis until Robert Frobisher shows up The Times review of The Flat was more informative but, again, it neither dissuaded me nor made me more fervent about seeing the film. I don't go to a lot of movies and I really hate finding myself sitting through a stinker. So I do tend to read several reviews before plunking down my $6.50. I usually like the New Yorker's reviews best, but more than once I've been very grateful for the tips from my fellow posters here at MER.

True enough. I had the advantage of reading the book first, so I knew who the characters were. Roger Ebert said he'd see it twice. Frankly, I didn't see how they could make a movie of it, and they succeeded by quick cuts (more like television I thought) and loose connections between them. What you'll get is three hours of nonstop entertainment up on the screen. And did I mention it has Ben Wishaw? I don't think it's had a very wide release, but the critics liked it and so did I. Imagine a friendship between a German Jewish family and a high-ranking Nazi officer before, during, and after the war. The film picks up after their death when their Tel Aviv apartment is being cleaned out by their children and grandchildren and the unlikely friendship is discovered and revealed. And it's all true. Amazing to ponder on how many shades of gray there are, and how we can compartmentalize our lives. Again, well worth the price of admission.