MsAnn

Sorry..I'm out of "reactions" for today...So you'll just have to guess what "reaction" I would have chosen.

Wait what? Is that Leboy in Fort Lauderdale. Heart be still.

Well yes... guilty as charged. I have tried to save my share of street trade in my time, some successful, some not, but your sweeping generalities about trade not wanting to be saved is as ignorant as your "rule" that you say applies to all strippers, escorts, gogo boys, masseurs. sauna boys. streetwalkers, hustlers, porn stars, webcam models and all sex workers. I have no intention of even starting a conversation with someone who blindly holds such prejudicial views. All the best...Have a great weekend ( and by all means, I will allow you the last word on this)

Is there any explanation at all for why someone in authority allowed the boys to go into, and explore the cave in the first place?

Thank you for that admission. I just get tired of the stereotype. Another poster on here just made a disparaging comment about body builders that was baseless also, but it's nap time and I don't feel like arguing. As for street trade, I think it's complicated and the variables too great to make assumptions, but part of my frustration when interacting with street trade on the streets of LA for close to 3 decades, is that there is an element of laziness that seems to permeate the culture. I would challenge the boys all the time to go back to school or to get a job to try and turn things around, all with me as there mentor/benefactor. The excuses were many, and in some respects, the life too easy. I don't think anyone really wants that life, there were walls and barriers everywhere, and for someone to really push forward was daunting I know. One of the hardest things to do in ones life, is to get up and go to work everyday. Anyway...end of rant.

And we know they are brainless because? Surviving on the street, doesn't necessarily mean you are smart., but then again, you and I already know that.

It doesn't get much seedier than Selma and Cahuenga back in the day. God bless "The Spot" may she rest in peace. I loved it all. The danger, the street trade, the seediness of it all. Don was the king and the boys were amazing. It is a time that has come and gone. Santa Monica Blvd, the back alleys and back doors that were always open. Looking back, there just wasn't anything like it anywhere. So glad that I was able to live through that time. Friends from New York, Chicago, San Francisco, tell the same stories...It was simply wonderful, but you are right, it wasn't for the faint of heart, and we were lucky...damn lucky really. And apologies to Tomcal. I started reminiscing and got carried away. It won't happen again.

Excellent post... I remember fondly, 45 years ago, my first trip to Bangkok. While I hired regularly in LA, this was the first time hiring in a foreign country, and the first time I was traveling abroad. I was traveling with an older friend who had been dozens of times. I don't think I could have been more excited. As we came in on final approach, I half jokingly said to him, "Any last words of advice?" He looked at me dead serious, and said, "Yes, keep your wits about you, this ain't LA, and if you get in trouble here, you can't call your lawyer, nobody will care about you, so have fun, but be smart." I asked him if that was it, "No, one more thing, don't fall in love." I laughed, he wasn't. "I'm serious, this is all a game, that's it, it's all just a game. You'll spend two weeks with a boy, and have a fantastic time. He will say all the things you want to hear. Then you'll leave, and before you get to the airport, he'll be in someone else's lap, saying the same things to him, that he just said to you. As long as you understand that, you'll have a ball. Over the years, I was always kind, respectful, and generous. On more than one occasion, I would have a boy leave a client when he heard that I was in town to come and stay with me. I have not been to Brazil, but have done similar in many parts of the world. I do read with great interest, the travels of Tomcal. His posts make you feel as if you were sitting right next to him at some bar, talking to the boys. He is a great contributor here, but I think he gets it. You have to keep everything in perspective. I hire fairly regularly in Fort Lauderdale. I love the stripper boys, but I have no illusions, on any given Saturday night, if I wasn't paying, I doubt they would call. Forty five years later, dozens of country's, thousands of miles, many many paychecks gone, to this day I don't have one single regret for any of it. Except for a few bumps along the way, and a few wrong roads taken, It has been a life well lived. In a recent move, I found a box buried back in the closet. It was a box of old pictures of some of my trips to Pattaya. I found myself smiling, and remembering as if it were yesterday... All the best...

I'll be by the pool then to the beach for fireworks. I hate crowds, but a friend is in from Connecticut and wants to do the whole festival kind of thing, so I'll down a couple of cocktails and just "grin and bear it". It's not that I'm not appreciative of the significance of the 4th, it's just that you've seen one firework, you've seen them all...

I'm in love....

I disagree...Certainly many of us here develop cyber relationships that are not always as easily managed, as say a friend in our personal lives would be. It is much different having this kind of friendship., when communication is simply a written word. I have become very fond of more than one poster here, and on the MF, that I've never met, nor possibly ever will meet. Communicating to someone in this cyber environment, your frustration, a desire to step back from the edge, or to just go and take "10' for awhile, seems to be a natural instinct. I did not see Lars exit as a neurotic "show" in his departure. I don't think he wanted a parade or sympathy, or even desired support. I don't follow every thread, nor read every post, so I appreciated his acknowledgment that things had gone off the rails. His good bye was appropriate here.

And this...Thank you.

Well said...And the point I was attempting to make.

In the end, my point is really unimportant...no? Lars has been banned for a week. I am going for a self imposed exile to the gallery, and with luck, I'll be able to wean myself off of that also...

But we don't know that to be necessarily true...

Steve Schmidt‏Verified account @SteveSchmidtSES Steve Schmidt Retweeted Ed Krassenstein Jim Jordan is a clown, albeit a dangerous one . He is an heir to McCarthy, Demagogic, dangerous and faithless to his oath and America. He is unfit to serve in the Congress AND THIS... Steve Schmidt‏Verified account @SteveSchmidtSES Rod Rosenstein doesn’t look like an action hero, but that is what he is. Guts, integrity and courage. Americans don’t get to see that from our high ranking public officials these days but today they did and America is strengthened because of it

+1 I also have periodic trouble uploading photos

Not that's a post that deserves a trophy and that's a post that deserved a "quote" here, just so that we could see it again!!!!

Wait what? Bucknaway is colored?

This is how I use it also. or as in the case where photos are posted in the gallery. Many are deserving of a trophy...so a shout out to... @Suckrates @Suckrates