unicorn

Wow. Trump is now threatening to revoke Rosie O'Donnell's citizenship (she's US-born), as if he had that authority... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-rosie-odonnell-u-s-citizenship-revoke-threat/ "President Trump says he is considering "taking away" the U.S. citizenship of a longtime rival, actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell, despite a decades-old Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits such an action by the government. "Because of the fact that Rosie O'Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship," Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday...".

Well, there are some men who stay hot even as they become senior citizens. 64 year-old Christopher Atkins has a spread in Playgirl magazine this month, 45 years after he first became a heart-throb in the movie Blue Lagoon (I guess he was 19 at the time). I must admit I don't have the killer looks I had 45 years ago...

Well, I guess some people have made a fortune by claiming jellyfish extracts improve memory. https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2017/01/prevagens-fishy-brainpower-claims "...The FTC and the New York Attorney General’s Office sued the marketers of Prevagen for allegedly making false claims that the dietary supplement can improve memory loss and support brain health in older adults. Marketers say Prevagen’s active ingredient — derived from a species of jellyfish — can get rid of excess calcium that builds up in the brain as we age... As a result, estimated gross revenues for Prevagen are roughly $165 million – the amount the FTC is seeking to return to people who bought the product...".

Most analysts now agree that it was something that one of the pilots did. Whether it was serious negligence or deliberate (murder-suicide) is not known, and may never be known.

Well, I doubt the evidence will ever be is iron-clad as the German Wings case, in which the evidence of murder-suicide was overwhelming. That being said, two fuel cut-off switches were flipped over, one right after the other. The other pilot became alarmed and switched them back, but too late. Any theory as to the ultimate cause has to take those facts into account. I suspect that the pilots' recent events/activities will now be researched. Murder-suicide was also postulated in that infamous Malaysian Airlines disappearance. Also from the CNN article: "...On the 787, the fuel cutoff switches are between the two pilots’ seats, immediately behind the plane’s throttle levers. They are protected on the sides by a metal bar and have a locking mechanism designed to prevent accidental cutoff...". So it's hard to imagine that the flipping of both fuel cut-off switches was accidental.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/11/india/air-india-crash-report-intl-latam "A cut in the fuel supply to the engines caused last month’s Air India crash that killed 260 people, a preliminary report has found. The London-bound plane had barely left the runway at Ahmedabad airport when it hurtled back to earth. Everyone on board was killed, except for one passenger. According to the report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, obtained by CNN, the fuel control switches in the cockpit of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had been flipped, starving the engines of fuel. Investigators were able to get data out of the plane’s “black box” recorders, including 49 hours of flight data and two hours of cockpit audio, including from the crash. The aircraft had reached an airspeed of 180 knots when both engines’ fuel cutoff switches were “transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec,” according to the report. “In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report reads. Shortly after, the switches were reversed back to where they should have been, and the engines were in the process of powering back up when the crash happened..." We may never know, but this could have been a deliberate murder-suicide à la German suicidal pilot.

We didn't actually spend the night, but we went there for 3 evenings ($20/person cover), and one pool day (additional $10/person cover). We stayed at the Kirby Hotel, which is a 10 minute walk away. I don't recommend the Kirby, but I imagine you'd only want to stay at The Dunes if you enjoy partying to the wee hours of the morning. I'd usually leave by 12:30 AM, and my hubbie would leave around 2:30 AM, even 4 AM on the last night. The loud music could be easily heard 500 meters away, most of the way back to the Kirby. There must have been 1000 men each of the nights we were there (3rd, 4th, and 5th of July). Quite a gold mine for the owners, I'm sure. One could see lots of drug deals taking place on the dance floor. There was also a drag cabaret show each night, going from about 10:30 PM to 11:45 PM, included with the $20 admission fee (plus gratuities for the Queens). It seemed like all of the hottest men from Detroit to Chicago were there. We met one man who drove all the way from Buffalo, NY! We met only one other man from LA (whom we knew). I've now experienced every gay resort location in the US other than Rehoboth Beach, DE, which we may enjoy next year. My personal favorite is Provincetown, with its scenic location and myriad of entertainment opportunities, but the scene does die down around 1 AM, which is early for my husband. My least favorite is FIP on Fire Island, which is extremely snooty.

No, Randy has moved to Chicago, and they do not keep in touch. They did bump into each other at the resort, and my husband introduced him, but quickly moved on, explaining why he doesn't want to speak to him. Since Randy had never actually lied to my husband, I personally would have left the door open to an apology and forgiveness, but I see your and @vinapu's point.

We spent the holiday week-end at the Dunes Resort in Douglas-Saugatuck, Michigan. While there, we met a former friend of my husband's, whom I'll call "Randy." My husband's ex was, as he was to discover, a scoundrel and a charlatan, similar to Trump. I'll call the scoundrel "Troy." (Unlike Trump, he did end up going to federal prison for his misdeeds). My husband said he quietly broke up his friendship with Randy after Randy's then-boyfriend (now ex), whom I'll call "Xavier," showed him texts he discovered on Randy's phone which documented that Randy slept with Troy while my husband and Troy were together. Upon further questioning, it turned out Troy paid Randy $3000 for the encounter. I felt that this sum was rather considerable, and I'd place the blame mainly on Troy. Randy doesn't know my husband saw those texts. I suggested to my husband that he might just confront Randy, letting Randy know how his actions let my husband feel, and let Randy apologize. My husband said he didn't want to do that, but rather leave Randy at arm's length. How would you react if you were in a similar situation? Would your door be open to an apology, or would it be an irreparable break in the friendship for you? Of course, I totally respect my husband's wishes.

Wow. Insisting on giving unsolicited advice, especially to a stranger who clearly indicates he's not interested, constitutes the height of rudeness. There are countless reasons a person may have a limp, including joint problems, neurological problems, muscular problems, congenital problems, injuries, autoimmune conditions, and so on. He's certainly well-aware of his limp, and has probably consulted a qualified health professional for a diagnosis. Your personal (uneducated) opinions were unwelcomed, superfluous, and offensive. This is the second time in short order when you've self-described offensive behavior towards innocent people (the other being the offensive language you used towards a physician who was trying to help you). If you've always been a loner and aren't interested in social interactions, this may be your norm. However, if you've previously been able to function socially, and this is a change in behavior, there may be some neurological condition which needs attention. In any case, chewing out your physician, and accosting strangers at the gym don't qualify as acceptable conduct. Consider yourself lucky if the man at the gym didn't complain to the staff. Physicians, I suppose, are used to dealing with difficult patients, though at some point there are limits.

One can't make much of one blood pressure reading, and I'd again encourage proper home BP monitoring, which is all the more accurate and inexpensive. That being said, 40 mg of valsartan is a low dose, and it's very unlikely to bring BP down that much. If the BP you mentioned is at all reflective of your real resting blood pressure (which it may not be--I don't know why you were at the doctor's or how your BP was measured), then you will almost certainly need at least a higher dose, and probably more than one medication as well. Also, you should be checked for other conditions which can increase your blood pressure. Among these, obstructive sleep apnea is probably the most common. If you're big and/or snore, then that should be checked.

If you're going to take valsartan, which has a half-life of about 9 hours, as opposed to telmisartan, which has a half-life of 24 hours, I recommend taking it at bedtime, as blood pressure are highest after waking up in the morning. Most heart attacks and strokes also happen in the morning. The activity of valsartan wanes towards the end of its dosing schedule.

Penile pumps, when used with constricting devices, work on most people for whom the oral medications don't. It's used more often in relationships, since one can't exactly carry the device around, but you could also use it if you've hired someone to service you. Hypertension worsens erectile dysfunction, by the way.

Like much (or probably most) of medicine, the purpose of blood pressure medications is not to immediately make you feel better, but rather to prevent bad things from happening. Over time, hypertension causes arteries to harden and narrow, which will cause a drop in blood flow to various organs, including the brain, heart, kidneys, eyes, legs, and penis. This increases the risk of stroke, dementia, heart attack, heart failure, renal failure (which would require dialysis 3 times a week), blindness, difficulty walking distances, and inability to sustain erections. While it is true that one shouldn't diagnose hypertension from a single reading, your single reading is certainly alarming, unless you were visiting the doctor for a highly painful or anxiety-inducing reason, such as passing a kidney stone, a horrible migraine, etc., in which case the increase in BP could have been temporary and adaptive. One would almost never, for instance, diagnose hypertension due to a reading obtained in an emergency room (you'd broken your leg in a car accident, for example). At the very least, you should do home blood pressure checks, which must be done correctly in order to be accurate. The readings must be taken when you're calm, not in pain, resting for 5 minutes, back supported, feet flat on the floor, not talking, and cuff on a bare arm at heart level (arm supported). In any case, the patent for valsartan (the active ingredient in Dilart) ran out well over a decade ago, so it is not being marketed by any pharmaceutical company. While it is true that pharmaceutical companies may take physicians out to dinner in order to attend educational/promotional talks for new medications, these are never done for medications which are off patent, for obvious reasons. There is no way your physician can benefit in any way for prescribing valsartan, unless he's also a pharmacist and literally selling them to you himself. (As an aside, I prefer telmisartan over valsartan, because it has better activity over a 24-hour period, but either is fine. Telmisartan is also off patent and relatively inexpensive). If your blood pressure is really that high, you should be checked to see that you don't have another medical condition which is causing your blood pressure to be so high (although that's not the case 90% of the time), also known as secondary hypertension (as opposed to regular, primary hypertension, sometimes called "essential hypertension."). In any case, I hope you can discuss your health in a polite, respectful way with your physician, and that you try to educate yourself on a subject before proclaiming superior knowledge to someone who's dedicated his career to health.

It's either one or the other. If you try to come onto guys in a public toilet (which is not a gay venue), you risk getting bashed. Of course, some get excited by the danger, but if you don't want to court danger, don't do it, especially as an older man. Sooner or later you'll run into trouble, either legal or physical. Obviously I don't condone violence, but an older man leering at younger men's cocks in a public toilet is asking for trouble.

Yegads! I just found out Tobey Maguire's 50! I wonder if he's gotten his AARP membership yet...

I can hardly think of anything more disgusting than force-feeding someone on a hunger strike.

There are places even worse than that in Iran, where he's from. I would also personally prefer death to a life of eternal torture. As they say in New Hampshire: live free or die.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/26/ice-force-feed-iran-mehrad-asadi-eidivand/84349361007/ "A federal judge granted a request allowing immigration officials to force-feed an Iranian asylum seeker on hunger strike while in detention in Arizona. Mehrad Asadi Eidivand, who was living in the U.S. on a work permit, was arrested outside his Phoenix home in May and taken to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Florence, Arizona. In protest of his detainment, the avid bodybuilder went on an initial hunger strike that left him diagnosed with acute kidney injury, court records say. Asadi Eidivand soon began a second hunger strike, leading officials on Monday to ask a federal judge's permission to monitor his health, administer intravenous fluids and medicines, and insert a feeding tube through his nose without consent. U.S. District Judge Steven Logan granted the request the same day, writing Asadi Eidivand was at risk of organ failure...".

Orban is the threat to children. So is Trump. They want gay children dead--no bones about it. Consider a donation to the Trevor Project or something similar. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/blog/trump-administration-orders-termination-of-national-lgbtq-youth-suicide-lifeline-effective-july-17th/ "June 18, 2025 – The Trevor Project received official notice yesterday that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is initiating the closure of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services program within 30 days, effective July 17, 2025. Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, released the following statement in response: “We received official notice that the Trump administration has ordered the closure of The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services program, effective July 17, 2025. This means that, in 30 short days, this program that has provided life-saving services to more than 1.3 million LGBTQ+ young people will no longer be available for those who need it. “This is devastating, to say the least. Suicide prevention is about people, not politics. The administration’s decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible. The fact that this news comes to us halfway through Pride Month is callous – as is the administration’s choice to remove the ‘T’ from the acronym ‘LGBTQ+’ in their announcement. Transgender people can never, and will never, be erased.

This was reported in multiple sources, including my local newscast--the newscasters had a little chuckle when they gave the story.