PeterRS

My guess is that western airlines already have Thai desintation airports at BKK and DMK. Adding a third at UTP would mean basing an another entire front and back office staff plus at least a couple of engineers there. It would not make financial sense. It only really works for airlines without bases at the other hubs, in my view.

If you are stuck in the apartment, do try to watch the Japanese gay movie Egoist from my list. It's well worth seeing. You can see the whole movie here - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8o8267

If it is just heavy rain, it can actually be quite fun provided there is no lightning. It's the combination of very heavy rain and very strong winds blowing that rain almost horizontal which Thailand rarely if ever gets. But the typhoon season in the South China Sea generally starts in June and ends in October. June may seem quite early but in my very first year in Hong Kong there were two in June - fortunately mild ones. Bad ones thereafter tended to start in August. In 2020 I arrived in the Danang area on March 1 and the weather was excellent throughout.

Please bear in mind that Vietnam - especially central Vietnam - is like The Philippines - typhoon country, although these usually occur later in the year. When one is around, no amount of even genuine (i.e. non-fake) gear will keep you dry. In any case, staying at home is strongly advised because the howling winds can easily whip up anything loose on the streets and hit you badly.

In my whoring days I was often slightly reluctant to take boys back to my hotel. So if near Soi Twilight I'd opt for the nearest short time rooms which were usually in the garage at the Suriwong Hotel across the road. Basic furnishing with a large bed, a TV and a bathrooom with a full somewhat narrow bath with a shower - athough I could never imagine anyone intent on sex wanting to have a bath. But they fulfilled their function and were cheap. Having spent a small part of my career working in Tokyo and visited at least another 50 or so times, I got used to the much more common "Love Hotels" which are dotted all over the country. It is estimated that there are some 37,000 of them! With homes in Japanese towns and cities generally being small and packed very closely together, privacy is generally not something the Japanese expect or seek. But where to enjoy an intimate session, perhaps with all manner of moans, groans and shrieks with your loved one - be it boyfriend, girlfriend, wife or just lover? Thus during the Edo period was the concept of what has become the love hotel born. Who living in Tokyo is not aware of Dogenzaka, roughly translated as Love Hill, in Tokyo's trendy Shibuya district? An entire narrow street filled with all manner of love hotels each decorated uniquely, some with circular rotating beds, some with SM equipment - you name it, you are likely to find it. The great thing for Japanese, especially for couples who may have reasons for not wishing to be seen together, is that you rarely see any actual people in these hotels. If you drive, you take the lift to an automated reception area, get your key pass and then go to the room. Entering on foot, if there happens to be a receptionist, theere will be a wall so he/she can not see anything more than your midriff! And love hotels are not confimed to cities. Anyone taking the airport limousine bus from Narita to the city will pass by at least three located virtually in open countryside that I can recall. Outside cities, they tend to be externally more flamboyant, more garish and more obvious. Whereas I have seen love hotels in Hong Kong which seem to go to great lengths to remain inconspicuous, in Japan the more obvious the better. I was reminded of this today in a fascinating illustrated article in The Guardian. It's titled, "WE'RE HAVING SEX INSIDE MOBY DICK! THE WILD ARCHITECTURAL WORLD OF JAPAN'S LOVE HOTELS. And immediately below we see a photo of the leviathan with its teeth waiting to open and welcome you! I have often wondered, though: is having sex in something like a whale supposed to make you feel even more horny? Love Hotels is the title of a new book of that name by French photographer François Prost. “I find love hotels culturally fascinating,” says Prost . . . Japan is generally a fairly conservative society, but these are places of escapism, fantasy and almost childlike wonder. And you find them everywhere.” He recently made a 3,000 km journey around Japan to photograph some of the more obvious as well as some of the more bizarre examples. I include a few photos from the article below. Hotel UFO in Chiba Prefecture half way between Narita and Tokyo Hotel Flower Style in Nara near Kyoto Hotel Sea Stork near Tokyo You'll note Godzilla making an appearance near the top. The Japanese are mad about Godzilla. There is even a hotel where I once stayed in Tokyo's Kabukicho disrict with a huge Godzilla staring down at the street below. What do you reckon a developer might think of putting a whale in the middle of Silom? It would make a pleasant change from the monsters of nearby Bangkok One! All photos by François Prost https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/may/05/japan-love-hotels-moby-dick-ufos

We all remember the fuss Trump made prior to his first inaugural when he blasted Boeing for delays in delivery of 'his' new Presidential 747. Of course we know it's actually two Air Force 1s because where one flies, the other is virtually on its tail so no one knows which of the two the President actually has his ass on. With Boeing still unable to deliver until 2027 or even 2028, today comes news that Trump's continued annoyance at Boeing may lead to him acquiring from the Qatar government one of their 747-800 aircraft as the new Presidential Air Force 1. The White House says it is in negotiations with the Qataris. And of course where is Trump headed to on his upcoming overseas trip? You guessed it. Qatar. If the deal goes ahead, will it be a gift? If so it will be hidebound by all the usual US government restrictions. Not that that will concern Trump. As his spinmistress said, "President Trump is committed to full transparency." Oh really? This will then likely be the first occasion! And on his Truth Social at the weekend, Trump claimed it would be a gift at no cost! But there is another issue. Will it be one plane or two? For the 747-800 which is now flown only by Lufthansa in its passenger version, has a much longer stretched upper deck than the 747-200s currently in use. It will therefore look considerably different from Air Force 2. Does anyone believe that the Qatari jet with presumably its gold fittings and other accoutrements suitable for a mega-rich head of state - the Qataris have already said it will be a "flying palace"! - will fly empty while the Donald slums it in Air Force 2? And what's the betting that if the deal goes ahead, that "gift" will end up as the replacement for the ageing Trump family 757! Oh how the Donald loves his toys - but only the ones that cost hundreds of millions! https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5ell3gkxvo

In principle I would agree with you. But the examples you cite refer to individuals in countries with hugely different conditions from Thailand. And in all, violence played a part. The Imperial system in Russia was a disaster for the vast majority of the people. Gandhi was fighting - peacefully - for independence for his people after centuries of foreign rule, although violence on a massive scale was the result. Castro similarly - granted Castro's Cuba can not have been a particularly pleasant place in large part a result of stringent US sanctions, but then pre-Castro Cuba was basically run by the mob and for again the vast majority it will have been a pretty gruesome existence - Mandela was fighting against a brutal enforced separation of the races, and Walesa was fighting against a politically and socially oppressive government. I realise these were merely examples in your "never say never" position. But present day Thailand illustrates none of the above characteristics. It did some decades ago when there were several student riots, fighting in the streets and deaths. But Thailand now is a very different country. It is also for many of its citizens a wealthier country. Unlike the serfs, the native-born Africans who were forced to get up at 2:00 am in order to make an hours' long journey just to get subsistence work etc., most Thais are relatively speaking much more content with their life. Yes, they would like changes. Yes, they believe the elite and the military still have far too much say over their lives. Change in some form will no doubt come to Thailand, although in my view it probably needs a major reform of the education system to see that become reality. But please remember I was not talking about Thais as a whole. I was talking about a specific section as mentioned by @bkkmfj2648 - barboys. Change has actually already occurred within this group. When I first came to Thailand at the end of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s and 1990s, I came across no non-Thais who worked in the gogo and host bars etc. From reports here Thais are now in a considerable minority. And that's because of two reasons: a birthrate that has declined very substantially in a very short space of time, and work for young under-educated Thai boys now no longer being restricted to toiling in the paddy fields or in the village shop, with the result that bar work has become generally much less attractive. In the bar trade, for those working in Jomtien, I maintain that life must indeed seem helpless with the arrival of the low season.

I have never been inside an air traffic control centre and can only base my thoughts on what I see in movies. On that basis, the entire system seems almost antiquated. No doubt it works, but having controllers depend on moveable strips and old-fashioned radar screens is desperately out of date.

Have you looked at the Warsaw thread?

Sucker Spoon Sucks Sympathetically!

I hope you can snap out of that melancholy feeling quickly. Retirement should be a time when life not only becomes easier, it should actually become more interesting. I'm a lot older than you but I certainly know the problems of tighter budgets. Coming from the UK, my pension (that sounds as though it might be a decent sum of money - it's actually little more than beer money, or in my case vodka money!) was frozen the moment I started taking it. I knew this would be the case and had been saving up what I believed would be a considerable sum to see me through retirement. Of course I failed to factor in the dot.com bubble, the 2003 SARS crisis, the 2008 financial meltdown and interest rates plunging to little more than 1% for 15 years or so when I had reckoned on 5%. But since I was running my own little company as all this financial mayhem was going on around me, I loved my work and was happy to continue beyond normal retirement age. Thereafter, I kind of just fell into another part time job - unpaid to start with but hopefully generating some income eventually. At the urging of friends, including one of many decades' standing who was both a newspaper critic and author, I started writing. At first it was one book. Then another on a similar subject followed. The problem with all books by unknown authors is actually getting work publlished. Publishers will not look at you, so you have to go through the dreaded literary agents. Checking the websites of the 200 or more in the UK, each one wants different formal Proposals that can each take up to 8 hours to write. But then having got two published, the third published last summer was a whole lot easier. Having now finished a fourth, I am stuck for a good subject for the next. I do enjoy writing and do want to continue. It fills in a lot of time that otherwise might turn me into the lazy slob I always thought I'd become. Over a very drunken lunch last year, an old university friend very seriously suggested I should pen "The History of A Sex Tourist in Asia." That actually became incredibly tempting until I realised I'd have to change the names of so many people and places, partly to protect their identities and, as importantly, my own! But do think about doing something once you have decided on where you will end up living - a part-time job via the internet, a hobby a . . . whatever. That surprises me, if only because you look far from fat in the photos you posted earlier. I reckon I have a few more kilos and the young man I met in Danang had absolutely no hang up about it at all! (I'm sending you a pm with a little more detail). Sadly this does not surprise me. We really should recall that the Thai people voted in the largest numbers in 2023 for change - change through the new party run by Pita Limjaroenrat. But the elites almost always get their way in Thailand. They were not going to put up with the sort of changes he wanted and manufactured a means both to ban him as an MP and then disband his party. It's not the first time that has happened and I am sure it will not be the last. Young people have no reason to push for change as long as they know they are up against both a brick wall and an iron fence they can never break through. Hopefully Khun Pita and the people around him will make sure he runs in the next election and he is this time so squeaky clean that there can be no grounds for banning him. Then change may come. But it's merely a hope.

How about just a BONGER index - Barely Older Naughty Gentleman's Easy Retirement!!! LOL!

For several years, RTW tickets were always cheaper if purchased in Kuala Lumpur. Then Bangkok took over. However, I once hit a snag with a Bangkok issued RTW ticket. After several stops in Europe, I landed in New York. After 3 days, I flew on to LAX from La Guardia. Since I was packed and out of my hotel room a few hours before i needed to be at the airport, I went down to the Village and bought some porn DVDs. On my return, instead of locking them in my suitcase, I just put them into one of the compartments in my trolley bag. As I went through security, I was hauled aside by a grossly overweight lady and asked if she I would take off my belt and my shoes. She then went through the trolley bag and of course found the DVDs which she proceeded to lay out on a table so that all passengers could see them. That did not concern me as the chance of someone going through that security line who actually knew me was nil. Eventually, everything was repacked and I made it to the gate. Boarding the 767 business class, I had just settled down in the seat when I heard my name called. I was asked to take my luggage and proceeded to the aircraft entrance door. Great, I thought. Upgrade to first class! Not at all! Two airline cops were waiting to escort me off the aircraft and asked me to wait. Then that ridiculous security lady waddled duck-like towards me. I was asked to put my trolley bag on a seat and open it. One cop asked her what had she found. She fished into the compartment and pulled out the DVDs. The cops then turned on her. "You have delayed this aircraft for something that has nothing to do with aircraft safety? Get back to your position before we report you - and fast!" The cops then apologised profusely to me for what I can only assume they regarded as an invasion of privacy. They wanted my address so the airline could send an official apology. I waived that off saying all I wanted to do was get to LAX quickly as I had a dinner engagement. Back in my seat, the purser came to me with a large glass of champagne and another apology. The point of this tale is that I wondered why had this lady pulled me aside. It's not as though I looked anything other than a normal passenger. Only on my return to Hong Kong did a friend who works for Cathay Pacific take a look at my boarding cards. "Look at this," he said. There on my US boarding cards were in quite large letters "SSS". That is because in the US they regard Thailand as semi-dangerous and the letters stand for "Special Security Screening"!

Air traffic controllers not turning up really concerns me. It reminds me of Ronald Reagan's decision to fire 11,359 air traffic controllers after most had gone on strike for shorter working weeks, and hire new ones. How do you train someone to be an air traffic controller almost overnight? Sure, retired ones can come back to the job, but those who are older might suffer from slight eyesight and other ageing issues. To me, an air traffic controller is as important as the pilot of an A380 jumbo, if not more so.

With time on my hands, I used the search engine to try and find that @numazu link. This may not be it, but at least it is a comparison with explanations. Since he visits South America a great deal, e seems to visit Thailand less freqently as his last post was in January. Inevitably his comparisons are between Thailand, South America and renting a guy in his hometown. This was written on his 16th trip to Thailand and is both self explanatory and quite fascinating. BONUS TOPIC: The Monger Index - posted by Numazu on June 30 2018 I'm interrupting my posting this weekend because I am on travel. When am I not on travel? I used to write these trip reports in between trips and at layovers. Now this are a little bit difficult. I will continue next week. But to tide you over, I am cross-posting something I wrote in BoyToy during the end of my Brazil Trip Report. It is a metric I came up with called the Monger Index, or a way to compare the cost of hiring in different countries versus the boys you get back home. It’s a metric me and a buddy of mine came up with while super drunk at the Crowne Plaza Bangkok at 3 AM in the morning years ago. He asked me why I get all these prostitutes overseas. With the airfare and hotel rooms, that cost adds up. Wouldn’t it be just cheaper to hire prostitutes back home? I told him he was crazy because (a) the prostitutes are expensive back home and (b) sex is more fun when on vacation anyway. But I disputed his thesis that it is cheaper to hire prostitutes back home. So I came up with an index that measures how much cheaper it is to get hot guys overseas than in the USA, accounting got airfare and lodging costs. This is the Monger index. I apologize for the math. I am Asian after all. Some assumptions: (1) Time Range: The index would not work in measuring one-offs. Of course ONE prostitute would be cheaper in the USA than ONE prostitute in Bangkok. A $250 an hour prostitute you hire for one hour to take home to your USA house is cheaper than a $50 gogo boy you get in a nice gogo bar if you add the $600 roundtrip airfare one needs to get to the sauna, plus the hotel cost. It will only work if you hire by bulk, and have a longer time range. My assumption for this index example is one week, or 7 days. For example, if you get one guy every day in a week in the USA, that adds up to 7*$250 = $1750. Now we are talking bigger dollars. Have sex in bulk when overseas helps you recoup your cost. (2) Airfare: The index should include the airfare. For my purposes here, I use airfare coming from California, because that's where I live. So for example, a typical off-season RT air ticket to Sao Paulo, Brazil is $1000. For Bangkok, it’s $550. This is a fixed cost in the index. (3) Hotel: Of course you have to assume you are getting a hotel in the city you are mongering in. I assume my hotels will be typical AirBNB’s, with basic amenities in a decent and nearby neighborhood. Translation: not a dump but not fancy, and Uberable or walkable to the sauna and tourist-friendly services. For Sao Paulo I assume of the cost, the AirBNB me and the BF got in Bela Vista last December. It was a decent $50 a night. For 7 nights that adds up to $350. For Bangkok, a typical decent Silom Soi 3 AirBNB costs $45 a night. (4) Overnights: I put in the calculation the cost it takes for hiring a guy overnight. For California, a typical overnight with a hot but not “superstar porn star” hot is $1000. For Sao Paulo, Jonas’ example was 200 reals, but I count his initial 200 reals in the sauna as part of the overnight, so 200+200 = 400 reals, or $104. For Bangkok, its a bit tricky, but I assumed a high-end 3000 baht overnight, or $91. I pay that because of all the sexual acrobatics I require all my boys. It is only fair. So here are the gross calcs. For 7 days, if I hired a boy for one hour and another boy for overnight every day: California Prostitute: Price for one hour times 7 + Price for an overnight times 7 = $250*7 + $1000*7 = $8750 Bangkok GoGo Boy: Airfare + 7 nights in AirBNB + Price for a garoto in the sauna times 7 + Price for a garoto overnight times 7 = $550 + $315 + $52*7 + $91*7 = $1866 Sao Paulo Garoto (Jonas): Airfare + 7 nights in AirBNB + Price for a garoto in the sauna times 7 + Price for a garoto overnight times 7 = $1000 + $350 + $52*7 + $104*7 = $2442 The index is calculated as the ratio of the 7-day cost of USA boys, divided by the total cost in that country. 7-day Monger Index for Sao Paulo = $8750/$2442 = 3.58 7-day Monger Index for Bangkok = $8750/$1866 = 4.70 Issues: (1) I do not count the Uber cost to get to the sauna or gogo bar, or the entrance fee for the sauna, or the cabina price, or the off fee, or the drink costs in a bar. (2) I do not account for food costs. Of course you have to eat whether in the USA or Brazil or Thailand. This may be a future improvement to be added. (3) The airfare is just from California, maybe it’s more or less where you are. Maybe my assumption of $550 for Bangkok is too much or too little. This is just what I see anecdotally. So, with that, here are my Monger Indices for some 6 cities I’ve been to, ranked by the best to worst: 1. Pattaya, Thailand: 5.54 2. Bangkok, Thailand: 4.70 3. Mexico City, Mexico: 4.53 4. Bogota, Colombia: 3.77 5. Sao Paulo, Brazil: 3.58 6. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 3.44 These are solely based on my experience. Your Monger Index may be different. Some observations: (1) Thailand remains the most bang for your buck, because of the presence of cheap decent places to stay in and low cost to fly there from California. (2) Mexico is helped by the fact that it’s so close to California, therefore the airfare is cheap. (3) Brazil on the other hand, is dinged by how expensive the airfares are from California. (4) If I factor in food, Thailand may even get a higher index, and Brazil may get a lower index. (5) Grindr prices were only used in Bogota and Mexico, because I do not have experiences getting anyone there outside of Grindr. So your mileage may vary. (6) Quality of boys is impossible to measure. And it is subjective, so it can’t be put in the index. The index is solely a quantitative metric. For example, twinks may be better in Thailand. Adonises may be better in Brazil. Again, quality is subjective, and can’t be measured meaningfully. Of course, in the end, your mileage may vary, and these indices are only meaningful to me. If you don’t like having sex with Asians, your Monger Index for Thailand is -1000000, for example. Indeed, the whole thread is interesting as it gives responses from other members. If this is not the comparison @floridarob was referring to, sincere apologies - although it is still an interesting read! @numazu is a prolific poster and his posts are always fascinating in their detail. Apologies also to @bkkmfj2648 for interrupting his excellent thread.

I agree. But I raised the issues only because the media has already aired them. And judging by the media today, the issues are not going to go away. The American right will never let up on this Pope. The anti-abortion lobby will never let up. Whether we like it or not, sadly he will not be allowed a two years' grace period. Just because he has American roots, he will continue to be the target of one or other group. A Pope from Argentina or Poland attracts very little media attention outside their own countries. Pope Leo because of his birthright will be in some groups' firing line - and only because he is American they will not give up! Like it or not, his moral authority is already bound up in the often ugly morality of American politics! Just read the awful Steve Bannen's comments yesterday.

Being American, it was almost predestined to happen. After the praise and adulation for an American Pope, now come the recriminations against the Church. No matter that Pope Leo might have had nothing to do with the abuses and the diatribes against homosexuality and abortion, for example, he cannot escape them. He was after all not always based in Peru as some of the media seem to have suggested. He received his Masters Degree in Chicago in 1982. Only part of his time thereafter was spent as a missionary in Peru. He returned full time to Chicago in 1999 for 15 years before going back to Peru as Bishop of Chiclayo. Pope Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to assume the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. One who does not like Leo is Trump's pal Steve Bannen. "He's the worst pick for MAGA Catholics!" Which problably shoots him way up the rankings in most of the rest of the world! Laura Loomer, the far-right American conspiracy theorist and general nut case, accuses him of being "anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro open borders and a total marxist like Pope Francis." Another ringing endorsement sure to please most! More seriously, though, he will have to deal some of the scandals which happened more or less under his watch. What we know so far is that he is regarded as a moderate, although one more open to dialogue that perhaps his predecessor was. He is passionate about helping migrants and the poor, about climate change. On the still pressing matter of sexual abuse, he faces some difficulty. Survivors and advocacy groups claim that he failed to act on serious child abuse claims. The abuse is alleged to have happened during his tenure in both Chicago and Peru. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and other advocacy groups have expressed deep concern over Leo's past handling of cases. SNAP had given evidence to the cardinals who entered the Conclave about his alleged inaction. “This person will be scrutinized from left to right. That’s helpful for victims everywhere because we have this pope who will be under the public eye in terms of things he was involved with in the past,” said Lopez de Casas, himself a victim of abuse. He added, “Staying silent is a sin. It’s not what God wants us to do." In the early 2000s, he allegedly permitted a priest suspended as a result of serious abuse charges to stay in a Friary close to an elementary Catholic parish school. Despite alarm among school officials, the priest remained there for 2 years. According to reports Leo did not inform the school. Later in Peru he was allegedly notified of allegations of serious abuse by two priests but failed to take any action. Although the two young sisters involved spoke directly to Leo in April 2022, the case was dropped for lack of evidence and expiry of the statute of limitations. Then there is Leo's position on homosexuality. Pope Francis did probably as much as he could do to welcome LGBTQ members into the Church's community. He stated it was not up to him to judge a person's sexuality. Leo has not gone nearly as far. In a 2012 Address to Bishops, he said he was pained that Western media and society created "sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel," citing "homosexual lifestyle" and "alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children." While serving as a bishop in Peru, Prevost opposed government plans to add teachings about gender in school, calling "the promotion of gender ideology...confusing" since they "create genders that don't exist," according to the New York Times. I suspect Pope Francis' views were formed long before his election. Might Leo's views have changed? We will no doubt discover eventually. https://www.yahoo.com/news/pope-leo-xiv-accused-ignoring-133056079.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall https://people.com/where-does-pope-leo-xiv-stand-lgbtq-issues-what-we-know-11731335

As an avid Broadway fan having seen many dozens of live shows, I booked a ticket for "Wicked" months before I arrived in New York. It is the only musical I can say I truly disliked and walked out of the theatre at the intermission. I hope the movie was better!! But considering its two Oscar wins were only for design, I doubt it was much of an improvement! I note, too, that two of its three Tony Awards were for also for design; none for book, script, music or choreography. Mind you, I am no fan of "The Wizard of Oz" either and that no doubt affected my judgement!

Ha! Trump has now reduced tarriffs to China from 145% to 80%. He is such a loser! Cartoon from The Guarduan UK.

It WAS done in the open. It's now vanished up Musk's asshole. USAID does not at present exist as countries around the world, including our neighbour Myanmar, have had grants rescinded. At the same time blame litle Marco. Rubio is a prime example of an ass licker par excellence.

And then you leave some of your crap on the showerhead for the next person to infect themselves. Unless, that is, you meticulously wash and clean the showerheads.

You say this is actionable? I have no doubt it is. But as I have written you cannot divorce the present from the past, no matter how much it suits your agenda What about all the political prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, all in jail because the USA fought major wars against them, in the case of its one time ally Iraq on false pretences - just like Vietnam!. What about those in jail in Iran? Would they be there had the American CIA allied by its British helpers not wanted control of Iran's oil and engineered the deposing of the country's freely-elected Prime Minister, in his place replacing and then propping up the hated Shah with billions of $$ of cash and weaponry which he could and did use against his own people. Did you ever stop to think that if Iran had been allowed to develop its politics in a peaceful manner without massive interference from the USA and the UK, there almost certainly would have been no 1979 Islamic revolution which destabilised many countries in the world and an Iran, with its lovely people and gorgeous scenery, might now be at least a non-aligned country, even if not one alied to western powers. And what about the prisoners of conscience in neighbouring Myanmar? Mostly they are there because the USA, as the world's superpower, has sat on the sidelines for decades, done nothing and left the country to stew. There are many injustices in our world. What happened with war in Vietnam was the responsibility of the USA. What happened when they lost and ran away remains the USA's responsibiity - plain and simple.

When I heard the new Pope is American, my thoughts flooded back to all the abuse scandals and how the Catholic Church went to massive efforts and spent loads of cash to hush them up. That was unfair! I had not known about the new Pope's years of work with the poor in Peru and then that Pope Francis himself had clearly admired him by making him a Cardinal only two years ago. He deserves time to show us how his Papacy will evolve. Hopefuly it will be similar to that of Francis. But symbols are important. I believe the second thing he should have done after first conducting Mass in the Sistine Chapel was be driven at whatever hour of the night to Santa Maria Maggiore to pray at the tomb of Pope Francis. Nothing would have told the world in simpler terms that he intended to continue Francis' mission. Second, will he, like Francis, avoid the grand Papal apartments and sleep in the priests' guest house? Is he really a man of the people? Only time will tell. But I also have to add another symbol - he is American. No matter his many admirable and praiseworthy years of service spent among the poor in Peru, he was brought up with American values. Every psychiatrist, psychologist, psychoanalyst and psycho-whatever will tell you that the values instilled in us as children rarely disappear other than into the recesses of our minds. Changing those inner belief systems is a hugely complex affair. Then there is the American media onslaught on his family. The world in general never knew that Francis had a living sister until after his death. Yet a day after his election, we have worldwide interviews with Leo's brother and with Joe Aurelio at Aurelio's Pizza where he dined some months before his election - Aurelio even had the gall to say "he blessed us all just by being here!" Portillo's restaurant has added a new Italian Beef Sandwhich named "The Leo". There are even T-shirts now on sale naming him "Da Pope". The Wiener's Circle, an alleged famed hot dog stand in Lincoln Park known for its viral insults and profanities, also debuted a new sign - "Canes nostros ipse comedit," it says. Being transated that means, "He has eaten our dogs!" How utterly disgraceful! We now all know he's always been a White Sox baseball fan! Michael Murphy, director of the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University, just added to the tackiness “(Prevost) is a bridge builder, since his mom was a Cubs fan, his dad was a Cardinals fan, but as a true South Sider he’s a Sox fan.” The Pope is a bridge builder because of baseball team rivalry? May the good Lord above spare us from further such total irrelevancies! Yet because this is America, it will continue for a long time to come! https://www.yahoo.com/news/chicago-loudly-proudly-claims-homegrown-235100327.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

You absolutely cannot divorce the present from the past when the present is dependent on what happened in the past!

A true disciple of Oscar Wilde - "True friends stab you in the front."