Lucky

Gosh! Your link took me to my Gmail inbox. I hope everyone doesn't get taken there!

The singing has been widely criticized at the towleroad.com blog: http://www.towleroad.com/2012/01/watch-christina-aguilera-sings-at-last-at-etta-jamess-funeral.html Incidentally, Andy Towle, the blogger, uses the very same line that EXPAT does. Coincidence? "This was yesterday in LA. On the one hand: Very impressive, in an athletic way. On the other: Just because you can sing a note, must you?"

A design has been chosen to set the work for the new AIDS Memorial Park in New York's Greenwich Village. "Infinite Forest" was chosen as the winning design. Infinite Forest Blogger Andy Towle writes: The competition was launched in November. Joining Michael Arad, the designer of the poignant and provocative 9/11 memorial in the footprint of the former World Trade Center, on the design jury were, among others, the architects Richard Meier and Elizabeth Diller; the landscape architect Ken Smith; the High Line’s co-founder and executive director, Robert Hammond; the choreographer Bill T. Jones; and the novelist and journalist Kurt Andersen. The park is to be built in NYC's West Village opposite the now-shuttered St. Vincent's Hospital on 7th Avenue at Greenwich Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/#ixzz1kxUg07iF

Having once, and hopefully never again, driven in a "tule fog" in Northern California, I can see how the lack of visibility that suddenly enveloped a Florida road led to the deaths of ten motorists who thought they would be home soon: Photographs of the scene taken hours later revealed an aftermath that resembled a Hollywood disaster movie. Twisted, burned-out vehicles were scattered across the pavement, with smoke still rising from the wreckage. Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks. Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw bodies still inside a burned-out Grand Prix. One tractor-trailer was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. And the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts. Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and warned Camps to be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area just south of Gainesville. A short time later, Camps said, traffic stopped along the northbound lanes. “You couldn’t see anything. People were pulling off the road,” he said. Camps said he began talking about the road conditions to a man in the car stopped next to them when another vehicle hit the man’s car. The man’s vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and another friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road. All around them, cars and trucks were on fire, and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned. The story: Florida traffic nightmare LA Times

Edmund White's latest novel is Jack Holmes and His Friend, a story about two men, one gay, one straight. Obviously the gay guy longs for the straight guy over a number of years. The NY Times Book Review quotes this passage on how gay men and straight men differ when dealing with an ex-love. The gay men keep them as friends, the straights don't- or at least that is the case here. What do you think? Jack says to Will, “Straight people, as soon as they’ve broken up, it’s off with their heads.” “And gays?” “We stay friends. Why invest so much energy and time in another person and then just cut him out of your life forever? That’s the nasty, brutish way straights behave.” “But it doesn’t mean anything to you gay guys — it’s all just a joke for you.” “Not a joke,” Jack insists. “We’ve invested so much — ” “Invested! But you’re defending your investments like a dry goods merchant.” “And why do you straights gladly throw over everything you’ve achieved?” “Love . . . isn’t an achievement. It’s like a sonata. Once you’ve finished playing it, nothing remains. Not even sounds in the air.” “There are marks on the page someone else can follow,” Jack says. The Review

I saw her on the Daily Show. She is pretty bright and I, too, hope that she wins.

Lucky and EXPAT are not in competition. I have no desire to attempt to overcome his wide lead, and gladly concede the contest for most posts to him. If I win anything, it will be in the drawing with many other posters included. But, thanks for the toast, and even more for the photos of Brad and Chris.

Reading the ebook was easy enough to adjust to, but what kept screwing me up was touching the darned Ipad in places that caused the pages to turn when I didn't want them turning. Or grabbing the Ipad and accidentally turning it off. You don't have to worry about that with paper books! But I liked knowing how many pages were left in the chapter, or the book, and having the Ipad start me back at the page I had stopped reading. As for the book, What It Was, well, it's an interesting look back at a certain time in Washington D.C.'s black neighborhoods, with a white police detective trying to adjust to a community that was now 80% African-American. Author George Pelecanos peppered the story with references to songs of that time and displayed a love affair with the old fifties vehicles.

Well, okay, the photos are from 1959, but that doesn't mean that they don't have some interest today! Historical perspective and all. Take a look at 11 photos of guys who once thought they were pretty tough: 50's in Brooklyn's Gangs A preview:

Aptly named or not, the Christ Is Love rehab center in Lima Peru represented a last hope for many drug addicts who wanted to turn their lives around Then a fire swept through the premises, killing 27 residents. The unlicensed and overcrowded center kept its residents in like "prisoners," Peru's Health minister said. Many did not have a chance once the fire took hold. Supposedly using biblical teachings to combat addiction, the center appears to have been nothing but a cruel twist in the lives of those struggling to overcome addiction. No word on who actually ran the rehab center, or how the fire started. Story on Fire

groenthusiast, welcome to the forums. Perhaps we will soon hear from pete 097, currently reading the same forum!

My niece also loved the show, taking her friends to see it a second time. At least they didn't come to the Gaiety!

Naked Boys Singing, for 13 years a staple of sorts in the New York theater scene, is closing. Some 291,000 people have seen 71 different performers take it all off to sing for their supper. The show raised $256,963 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Having seen it, it was just a mildly entertaining show, although the number "beat your meat' does tend to stick in the mind. Now, without looking, who can name the two porn stars who were in the cast? Read more, including the stats on this popular show: Packing Up The Jock Straps

Then I will not explain. But just when I was thinking that no one read my posts, Simon, Lookin, and MsGuy, FourAces and hitoallusa ran to the rescue! Now I am motivated to type out a few more and can the crypticism! The "new" Lucky photo:

Even though I had been screened in Bangkok and twice in Japan, after I left customs at LAX I had to reenter a different terminal at United. They had no signs directing me, nor did they have an attendant to help the international passengers find their gate. So, I went to screening again, except that the lines were outrageously long. No United personnel were on hand to assist. A TSA agent had stopped the line at the escalator, so I explained that I would never make my connection if I had to wait in line. She could not have cared less. Finally, the guy at the front of that line offered to let me cut in, which I did. I ran to my gate, which was back at the terminal I had come in on. They were boarding the flight as I arrived. 4 other connecting passengers on that flight did not make it. United didn't care one wit, and in fact left 4 minutes early.

The mug shot:

Knock on wood. As soon as you bragged on how good the weather had been, I started worrying for you that a deluge might be coming! I would have paragraphed at about the "we kissed hello" sentence just to put some white space in there. Don't get me wrong, i cans ee how when you are in the midst of telling a hot story, white spacingit doesn't come to mind. Yet. I will keep working on it. just out of curiosity, what do you type your reports on? A cell phone? An Ipad, a laptop? Further, and this is my mommy side, take care not to run yourself ragged. We want you healthy in March!

gcursor, I would be pleased to read your book.

You are commending Simon for taking a cannon shot at me? Gee, thanks. But, I think this is more along the lines of what he had in mind:

Yes, I had planned to be a diehard, sticking to the hard copy of a book until they didn't make them anymore. Then Oz showed me his Ipad2, with the Google translate app, and it seemed just right for my trips to foreign countries. I do like it, a lot. So I saw that the new George Pelecanos novel (What It Was) is being offered as an ebook for just 99 cents! My library doesn't have it just yet, and I like Pelecanos a lot, so I took the leap and bet 99 cents that I would enjoy reading an ebook. It's going to be a bit weird for me though. So, I am using the Ibooks app on the Ipad. This leads to my question for Oz- why do you have the Kindle App on your Ipad if they have ebooks available on Ibooks?

I prefer to see myself as the blond kid in the third row, but yes, I understand that I have to step up and claim the title role, so to speak. As for the feet, we are all in a state of constant decay, even if we are respected leaders with a cult following. (My following is much smaller. I used that technique they use in movies to bulk up the crowd scenes...hehe) So maybe that's what the photo represents. Our political leaders too are human- they decay. But we still love and need them, don't we? Just like ya'all love and need me...Simon excepted. (see why a sense of humor is needed?) I guess I liked that the guy is not perfect, yet still admired.

Ask Siri why your usage has slowed. I'd be interested in her answer.

Well, the guy here is lookin at a body. Lookin hard, if you ask me. Is the guy dead? Can lookin bring hiim back? I like, too, that everyone is lookin at the guy doing the lookin. As for the umbrellas and gray clouds, well, ominous, huh? You've been pretty quiet here lately, so we don't know what's up with you. Same with the pic. Who knows what you will post next? Will the sun come out? All kinds of possibilities exist in this picture, and I like that.

Mitch Daniels, the Calvin Coolidge look-alike who gave the response from the Republicans to the State of the Union address told the nation: “One in five men of prime working age and nearly half of all persons under 30 did not go to work today.” - GOP response to the State of the Union address, Jan. 24, 2012 But, it isn't true! Read why: My link Mitch and Calvin:

"To make your wish her command, Siri floods your cell network with a stream of data; her responses require a similarly large flow in return. A study published this month by Arieso, an Atlanta firm that specializes in mobile networks, found that the Siri-equipped iPhone 4S uses twice as much data as does the plain old iPhone 4 and nearly three times as much as does the iPhone 3G. The new phone requires far more data than most other advanced smartphones, which are pretty data-intensive themselves, The Post has reported." Read the whole story: Sad saga of Siri Sucking data