Lucky

But, MA, lurker is not in New York, so he doesn't have the opportunities that you do. Of course, money is not a factor to add. hehe But Lurker has been to Rio, but not to Broadway. No doubt he would love it, as MA and I do. But I have no problems attending a show alone. The bf only likes musicals, and I love the depth that a play can have. If I took a cute young guy, I might be in a hurry for the show to end! Perhaps Oz will sponsor a theater tour with the 3 guys who post the most in December!

Gay men are stereotyped to be theater lovers, particularly musicals. We are supposed to be fans of Judy Garland, Liza Minelli, and any other diva who sings. Song lyrics tumble in our heads all the time, usually in the shower. I am a gay man, but I know no song lyrics. I have no time for divas. But I love the theater. In New York recently I saw 8 shows in 6 days, not unusual for my trips. Last night we saw what was one of the best productions yet at our local amateur playhouse, The Palm Canyon Theater. They did justice to a performance of The Fantasticks. I liked it better than the show I saw in New York several years ago. A strikingly handsome young man played Matt, a devilishly sexy guy played El Gallo. A young woman with a beautiful voice made her debut as Luisa. Everything came together. All the other actors had their roles down pat and performed with distinction. So, for a theater lover who now lives far from New York, it was a night to remember! Now, if I could just find some guys here who cared about the theater. I did return to the theater forum at Daddy's just to have some fellow-travelers, but even there, I am the one starting many of the threads. At least others do post there. Here, theater news usually falls right off the stage.

Apparently America's children have not been as protected as we all thought- and hoped- they were. The LA Times today has several articles on new scandals, including one at the military school for boys, The Citadel. There it was reported: "In 2007, a teenager alleged to Citadel authorities that [camp counselor] ReVille showed porn to boys, according to the Charleston Post & Courier. CNN reports that no one touched each other during the porn-watching session but that "sexual activity" occurred." LA Times Citadel Further, a convicted child sex offender has a job casting children in movies: Casting Director Boy Scout offender: LA Times Scout Another college scandal, say SFgate.com: Syracuse Coach

I am working at it. Damn sweet tooth keeps getting in the way. The biggest thing to help though is not keeping ice cream in the house!

They may lower them, but only from Tokyo, Taipei, or Hong Kong. You've got to get to Asia on your own.

A commenter at the NY Times website posted this: Manchester's faith led him to believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman -- just not, it turned out, to his particular woman. A year after he made that $125,000 anti-gay marriage donation, Manchester's wife filed for divorce in what later became a bitter case, the Union-Tribune reported in August 2009. "In court papers," the Union-Tribune said, "Elizabeth Manchester said her husband has $56.9 million in bank accounts but has “secretly transferred” at least $9.3 million from their joint accounts to his own. She also alleged that he kept her half of an $8.2 million tax refund, potentially cashing it without her signature. She said that after the couple's separation last fall, he stole her mail while she was away from the La Jolla home." Commenter's Link to News

Douglas Manchester, owner of the San Diego Marriott Marina Hotel and the Manchester Hyatt Hotel, among other holdings,has bought the city's leading newspaper for "above" $110 million. Manchester donated $100,000 to the Prop 8 campaign to ban gay marriage in California, and a long boycott of his hotel was carried on until it was reported that he sold it. But today's news seems to imply that he did not, in fact, sell the hotel. Both the Marriott and the Hyatt occupy prime positions on the San Diego harbor, next to the convention center. With ownership of the Tribune, Manchester can now call the shots on the coverage of the news in that city, and will certainly be kowtowed to by those seeking political advancement. It remains to be seen just how anti-gay Manchester is, but he was totally unrepentant about is Prop 8 donation even in the face of the boycott. Manchester Tribune

The Thai economy must be hurting, as the floods have caused many businesses to close, thus reducing exports and imports. Tourists are avoiding the place because they think it is all underwater. The flood waters have not ravaged Bangkok, yet some outlying areas have been affected, and there are garbage issues mounting. But January is the best time to visit Thailand as the weather is at its best. So buy now, before other tourists figure it out and prices rise.

If an email I received today is any indication, recent flooding in Bangkok has caused hotel occupancy rates to plummet. The Sofitel Silom is now available for $84 a night. Last year I paid $125 a night without breakfast. The Ibis Riverside Bangkok starts at $22 a night. The Grand Mercure Park Avenue starts at $34. The Novotel on Siam Square at $57. The brand new Novotel Platinum, opening this month, starts at $54. It goes on and on, so pack your bags! The sale email I received is from Accor Hotels, and is available worldwide.

Eeyore, you know, this is the first time that I thought an e-book would be a handy tool. The King book is heavy, but I am now used to it. And as for the different dimension possibilities, can you imagine the MER in another dimension, where everyone fights and the owner is named TotallyNuts? I wonder who the prolific posters are, and what they call themselves. Byetoallusa? MrGuy? Snookin? ThreeClovers? SEXPAT? Or lickerlicks? What a world that might be! TampaxSkankee would be the moderator, and...oh, oh, there can only be one Tomcal!

11/22/63 is a date that we all remember, well, most of us who are old enough. But it is also the title of Stephen King's newest novel. It's about a man who learns how to time travel back to 1958, where he will stay in an effort to stop the assassination of the president. The book is 848 pages long, which might deter many readers. But, I am half way through it, and I am here to tell you what a delight it is to read. It's one of those "can't put it down novels." So, if you like to read, don't let the size of the book stop you. And, if you are a Fifties fan, then run to the bookstore. King does the Fifties so well, you might think you had time-traveled. At the half-way point we have barely made it to Dallas. King is just having fun recreating the Fifties. It's nostalgia time! Known more lately for his horror stories, King has switched gears, and this epic look at a time gone by is worth it...at least to page 424! I'll keep you tuned in.

Could someone please start another thread and get this title off of the menu? Please! I am now down 15 pounds, with 10 to go before Oliver arrives.

I like the first one. Is he in Rio? Phone number?

Thanks, Lookin, and hitoallusa. I did enjoy finding the items for the Reader. I did edit some out,and shortened others. Four Aces did a mockup of the Reader to show me what I could do make it look sharper. He did a really fine job. It encourages me to try again. So maybe it could be a monthly thing if people are interested. It does add something different here, even if a minor change. I do appreciate the encouragement. (Am I the only one who worried that that college student in the hot tub might electrocute himself?)

And you came back from Rio? Leaving him behind? Seriously?

The bishop avoided prosecution after all. It seems that the bold DA who made national headlines for the prosecution of the first bishop on sex abuse cover-up charges finally realized that after all the cameras were gone he had to live there too. So he made a deal. If the bishop meets with him monthly for the next 5 years and spills all the gossip on priest's sexual misadventures, then the holy man can avoid prosecution himself. This keeps the DA in a central position, keeps the cleric from having to bend over in a jail shower, and may mean that less abuse occurs. It remains to be seen.

Oz, you would probably have to live in Vegas or Merced, CA to get one of those big houses. They are foreclosure capitols, not that Palm Springs is far behind. Hitoall, I don't think it will be weekly. It may never reappear. FourAces has been giving me lessons behind the scenes, including showing me what the Lucky Reader could have looked like had I been better schooled. I appreciate that. The other thing is that few of the items I posted got responses. We all will admit, even if only to our spouses in the dark of the bedroom, that what we post we want to be read. But I did hope to get at least 100 views,so that goal was reached.

Better yet, today is Lurkerspeaks Day at MER. Quite an honor, I'd say. I saved my greetings for that thread...

Yes, indeed. Happy Lurkerspeaks Day!!! What a bonanza to have your 1000th post coincide with your birthday. Thanks for all you have done for MER and your fellow posters.

Any pictures of the hot men of Columbia?

Lurker, what I would be interested in is to hear what items you (and others) liked and which ones did not work for you. The middle ground can be left out. Also, you can give us your review of J.Edgar now, since you were waiting for mine. If I posted these items separately, people would comment on what they thought of them. I hope that the sheer number of items doesn't discourage people from posting their reactions to the various items. The need to post in two sections is now alleviated as Oz has increased the number of pix and media items to 25 from 10. That should make the Lucky Reader a one section post should there be another one.

Well, I am tempted to say the first guy I fell in love with, the one who caused me to think of who I was and come out of the closet. But the odd thing there is after I moved to LA, I picked up a guy who looked the spitting image of this guy, so much so that I had my doubts that it was not, in fact, him. The resemblance could not have been closer, even the hair was the same. So, I did have sex with him, sort of. Then I could think of porn stars or escorts, and there would be a long list of them. TV and movie celebrities might enter the list. But how do I choose these guys when I have no idea how good in bed they are? So, rather than pick a person, I will say that I would want to have sex with someone whom I was very attracted to, who knew what he was doing in bed, and who was attracted to me, at least enough to have a hot time in bed once. Who appeals to me in general, without knowing if they fit the criteria, I would say Alexander the Great for a historic figure, and Santiago on Cam4 from Columbia. I like Brent and Dolph too, EXPAT!

For better or worse, it's finished. I hope that you like it, but feel free to offer suggestions, or comment on the articles/pix that I chose to use. (Be sure to read both parts. The videos were selected because they are worth watching, so why not watch?)

Section 2 of The Lucky Reader for 11/14/11 I had to delete some pics to fit the requirements of MER, but I think it works okay. * Andy Towle, prominent gay blogger calls this video of a 15 year old Korean boy playing Michael Jackson's "Beat It" both "gorgeous" and "astounding." I liked it too! * Last month marked the 50th anniversary of the film West Side Story, so the other day, a very well choreographed "flash mob" gathered at the plaza by the Times Square TKTS booth to perform a dance from the show. I saw the video at towleroad.com. A few dancers start performing, and are soon joined by many others. Can't be spontaneous, of course, since the choreography is just too good. It's worth a watch: * Did disgraced football coach Jerry Sandusky abuse his own adopted children? A Patriot-News report indicates that Sandusky's alleged deviant behavior could be traced back even further, and may have involved one of his six adopted children, Matt Sandusky. In the Patriot-News report, it reveals that Matt Sandusky's adoption file contains letters written by Matt's biological mother, Debra Long, which depict Long's concern for Matt living with the Sandusky family. Matt began living at Sandusky's State College home in 1995. The Patriot-News report says Long was only able to visit her son a half day per month.Sandusky Probe The report also says Matt Sandusky attempted suicide a few months after moving into the Sandusky home and that a probation officer assigned to Matt Sandusky, Terry Trude, later wrote a letter to Centre County Judge David Grine stating that the probation department was concerned for Matt Sandusky's "safety and his current progress" in the Sandusky family's care. * Want to be the proud owner of Justin Bieber’s snake? Never say never. The 17-year-old heartthrob is auctioning off Johnson, the baby boa constrictor he brought with him to the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, to raise money for charity. If you have the highest bid, you could be playing with the Bieber snake right in your own home! Read more: Bieber Link * The Daily Beast lists 11 movies that became the most "unintentional gay movies ever. See them all: 11 Gayer movies * Last week, Rick Warren sent this message to the nearly 500,000 people who follow him on Twitter: “Husbands & wives should satisfy each other’s sexual needs. 1 Cor 7:3.” His Twitter feed lit up with amens and retweets. “Oh gosh,” exclaimed one follower. Evangelical Christians want to talk about sex. And not in the same old punitive way. They want to talk about hot sex — as long as it’s between a man and a woman who are husband and wife. (Washingtonpost.com) The Christian magazine Relevant revealed that 80% of Christians have sex before marriage,compared to 88% of the general population. * Want to see what some known straight folks have to say about gays? Stuff like: "'I'm Clint F------ Eastwood, and this is what I have to say about gay marriage.' BRAVO." Huffingtonpost.com has 11 quotes that you might like. See 11 Straight Allies * Huffington Post also takes a harder look at the case of the D.A. Ray Gricar who declined to prosecute Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky in 1998. He went missing in 2005 and has never been found. Take a look, it's quite a mystery: Missing D.A. * For readers, two book reviews in the NY Times Book review interest me. I just bought Stephen King's 11/22/63, which, at 848 pages is too long to read in a library's two week time frame. The book lists at $35, is available at WalMart for $25, and at Costco for $20. It's about a guy who time travels back to try to stop the Kennedy assassination, but is apparently much more than that. He starts in 1958. The Kennedys and the Fifties were enough to get me to buy the book despite not being a King fan. (It's sure heavy to hold. Maybe the Kindle is better for these long books!) The other novel is The Sense of An Ending, the winner of the Man Booker Prize, by Julian Barnes. It's a feather in comparison to the size of the King book. In it, a man in his 60's (like me!) gets an unexpected bequest (unlike me) causing him to question his understanding of the past. Well, I do that all the time. * We need a picture for the Reader, so here it is: Jaron Brandon, a sophomore at the University of California, Merced, studying in the Jacuzzi of his six-bedroom house. This comes from a front page article in the Sunday times about how college students are using foreclosed homes as student housing. This student lives in one in Merced, CA, with 6 bedrooms, and, of course, the jacuzzi. * Nicolas Kristof is the Times resident bleeding heart liberal, and today he takes us on a raid in Camboida of a brothel with several underage girls. It's sad, but they seem to be plentiful. I wonder about those young boys in Thailand who seem to be available at certain venues. Are they forced into this? After all, what ten year old willingly enters the sex trade? And how common is it? I personally witnessed it once in the Sunnee Plaza area of Pattaya Thailand. Later, Totally Oz took me on a tour of the area bars to show me that a cleanup had occurred. But what is the market for this? Who really wants a pre-pubescent boy for sex? I just can't understand it. Kristof Article article: * Not that I go out much to gay bars here, but the Barracks Bar in Cathedral City, the "in" place to go on a Sunday afternoon, was raided yesterday. Leatherati reports: Barracks Bar Shut Down Breaking news...we just received a text indicating the Barracks Bar in Cathedral City, CA was shut down this afternoon by the local police department for "capacity" issues. The closure came during one of the busiest Sunday beer busts of the year with the town crowded with attendees to Palm Springs Leather Pride. The Barracks has had ongoing difficulties with the Cathedral City police department over capacity issues and displayIng porn in the bar." It sure must have been a mess as this place is packed on any Sunday, not to mention during leather weekend. So, as a gay man, should I be upset? Or, knowing how tight they pack the place, did the cops do us a favor on the big safety issues? *

No, my HOA meeting begins in 15 minutes and I don't have section 2 up yet. Seems to be a problem with one of the images, but they never tell you which one. So, Section 2 will be posted later.