BSR

10 minutes ago, José Soplanucas said:

I think you are exaggerating his influence slightly, but I agree with your assessment of his potential. I think too many friends are celebrating too soon. This guy is an amoral and dangerous monster. 

We know that Trump, whether or not he is convicted and/or elected, has just a few more years left. But this guy...

Protect us, God I Do Not Believe In.

Let's revisit this thread in 2 years and compare predictions to hard numbers.

Note that Don Lemon is such a zero that in a thread about his termination, all we can talk about is Tucker Carlson.

1 hour ago, Peter Eater said:

Nope. Tucker wields no power & influence. The Fox Propaganda platform does. Tucker is the new Bill O’Reilly. A cipher.

Bill O'Reilly was never a force in American politics, never led a political movement.  O'Reilly, a self-described  traditionalist independent (whatever that is), had no following of fellow traditionalist independents, because no such movement exists in this country.

"Tucker wields no power or influence "??  He single-handedly got Donald Trump to do a 180 on his Covid policy by browbeating the president at a party.  Without even speaking to Trump in person, Carlson succeeded in jettisoning shadow president Jared Kushner from the Trump White House.  Wow, I wish I were so "powerless."

Love it or hate it, America First nationalist populism, a.k.a. MAGA, is a force in American politics, and Tucker Carlson is its spiritual leader.  Just as Rush Limbaugh thrived 100% independently from Fox News and any other establishment media, Tucker will (eventually) build his own platform.  Because you dislike Tucker, you're wishcasting his future irrelevance.  But the 76 million (and counting!) views Carlson got on his last tweet indicate that he's just getting started.

1 hour ago, Peter Eater said:

🤣 Trump is victimhood personified. As a gay Black man, Lemon for sure had high hurdles.

Morgan Freeman disagrees ...

On 4/26/2023 at 4:18 PM, socurious said:

 Average high summer temperatures in SF are in the upper 70s according to Google.  Boston summers are probably similar to NYC summers but with maybe less humidity. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. 

I've lived in both NYC & Boston.  Humidity is a tick or two higher in Boston, but not a huge difference.  I think you notice the heat more in NYC, especially when you go into subway stations.

As someone pointed out in another thread, Boston's gay scene is surprisingly small for a city its size.  Maybe the SF gay scene ain't what it used to be, but it's gotta be better than Boston's.

On 4/21/2023 at 12:35 PM, SouthOfTheBorder said:

aren’t there like a million websites to engage in political trolling ?

Can you recommend an LGBT forum with an active Politics subforum?  The other site's Politics section is all but dead. 

I started engaging in political discussion in Men's Tennis Forum (not LGBT obviously but it has a ~20% gay membership).   At first it was kinda fun because conservatives actually outnumber liberals at MTF, but I quickly grew bored because the liberals cave so easily, no challenge at all.

8 hours ago, mike carey said:

That is true, but it also reflects the general reaction out there that Carlson's firing generated far more interest than Lemon's. Carlson had an agenda that everyone had views on. Lemon did not.

"Lemon did not" ... yeah, and water isn't wet.  Lemon openly hated Trumpers, championed the victimhood narrative, etc.  The difference is that Tucker Carlson rubbed you the wrong way whereas Don Lemon did not.  The other difference, as previously stated, is that Carlson wields serious power in American politics whereas Lemon is a total nobody.

Lemon's career will go the way of Chris Cuomo, now an "independent" journalist, a euphemism for "producing his own videos that nobody watches."

Tucker, on the other hand, will build a following even larger than Rush Limbaugh's.  Of course it will take some time, especially since he'll have to navigate a way around the non-compete clause of his Fox News contract.  But eventually Carlson will be followed by tens of millions whereas Lemon will be (very) lucky to reach tens of thousands.

2 hours ago, Luv2play said:

Intrresting how the thread on Tucker just got shut down and this one on Don, who was fired at the same time, has not veered into political rants which got the Tucker thread nixed.

At least so far. 😆

Love him or hate him, Tucker Carlson wields great power & influence.  Trump didn't kick into gear about Covid until Tucker cornered him at a party and read him the riot act.  Jared Kushner was basically a shadow president in the Trump administration until Carlson excoriated Kushner on his (now defunct) ahow, for a few  reasons but most of all because Kushner actually hates Trump voters.  Shortly thereafter, Kushner was ushered out.  Second only to DJT, Tucker is the most powerful figure in the MAGA movement.

Don Lemon, on the other hand, is a zero in American politics.  Lemon himself thinks he's awfully important, but nobody else does.

If this doesn't melt your heart ...

2 hours ago, jeezifonly said:

He’s not cancelled in the zeitgeist 

He has lots more bile to spew, and someone will buy him the opportunity, just to serve their own goals. 
May the remainder of his life be filled with fear and dread. 

 

Tucker Carlson is a national treasure.

On 4/12/2023 at 12:20 PM, RadioRob said:

I live in DC metro area and the company I work for is HQ'ed in Cambridge (Boston).  I'm up there and NYC frequently!  I can vouch for it being expensive.  

But I could never live in Boston year round.  I'm a wuss when it comes to the cold.  So I can't handle Boston winters... I would have to be a snow bird!

Boston is a great city for so many reasons:  history, architecture, culture, European charm, great seafood, great sports town.   But you hit on the 2 cons:  it's expensive, and the weather SUCKS!!  Winter lasts forever, spring lasts ~48 hours, and summer humidity is unbearable.  The 8 beautiful weeks of fall don't make up for the other 44 weeks of suckitude.

If you make a good salary or at least are good at managing your money, the high cost of living is tolerable.  But the weather, ugh, no thanks.

That said, a night at Fenway Park, once summer stickiness gives way to cooler fall temps, is heaven on earth.

Tucker Carlson is, er, was the king of cable news.  His ratings were far higher than his Fox peers (Hannity, Ingraham, Watters) and multiple times higher than the highest-rated shows on CNN & MSNBC, e.g., Carlson 3.3 million vs. Anderson Cooper 868K.

Wherever he goes, it might take a bit for him to rebuild his following, but I expect him to gain far more followers in the long run.  He should do at least as well as Joe Rogan, for example, whose Spotify podcast averages 11 million.

Rush Limbaugh used to get 15.5 million listeners who tuned in at least once a week and earned $84.5 million a year.  Tucker should shoot for, at the very least, 20 million listeners and $100 million.

I first saw Dolly Parton when she performed at a rodeo, ~50 years ago.  No one in my family had ever heard of her.  After her set, my parents & brother were indifferent at best whereas I fell in love, with country music in general and Dolly in particular.

7 hours ago, Stormy said:

In hindsight he should have stayed with his nighttime show.  The dynamics between the anchors in his morning show was awful.  Had to stick with Morning Joe 

Lemon was quite adamant that his switch to mornings was not a demotion, which makes me think that yup, it was a demotion.

On 4/21/2023 at 10:41 AM, EZEtoGRU said:

Whilst I miss the politics forum, I don’t miss the right wing extremists on this site having a platform to push their hate and lies. I have always believed that the only way a politics forum can survive on this site long term is for it to be much more actively moderated/managed than it was.   If that isn’t possible, then the politics forum is better off dead. 

Wow, I totally agree!  Except that the problem was leftist extremists using the forum to push their lies and hate.

On 4/21/2023 at 5:51 PM, José Soplanucas said:

What about giving the OPs the right to moderate the threads they created, including the right to block specific members out? Of course, we should establish in the community rules that the OPs decisions are unquestionable. 

What prevents an OP from blocking people simply because they say things the OP dislikes or disagrees with?

@RadioRob, how about getting participants in a revived Politics forum to enter at your own risk?  I participate in another forum (not the other site) where the mods are much more hands off.  Insults and personal attacks abound, and the mods take action only when things get extreme.  I wish debate were more civil but understand that there simply isn't the manpower to regulate the politics section more strictly.  Basically, grow a thick skin and put your big boy pants on, 'cuz things are gonna get rough. 

That said, discussing escorts, not politics, is the raison d'être of this forum.  Since I never cared for the other forum, I am glad we have this one.

3 hours ago, nycman said:

Anyone not afraid to stand on stage and belt next to Freddie Mercury, is a Queen in my book. 
 

 

The greatest popera performance of all time.

History buffs, is this true?  Or did some guy on the Internet just make it up?  It sounds made-up, but ya never know ...

"Throwing in the towel" does not owe its origin to boxing...

Today the belief predominates that the origin of the expression "throw in the towel" lies in the world of boxing.  It is true that it is used in this sport to point to the gesture in which one of the trainers forces his fighter to quit.  Everyone knows that the phrase means to give up a purpose or fight.  But where can we find its origin?

The truth is that the gesture that gave rise to this locution is much older than most imagine.  It is said that the famous Roman baths of the former empire were not a place exclusively for bathing, as we have seen in different films it was a place to meet, and ideal for political conspiracies of those that abounded in ancient Rome.  But they were also the ideal place to meet the most attractive young men in the city who, seeking fame, riches, and sometimes power, yielded to the wishes of older men who sought their company.  All this gave rise to a ritual that can be traced back to the first century AD.

When one of these adolescents received a proposal either through third parties or directly from one of the older men, he stood in front of his applicant and either tied a second knot in the towel that wrapped him, making it clear that he was rejecting the proposal, or threw in the towel, to which those present applauded and celebrated the beginning of a relationship.
In present-day Turkey some hot springs are preserved in which a plaque was discovered that reads: "Hic Antinous Hadriano linteum suum iactavit", that is, "This was where Antinous threw his towel at Hadrian," thus alluding to the relationship between the emperor Hadrian and the young musical artist Antinous.  Perhaps that was the moment in which the meaning of the phrase began to vary, finally being seen as a gesture of submission to the conqueror, which led the boxing world to adopt it to refer to surrender, which has led to gradually losing track of the true origin of the term.

On 3/27/2023 at 6:55 PM, sync said:

My ding dang bladder allows me only 2 to 3 hours of sleep at a time.

I usually grab a nap in the afternoon and turn in around 12:30AM to be up again about 7:00AM.

I used to have the same problem.  When it got to the point that I was waking up every 1.5-2 hours, I sought out a urologist.  He gave me a couple of prescriptions, 1 to shrink my prostate, 1 to calm down my bladder muscles.  Now occasionally I have to wake up once per night to pee, but most nights I sleep through no problem.  My overall health, including my mental health, is much improved now that I am sleeping 8 hours uninterrupted.

The original Merlí is available again on RTVE. Just download the RTVE app, set your VPN to Spain, and start binging.  Unfortunately, still no English dubbing or subtitles available, only Spanish and Catalan.

I've grown even more fond of the series since the last time I watched it.  Last December when I knew it was going off RTVE, I must have re-watched the final episode a half-dozen times.  Yes, because Bruno and Pol are the sexiest, most beautiful gay couple I've ever seen on screen (big or small), but also because I grew to love all the characters.

if your Spanish is even half-decent, you gotta give Merlí a try.  I can't recommend it enough.

Too much cuteness ...

5 hours ago, Unicorn said:

I agree with @BSR on this. Context is important. Colombian and Mexican pronunciation and grammar are virtually identical, and those also happen to be the largest two Spanish-speaking countries among those for whom Spanish is the main language (technically, the US is #2 in terms of numbers of Spanish speakers, but it's not a primarily Spanish-speaking country, though quite a few TV shows are produced in the US). The only differences are minor expressions. For example, when I've gone out with Colombian men, they frequently use the expression "ichévere! to express satisfaction with something (like "Great!" or "Groovy!"). I've never heard that expression used by men from other countries. Similarly, the use of the expression "iCaramba! or "Ay, Chihuahua!" will mark a Mexican (though those expressions are not as frequent as the constant "ichévere!" the Colombians exclaim, kind of like the incessant "Eh?" one hears from Canadians). 

Not sure we're on the same page ... Despite its abundance of top-notch language schools, Salamanca would be a bad fit for @menaughty because of his affinity for Latin America.  Colombia, on the other hand, would suit him for that same reason, not because of the similarity between Mexican and Colombian Spanish.

I think you're exaggerating the differences between countries.  First of all, Spanish grammar is pretty much the same everywhere.  The exceptions of vos & vosotros are negligible.  When a Spaniard uses vosotros in Mexico or an Argentine uses vos in Madrid, nobody blinks an eye.  Yes, pronunciation does vary, but wherever menaughty studies, people from every other country will understand him just fine.  The greatest differences are slang & colloquialisms, but once people pick up that you're a 2nd-language speaker, they stop using them (consciously or not).  Besides, the best way to learn slang from other countries is watching TV, like I heard Juanes say chévere umpteen times when he was a coach on La Voz España.

Yes, Québécois is very different from Gallic French and Swiss German very different from High German, but as @pubic_assistance said, Spanish is Spanish the whole world 'round, just like we can understand English from every every other English-speaking country.  Sure, there are occasional problems, like a super-thick Cockney accent or his example of areas where vocabulary comes from indigenous languages, but those exceptions are few and far between.

The OP has so many issues to consider:  study or party (of course you can do both, but the emphasis usually ends up being one or the other), budget, visa, length of stay, climate, big or small city, finding a top-notch school, and most of all, figuring out what place appeals to him the most.  Once he sorts out all those issues, the "issue" of Mexican vs. Castilian vs. Porteño becomes a non-issue.

3 hours ago, MassageAdam said:

Well, it's going to be more pure than Spanish in Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Andalusia area of Spain, Catalan area of Spain, Basque Country, Galicia region, etc etc.  Castilla is just the region and Salamanca is known for it.  It's just a simple statement.  I'm not trying to prove anything, but to think they speak better Castilian Spanish in other areas of the world is not accurate either.  Like I said with my experience, all my friends in Spain told me there is not better place than Salamanca to learn Spanish.  That's the reputation it has.  

Yes, when I studied in Salamanca, I remember everyone kept saying that nearby Valladolid was where the best Spanish is spoken, but Salamanca was a close 2nd.  Honestly, I assumed it was just a marketing gimmick.  Looking back on it, I'm not sure what the "best" or "purest" Spanish even means. 

I actually learned some nonstandard pronunciations in Salamanca, like lisping Ds at the end of words and syllables (imagine: thiudath, vothka) and skipping Cs before a C or T (so I say dotor, perfeto, atheso instead of doctor, perfecto, acceso).  The former is a bit unusual even in Spain, and I'm convinced the latter is nonexistent outside of Salamanca.  But in the end, no big whoop because everyone understands me just fine.

Unless you need to learn Spanish for work, I don't think it much matters where you study.  What does matter is figuring out the location that best suits you and finding a top-notch school.  Since the OP has expressed an affinity for Latino Spanish and music, Salamanca won't work no matter how many DELE-certified & Instituto de Cervantes-accredited schools it has.  But let's say @menaughty wants to experience the hot!hot!hot! rentboys of Medellín for his immersion program yet has a long-term plan of retiring in Mexico.  This one time, you can have your cake & eat it too.  You'll have a hella good time in Colombia, and you'll get used to Mexican Spanish quickly enough.

On a more personal note, I became very close to my English-speaking "cuadrilla" (foursome) in Salamanca.  Because I was in a new country learning a new language, away from family/friends, loneliness & homesickness hit hard.  I spent a lot of time hanging out & speaking English because I needed it at the time.  Yet shortly after our year abroad ended, my friendships with the Anglo foursome faded fast because being strangers in a strange land was really all we had in common.  In contrast, 3+ decades later, I'm still close with my 2 Spanish friends from that year; we Skype, email, and Whatsapp all the time.  I've heard the same from others, that friendships with their countrymen while studying abroad weren't "real."  Of course, your mileage may vary.

1 hour ago, José Soplanucas said:

My nephews grew up in Buenos Aires watching American cartoons doubled in Mexico. It took most of their Elementary school years to bring their Spanish back to the Rio de la Plata. They used to speak using "tú."

That beautiful porteño accent but with tú instead of vos??

On 4/4/2023 at 5:40 PM, menaughty said:

Thank you so much everyone for an amazing and informative input.

I am thinking to do Mexico or Colombia but now I gotta choose the city and the program.

I really love Barcelona and would love to learn their but I dont want to learn Spain's spanish 😂. I prefer Latin American Spanish. Idk if it's because I live in Texas and I am so accustomed to Mexican spanish or it's my love for latin american music since childhood. I am not a complete beginner. I can do small convos in Spanish.

I've heard a theory that listening to music helps open your mind to better learn a language.  Proponents of this theory suggest you listen to music in the language you're studying before attending class, doing homework, etc.  Dont know if that's true or not.  If it is, great!  Even if it's not, you love Latin American music anyway, so hardly time wasted.

When you return to the US after your immersion program, follow @Rudynate's advice and watch Spanish-language TV & movies to keep your Spanish up.  About 10 years ago, I ran into 3 Spanish tourists who were looking for advice from a Las Vegas local.  Unfortunately, my Spanish had gotten so rusty that while I could understand them just fine, I couldn't speak to them in Spanish (eek!).  I had to speak English even though their English wasn't very good.  I was so depressed that my español had turned to sh*t, but I had no idea how to recover it since I wasn't in a position to hop back to Spain for a month or two.

Then ~8 years ago, I happed upon a Spanish TV series on the Internet and noticed how quickly it knocked the rust off.  I made it a point to watch something in Spanish every day:  some days hours of binging, others just a 10-minute YouTube video , but I never miss a day.  Thanks to my hobby, I am far more fluent now than at the end of my year in Salamanca, and my listening comprehension is 10x better.  You'll learn little if any slang, idiomatic expressions, and colloquialisms in class, but you'll learn tons & tons watching TV & movies. 

Also, Spaniards (or Mexicans or Colombians or ... ) have one way of speaking with foreigners (more slowly, simpler vocabulary, clearer pronunciation, no slang/colloquialisms) and a very different way when speaking with each other.  Even if you're friends with native speakers, they'll speak differently with you (perhaps not consciously, but they will).  If you want to understand real-world Spanish, you gotta watch TV.

Best of luck with finding the city/country right for you.  Whether Colombia or Mexico, Medellín or Mexico City (or San Miguel de Allende or Bogotá or ... ), I'm sure you'll have a great experience.