BSR

15 hours ago, Unicorn said:

If you learn a language in the country with the greatest number of speakers of that language, you are more likely to be understood in more places. For example, it's easier for an Englishman to understand an American, than for an American to understand an Englishman. So if you're going to learn Portuguese, go to Brazil. For French, go to France. For Arabic, go to Egypt. And for Spanish, go to Mexico. Mexico is the country with the greatest number of Spanish-speakers (#2 is the US, and #3 is Colombia). 

Gotta disagree, people will be able to understand you no matter where you study.  Because I started as a total beginner and because the teachers in Salamanca were quite strict, I learned Castilian Spanish with all the proper lisps and rasps.  Once back stateside, I never bothered to learn Latino pronunciations and use vosotros (when appropriate, of course) instead of ustedes. I've had extended conversations with people from almost every single Spanish-speaking country since, and everyone understands me perfectly.

Where you study will have some impact on your listening comprehension.  Americans who had studied Spanish for 6 years really struggled to understand the teachers in Salamanca whereas I, who had studied for all of 1 month, understood them just fine.  If you want to go to Buenos Aires for the experience, don't hesitate, absolutely go!  (I shall be green with envy.)  Just expect most Spanish speakers when you get back to the US to sound verrrrrrrrrry different from your porteño teachers.

But that can be easily remedied by watching TV/movies.  Get hooked on a Mexican telenovela if you live in Phoenix or start watching La casa de papel if you plan to travel to Spain, and you'll get used to the different accent & pronunciation pretty quickly.

I learned Spanish in Salamanca Spain, showing up at my first day of class with zero knowledge of Spanish.  It was a great experience that changed my life, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to do it.  But as much as I enjoyed it, I don't necessarily recommend Salamanca, or even Spain.  With 20 Spanish-speaking countries, good language schools can be found all over.

I suggest that you figure out where you want to go because learning Spanish will be only half the experience.  The other half will be getting to know the place and hopefully some of the local people.  If you want to hit the beach after spending all morning in class, Puerto Vallarta and Cancún have language schools.  If you want the big city experience, Madrid, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City await.  For smokin' hot rentboys, go to Medellín.  If you want something really different, head to Havana (might be problematic for US citizens).

After you pick a spot, finding a good language school is actually the easy part because most decent-sized cities have at least one if not several.  If you do go to Spain, make sure the school is DELE-certified (even if you're not taking a DELE course) and Instituto de Cervantes accredited.

If you've studied Spanish some, then I suggest watching as much Spanish-language TV and movies as you can before going because classroom Spanish doesn't really prepare you for real-world Spanish.  Activate the Spanish subtitles if you can't quite keep up, but absolutely do not resort to English subtitles. You'll never learn the language that way.

Even if you're starting from scratch, try to watch Spanish programming for children (Netflix has a bunch of movies for kids) as you're learning the language.  Beginners tend to translate from their native tongue word-for-word to Spanish, which comes off really awkward and stilted.  The more TV/movies you watch, the more you'll learn to speak real Spanish, not English badly translated.

When are you going?  For how long?  Is your motivation for learning Spanish work-related, or just something you've always wanted to do?  Whatever you end up doing, please tell us all about it.

LOL

Holy Toledo!  I just came across the man of my dreams!!  Professional soccer player Sebastian Lletget was born in San Francisco to 2 Argentine parents.  He's in the news because of some asunto de faldas.  I don't give a sh*t about the details, just glad I saw his gorgeous mug ...

Better with sound turned up ...

Hoverboards have been banned on the NYC subway since 2016 because of fire hazard.  Forget riding one, you can't even carry one on board.

2 hours ago, TorontoDrew said:

Tony Dow aka Wally Cleaver.

Yeah, I mentioned in the Tony Dow R.I.P. thread that my 8yo self got totally hooked on Leave It To Beaver reruns because of Beav's hunky older brother, even though I didn’t realize it at the time.  But I knew something was up when all the boys in my 6th grade class went apesh*t over Daisy Duke while I couldn't stop staring at Beau & Luke.  Scenes like these damn near made my head explode.

13 hours ago, Lucky said:

I finally watched Firebird the other night and didn't much like it. Sure, Sergey is cute, but I didn't get the attraction to Roman. Closeted men with wives often have difficult situations. In this case, it appeared as if Roman loved his job more than he loved anyone. Maybe I would like the book better.

Thanks for the review.  I decided against renting Firebird because I didn't want to pay the $5.99 rental just to get all depressed, even if the two leads are eye-poppingly handsome.  On the other hand, the video of Tom Prior (Sergey) and his beefcake photoshoot put quite a bounce in my step, plus it's free!

On 3/17/2022 at 7:43 PM, mike carey said:

To be pedantic, for the majority of human history we didn't have clocks so changing them was not a consideration.

Watching a series set in 1930s Spain, I noticed that when arranging to meet or do something, instead of setting a time, the characters always said dawn, noon, or sunset.  Oh right, only the wealthy had clocks/watches back then.  If the poor were out of earshot from the hourly ring of church bells, their only way of "telling time" was the position of the sun.

15 hours ago, Unicorn said:

You're right. Still lower proportionally in NYC, but that's more sensible. My error!

By the way, NYC does not assess property taxes at a fixed percentage of the property's value.  Different types of property get assessed at different rates.  For example, single-family homes (townhouses or brownstones) are assessed at a lower rate per square foot than condos.  Even units in the same building get assessed at different percentages.  A small 2-bedroom on a lower floor in Central Park Tower is assessed at 0.81% of the condo's value ($59,616 on a $7.35 million apartment) whereas the triplex penthouse is a "bargain" at just 0.23% ($572,232 on $250 million).  Maybe a long-time New Yorker can explain the crazy system 'cuz I sure as heck can't. 

True, Californians pay a much higher rate initially, but you also have Proposition 13.  NYC does have a cap on the percentage increase of your property tax, but it's much higher -- 6% in 1 year, 20% in 5 years.

1 hour ago, Unicorn said:

Yikes! Property taxes are low in NYC. My property taxes ain't that much lower, and my house is worth way, way, way less than a tenth (closer to 1/100th) of that. No HOA dues, though. Due to extreme fire danger of living in the hills, my homeowners' insurance runs well into the 5 figures, though. 

The $47,686 is the property tax per month.  Annual property tax is $572,232.  Yikes! Are you paying half a $million per year in property taxes?!

1 hour ago, Stormy said:

I’d like to see the Prince but not sure where I can find it.  I know Amazon Prime blackballed the movie over frontal nudity and sex scenes 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9jc3oxy7EzY

When you click on the link to the trailer, YouTube offers the option to rent ($4) or buy ($10) right below.

3 hours ago, Lookin said:

I think it's the media focus on rainy spells and dry spells that makes it seem like drought is a short-term issue but, as others have pointed out, water supply is a long-term issue.  It takes years to get into trouble and it takes years to get out of trouble.

The area where I live is currently enjoying full reservoirs with more rain on the way.  If we have two dry years in a row, we'll be fine.  But it would be much better to have a three-year supply and, with expected climate variations, it wouldn't hurt to have a four-year supply.  And that's what our local water district is studying now.  They've got five options on the table, all with their own significant issues to overcome.

One source of water supply they haven't been taking as seriously as I believe they should is demand reduction, or water conservation.  In the few months since I've been poking my nose in their deliberations, I've learned that forty percent of our residential water is being used for outdoor watering.  I can't imagine that ten or twenty years from now we'll look back and say it was a sensible way to use a precious resource.  So I've been spending my time trying to figure out how we can use less drinking water on our landscapes.  That will involve incentive programs for landscape conversion, along with increased use of non-potable water for heavy outdoor water users.  In my opinion, these programs deserve just as much investment as desalination or new reservoirs.

I believe in the years to come many of us are going to have to evolve our relationship with how we use water.  Even when it's raining, as it is today, we still won't have the luxury of installing a nice new green lawn this summer.

The original CSI was set in Las Vegas but shot in Los Angeles (except for the occasional location shot).  One giveaway is that all the houses seen on the show have a grass front lawn.  In Las Vegas grass in front of the house was banned many years ago.  Backyards can be up to 50% covered in natural grass (for kids, pets), but even for backyards the Southern NV Water Authority is pushing artificial grass pretty hard.

On 3/6/2023 at 7:23 PM, azdr0710 said:

I wonder what the HOA dues are!  

Not for the faint of heart, here are the monthlies for Central Park Tower's triplex penthouse ...

• Common charges ("HOA" outside of NYC) are high, of course, but less than what I would have guessed:  $26,952.  Given the over-the-top amenities, that's actually, dare I say, reasonable.  Plus think how much they have to pay those window-cleaners.
• Property tax:  $47,686.  Keep in mind that NYC gets ~60% of its revenue from commercial and residential property taxes.  If you own a place like this, the taxman will exact his pound of flesh.
• Here's the Big Kahuna ... homeowners insurance:  $86,792 *gulp*

So your fixed costs per month add up to $161,430.  Annually, get ready to cough up *drumroll please* $1,937,160.*

PS:  the building does vanity floor numbering.  Central Park Tower actually has only 98 floors, but according to the listing this penthouse occupies Floors 129, 130, and 131.  Hey, only a sucker would pay a $quarter-billion for a 98th floor apartment, but a $quarter-billion for a 131st floor apartment is tooooootally worth it.

* Section 8 not accepted

Even with a shirt on, Borna is so damn yummy ...

Oh my, so insistent!

10 hours ago, glutes said:

I'm with Julia, I cook with wine too!

Julia Child:  "I love cooking with wine.  Sometimes I even add it to the food."

On 1/27/2023 at 1:39 AM, jeezifonly said:

I know personally several experienced hikers who have acknowledged that learning about these isolated tragedies on the trail (weather, falls, animal attacks) …) will not deter them from their passion to hike, to be alone with nature. Probably, the experienced Mr Sands was of similar mindset. After this amount of time, he is either dead or has successfully disappeared himself, the former more likely

 

As someone whose idea of enjoying the great outdoors is having a drink at a sidewalk table, it boggles my mind that anyone would go hiking alone in such extreme weather and difficult terrain.  But obviously Julian Sands is a very different person.  What I see as suicide, he considers adventure. 

We all take risks, some of which others might consider crazy.  I heard that some guys contact a total stranger over the Internet, invite him into their homes, and then actually pay him for sex -- sex! with a total stranger!! for money!!!  Crazy, right?

12 minutes ago, PETEPETE said:

This is not Eduardo Leite, this is his boyfriend, Thalis Bolzan, this is Eduardo Leite, quite handsome too. 

 

The boyfriend should go into politics.  All he has to do is campaign shirtless, and he'll win every race, slam dunk.

For a one-night stand or brief (but torrid) fling, I have a very strict rule:  no serial killers, no exceptions.  Politics?  Pffft, I couldn't care less,  especially if he looks like Leite 😍

For a long-term relationship, it might be a problem, but probably not.  Most of my friends back in Boston, including my best friend, were on the opposite end of political spectrum.

Quite a few years back, at least 10 maybe 15, I got comps for Wayne Newton.  While I knew nothing about him except that he used to be Mr. Las Vegas a looooooong time ago, I figured what da heck, why not.

His show was at times great, other times cringe.  The cringe was that the poor guy had completely lost his voice.  He had done so many shows over his long career that overperforming wrecked his voice.  Plus he never gave his voice a much needed rest because even on all his "vacations," he would perform on USO tours.  During the show, forget hitting a note, at times his voice would go silent, unable to produce any note at all.  Dunno if the voice-less former headliner was desperate for the spotlight or desperate for money (a long list of financial woes).

The great parts were his stories.  Newton had come to Las Vegas as a 15yo with his brother but without their parents.  He got a contract, stuck it out through some tough times, and eventually became the Strip's highest-grossing entertainer.  In the early days, his voice got so worn out from doing 6 shows a night(!) that he had to teach himself to play a bunch of different instruments just to give his voice a rest.  He talked about the old days -- the mob, Elvis, the Rat Pack -- a lot of super-entertaining stories from a guy who had been through it all. 

As sad as it was to see a singer who could no longer sing, I was still glad I saw his show.  Maybe that's easy to say when you didn't pay for the tickets, LOL.

On 10/25/2021 at 8:12 PM, E.T.Bass said:

I watched Operation Hyacinth, a newer movie on Netflix getting some buzz. 

Enjoyed it.

Story takes place 30+ years ago, in Communist Poland.

 

 

 

I've been on another losing streak on Netflix.  The Minions of Midas, a thriller based on a Jack London short story, would have made a great 2-hour movie.  Unfortunately, Netflix stretched it out to a 4.5-hour limited series.  I normally read the IMDB reviews before watching a Netflix series, but just jumped right into Santo, a story of 2 detectives (1 Brazilian, 1 Spanish) hunting down a serial killer.  Zoinks, did I regret it!  Stay away!!

Operation Hyacinth got great IMDB reviews, but I didn't enjoy it that much.  It's about a young detective in 1985 Poland who goes rogue investigating a series of murders of gay men.  The powers-that-be want to close all the cases even though they're all unsolved.  Yeah, what the protagonist discovers is dark & ugly.  Maybe I was in the mood for something less cynical and depressing, but if you know what to expect, you'll probably enjoy it more than I did.

On 2/10/2023 at 8:37 AM, Charlie said:

A vintage photo of Robby Ginepri.

Nice blast from the past, furry tennis players are few and far between ...