BSR

I can never get enough of Marton Fucsovics

I know that in sports writing it is standard operating procedure that one person writes the article, someone else writes the headline, and the two do not collaborate or even know who the other person is. I don't know if that's the case with news reporting, but it sounds like that's what happened here.

Ratings for the Oscars cratered to an all-time low. From last year's 23.6 million viewers (the previous record low), 2021 ratings dropped 58% to 9.85 million. Those numbers are a fraction of the 40-50 million the Oscars used to draw in its heyday. The 1998 broadcast drew almost 60 million viewers.

If you waited until all risks were eliminated, you would never leave your house. You might die while driving to work or the supermarket. On a trip you could die in the Uber on the way to the airport or the plane might crash. CDC data so far shows that less than 1 in 10,000 vaccinated people get infected with Covid, and less than 1 in a million end up dying from it. If 1 in a million is too much risk for you, then stay home, get your groceries delivered, buy everything from Amazon, and hopefully you can work from home. Otherwise, live your life. Oh, and if you hire during your travels, tell us all the juicy details ?

Bella, K.D., Lulu, Maddie

A short video of Pablo Cuevas practicing shirtless

All in the eye of the beholder, but I think the handsomest guy on tour is Pablo Cuevas

I once attended an office meeting where we were asked to introduce ourselves to the group. Almost every guy there had a doctorate from MIT (it was a tech startup in Kendall Square). I didn't do it, but I swear to gawd I was thisclose to saying that I was working very hard & was hoping to get my GED in a few weeks. I'm kinda glad I didn't because my friend who was also in attendance said she kinda had to pee & that literally would have made her lose all control.

I've posted pics of him before, but one can never have too much Borna Coric http://topnudemalecelebs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Borna-Coric_topnudemalecelebs_com-1.jpg http://topnudemalecelebs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Borna-Coric_topnudemalecelebs_com-5.jpg

Martin Klizan is not well known, but one of my favorites for purely aesthetic reasons

Italian bad boy Fabio Fognini has gotten in trouble yet again. He was defaulted from the Barcelona Open for audible obscenity (in response to a foot-fault call). If he hasn't learned his lesson by now (he's been on tour for 17 years), he obviously never will.

Whether you think Felix Auger-Aliassime has the perfect body is another matter, but for tennis purposes, I think FAA has the perfect body: slim yet muscular (strong but no bulk to slow him down), just the right height (tall enough for a good serve but not too tall - the 6'4"+ guys usually lack speed & agility), with nice long arms (a longer "whip" for the serve)

I totally agree with you about Western Mass! I spent a few vacations in the Berkshires & simply loved it. The funny thing is that I kept meeting Berkshires residents who wanted to move to Boston. As lovely as Western Mass is, life there is rather slow & quiet. So, a great vacation spot, but city folk don't want to move there. Also, folks in the Berkshires are as un-snobby as anyone you'll ever meet. I found them to be so warm & kind & friendly, all the qualities that make me love people from small towns.

I've spoken with a couple of people who worked in Alaska (both in the oil & gas industry). They both said that the toughest part of living there was not the looooong winter (they expected that) but the hostility of Alaskans toward non-Alaskans. They both thought it was snobbery until they found out that Alaskans simply don't trust outsiders. The general belief is that you only move to Alaska to get away from something, and the motive is usually unsavory. As much as both tried to convince Alaskans that they were just there for work, they just gave up & moved as soon as they could.

Is that a young James Franciscus? *sigh* I had such a crush on him! Uh, anyway, back on topic ...

Agreed, a neighborhood can be snobby, but I would hesitate to call a whole city snobby, forget an entire state. A friend was moving out of Beacon Hill because he wanted a bigger place. A significant fringe benefit of the move was to get away from all the "f*cking snobs" on Beacon Hill. But I would never say that the whole city of Boston is snobby (too many working-class & immigrant neighborhoods), much less the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Thanks for digging that up. It must be at least 2 decades since I last heard it, but I love the song.

It's been so long since I saw "Breakfast at Tiffany's" that I barely even remember the Mickey Rooney character. But I do remember the timeless Audrey Hepburn and hunky George Pappard (he didn't age all that great). I also remember loving the movie, mostly because of Ms. Hepburn. I'll have to watch it again one of these days, maybe just fast-forward through the Mickey Rooney scenes, not because the character is offensive but because he's trying way too hard to he funny. Comedy shouldn't be a Herculean labor.

Johnson's isn't full nude+full bar. But good thing Swinging Richards is still hanging in there.

Even though I wasn't planning a trip to St. Louis any time soon, it still bums me out a bit that B&B closed. There are so few full monty+full bar strip clubs in the US that the loss of one, even one I never really planned on visiting, is unwelcome news.

I can understand the desire for anonymity. If I'm lucky enough to attend a future Palm Springs weekend, I'd feel the same way. But (you knew there was a "but" coming, right?) how about in a future weekend some of the escorts get together & pose for some pics? Anonymity is less of an issue, even a nonissue, for them since they already have ads on Rentmen, etc. All escort photos would of course be clothing optional *hint hint*

When I lived in Boston, I told myself that the weather wasn't that bad. Let's face it, since you can't change the weather, you do what you can to cope, including kidding yourself that it's "not that bad." Now that I live in Las Vegas, I fully concede that Boston has some of the worst sh*thole weather on the planet: winter speaks for itself, spring is nonexistent (rainy & cold until it switches over to hot & humid almost overnight), and summer is impressively humid (not Miami, but pretty bad - average summer humidity is 75%). The 8-9 weeks of beautiful fall weather aren't nearly enough to make up for the other 44 weeks of suckitude. As much as I love Boston - the culture, the history, and most of all the people - I could never move back. Are Canadian winters milder than they were during my 3 winters there more than 50 years ago? Sure. But I'll bet my bottom dollar that but for a few exceptions (Vancouver, Victoria) Canadian winter still massively sucks. The last time I was in Toronto (Jan 2004) it was -10°F & -50°F wind chill. Maybe in a hundred years, Canadian winters really won't be that bad (if climate change is that severe, yikes), but for the time being, no thanks.

In a report on some of Madoff's victims, one couple featured was very successful. They worked hard, saved their money, and were living an enviable retirement - nice Manhattan apartment, beautiful place in Ft. Lauderdale - until they learned of Madoff's scam. They were in the process of selling their NYC place and were looking to downsize in Ft. Lauderdale because their real estate was the only equity they had left. Almost everything else was invested with Madoff. The man broke down not while he talked about his own losses but when he brought up all the family members & friends who invested with Madoff at his recommendation. That couple were just two of Madoff's thousands of victims. And the psychopath didn't feel a speck of guilt over the lives he ruined. Whatever he suffered near the end of his life, it's a fraction of the suffering he caused.

Even though Madoff bragged early on that the authorities will never find the money he stole, apparently about 80% has been recovered. Of course, everyone wishes it were 100%. And even if Madoff's victims get all their money back eventually, they missed out on the capital gains they could have made by investing in legitimate investment funds. I almost never wish anyone a painful death, but Madoff undoubtedly deserves to be an exception to that rule.

We don't really know for sure what will happen on May 1. Yes, statewide restrictions (except the mask mandate) will end May 1, but individual counties will decide for themselves what capacity limits they want to maintain. That said, it seems that the capacity limits are already being flouted. I talked to someone who was at the Bellagio recently & reported it was jam-packed, despite a supposed 50% capacity limit. I went out to eat on Easter, and despite a supposed 35% capacity limit, ~80% of the tables were occupied.