TetRefine

Coke Zero Orange Cream. However, I went to Target the other day to pick up a pack and couldn't find it. After searching around online, I found that it was only a limited-time flavor and is now discontinued. I now need to find another good flavor of Coke Zero for my afternoon caffeine kick at the office.

Yeah, I still visit every month or so to poke around and see what’s up. However, the forums have kind of peetered out, so there’s not as much to see anymore. Was Aaron Hernandez the bad guy in them? 😂

Lol. As a fellow native New Englander who grew up with the Patriots dynasty, I understand this sentiment.

We travel quite frequently (25-30 flights a year), and airport lounges are a must when you're spending a lot of time in airports. It's a much more comfortable place to relax on long layovers or when you need a spot to wait for your flights. Not to mention it spares you from buying overpriced and subpar food and drinks at the airport. I consider it a luxury not because it offers something super-exclusive or high-end, but because it separates you from the craziness of 95% of the people at the airport. True luxury in flying is getting dropped off at the door of the private terminal, walking through the doors with zero check-in or security screening, and to the stairs up to the Gulfstream where you take your seat 60 seconds after getting out of the car. I've been lucky enough to get to do that a few times over the years and that makes lounges and business class seats look like peasant droppings in comparison.

Talk about a blast from the way-back GA past. lol

See, I told you, it's a stupidly overdrawn book. Now imagine forcing yourself to slog through 400 pages before tapping out...

City On Fire, by Garth Risk Hallberg. I was so excited when this novel first came out, and it had so much meat for a great story: 1970s New York, murder, subcultures, straight and gay characters, class, race. It was so highly anticipated that Hallberg received a $2 million advance for it, his debut novel. However, the novel itself was a long, drawn-out mess that meandered aimlessly for pages on end. The author also thought he was showing what a high-brow literary turd he was by injecting all kinds of completely obscure words into the narrative that you constantly had to stop to look up to understand what was going on. I got to about page 400 and couldn't do it anymore. The novel got a very big heaping of criticism from literary critics and general readers alike, and for good reason. They also recently made it into an Apple TV+ series, and not surprisingly, it was also awful and cancelled after the first season. I just looked up the author on Amazon, and he came out with his second novel just this year, 9 years after this one. Looking on Amazon, it has a measly 24 ratings and 3.5 stars, which is pretty pitiful for an author who was hailed as the next great thing a decade ago. If you read through the reviews, a lot of the negative feedback is for the exact same issues he faced with City on Fire. I guess he didn't learn much, and the lack of success for his second novel proves it.

It is better, in general, to be at the bottom of the SES ladder in the UK. They have broader social safety nets, compared to the bare bones system that exists in the US. However, being Upper Middle Class and above in the US is leaps and bounds ahead of the UK in terms of access to very high-paying jobs, a much stronger and more innovative economy, and choices to live (ie, not just London). Not to mention taxes.

State liquor monopolies tend to be cheaper though, ironically. I grew up in a liquor-control state, and liquor was significantly cheaper (10-20%) than any other surrounding state. My hometown was in a tri-state corner, and on any given day, over half the cars in the liquor store parking lot were out of state plates buying liquor in bulk to bring back home. Also, a lack of air conditioning. In the USA, whether you live in the Northeast, Southwest, or the Great Plains, everyone has some form of air conditioning. In the UK, it just isn't a thing.

Delaney also wrote a couple of very bizarre novels as well, including The Mad Man and Hogg. I tried reading both at one point, and it was too much even for me (and I am far from being a prude).

I am honestly shocked, as I somehow missed this from over a year ago. I talked to Carlos a lot over the years, and even though we were over 30+ years apart, he was so easy and likable to talk to. He always told me I reminded him a lot of him in his younger days, and I always loved telling him my stories of dancing endlessly at circuit parties, the guys I had gone to bed with, and how we juggled the demands of work and play. I think he lived vicariously through me when I was in my 20s. God damn. We always talked about meeting up, as he sometimes traveled up here to New York, and I was in Fort Lauderdale almost every year, but we never quite made it to meeting in person. I always really wanted to grab a drink and talk in-person, and now I'll never get that chance.

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I'm not sure if it has been mentioned but... American Horror Story: NYC was very well done, and hit on so many gay themes that (while taking place in the 80s and being a foreshadow of AIDS) still very much resonate. The last episode left me absolutely terrified and sad. I talked to a lot of friends about it, and what we all found so unsettling was realizing the fact that all the tragedy in the last few episodes would have been us had we come of age in the 80s. It was only by pure chance that we were born when we were, because if we hadn't then all of us would be going into a coffin with them. Something from Hollywood hasn't made me feel that kind of way in a long, long time.

This truly made me sad to hear. Both my parents love his music, and I grew up listening to it from as young as I can remember. When I was younger, they'd go every year to one of his concerts, and I always got dropped off with the grandparents for the night, pissed beyond belief I couldn't go. My dad always promised me he'd take me when I was older, but we never did end up going. I'm truly sad I never got to see him in concert.

But I've found that to be true of all big cities. When I lived in Philly, the gay club/bar scene was thriving. Traveled to LA, SF, Chicago, Miami, and a bunch of other cities, and gay nightlife is still very much a thing. You simply need a critical mass of people. True, New York City often feels like another country when compared to 95% of the rest of the US. The longer I've lived here, the more I realize I don't have much in common with the "typical" American living somewhere in rural/flyover country. I'll have much more in common with someone from London or Tokyo or Sao Paolo then I would with someone from Mississippi or Indiana or wherever.