MightyPen

Heh, since contributing to this thread I've been watching bits of Cabaret again, particularly the first five minutes and the number "Wilkommen". Willkommen I remember seeing this for the first time in my late teens (a time when I had absolutely zero chance with any woman on the planet), and being absolutely enthralled by the powerfully sexy, more than a little seedy and utterly decadent atmosphere of the KitKat club. Very strong stuff when most of sex is still a mystery. (And man, did Joel Grey ever nail the part of the emcee...) Truth is, I'd still pay regular visits to the place if there was anything like it in Ottawa. ;)

I dunno... I can see the plaintiff's point. Suppose you gave a seminar about a person, and then at the end of your talk you handed out to audience members some pamphlets published by somebody else that defamed that person. Aren't you responsible for the content of the material you've chosen to hand out? Have you not participated in defamation yourself? Even if you just left the pamphlets on a table that people could grab on their way out, don't you have some responsibility for distributing the material? And if the subject contacted you, pointed out the defamation, but you continued to include the pamphlets on the seminar table despite your knowledge... have you not yourself participated in defamation? The hyperlinks at the end of an online article are exactly like those pamphlets. That's certainly how I'd argue it.

I share the sentiment. Like any healthy community, CERB has many diverse aspects and people can participate in whatever parts interest them. I like to bring a sense of humour to a discussion, but at the same time I tend toward the heavier subjects and away from the frothier side. Just a matter of taste. I'm a reflective kind of guy: "What am I doing? Why am I doing that? What does that mean to me? To my partner?" and this forum offers a great place to explore those questions on a delicate subject, with a frankness that's not possible for me anywhere else. For me that's the most rewarding part of the forum. Still, the lighter stuff is worth a look from time to time. Yay CERB.

Forbin: "NEVER." Yup. First movie I remember seeing where the human race fought something, and LOST. From 8:19 on

Ahhh, I love the classics. Can we draw from earlier decades? :) My all-time favourites are all in black 'n white: - Casablanca ("Play La Marseillaise! Play it!")* - The Asphalt Jungle (with a very young Marilyn Monroe in a tiny part) - 12 Angry Men ("I'm convinced.") Sticking to the 60s and beyond though, I do like: - Colossus:The Forbin Project... nice call! That movie terrified me as a kid, all because of the ending. I see they're making a remake in the next year or two, which is never a good sign... - I remember Silent Running depressing me profoundly. - Cabaret, for its astonishing depth in what I thought would just be a sexy movie about a nightclub.** TV shows, if I stick to pre-1980: - the original Star Trek - Twilight Zone/Night Gallery (sort of the same show, all Rod Serling stuff) - Combat! (wasn't born during the original run, but learned to appreciate it later) Sigh. It's taken 'til just recently for modern television to finally catch up to its original quality with shows like Deadwood, Carnivale, and others. * that first one is always worth watching one more time: Released in 1942... when nobody knew yet how the war in Europe would turn out. ** and that second one. Aww what a nice little song that cute blonde kid is singing. Hey, WAIT a minute!!: ... and that old guy knows exactly where this is all leading. Oddly enough, those two clips offer perfect counterpoints to each other (though I didn't set out to do that, nor to pick clips with the very same "villains"!)

Side note: if anyone ever managed to set up an occasion like this, with the big dresses, laced-up boots, and a chance to take "Miss Penelope" upstairs from the parlour... I am so there!! :) Serious boyhood fantasy. (And yes, someone's got to be playing a piano somewhere...)

I think a brothel could be a source of fantastically good, healthy fun. And I say this as one of the guys who values shared intimacy, mutual interest and respect, and much more than simple sex when visiting an SP. It's all in the setup. W.I.T. does the thread a good service by pointing out that brothels come in many forms. The large-scale, "industrial" operations hold no interest at all to me (although I respect that for some people that would be ideal). Personally I'd hate to be intimate with someone's employee; I want my companion to be in full control of her participation, her environment, and receiving the full benefit of her fee. But I can imagine a brothel as a much more intimate yet partly shared space; let's say a few women working out of a house which they run together and have imbued with their own character. Now it reflects their own tastes, the environment they like, and they'll take some pride in something they've built together for their mutual benefit. Visits to my favourite SP would now sometimes include saying "hi!" to her charming partners, some optional semi-private time with my SP in a more open part of the house, and a chance to retire to a more private section whenever we choose. A visit might even involve -- gasp! -- sometimes meeting other patrons. This could be minimized if that's important to the client, but it's about comfort levels. I don't see anything wrong with cracking open the box in which my SP and I see each other and letting some of the world shine in. Being seen by others doesn't have to be a bad thing -- there's nothing wrong with what we're doing, so it's about shedding one's own sense of guilt. Beyond that, a little semi-private time in the session is no different than starting an appointment by spending some time at a restaurant or a bar before moving to a private space at home or in a hotel. But to accommodate those who recoil at the idea, wise brothel owners will invest in private spaces and good soundproofing. I think it's entirely possible to have a positive relationship with your SP, shared and significant intimate time, real sharing, plus some great fun -- whether these things takes place integrated into the world and people surrounding you, or shut away in an exclusively private space. It's all about the participants, and the kind of space you build.

Don't worry about it. Other than the initial goof of forgetting to leave your fee ("oops!"), you handled everything perfectly -- paid when asked and apologized. You even sent an extra apology later. It's all good, problem solved, just like any little hiccup that can happen between two people. From your initial description you clearly have a good rapport with her and the whole thing is behind you now. Best thing you can do is make another appointment and handle the money thing properly. (If you want to look thoughtful and if it will make you feel better, throw in an extra little tip for this visit by way of material apology.) Then proceed to have a good time together without looking back. Now the whole episode is REALLY behind you, you've resumed normalcy, and you've demonstrated not just that yes, you can be trusted to follow the rules, but also that you have the strength of character to recognize and overcome your mistake. From that point you can continue on together as always, and if anything you'll look better for having properly handled and gotten past this little episode.

It's true, I know people who try to bargain in all kinds of circumstances and to extents that I find tasteless. Plus every industry has different "bands" of service, and these cads have just mistaken the women they're calling for lower-level operators who are just looking to make a quick and efficient buck. I have a lot of respect and admiration for the women I've met over the years, and it grieves me to think of them subject to petty and demeaning bargaining like this. But mostly I think it just means the callers mistook the market they were engaging for a different and shabbier one, and it's best to be rid of them quickly. Then spend time on the gentlemen who know who they're calling, and how to conduct themselves.

I believe what he said was that they were different in degree, but not in kind. Certainly both have abdicated the responsibility of making their own moral decisions, and instead take orders on morality from some musty old books in the hands of very large fan clubs devoted to invisible supernatural creatures. Their lives both exhibit conspicuous obedience to their respective clubs. The rest is just circumstance. Let's see how placid the tea-and-cookies churchgoers stay in the States if Mike Huckabee makes some headway in the next couple of years. There's nothing to be gained discussing this subject further here, though, so I'll say no more.

Heh heh... someone just pointed me to this little video, and I thought it would make a fun little addendum to the more serious discussion held here earlier. And maybe strike a chord with the tastes and inclinations of the CERB community. :) If you knew there was going to be an afterlife, what would you want it to be like? What would you do to ensure you got the afterlife you wanted? For one cartoon man's answer, let us turn to... ... the Saga of Biorn! Enjoy :)

I had a colleague who was talking to a client distractedly while texting his wife on another phone. As the client call was ending, he closed off the conversation with some usual wrapping-it-up patter and then finished by telling the client as he was hanging up "okay, love you, bye!". It was fun watching his face in that next instant, hand still gripping the hung-up phone, when he realized what he'd just done. (oops, it was supposed to be a stupid *question*. But still. :) )

I'm waiting for the ruling that says if I'm thinking of buying a car and visit a Honda dealership, then decide to leave and check out Toyota, the Honda sales guy has the right to drag me into an office, slap me around, force my account numbers and passwords from me, and use that to "sell" me a crappy car. After all, I shouldn't have walked into the building with my wallet, and clearly a sale was "in the air". I've seen this same incident getting some international press and I'm embarrassed on the country's behalf. The only reassuring thing out of this is that the judge's conduct is under judicial review.

Yes. No. I can't be certain of this of course... but then we could invent all kinds of statements that we can't be sure aren't true. Are there vast herds of cold-loving yellow elephants living in a vast cave under the antarctic ice? I can't be certain there aren't. But there's no reason to believe there are. The energy stored in our bodies is turned into heat as we decay, and used to fuel the things that eat us. There's no special accounting needed here to stay consistent with physical laws. We have to watch out when trying to decide about things we would really, really like to be true -- like some form of "I'll never really die!" So the evidence for it has to be really strong, because we're predisposed to put the spin we want on anything that's vague. There's nothing in the reports of near-death experiences that can't be explained by the distorted experiences of our brains as they start to fail (tunnel vision with "bright light" in the centre, memory flashes as our brain hunts for anything in our experience that can make sense of what it's going through) plus the fallible interpretations people place afterward on an experience they couldn't understand. The really short version of my own belief is: I can't know that there IS anything after death, so my best bet is to assume that there isn't. There's only what I know. So I live my life as if it's the only one I've got, without hoping that something better will come afterward and give me another chance. I could be wrong -- but I've lost nothing if I am, because I'll have lived the best life I could. And in the unlikely event that after I die, I suddenly reawaken and discover that there's a whole other life to be explored... well, hey, talk about a "happy ending"!!

Baba Yetu, again after a long absence, because it just made the news. You can ignore the video, forget its origin, and just enjoy the music.

My today was pretty normal, but I happen to know that my tomorrow is going to be *absolutely awesome* and very likely a day I'll remember forever. The lady knows who she is. ;) "We really shook the pillars of heaven, didn't we?" - Jack Burton

That's so NOT how I thought this was going to turn out. A great day for the people of Egypt, and I have cautious optimism for what happens next. Right now it's a military state; the old constitution didn't allow for what just happened (much as the people wanted it), so they need to rebuild a new basis for government. As someone already posted, the military being in charge is the best option of those available; it's about the most moderate and temperate force in the country. Watch next for the legal steps necessary toward new government: a new provisional constitution so there's some legal basis to move forward, elections according to that constitution, and then a new government. Timeline is unknown, but it will have to be fairly brisk: elections within months. Who then gets in is anybody's guess -- it's democracy after all. There'll be bumps along the way, but these people have spoken and will continue to demand that things follow through. It's in everyone's interest to get the country moving and producing again. Definitely not a day to forget.

Centurion: "'People called Romanes, they go the house'?"

Not only do I think this is a touching and generous concept on the part of the ladies here... I also think a side effect would be to counter some of the negative myths still foisted upon us about this industry's providers and clients (I'm looking at YOU, CTV Toronto New Clip!) I'm already gratified to see more evidence that sps and clients can be kind, thoughtful, generous, and caring toward each other.

Yup, I'll take this chance to thank CERB aloud for the great environment it offers, too. Posts here can be downright silly or deeply thoughtful; wildly sexy or halting and nervous; wise and experienced, or wide-eyed and wondering. What they are NOT is venomous. There's no room here for the cruel or vicious. It takes hard work by mods and the will of a community to keep it this way. I appreciate all of it. Thank you, everyone.

Still flyin' through the 'verse. (Sorry. Had to.) Firefly

A different film than others mentioned so far in this thread. I just saw Another Year today and recommend it highly: Trailer ... a chance to contemplate all those parts of life that have nothing at all to do with sex, but very much to do with intimacy and the people we have around us. Or don't, as the case may be. Particularly poignant for those of us in middle-age. I'm not quite at the point in life where these characters are, but I've just begun to see its distant, gray towers starting to peek over the visible horizon of my own life. Here in Ottawa, it's playing only at the Bytowne for a limited time. Watch for best actor nominations at the Oscars, particularly for Lesley Manville. (And Jim Broadbent is great in everything he does.)

I've got one of these too. The coffee is great. Keep your receipt though; they're prone to a problem with the water pump that leaks half the water back into the reservoir, resulting in each brew giving you only half a cup. You can kind of get past it when this first happens by brewing twice in a row with the same coffee packet, but it's an imperfect solution. Really you need to replace the unit if this happens. Their customer service folks, if it comes to that, are quite familiar with the problem, which they call "short cups".

Yeah... the story isn't interesting just as "hey, some person stole some money from some other person!"; it's compelling because the victim was (let's insert "allegedly" here) cruelly exploited exactly where where he was weakest. Mentioning "Engineer" establishes that he's at least middling bright, and could conceivably have known better. "Escort" tells you how they got to know each other and provides insight into why he was vulnerable. We shouldn't draw general inferences from this story and now look askance* at all engineers and escorts. But they're very much pertinent facts to understanding this story. *Woohoo! Got to used "askance" legitimately in a sentence!