Category: Life in the Big City

Who are the real rentboys?

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Spirituality - Healing

So they never managed to put any of the Wall St. bankers in jail for crashing the economy, but they arrest these guys and call a press conference? They must be so proud.

Federal agents raided the Manhattan headquarters of Rentboy.com as part of a money laundering and state prostitution investigation Tuesday, authorities said.

Seven people, including CEO Jeffrey Hurant, were arrested as part of the raid at the Rentboy.com offices on 14th Street and Fifth Avenue. Department of Homeland Security agents and members of the NYPD, which assisted in the raid, were seen removing boxes from the offices Tuesday.

The site bills itself as “the world’s destination to meet the perfect male escort or masseur,” and boasts a database of more than 10,500 men in more than 2,100 cities worldwide.

Users can search for a rentboy or masseur on the site by country and city, as well as by rate, age, talents and a variety of physical features.

Did you know there was another mass shooting in Louisiana this week?

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

My, I can hardly keep track these days:

A man armed with an assault rifle opened fire at a crowded park in Desire Sunday (July 26), shooting at least four people, including a man left critically wounded, New Orleans police said.

The attack came around 6:20 p.m., when Edith Sampson Playground Park at the corner of Piety and Treasure streets was crowded with family gatherings and several children were playing inside two inflatable “space walkers,” witnesses said.

“I was scared for my life,” said one woman, who asked that her name be withheld for fear of retaliation. “All those children was out there. I just got down and was saying, ‘Everybody lay on the ground!’ It was sad.”

One man, described as about 28 to 30 years old, was gravely wounded in the attack, suffering multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and side, police said. He was transported by New Orleans EMS ambulance to Interim LSU Hospital in critical condition, NOPD spokesman Officer Frank Robertson said.

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Talking Eyetalian

~ susie

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This is funny, because apparently I talk like an old Italian. This is how I pronounce most of these foods! But then, I went to high school with a lot of Italian girls, and I guess it rubbed off on me. I did always wonder why the words so often didn’t sound anything like their spelling.

Heat wave

~ susie

https://youtu.be/G9oIG-n6Eok

Not even 9 a.m., and I had to turn the AC on.

An EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING is in effect for the I-95 corridor and the metro areas until 8:00 p.m. with heat indices ranging from 100-107.

UFO

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Someone here in Philly took this with his cell phone. That is some weird-looking thing, isn’t it? What do you think it is?

The video, which has more than 1.2 million views, was shot by Philadelphia resident Hector Garcia, who describes a “cloud with sparkling lights in it” behaving like something he’s never seen before. If you don’t have great eyes, be sure to zoom in on the video to see the cloud shimmer. That’s what’s really strange about it. Did a chunk of cloud with a volatile electric field break off and have its own little storm of the century?

It could easily be CGI, but Garcia speaks so disinterestedly in the video that it’s hard to imagine him going to the trouble. Some have suggested it’s a large plastic bag or some kind of foam.

Nobody seems to know, but if nobody cares either, don’t say you weren’t warned. Whatever it was, look out for extraterrestrials and have your phones ready.

When Pope Francis comes to town

~ susie

pope-francis2

It’s really turning into a giant clusterfuck. They seem convinced his visit is a major terrorism magnet:

Aggravating the problem is SEPTA, whose convoluted plans to try to accommodate the masses are beyond human comprehension. I need a special rail pass? Only a limited number of them will be sold? Only a few stations will be open? I have to buy my pass online? “It will be valid only for travel from the specified outlying station during the selected time slot, and for travel from Center City back to that station after the Papal Visit events”? I need a whole other papal pass to ride the buses or subway? WTF, SEPTA — are you trying to drive people away?

Listen, I know it’s fun to get all worked up and be alarmist. I also know what it can cost the city — in terms of money that doesn’t come in, goodwill that gets squandered, prestige that’s lost — when the alarmists win. Rizzo showed us that back in ’76. I read the New York Times every day, and I’ll be damned if I see a flood of articles bemoaning the trials that city will face when the Pope visits there. In fact, I don’t see any such articles at all. New York knows: Cities get through these things. You plan, you make contingencies — but you don’t stand on street corners and wail and gnash your teeth and wring your hands.

We’re a big city, Philadelphia. We can handle this. We don’t have to blow it again. So everybody, please, take a deep breath and move back from the ledge. He’s one guy — one gentle, humble guy — who’s coming to visit. You think Francis wants us getting all worked up like this?