Why I Chose... Florida

Okay, so I didn't have much of a say in it. My immediate family just migrated there.

When I was a very young kid, my mother applied successfully for my sister and me both to become naturalized British Citizens, a status at least I still have to this day. It was a prelude to probably moving to England. Meanwhile, my dad had other ideas.

His father and stepmother both lived in Florida, and that's where he wanted to go. So, that's where we went.

Florida, I adore, though, at least Fort Lauderdale. Miami, not so much. Miami Beach, I like.

I like Florida for its raininess. I like that it's breezy enough that I don't have to use the air conditioning much during the summer like I do here in Georgia. And it doesn't have the ghastly pollen season, either.

I like that there's actually a walking culture both in the suburbs and cities, and that in city-adjacent neighborhoods (or even the city where I'd grown up) one can walk places and not have to have much concern about someone drunkenly mowing you down because the "sidewalk" is literally a part of the road with a solid line dividing the two.

I'd had, relatively, better dating prospects there, or at least people seemed to like me better. But then I was still in my 20's, too, so that helped.

Harlots...

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Harlots 1 Episode, 4 Clips Margaret Wells struggles to reconcile her roles as brothel owner and mother to daughters Charlotte and Lucy. When her business comes under attack from Lydia Quigley, a rival madam with a ... Check out videos from this show on Hulu

This premiere was a romp… So, I'd seen teasers of it while watching other shows on Hulu, and added it to my Watchlist for when it should come out.

So, starting out, I had concerns it would leave me feeling not-so-good about it like that Jeffery Donovan show Shut Eye did. With that show, I'd only watched the premiere and didn't continue. This one, with all the sex to begin with, I don't know if it was to get it out of their systems or to try and entice people into their world.

Granted, if this were a bunch of good-looking men having relations with each other, I'd probably be feeling another way.

It took them about 15 minutes to really get it out of their system, and I'm glad they'd brought in more of the clever humor they'd more lightly interspersed with the sex scenes. Still, I suppose it is rather historically telling: these things more than likely were what this side 18th-century London had to offer. Including the not-so-aesthetic men.

I found myself trying to learn their names, which is a good sign. I can't help wondering what a gay black dude in this time would've had to resort to, though.

Let's see what next week brings (and I hope there's a gay guy to add something else to this menagerie).

"Ossetia's connection to Scotland"

BBC NEWS Programmes From Our Own Correspondent: Well, here we have My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Ossetian style.

Let's Make a Deal: Swapping Chocolate for a Bed

TreeHugger: The concept is interesting, but I wonder if she's ultimately suffering a loss. Materials, gasoline, time... Hmm.

Edible

Edible

A "weird stuff to eat" Internet shop based in London. This is seriously... interesting.

How to Find Smoke-Free Hotel Rooms Worldwide

The Good Life HOT MAR - TheStreet.com: "Hotels in North America are increasingly going smoke-free, but hotels in Europe and Asia often seem as slow as late-night room service when it comes to kicking the tobacco habit."

I don't mean to sound judgmental, but it's a nasty habit anyway. Smoke-free rooms all around, I say. That's been kind of a bone of contention among hoteliers I've known, because there are just some guests who don't feel they can get up and go outside to smoke.

They'll try to rig smoke detectors, smoke next to exhaust fans... Anything rather than get up and walk.

Jobless lorry driver 'sold' The Ritz hotel to businessman in £250million con

The Daily Mail:
"When businessman Terry Collins was offered the chance to buy the Ritz Hotel for a knockdown price of £250million it was an opportunity that sounded too good to be true.
And it was indeed too good to be true. The hotel, with an estimated market value of around £600million, was not on the market.
Yet two conmen managed to persuade Mr Collins, co-founder of a large and reputable property company, that the hotel's owners, the Barclay brothers, were prepared to sell it at a bargain price."

Now, I'm not one to arbitrarily post something from The Daily Mail, especially since it's not the most worthy piece of news media on this planet... However, I'd originally seen this on one of the hospitality news sources to which I subscribe, and thought, "Oh, well they're a little more reputable, so I suppose it can't be all that bad." I'm not really certain in the figures TDM quote as being what these con artists had spent, as well as on what they'd spent the sum they'd philandered, but it was rather TMZ-like of them, anyway.

Still, I think this businessman should've researched his investment's worth a little more throughly before putting down the pounds, which, if he wins back, will probably be reallocated to legal fees anyway.