youtu.be/QJd1WMCMPqw

 

A Simple Answer

 

So this is Easter morning!

Waking to a gentle sunrise,

I take a breath and arise.

 

What does this new day mean?

Engaging in a Universal Liturgy,

Deep thoughts begin to gather within.

 

Shall this day banish fear!

Normal distractions pushed aside,

Sacred thoughts I elect to contemplate.

 

In this moment does a liturgy begin?

Hope increases and peace resides,

And I cling to a morning resurrection.

-Robert Cowlishaw

1941 Lincoln Raymond Loewy Designed Continental

Coachwork by By Derham

 

As the show cars inched along in line toward the awards stand I noticed this unusual looking car. What the heck was this, I thought. Glancing at its hubcaps I knew it must be a Lincoln but what kind - what year - what model, I questioned. Now maybe many classic cars aficionados would have the answer but me, being merely a quasi aficionado (if there is such a thing?), had no idea. I walked briskly over the driver/owner to question him. Being quite accommodating the gentleman explained quickly and in my rush to get in position for a shot of this “beast”, I was able to pick up only a few words here and there. I heard “continental”. I heard “Derham", I heard “Studebaker” and I heard "Raymond Loewy" but then I had to scurry back as he began moving forward and I had to get back and try to line up for a shot of the car. I managed to snap off a few shots. Frankly I wasn’t very impressed with its looks……..but have since discovered this car took top honors in its class at Pebble Beach . Don’t know the Concours year it was but just the name “Pebble Beach” denotes prestige.

 

Over the time these pictures have been residing in my 2023 Geneva Concours d’Elegance folder, I have learned a great deal more about this rare car. From what I understand this car has two “sister cars”, each slightly different in their appearance and equally rare. Much better than I could, the author of the following New York Times article provides the “rundown”.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The first Lincoln Continental, originally designed as Edsel Ford’s personal vehicle, has often been cited as one of the most beautiful cars in the world. Perhaps no other car can boast of a more prestigious design pedigree. It was originally sketched by Bob Gregorie, Ford’s chief stylist (reportedly, in an hour, in response to Mr. Ford’s urgent request for a “vacation car”).

But Raymond Loewy, the famous industrial designer, figured he could improve it. So Loewy had his staff restyle a 1941 model to his specification. When it was finally completed in 1946, a Saturday Evening Post article referred to it as “The Fanciest Thing on Wheels.”

 

The one-of-a-kind beauty (a similar car created for Loewy’s wife has since disappeared) turned up this weekend on the block at Gooding & Company’s classic car auction here, where it was a real show-stopper. It sold for $451,000 — about three times what a stock Continental of that vintage is generally considered to be worth. The car had been owned by an Asian collector for many years, a Gooding spokesman said. (Loewy died in 1986.) The Loewy Lincoln has seldom been seen in recent years, although it made a star turn last August at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Monterey, Calif.

 

At the time of this car’s makeover, Loewy’s “staff” at the time included a veritable who’s who of automotive design: Virgil Exner, who would in later years design Chrysler’s famed Forward Look cars; Gordon Buehrig, responsible for many noted Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg designs; and Bob Bourke, later head of Studebaker styling. They helped Loewy recraft the Lincoln into a low, long stunner with fenders integrated into the body, a clear plexiglass roof and round opera windows. The conversion work was done by the noted custom coachbuilder, Derham Body Co. of Philadelphia.

 

Arguably, the Loewy Lincoln’s most over-the-top feature was its 24-carat gold horn ring, instrument bezels and control knobs.

The car also includes a couple of inside jokes, including an “RL” emblem on each side that is encircled by a chrome band. Sharp-eyed industrial design fans may notice the chrome ring comes directly from a Frigidaire refrigerator, which Loewy had also designed.

 

The one potentially sour note on the entire car is the unusual custom grille. Loewy replaced the original grille of the Lincoln — a lovely chrome “waterfall” design that was perhaps its signature feature — with a styled version of the sometimes-lampooned “bullet nose” found on postwar Studebakers.

 

Why would Loewy do such a thing? It would not have been too smart for Loewy to be seen driving anything blatantly identifiable as a Ford product at the time. Loewy’s firm, you see, had an exclusive, ironclad contract to design Studebakers.

Now, as they say, you know the rest of the story.

 

Source: New York Times   |   Wheels

By Jerry Garrett

January 20, 2008 11:16 am

  

………One final word. The title chosen for this artwork. Frankly I thought the design of this car as odd and this conjured up thoughts of a James Bond movie I saw years ago - Goldfinger and one of Goldfinger's henchmen, "Oddjob". (This is how my brain moves……. ) Then comes the design, or job that Loewy did. Not overly impressive in my estimation but who am I to argue with the judges from Pebble Beach! The the background. It’s a scene from the Austrian Alps but why chosen? Mainly because I didn’t have much choice……and it looks pretty.

  

Hope ya’all enjoy…………

La Jolla, San Diego, California.

 

Ever since I found out about this spot, I've been praying for a beautiful sunset. Today, my prayers have been answered. But I forgot to pray for there to be less photographers who took the prime spots before I arrived ;-( Just kidding. Amazing view for everyone to enjoy!

 

Tech Info:

Nikon D800E, Nikkor AF-S 16-35mm f/4G ED VR, Lee 0.6 GND and "Little Stopper" filters.

Post-processed in Lr 5.7 and Ps CS6.

Do Not Add Any Photos Or Videos As A Favorite, Without Leaving A Comment, Or You Will Be Blocked.

26. i have another shot where you can see the wrinkles around her mouth. she’s a trail horse for non-riders which means she has the patience of a lace maker, the stamina of a p.o.w. and the love of your mother. the stable manager, an old trainer of trotters and a true caregiver to horses, told me his family buried their 34 year old mare not too long ago. what goes around, comes around. at a walk, trot or "watch me fly".

Police patrol - No 4. of a documentary series published by L'Itinéraire, a street magazine sold by people who have a rough life. I have the priviledge to coach some writers and to take pictures to support their articles.

Before it went all high key, it was part of a clothespin/clothespeg spring

In an instant

She knew

Every answer

To every question

Why was she given

This burden

What was she to tell

The world

What is the point

Of life

If we know

Everything

Luckily

Molly has short term

Memory loss

And so it was

The burden was lifted

Ten minutes later

 

The End....or shall we say

The Beginning, again!

Lance Cpl. Jeremy Timms, acting desk sergeant with Security and Emergency Services Battalion, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, responds to callers at the dispatch center on Camp Pendleton, California, April 17. The security services and first responders on Camp Pendleton are conducting daily operations as normal while taking precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Dispatchers follow social distancing guidelines while at their individual workstations and wear face protection when forced to sit close. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Melissa I. Ugalde)

garbage-embrace.com/

 

www.facebook.com/pages/Garbage-embrace/224508020989204?re...

 

Press "F" if you like it.

 

© jakeblues111185

 

watch this:

www.youtube.com/user/lifeinaday

fragments from an exhibition at kunstinstituut Melly Rotterdam NL

Flamborough lifeboat "Elizabeth Jane Palmer" launched on 24 June 2017 to rescue walkers cut off by the tide.

"Why are we having snow in April?"

She grew up with answers, provided with good intentions, but which she found faulty as she acquired to ability to contemplate them thoroughly for herself... She she left, determined to find her own path, her own choices, her own answers. What she was told was right, she ended up discarded. She was happy now with what was left. What she found on her own and made her own...

Rambling around the Derbyshire village of Stanley on a peaceful warm day. It's like, how much more English could this be? and the answer is none. None more English.

4/11/18 NYPD gears up to search for the dismembered body parts of 26 year old Brandy Odom whose head & torso were found in Seaview Park on April 9th. Two weeks later the killer is still on the loose.

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For all of us who couldn't solve it.

2020 one photo each day

About 7 1/2" x 5" on an old book page. Made with scraps from my work table.

emily comes to let us in

After his set at Vantastival 2016.

 

Strobist Info:

One AD360 at 1/1 camera right through shoot-through umbrella about 1 ft away from subject's face. Triggered with YN622s nad paired with the MT-16s for HSS Control.

As we were watching a large bull and his harem grazing on the ridge, we could hear another bull bugling an approach from the valley floor. When the newcomer reached the edge of the brush and stepped into the field the lead bull suddenly broke rank and moved to intercept him. There was a great deal of posturing and flared nostrils but it never came to blows. The interloper finally opted for a circuitous path around the herd.

This is a series that our youth ministry, The Current, is doing through the month of September. Just a quick fun idea, which I also made a little bumper for that you can view on this video:

vimeo.com/105083963

 

Nothing too fancy, just some photo editing and some fun typography. And you gotta have some circles to communicate sound waves, I mean, you got to.

 

www.anchorfaith.com

Yawning is highly contagious. Did you ever find out why when you see someone yawning you also start to? I'm still looking for the answer...

Visiting the Forbidden City can by exhausting for those, like me, who want to see every single corner accessible to the tourist. I guess this guy is one of those... or maybe yesterday night was a tough night in the crazy Beijing? Who knows...

This is China.

 

500px

 

Facebook

This was taken on what was the most perfect winter day I've ever seen. The sun was shining bright and the air had a certain freshness to it that I really enjoyed all day. It was so lovely, it was like an answered prayer. At the end of the day, I spotted some urban nature and was intrigued by that and the light on the buildings by it. So I got my camera out for one last picture that day. Almost three years later, I wonder if it's still there.

. . .

 

Aboutme

Le mani hanno un grande fascino.

Si prestano a varie interpretazioni. Raccontano la vita di un uomo, cosa ha vissuto.

 

SONY DSC

9" x 12" gouache

o happy day.....

with the participations of several models:

lily c., the strong man, the bearded fat lady, a red fish, a wunderschöner dwarf, krazy frogs...

"The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this parable to them:

‘A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.

‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.

‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.”

‘The father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”’"

– Luke 15:1-3,11-32, which is today's Gospel at Mass (4th Sunday in Lent).

 

Stained glass of the Prodigal Son from Lille Cathedral.

 

answers to everything idk

Nail technicians and skin-care specialists (the salon workers who do the most waxing) earn a mean annual pre-tax wage of $22,150 to $31,990. This figure doesn't include tips, which can total another $4,430 to $6,398—a clear financial incentive to befriend your clients in this service-based, nonreciprocal way.

 

And yet. When it came to 38, I wanted the cash, not the compliment, to show the value of my abilities. And maybe, to compensate for how she got to leave feeling so clean and sexy—but I could still smell her body on me, ever so faintly, even after I threw away the gloves and washed my hands.

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........***** All images are copyrighted by their respective authors ........

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I’m not sure what the phrase “owning your sexuality” means to you, but for me, one thing it entails is responsibility: doing my best to make sexual choices that are sound for me and a partner. (That’s also part of doing consent well.)

 

If I am offering something sexually light and fun but anticipate that it will be emotionally or interpersonally complex–or if I’m feeling stressed, confused and worried about it–then I can know that easy-breezy is neither what I can expect nor earnestly offer.

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You are here: Home / Health / Can Sex “Just for Fun” Be Emotionally Healthy?

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Can Sex “Just for Fun” Be Emotionally Healthy?

October 11, 2011 by Heather Corinna

 

msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/10/11/can-sex-just-for-fun-...

 

This week’s installment of Heather Corinna‘s sex-and-relationships advice column tackles the issue of casual sex.

 

...Q: So excited for this new blog spot! Can you discuss whether it’s emotionally healthy to have sex outside of relationships? I want to own my sexuality, but all of the advice around me seems to be no-sex-outside-of-relationships-or-marriage. I know this depends on the individual, but any insight would be great! I’ve been toying with asking an ex–whom I am friends with–to have sex just for fun. I’m 98 percent sure he’ll agree, but I am worried about emotional health consequences. He has always wanted a much closer relationship than I do. I’m worried I’ll feel guilty for possibly leading him (or myself) into wanting more.

 

You’re right: this is a very individual and situational decision. To give some context, a recent study found that, on average, for 20-year-olds, casual sex and committed relationships led to the same level of psychological health. But individuals aren’t averages. Not everyone wants or is comfortable with sex in the same kinds of relationships or scenarios (including committed relationships). Context and interpersonal dynamics factor in, too.

 

There are some guidelines, however, that everyone can apply. When a sexual situation is likely to be sound, we usually feel good heading into it, as does anyone else involved. If we feel uncertain or predict negative feelings on anyone’s part, those are strong cues not to proceed.

 

I’m not sure what the phrase “owning your sexuality” means to you, but for me, one thing it entails is responsibility: doing my best to make sexual choices that are sound for me and a partner. (That’s also part of doing consent well.) If I am offering something sexually light and fun but anticipate that it will be emotionally or interpersonally complex–or if I’m feeling stressed, confused and worried about it–then I can know that easy-breezy is neither what I can expect nor earnestly offer.

 

Even when I’m having sex-for-sex’s-sake–which I would define as sex that takes place outside of a larger intimate relationship, without any agreed-upon, intended or implied commitment–that doesn’t mean I have zero responsibility for my emotional health or that of others. My partner (or wanna-be partner) and I still owe one another respect, care and consideration, which includes considering possible outcomes, even if we don’t intend to be there with each other for them.

 

It sounds like you’re on board with that, and you’ve already voiced your own sense that this specific situation probably isn’t sound for you or your ex. While he’d likely agree to sex, clearly some of this wouldn’t be fun for him or you, and could be an emotional landmine. While your romantic relationship may be over, you two are in a relationship: you have a history and a friendship, and it sounds like you have strong feelings for and about one another that are not only or primarily sexual. If what you want is just a roll in the proverbial hay, this isn’t likely to be it.

 

It also sounds like you’ve been curious about sex outside of romantic relationships, but you haven’t felt supported in or exposed to alternatives. So you might also want to give yourself more time to take a bit more stock of what you want and to find people to talk with who aren’t all saying the same things. If that’s not currently available to you, Sex & Single Girls is a great anthology with a diverse array of women writing about various sexual experiences. I also think Jaclyn Friedman’s new book, What You Really Really Want, could be just the thing for you.

 

My best advice is that you hold out for an opportunity to explore casual sex if and when you feel a lot better about it. That will also likely entail a partner or scenario you don’t feel so conflicted about; that feels more likely to be explosive in the ways you want, rather than the ways you don’t.

 

Check out last week’s advice about lube blues.

 

Have a sex, sexual-health or relationships question you want answered? Email it to Heather at sexandrelationships@msmagazine.com. By sending a question to that address, you acknowledge you give permission for your question to be published. Your email address and any other personally identifying information will remain private. Not all questions will receive answers.

Photo from Flickr user skampy under Creative Commons 2.0.

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You are here: Home / Life / When the Sweet Spot Becomes a Sore Spot

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When the Sweet Spot Becomes a Sore Spot

October 31, 2011 by Heather Corinna

 

msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/10/31/when-the-sweet-spot-b...

  

Q: I’m a 21-year-old lesbian. A problem has popped up in me and my girlfriend’s sex life. When we practice tribadism with just skin, after a while a very small raw spot will show up, bringing with it a sharp pain. Both of us have this problem. Neither of us is clean-shaven, but we do trim–would shaving help? Is there anything else we can do?

 

A: Ah, friction. Sometimes it feels so awesome. Other times it hurts. Part of what makes genitals so sensitive is that genital tissue is far more delicate than other kinds of skin on our bodies. With genital friction, there’s a tipping point after which a wowie can turn into an owie.

 

To avoid being rubbed raw, first make sure you and your partner are always very well-lubricated. Lube from a bottle tends to do the job better than our bodies’ lubricant when it comes to friction-intensive sex.

 

Apply lube before you start and add more as needed throughout. Be generous and don’t skimp.

 

I checked in with Searah Deysach, the fantastic owner of Early to Bed, to see if she had any specific lube suggestions; she keeps up with brands and types like nobody’s business. She suggested a high-quality silicone lube, such as Uberlube or Sliquid Silver–they tend to be longer-lasting and slicker than water-based lubricants. But if you prefer water-based, she suggests glycerin-free brands such as Sliquid Sea or Liquid Silk (my fave), which are kinder to vulvas and vaginas than those with glycerin.

Searah and I are of one mind about hairy issues. She says, “Hair that is growing back after shaving can be especially irritating, as stubble can be vicious on delicate tissues. “ I agree. Stubble from hair removal is more likely to irritate than the softer pubic hair we tend to have when we don’t shave. If all you do is trim, chances are hair isn’t the problem.

 

Consider positioning. I’d suggest experimenting with an eye for reducing how much weight is being put on each of your genitals. Try finding ways you can scissor without anyone really being “on top” at all, like lying on your backs toe to head. Searah suggested straddling your lover’s thigh as an alternative. Similar feeling, less pain. If you do like a missionary-style V-on-V position, whoever’s on top can try to balance so less weight rests on the other person’s tender bits–e.g., by bracing their hands on a headboard. Mixing up positions often helps, too. And if and when either of you start feeling raw, don’t keep going with the activity that got you there–take a break from genital sex or at least consider that spot done for the day. If it remains raw the next day, lay off the intense pressure for as long as it takes to heal.

 

Now and then this still might happen, especially because, when we’re very aroused, pleasure can cause us to space out on signals of pain. But with these adjustments, you can probably make it a rarity instead of a norm.

 

Check out last week’s advice to a woman whose fiancé monitored her vagina’s size.

 

Have a sex, sexual-health or relationships question you want answered? Email it to Heather at sexandrelationships@msmagazine.com. By sending a question to that address, you acknowledge you give permission for your question to be published. Your email address and any other personally identifying information will remain private. Not all questions will receive answers.

 

Photo from Flickr user Gray Marchiori-Simpson under license from Creative Commons 2.0

 

Line drawing from Wikimedia Commons.

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......item 3).... Slate ... www.slate.com ... HOME / DOUBLEX : WHAT WOMEN REALLY THINK ABOUT NEWS, POLITICS, AND CULTURE.

 

My Year in Waxing School

Naked people don't tip well, and more tricks of the trade.

By Virginia Sole-Smith|Posted Friday, Nov. 19, 2010, at 12:08 PM ET

 

www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2010/11/my_year_i...

 

The 38th client I worked on at Beauty U. was my first full Brazilian wax—the kind where you remove all (or almost all) of your hair below the belt. I'd waxed many bikini lines and other body parts. I'd also assisted on Brazilians, handing my teachers wax-dipped Popsicle sticks the way nurses hand over scalpels. But now, it was my turn to wield the wax, solo. "I know—I'm a hairy beast!" Client 38 apologized, hopping onto the waxing table, clad in disposable thong. "You have to fix me. I'm going on vacation with my boyfriend."

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She spread her legs. I put on some vinyl gloves and worked down and across her pelvis, twirling clumps of hair and trimming them free. You have to trim any hair longer than eyebrow-length to prevent "locking" with the wax. You also have to act like this is normal, even though a part of your brain is thinking, "Pubic hair, pubic hair, oh my God, pubic hair." But I was getting better at trimming, and also at acting. And so clouds of hair piled up on the paper-covered table while 38 chatted about her vacation plans (the Poconos; if she was lucky, a proposal), her C-section scar, and how she liked my red glasses.

 

The $1.8 billion business of superfluous hair removal is our most intimate and uncomfortable kind of beauty labor. When I enrolled in a 600-hour aesthetics program at my local strip mall beauty school, I knew the standard feminist rhetoric against hair removal: Women wax because we've been culturally indoctrinated to hate our bodies in their natural state. I also knew the women's magazine defense, that removing excess hair celebrates our femininity and increases sexual pleasure. And I'd been in 38's position enough to know that waxing can make you feel vulnerable in ways feminists haven't even considered and hurts more than women's magazines (or at least, their beauty advertisers) let you believe.

 

But being on the other side of the waxing table turns out to feel simultaneously more exploitative and more empowering than I ever expected. There is, for example, the moment when your client shuts off from you, closing her eyes to "relax." Your client is in charge, having commissioned you to perform this service. And yet they are also terribly vulnerable, half naked, exposed and—eyes closed—hoping for the best.

 

After I trimmed, I tested the temperature of the hot wax on the inside of my wrist and painted a stripe along 38's inner thigh, quickly covering it with a muslin strip. She tensed before I ripped, then relaxed even as her brown skin tinted pink: "That hurt so much less than last time!" I watched some spots of blood well up. "I'm going to have you do my eyebrows, too," she added. And as I waxed my way along the crevice of her inner thigh to some very sensitive parts, 38 closed her eyes, drifting into that blissful state we enter whenever a spa service goes well.

 

With most Beauty U. clients, I liked offering this respite from their harried lives and from the even more harried relationship they had with their bodies. Before beauty school began, I hoped this body shame part wouldn't be so true. Instead, I saw women hating their bodies—in subtle ways, like 38's matter-of-fact "I'm a hairy beast!"—with every spa service I performed. So I saw my role as providing a kind of safe haven of acceptance, where a client could feel comfortable enough to drift away

 

Two hours into 38's appointment, I was the one who could not relax. I had waxed right through my dinner break and my back ached from hunching over the table. I removed all the hair 38 had asked me to (all but a delicate landing strip) and cleaned up her brows. I held a hand mirror between her legs, angling it so she could decide if she was satisfied. I'd snipped off her paper thong, so we looked together like those consciousness-raising women's groups from the 1970s. Only with me still wearing my vinyl gloves, now sticky with a layer of wax.

 

By that time, I knew that 38 had two kids, was divorced, and was going back to college. I liked 38. I wanted her to enjoy vacation and get engaged and have a good life. But we weren't friends. There was nothing reciprocal in our conversation. We were taught to avoid sharing personal information about ourselves whenever possible. "Customers don't care about your life," teachers told us. "They're buying your full attention." And that seemed to work. Once clients relaxed, they told us all sorts of personal things, like when they next expected to have sex and why their mothers made them crazy. And we learned that letting clients share these intimate details was good for business. "Remember to mention something about them or their life that they've talked about previously. Keep notes about each customer on file if you need to," advised one handout. It was much like being a therapist, serving soul and body.

 

In April, the New York Post reported that "NYC Women are Strangely Bonded to the Beauticians who Wax Their Brazilians," quoting smitten spa-goers who viewed their waxers as surrogate moms. But the story didn't explain how this one-sided friendship is made all the more awkward by socioeconomic differences. No matter how friendly their relationship, the client still pays and the waxer still needs that money. Nail technicians and skin-care specialists (the salon workers who do the most waxing) earn a mean annual pre-tax wage of $22,150 to $31,990. This figure doesn't include tips, which can total another $4,430 to $6,398—a clear financial incentive to befriend your clients in this service-based, nonreciprocal way.

 

Before starting, I assumed that most clients tip the industry's expected standard of 20 percent. They don't. I wasn't surprised, for example, when 38 tipped me just $5 (under 15 percent) because we never got big tips when clients got naked. Like johns who mistake their hooker's acrobatics for true love, clients can put such emphasis on the girlfriend-bonding time that slipping us a wad of cash would destroy the fantasy.

 

If her tip had been bigger, I would have been more delighted that 38 had taken time to write a "Client Kudos!" card about me: "She was professional and friendly at the same time. … Thanks so much!" She even drew a star on top next to my name. "That makes up for the bad tip," said my classmate Campbell about my Client Kudos. "Look how happy you made her!" Most salon workers say making clients feel good is their biggest source of job satisfaction. But I'm not convinced it's enough to balance out the often exhausting, difficult, and underpaid labor. No matter how much we liked our clients, we still had to brush stray pubic hairs off our sleeves, pick seaweed-stained disposable thongs out of the shower, and work around the occasional menstruating bikini wax client.

 

But it's also true that many waxers find this work empowering because the services require such skill and our clients are so thrilled with the results. Even if we don't totally return our clients' affections, we feel a kind of sisterhood with them and our fellow salon workers, because we're all toiling away together to meet some impossible beauty standard. When Campbell and I practiced our first Brazilian together, she rubbed the back of our "client" (another classmate), singing songs to distract her from the pain. We all traded stories about waxing and then, childbirth—that other time when a woman spreads her legs in pain and the support of other women gets her through.

 

And yet. When it came to 38, I wanted the cash, not the compliment, to show the value of my abilities. And maybe, to compensate for how she got to leave feeling so clean and sexy—but I could still smell her body on me, ever so faintly, even after I threw away the gloves and washed my hands.

 

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March 5, 2009

deadmau5@Club Answer

deadmau5, Asia Exclusive Tour Party

It's a Darth Vader magnet.

Canon AE-1

Fuji Superia X-TRA 400

Georgetown, DC

An HH-60G Pave Hawk assigned to the 66th Rescue Squadron takes off for a training exercise Jan. 12, 2015, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The 823rd Maintenance Squadron is responsible for maintaining the aircraft and ensuring they are mission ready for the 66th and 58th Rescue Squadrons to carry out their combat search and rescue operations. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Thomas Spangler/Released)

A Northern Crested Caracara takes flight from a cell tower in San Antonio, Texas. Shortly after, two more followed it traveling due east toward the sun. I didn’t see them again for several days until recently they reappeared one or two at a time. There is a large nest in the tower. I don’t know if it’s theirs.

I must agree with this.

xiao tiangang, Devils Mind (25, 198, 21) - Moderate

 

Visit this location at xiao tiangang in Second Life