Comments by quimby

rikk - Thanks for the article... Gee, I knew things were bad but I didn't realize they were this bad.... It makes the modest crime wave in my Penna hometown look like small potatoes..

How long can a 30 Year Old Dancer dance fueled by alcohol ?? I am suprised by how long a functioning alcoholic can keep going, but a 30 Year old dancer has the clock running down on her anyway... My guess is that 2 years will show some physical symptoms. My guess is that 5 years will show some mental impairment as well. If you have the gene for alcohol abuse, you find a way to stop or greatly reduce - or you die early...

Guys - A round of applause for EvilCyn - she wears both hats...

Wow - A series of great posts. I can only add that: 1) Mother Nature does not care about the long term emotional happiness of either sex - she just wants children... 2) My experience is that 35 year old (and up) women do want sex more than men - a nice (and funny when you think of it) reversal from high school and college days.. 3) Both men and women tend to want sex on their terms - you can complain about it, but you may as well lament having 2 legs and only one dick.... Both sexes are just wired that way...

Book Guy - Before I check out and go to that Great Strip Club in the Sky - I want to see either England or Mexico win the World Cup.... (1982 was won by Italy, I believe - I remember a procession of cars honking their horns all night....) (I was minus 10 at the time....)

Politics ? I am always suprised at how many strippers call themselves Republicans... My personal impression is that this country has large enough and serious enough economic problems to prevent the next president from doing anything but stopping the bleeding. So any of the 3 candidates will make a good enough "fall guy" - the poor 1-term sap who gets to cut spending, raise taxes, and hack away at Medicare/Social Security (to no real effect). I would like to see John McCain be that fall guy (since Republicans pretty much got us into the current mess) but he would also inherit the chance to put 4 more right-wing idiots onto the Supreme Court.. So its a wash and any of the 3 candidates will better then "the man who killed the US dollar..."

JayADay - I agree with you that a 1/2 mil per year on that (low) investment amount is a big enough return to attract competitors. I have seen (by accident) some operating figures for an urban Arby's and a Perkins near an interstate and they are (also) suprisingly lucrative. But it proves your point - there have been tens of thousands of fast food and franchised food places built in the US in the past 30 years - just because they DO print money hand over fist. My guess is that Strip Clubs have difficult day-to-day operations (and the stigma of being a strip club) and that keeps club ownership that much more profitable for the ones who take the risk...

FONDL - Very Well Done.... I'll try a back of the envelope calc for my favourite (but failing) club in NW Penna.... This club is small and has the misfortune to be located in an area of low population and low economic growth. The club is open 4 nights a week and sells no alcohol and very few soft drink cans. The cover charge is $15.00 - The club seems to get about 4 customers (each night) on Wednesday and Thursday and 12 customers per night on Friday and Saturday. They have no house fees for dancers but take 1/2 of the private dances that they can sell (Only about 10/week @ $40.00 each). Dancers are required to put money in the CD jukebox for their music... So what do we have... About $480 per week cover charge. Add $200/week for private dances. Add $200/week for the jukebox revenue. This gives (gross) revenue of about $900 per 20 hour week ---> or $45k per year. Figure expenses (taxes, heat, electriciy, maintenance, cleaning) of about $1000/month. (The club building is owner-owned and not worth much - there is no DJ or bouncer, and there is now very little cleaning or maintenance) So my guess is that this business nets about $30 -35k per year --- > a good 2nd income, but possibly not worth the grief... Club expenses seem somewhat fixed while the potential revenue is variable - if this club could double the (modest) attendance - the club would be a financial success... (Advertise ??)

Kudos to both ParodyMan and NJSCFan for their Posts... My only thought is that it is (very) alarming to me that there seems to be a good-sized segment of men that go to strip clubs who need to have dancers be stupider, smellier, and drunker than they themselves are. I enjoy the social aspects of clubbing and leave it at that; the recent posts on this site make me wonder just how bad it is to be a club dancer these days... (Is the term "Gentleman's Club " now ironic ???

Similarly, there was a fight/shooting this month at the quiet, laid-back, and really good Cecil Club in Vancouver BC (2 were killed). My only explanation is that an element of current culture is " Never Back Down, Never Lose Face..."

Why ParodyMan : We don't have tie shoes or newspapers here, but we do have the Internet... Is there a way that I (and possibly other members of this chat board) can send your wife some flowers and a sympathy card?

I am ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED by this thread.... Not by couples and threesomes in strip clubs, but by reading that Parodyman is married.

Emmy7 - It must be about 1 woman in 500 that does not sit down with her mate or lover and talk about "the relationship" and you sound like that you are that 1 in 500. At the risk of being kicked out of the United Brotherhood of Guys for suggesting this, why not just talk about it with him as a normal matter of conversation, and w/o drama and w/o a confrontation tone ? Example - " You know, I was sort of wondering: where do we go from here, as a couple ?? " It might work; it might be like writing a long heartfelt essay and getting a request for more paragraph breaks as feedback, who knows... (Men, Don't you just love them ??)

Mister Guy - I agree with you.... My understanding is that the IRS has tried for 25 years (with various amounts of success) to get unreported, underground wages reported... I was wondering if casual construction labor was the real target of this law.

Rikk - No, I am programmed to like women's bodies - probably in much the same way that I do NOT like baseball...

Hey, Look - If 59 million people vote for Republicans, what do you think is going to happen ? Very few Republicans any more seem to be from the Libertarian side of the party, and very many of them seem to be from the "Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Suppression of Vice..." If the banning of magazines from military bases (don't most soldiers get their porn on the Internet, anyway ?) is the worst bill introduced this year, then I will be happy...(and amazed..)

FONDL - WWI or WWII ??? I have a hard (no pun intended) time believing that oral sex was not known in big US cities in the Roaring Twenties.. (marijuana sure was....)

NJSCfan - Very well said.... I enjoy dancers and realise that I am very fortunate to live in a time and place where clubs like this exist. (Look at the NY newspaper this week for a 5 part series of what social life is like in Saudi Arabia for a comparison... YIKES...) Likewise I do not understand the stigma against sex and sex workers; would you rather be a bachelor farmer in 1800's Minnesota and never see a woman? Or would you like to marry the 1st woman that you could, and go through life too shy and embarassed to ever become a good lover ? As to the mercenary part..... Well, I have gone to the same barber for many years, and consider him one of my friends, but I am sure that our relationship would change if I showed up one day and said that he should cut my hair for nothing. The money is not the important part of the equation (and I enjoy being the recipient of a good, well executed hustle).

Gee, my understanding was that about 85% of general population (excluding the serious bible-thumpers and not even all of them) practiced oral sex. The real question is then : " If she has a tongue, is she into oral sex ?? " or " Are tongueless people celibate ? "

It seems pretty clear that the two things that you need to improve your odds of finding a good niche in life are: A) A family support structure to show you how life works (and) B) Some sort of support or grubstake to get you an education or profession. If you don't have either of these, the odds are stacked against you. (What do you think Lindsey Lohan or Paris Hilton would be w/o the constant familial propping up, or w/o money ?? )

Jablake - I am suprised how much the situation that you describe in strip clubs - matches the situation at my (industrial) job. In a tight job market, managers have huge power; they can (and do) insist on lots of extras (work, not sex), they play favourites, they take credit for the money that you earn for the company, they blame underlings for their mistakes. They get rid of anyone they don't like. Good God - is corporate life in America now like working in a giant strip club ?? (Where the only boob that you will see is the boss....)

Dudester - You make some good points, but I have always had the nagging feeling that if prostitution was legalized, it would soon constitute about 5% of GDP... Most of this country already makes a living w/o making or growing anything; this would just inch our standard of living down a little more ??

At my age, it is more important for me to pack a package of industrial earplugs than to pack condoms...

Jablake - Yes, I also really like a good, well-executed scam - even when I am the mark.. I have never heard of the false pregnancy dodge, but it would work like a charm on me, because I really like pregnant dancers.. My impression is that many male customers are down on pregnant dancers and tell them so (Shouldn't there be an "Obnoxious Jerk" club next to every "Gentleman's Club" just for this sort of customer ? ) Anyway, it seems to reduce the number of expectant dancers who keep working for a bit.

Cigarette smoke would be a big improvement for my club. They had a break-in or two over the winter, so they got some (after hours) guard dogs that they lock in the place after closing; the dogs wiz on everything and the place smells like it... (By the way, how do you spell "wiz" ??)