8/16/2003: Padlocks of love
 

http://cellar.org/2003/pecspadlocks.jpg

It's Pecs, Hungary, and an odd fashion has sprung up. Lovers are secretly clamping PADLOCKS on statues and gates all over the city center -- as symbols of their enduring affection. Apparently the city tried to fight it for a while but the lovers were more persistent.

Looks more like an orgy to me.:eek:

Cropping
 

So what's with the cropping of the shot? I mean, sure, show the locks. But why include the (admittedly interesting to look at) woman on the right? It appears that she has nothing to do with the subject of the picture. Maybe for scale?

Locksmiths are a lot cheaper than a decent divorce lawyer.

I'd bet that UT posts 'em like he finds 'em.
Whomever cropped it probably wanted to show this wasn't something quaint Hungarian peasants are doing, but hip urban youth
Oh...and breasts.:D

When I saw the title I thought you were linking to this local news story.

Best quote: "Investigators had planned to raid the apartment last week, but said business was so good that they could not get an appointment for their undercover agent until Wednesday. "

wolf, that story was so juicy I just posted it to FARK with this headline: Business was so good at S/M whorehouse that undercover vice cop had to wait a week for an appointment

Funny as hell, thanks for the link ;)

Brian, you had a link to the last bust in Tacony...what about this one?

S&M? As if just being in Tacony wasn't painful enough.:D
I wonder if they really had to wait a week to get an appointment or for them all to try it out?

Knowing the Philadelphia police, both.

Re the S&M Raid
 

I thought I'd really been around, but what's a Transformation Studio?

From what I've read, it's a place where crossdressers are made up to look more like they "are," e.g. to make a crossdressing man look more like a female. Don't know if it applies to transgendered types or not...I would suspect so.

Never mind. (Secondary links are NSFW!)

There are a lot of businesses that do makeovers, sell extra-large size clothes and wigs, and help transvestites learn make-up tips and other stuff Mom didn't teach them....kinda like "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"...but different, and they don't get a new sofa.

They do seem to mostly cater to (or attract, your choice) a transvestite crowd rather than transsexuals. There's a related kind of business that calls themselves "image consultants" that'a a bit more mainstream that TS folk (rich ones, anyhow) might make more use of.

("Transgender" is a synthetic term people use when the're trying to be "inclusive" of TVs, TSs who are post-op, TS's who are pre-op, folks who identify as TS but aren't candidates for surgery, either by choice, or for financial or medical reasons, and other random folks with gender issues of various kinds.)

Especially relevant to this particular case, there's an additional thrill attached for some folks to be "cooerced" into the transformation in some way, like having it happen on orders of a dominatrx. This probably acts to relieve the guilt associatied with wanting something taboo. This whole genre of stuff is called "forced feminization", and is pretty much exclusively a transvestite thing...I suspect that's what was being done on these premises in Tacony.

Maggie is right
 

Although I will preface my comments with the standard warning that I have not ever visited those premises, but I AM familiar with the two women who were running the "business".

I was informed of the story Saturday night by Dagney, who recognised the name. My first comment: "It was inevitable."

She uses a lot of in your face tactics and doesn't seem to care about appearances or what the neighbors think, which has accounted for her (now) three arrests on the same charges. Dumb bitch doesn't learn.

I wonder how the police are going to prosecute this one...same as usual, I expect. Perhaps her lawyers from the last bust (just resolved three months ago) are still available.

She can go to hell, as far as I'm concerned.

Brian