Today is Wednesday, January 18, 2023, the eve of our Florida retreat. So this is going to be a short blog since it’s late here and I would like to retire earlier than I usually do since we have a 9 a.m. car service pickup to take us to the airport, which is JFK.

Another reason for my being late here is that we also spent the evening watching the last two episodes of The Secrets of the Chippendales Murders which was more fascinating than the series based on these facts called Welcome to Chippendales. The fictitious series, although based on fact, introduced characters that didn’t exist in the true story of this one man’s devastating journey through greed, corruption, arson, and, eventually, murder. One fact that was now more jarring in the series concerned the homosexuality of the principal character, Nick De Noia, who was murdered by his partner, Steve Banerjee. The character in the series was portrayed by openly gay actor Murray Bartlett, who is very open with his sexuality in front of the dancers and an imaginary character by the name of “Denise,” who is assayed by Juliette Lewis. The real De Noia, as portrayed in the factual series, was much more closeted and was not open with his family and associates, which makes more sense since he was killed in 1987 when we were first thrust into the AIDS crisis back in the early 80s. The real boyfriend of De Noia does speak before the camera and he’s not the rich backer as portrayed by Andrew Rannells in the fictitious series. Also, he is not the person who comes upon the body of his dead boyfriend in the Chippendales office in Manhattan. It was probably much more dramatic to have De Noia’s paramour to discover the body after being shot by the hired assassin. The series like any film based on a factual story does have the statement scrawled at the end of the credits, saying that, although the series is based on a true story, the writers have the freedom to take artistic license and introduce characters and other situations to augment the dramatic force of the story. And, boy, do they!

If there was no A & E series being offered on the same platform, Hulu, then what would prevent Elliot and me from assuming that the series was totally factual. It would have been very easy to accept the situations presented in the limited series as representative of the truth without knowing better. This just illustrates the proviso that one needs to be more discerning when watching such a series that begins with “based on a true story” and not be so trusting in the creators really presenting us with the unmitigated truth of the tale. I would hope that after watching such a series or film, one is motivated to seek out the truth by investigating the real facts of the situation. Anyway, we are now all Chippendales out after watching the eight-episode dramatic series and watching the four-episode A & E series. I actually found the beefcake shots boring after awhile if this can be stated. The series on A & E presented some of the exotic dancers in the present and, boy, many of them did not age well. So seeing them on this 2022 series just goes to show that beauty does fade with time. I couldn’t identify several of them from their past profile with what they looked like in the present.

Did you hear the latest crazy scandal involving “George Santos”? Now a Navy veteran by the name of Rich Osthoff is speaking out against McCarthy’s new friend in Congress and saying that he took $3,000 meant for his dying dog. This veteran was scammed by a scammer by the name of George Santos who was known by another name then. This new revelation about the chameleonic representative is more outrageous than the last one. Actually, I can’t tell you which lie about this guy is more outrageous in the long run. But allegedly taking money earmarked for a sick dog is pretty shitty, in my opinion. It’s downright disgusting.

This story appears in an online CNN article by Celina Tenor entitled “George Santos took $3,000 from dying dog’s GoFundMe, veterans say.”

The veteran, Rich Osthoff, told CNN his pit bull Sapphire began developing a tumor in 2015, and it continued to grow in 2016. At the time, the bearded veteran was homeless, living in a tent, after losing his job and house.

“Osthoff’s mentor and friend, Michael Boll, founder of of New Jersey Veterans Network, informed CNN that he took Osthoff under his wing as part of the charity’s mentorship program and tried to get help for his dog.”

To try to get Sapphire much needed surgery, a mutual friend connected the two veterans with Santos, who told them Santos was frequently involved with helping and rescuing animals. At the time, Boll and Osthoff knew Santos by the name of Anthony Devolder, they said.

Santos then set up a GoFundMe for Osthoff’s pit bull, Boll said. The fundraiser eventually raised around $3,000, according to Boll.

Soon things went south after Osthoff tried to access the GoFundMe money, he said. What follows were texts written by Osthoff to “Anthony” about where the money was to pay for his dog’s surgery. Here Santos posing as Anthony or Anthony posing as Santos gets testy when the veteran demands to get his money for the vet to do the surgery. At that point, “He [Santos] got so angry with me and he blew up and refused to give me the money and then just wouldn’t answer the calls anymore.”

What is really heartbreaking with this story about a down-on-his luck Navy veteran and his beloved dog is that Sapphire died about six months after Osthoff’s last contact with Santos. The veteran said that he had to panhandle for the money to pay for Sapphire’s euthanization. Talking about his dog and her effect on his well-being, he said, Sapphire “was my little savior. She kept me on this planet.”

The police were contacted about Santos not returning the money, but Osthoff indicated that “it didn’t go anywhere at all.”

A probable reason for the police inaction in this case was that Santos went by a different name when the two veterans were in contact with him. Osthoff said he didn’t know that Anthony Devolder and George Santos were the same person until recently. When he did see Santos on television in December, Osthoff pointed out that seeing him turned his stomach when he recognized who he really was.

The Navy veteran had this to say about Santos’s current position in Congress: “That he was now given a position where he affects thousands of people’s lives . . . it’s really disheartening to know that.” It sure is!

Now that Santos has been exposed as the Anthony Devolder whom the two veterans sadly dealt with and got fleeced out of $3,000, Osthoff has told CNN that he texted Santos recently with this one question, “Where’s my fundraising proceeds, George?? You owe me plus interest.”

Doesn’t this sad tale just get your dander up? As you would expect, Santos denied the entire story as a fabrication. But isn’t he one himself?

So I hope by this time tomorrow night, we’ll be ensconced in our Boynton Beach house with our cousins’ orange tabby Tommy. Let’s hope everything goes well and he exhibits the same affection to us now that he displayed to us the last time we were there in December.

Stay safe and be well.