Martin Spanjers: 8 Simple Rules for Playing Gay

In case you're wondering who this boy is who showers wearing a towel and seems very happy to be looking at the muscular adult hunk, his name is Martin Spanjers, and he was playing the teenage Rory on the TGIF sitcom Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter (2002-2005), about an overprotective Dad.  It wasn't as heterosexist as it sounds

1. Dad was played by the gay-friendly John Ritter, who originated the "straight pretending to be gay" bit on Three's Company (1977-84).
2. Mom was played by the gay ally Katey Sagal, star of Married with Children and Futurama.
3. The teenage daughter takes a girl to the prom in order to make a stand for gay rights.
4. At the same prom, Rory's date turns out to be a lesbian.




5. Grandpa (James Garner), brought in after the tragic death of John Ritter, thinks the school principal is hitting on Rory.
6. James Garner originated the "attracted to a guy who's really a girl"  in Victor/Victoria (1982).
7. Rory is one of the standard gay-vague sitcom kids, soft, shy, pretty, and struggling valiantly to act girl-crazy.

After Eight Simple Rules, Martin did the usual guest star bit, on 90210, Family Guy, and Good Luck Charlie.  Then he got a starring role on the vampire drama True Blood, with Joe Manganiello. When his parents discover that the teenage Sam Merlotte is a shapeshifter, they abandon him -- he comes home from school to find the house deserted.  A lot of gay kids could relate to parents unable to accept their true identity.  He drifted for a long time, through a series of failed relationships, unable to find a home anywhere, not even among werewolves.  Finally he grew up (into Sam Trammel), and opened a bar in Bon Temps, Louisiana, where he dated women but had erotic dreams about men.

Martin also made some quirky black comedies, such as Sassy Pants (2012), in which a teen (Ashley Ricards) runs away from her oppressive mother to live with her deadbeat Dad, and bonds with her Dad's much younger boyfriend (Haley Joe Osment).  Martin plays her younger brother, who is also gay.

More recently he has appeared in tv series such as Larry and Lucy, Angel from Hell, and Hot Girl Walks By.   He lives in L.A., but I don't know if he is gay or not.

The Top 10 Physiques at a Travel Plaza on the Toll Road

In Illinois and Iowa, highway rest stops have trees and grass, and sometimes hiking trails. In Indiana and Ohio, they have a different idea: travel plazas.  No trees, no grass, nowhere to walk except on hot concrete parking lots, but lots of things to spend money on

There are four travel plazas on the I-90 in Indiana, and seven in Ohio.  The architecture is identical: a court with bathrooms and travel information, a convenience store, a travel souvenir store, and three fast-food restaurants, where you may be able to get a salad.

They are all bright and airy, rather pleasant except for having no trees or grass, and since everyone stops there, they are  perfect for physique watching.  Nobody takes their shirts off, but there are plenty of handsome faces, hard pecs and shoulders, and bulges on display.

Here are the top 10 physiques I found on my last crosscountry trip:

1. A muscle dad texting by the soda machines, his preteen daughters in tow.

2. It's hard to tell in a small photo, but this guy sipping a soda outside the Starbucks was breathtaking.

3. Blond wearing pink sunglasses and a tight black t-shirt, strutting around, aware that he's making everyone's jaw drop.

4. Cute nerd dad with an unshaven face eating burgers with his wife and toddlers.  

5.  This guy with his hands covering his crotch was applying for a job.  He was asked "Why do you want to work here?" and replied "It would be interesting to meet people from all over the world."  More likely it's the only job available in a small town in Indiana?

6. A very friendly high school senior from a suburb of Chicago, eating at Burger King with his father and little brother.

7.  This guy isn't quite old enough to be of beefcake interest, but what's with the chicken hat?

8.  He was at a table with three older, fatter guys.  When he stood up, I was blinded by the bulge.  

9.  An employee of the Ohio Toll Road Authority, chatting up one of the clerks at the convenience store.  A female clerk, unfortunately.

10.  A suspicious guy in a cut-off t-shirt, with his male friend and two girls.  They must be locals hanging out.

I only had a conversation with one of these guys; the others came and went quickly.  But that's the fun part: a glimpse of beauty that you will never see again.

High School and College Wrestling Twins

I had so much success with swim team twins that I tried it out with wrestlers: twins on the same wrestling team in high school or college, preferably posed together in their singlets.

There are quite a lot of them.

1. Jack and Luke Bokina wrestle for Mattituck High School on Long Island.












I could only find singlet pics of Jack, but here they are wrestling each other. Jack in yellow, Luke in blue.












2. Jeff and Justin Holm from Harper Creek, Michigan, wrestled for Olivet College in 2014-2015 (not Olivet Nazarene College, another one).  Jeff transferred to Ohio State, and Justin, to the University of Nebraska, splitting up the team.

3. Finally, a picture of the two together, in singlets.  They are Marco and Gator Groves (Gator's real name is Bobby), who graduated from McClintock High School in Tempe, Arizona and went on to Arizona State.

4.In 2013, Ethan and Grayson Dolan of Long Valley, New Jersey won the "Beat the Streets" Championship at Madison Square Garden in New York. They were 8th graders at Long Valley Middle School.

In 2018, they are the Dolan Twins, internet celebrities who have had a comedy program on Awesomeness TV for 3 years.

5.Saxon and Brayden Lyman  (carrying the coach in their arms) placed in the state competition in Des Moines, Iowa  in July 2018.  They also play football at Eagle Grove Community School.

More after the break.