Welcome to a special episode of Marriage News Watch. I'm Matt Baume with the American Foundation for Equal Rights, and I'm so pleased to welcome Alan Shane and Norman Sunshine, authors of the new book Double Life, A Love Story from Broadway to Hollywood. Over their 50-year relationship, their adventures together brought them from struggling on Broadway to running Warner Bros. television from small illustration gigs to winning an Emmy, and in recent years too, confronting the possibility of marriage at last. Alan and Norman, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for letting us be with you. Well, you have so many amazing stories in your book. It's hard to know where to start. I wonder if you could just begin by telling the story of how you met in 1958. I'll start that one. As you know, I opened the chapter with getting a phone call, but I'm trying to concentrate on my work. And it's a man whose wife has just gotten sick, and so he has to set a ticket to see a Jamaica with Lena Horne and Ricardo Monobon. And so, of course, I'm dying to go there, so I do. I think it's about going to end. He announces that Ricardo Monobon will not play today. It will be Alan Shane. And everyone groans and looks to get out of there, but however the orchestra comes up real fast, Alan is the first thing that appears on the stage. Quite well. Very worked out, kind of bare-chested, and then he is on the civil boat, and he sings to the Civil College. Savannah and Savannah open the shutters, and I remember the lyrics to that thing, and Alan comes Lena Horne and jumps into his arms, and that's Alan. And then they play throughout the whole thing quite wonderfully, and Alan is charming, and it's a nice voice, and he's able to pull his own Lena Horne, which was also amazing. And then my friend says, I know this guy. He was also a television actor. He says, let's go back and congratulate him. So we do go back and congratulate him. I'll just do this real fast, in a kind of bikini, with this man putting black makeup on his body, because this was the matinee. He was going out in the evening, so they were making about the evening show, and he was rather grand. He was on a little platform, very, very high, and kind of talking over everyone, and I wanted to show I liked him, because he seemed kind of overbearing, and full of himself. So that's the first impression I got. Okay, Alan. Well, for me to play that kind of role I wasn't really a singer, I wasn't really a dancer, and I wasn't a native. This was a show with all natives, Ricardo, at least with Mexican, but I was in virtually what was blackface in those days. I was made up very dark. I'd had to dye my hair dark. And in order to get through the groans from the audience, and the groans from the cast who didn't particularly want me to... They wanted Ricardo to be there, because when the audience groaned, they wanted me to. So I just had to psych myself up and act as if I were a star. And when I'd come out for performance, as I did when I met Norman for the first time, I was still very high. I still was trying to be his great star in order to get through the performance. So I really wasn't very nice with Norman, and yet I was just fascinated by him. I'd never seen anybody who looked like that. And I wanted very much to know him, and it all kind of went wrong in the dressing room. And I figured I'd never see him again. But after that, we just ran into each other everywhere in subways on the street. And how we got together, of course, is in the book. And I'd always thought of that.  Well, we didn't really... We didn't really know many gay couples, but the few we did meet, we didn't really care much about. Either they kept house, and one with the man, one with the woman, and one with the coke to the other aid. I don't know. It didn't seem like a very attractive situation to us. We both had careers, and Norman wanted to be a famous illness creator, and then finally an artist. And I wanted to be a big Broadway star. So we were both very ambitious and kind of equal in that sense. And there was no attempt at any kind of role-playing because we didn't know that. Also, there was no real roadmap for what was happening to us. We didn't have role models in those days because we didn't know people who had good, equal relations, men or women. I'm talking about now, same sex. Didn't have equal relationships, and that's what we wanted. And as a relationship developed, it was really out of the sense of interest in each other, friendship, of encouragement for each other. It was very much a kind of building that was being built from the foundation of whatever the sexual attraction was was something else, and that was very, very nice. That also evolved into something, until something I believe, called love, evolved. And we wanted to be with each other all the time. But it took us a long time to decide to live together because in those days it was, for me as an actor, I couldn't really live with another man. If they found out that I was gay, I wouldn't be sent out on most roles. So it was a very difficult time. And we didn't have examples around us to see that it was possible. It was two years before we could actually think of living together. And we were just parents and relatives and friends. I mean, how do you explain this? In those days we never spoke of it. Now we're talking about it all the time. It's a whole different world. Now, you were both working as an artist when you met. Alan as an actor, Norman as an illustrator. Was there a degree of openness that the arts afforded you, or did you still need to remain closeted? Well, in terms of my work, yes.  So it wasn't this big a deal. It was not until I went into advertising that I started handling clients and dealing with lots of money that I haven't been much more circumspect about culture. In Alan's case... Well, I was an actor and you couldn't really be known as gay as an actor, as I said. They would only send you out for eccentric roles. They wouldn't send you out for a leading, young leading role. So I had affairs with women and was usually seen with a woman. Until Norman. And then actually I left acting and one of the reasons was that I wanted to be more with Norman and I felt we could be freer in our life. As long as I was an actor and had a relationship with him, we could not really have an open life. You know, it seems like that's still somewhat the case. I mean, there have been actors now that have come out of the closet, but my impression is that there's still a lot of pressure in show business for actors to not talk about themselves. There's no question about that. And especially I think for the male the few people who have come out, I think are wonderful, great courage and they're managing their careers very well. Ellen DeGeneres speaks strongly of what she's done and that country loves her. And when I was in Hollywood, as president of Warner's television, we lived together because we've always lived together for the last four years or 50 years, whatever. But we didn't make a deal out of it. We didn't shove it into people's faces. And finally when they were considering whether I would be president of Warner's television there was a lot of talk about whether I could do it since I was gay, by that time they knew and they felt that people couldn't do business as well.  It's nonsense. And hopefully it's changing. Well, as you would call in the book there is this incident. I'm now employed by that agency. I'm on my way to becoming the creative director there. But there are clients who are very conservative and just a list of them. So I had to be very careful. However, I also became a painter while I was an executive. I had my first one-man show in New York in a New York gallery while I was a VP creative director in that agency. Unheard of. So The York Times got wind of it and they wanted to run an article about me. So, which I allowed them to do and this woman who, and before the interview I said, you know, she's going to ask me something about how I live her. You know, whatever. My living circumstances. They wanted to take a picture of me in my apartment, in my studio and all that. I said, what do I say? She asked that question and we looked at each other and I said, you know, I think I want to tell the truth. And Alan agreed. Alan was then working for David Suskind again, very, you know, not exactly homophobic. Yes, homophobic. Well, most people would.  So she did. There was this interview and she asked the question, do you live here, you know, love and I said no, I live here. I share this apartment with Alan Chang, producer for David Suskind. Well, the article was the, in those days it was like one page. It was the almost entire page, pictures of me and that statement was in it. And the next day I went to work in my agency, no one said a word. But a word, it's like the article never happened. It's a big deal. Alan had the same reaction. No one said anything. Suskind said they never said anything. He could have. Anybody could have. They could have said it in a creative way. The silence was like thunder, you know. Was that liberating to speak openly about your relationship or was the reaction so stressful that you regretted it? No, we never regretted it. We decided to do it and we did it. But we realized it was the first time New York Times has ever talked about men living here. And that's why I think people would startle now because you have your picture and the songs get married and you're in love. All these contrasts and every weekend it's wonderful. Was there a point or was that the point at which he said enough, we're just going to be out with everyone? He never said enough. We really didn't. We always lived what should I say? Not cautiously, but we lived our life really behind locked doors. We never hit people in the head. No. It's just the way we're doing now. I mean we made a decision to do it and now we do it. The butcher in the market comes up and says, I read your book and it gave me goose bumps. Everything. I'm reading about our sex life in a way. It's very strange or a woman in the bookshop, an older woman said to me, I'm reading your book. She said I'm so interested in reading about other people's lifestyles that I would dream of doing. These people, it's a different world. They're coming out of the bushes. This little guy works in our local shops and my brother came out of 32. My other brother came out of 18. I'm not gay, but wow. Love is love and I'm so happy. I only wish that they have a relationship like you do guys. We decided we wanted to tell the true story of a relationship that lasts as long. And if it was going to be true we had to really go all out with it. So we did it. There's openness in the book. There's quite a contrast between how freely you talk about the people and your relationships with each other and with other people over the years. There's a contrast between that openness and the caution that you have to exercise earlier in a relationship. Well, we got older and things were changing. We were aware of that. And also we were dedicated to each other. And once we realized that we were going to spend our lives together I think we were much better. You know, it was interesting to us later on we're going way up to now which is why we kind of wrote the book. We talked about the Joan Rivers thing and the dinner party in which they went around the table. Do you remember that? And Joan, she's an old friend of ours in Los Angeles and she has a country house near us here and so she had a Christmas party and she went around the table and she said we're going to all say what we're grateful for. And you remember this at all? And so she, everyone groans and said, no, no, no, we don't want to do that. She said, no, no, no. So everyone went around and said, I'm grateful for this. I'm grateful for my puppy dog. I'm grateful for this. And then they came to Alan. She came to Alan and Alan said I'm grateful that Norman and I have been together for 50 years. Not that I've been with Norman. Quite a difference. Okay, so everyone was in shock at how old we were we think first. And then someone came up and said you guys are really... I've been with my partner for 18 years. You guys are role models. You know, that sort of thing. I said we were an inspiration. That was a word that really got us to write the book. Because we thought if we could I mean, we're not an inspiration but we thought at least if we could show young people who don't believe in long-term relations. I think also, Matt, we have to say we didn't mean it to be a serious book. So we talk about funny things. We talk about celebrities and Hollywood and the art world. So we hope it's interesting. But we hoped underneath it all there would be a sense that that would. It is very entertaining to have the story of your really lovely relationship mixed in with quite a lot of fascinating backstory about these people that you're working with both in Broadway and in Hollywood. Was it fun to revisit those relationships? Was it stressful or difficult? Some of the things were stressful because we tell each other things that we're not. But you're talking about celebrities stuff? Yeah, it's quite revealing in some parts. For example when you go backstage and meet Lena Horne again many years later That was very disturbed. That was very disturbed because I really had loved her and she I thought had liked me enormously and we had a wonderful relationship. And then because she changed so in her politics and her life and Alan became the enemy in a funny way because she made terms of her. And I think she related me to the whole thing of they didn't give her showboat which is a big thing in her life that she didn't get Julie in showboat and she felt that now I was part of the movies Warner Brothers You know the line where I was when we went back there she said hey Mr. Mobile Hartley never gave me any work so she absolutely was transferring her anger at me It was a bit of a shock It was a bit of a shock It's not all easy I mean any of those relationships are complicated and I hope we've done that in the book I mean I think we've shown that And then there are other relationships that I mean your affection for some of these people is so clear the way you speak about Rock Hudson for example That was an extraordinary friendship that came out because of our own disaster with the fire burning down of the house and how generous he was to us who really didn't know very well at all and then the ensuing friendship and then watching him die of AIDS It was a really condensed period And he was a wonderful man and very generous and very sweet We never were the closest friends with him so we're not talking as if you were our best friend he wasn't Good to everyone He just was a decent good man There's a lot of problems I know it's a question We all have problems You have a very moving line in the book during the AIDS crisis when you refer to the community as a threatened fraternity Was there a sense of unity that emerged from the crisis that hadn't been there before? I don't quite think that I think it began then to grow together Hollywood is a tough place People are very competitive and I think the AIDS thing may have helped them grow together as they worried about their friends We're still very frightened We're quite sure what we're dealing with No, and remember it did take a while before anybody knew what was going on I mean we had dinners in which people weren't feeling well and one guy said I just have these rabbits and I know it's from the rabbits So it was a very mysterious time and you of course were there but this is what the early AIDS I mean, Rock when he was already sort of going to dinner one night and we couldn't believe what he looked like, Chris Chargers and then we were going through all the glasses and the dishes after he attached No one knew how to behave But certainly as you lost dear friends people did grow together in their love of the people who were dying It was a difficult time That affected us certainly but the relationship itself I think was so solid at that time It went through a few bumps later on but that's true of everyone And then 2004 comes along and so much has changed and that's when you decide that all of a sudden find yourself in Nantucket on a beach about to be married to each other What changed? What made you feel that that was the right time to get married? It came about in a less romantic way because we had met this judge a liberal judge from Boston and he had some dinner party, some mutual friends and we started talking about that and he said, you know, you have marriage now you have this own little time I suggest for whatever state that the two guys will get out of it or whatever, get married and he said they can't take that away from you so you will whatever So we thought, well, why not do that? So it was sort of that sort of thing Then as we started going through which becomes comical getting the ring going to Tiffany's it starts to become a reality and then we made the arrangements for the wedding in Nantucket and then the whole process started to happen. When we went to Nantucket and went to the town hall and asked, as we were signing marriage license, it was very early everyone was so nice to us I mean, I couldn't believe it Well, we couldn't believe it Out in the open, out in the open we were saying we're going to get married and they were saying, oh that's fine and giving us even before the marriage it was a bad day, it was foggy and we started, we looked at houses for sale, you know and we were stalling and then finally meanwhile the time was coming out we were supposed to meet the woman I guess about four or five o'clock and we were picturing and we didn't know what we were doing and we finally get back to the hotel and it was going to be a beach across from the hotel just the two of us, a photographer who were there and this woman and she shows up in a long black dress striving red hair, it was very dramatic looking went across the street and then we are standing in the spot where we could go through this ceremony and the sun comes out, glitter and suddenly it's beautiful and she says to the two of us now, come close, grab each other's hand and look into each other's eyes and at that moment you really see each other for a moment in how many years we've been together and the aging faces and the beauty of the day and the preciousness of this time Alan burst into tears ran to the ocean and I ran after him and comforted him and brought him back it was so moving the ritual the marriage, the being out there and the open, the sun shining beneficently well, the amazing thing was being out in the world, we weren't behind closed doors so tell the revelations and also we had done it because we finally felt we should put our money where our mouth was we began to hear of people we had a few friends who got married and we thought, if we believe in this if we believe in this relationship we have to take the next step which is to have it be God and be equal to other people and we had never been activists in any way but we began to feel we must take our role and one of the ways we feel people should do it is like getting married, we're very much in favor of that not for people who don't love each other certainly and not for people who doubt that they should get married but for people who are really committed I think it's a step forward we know we have some we read about grand pit which is an admirable way of saying well, I'm not going to get married until every friend I have in the world can get equal marriage for all of us I mean the fact is that we take is wonderful and it's showing the world that we are going to someday be not probably while we live but of course we're so aware that with every forward step you have the self-righteous right we try to feed it back we create, you know constitutional amendments and all that stuff that they're trying to do to keep us from having equality but all the problems that we have there's a couple still exist we can't leave money to each other without paying enormous taxes all the things that you have to do I take my power of attorney and all that stuff we have to do you know all that lives well, Alan Shane and Norman Sunshine it's been such a pleasure the book is Double Life Love Story from Broadway to Hollywood thank you so much for speaking with us thank you


The solar powered house number planter box. Ooh, solar powered. It sounds fancy now. We just made this planter box with a post for our house numbers and we use the glow forge to cut out some Acrylic and we'll show you how we did it right now What is up a welcome back? Do you like to do it builder make it? Of course you do. That's why you're watching and these cool cats No, we do it every Friday this week. We're making a planter with a post for our house letters goes in the back Yes, so we've had challenges with some of our delivery drivers We have our house faces the road and our garage faces an alley and sometimes the GPS either takes you down the front Or it takes you down the back and we've had so many deliveries when they come down the back There's no way to tell which house is which they just get close and they drop off our stuff With home Depot, we found an order two days later three houses down Just sitting in their driveway.  They could be just behind the garage and we didn't know they were back there So what we want to do is put this little planter on either side of the garage That has our house number so that they can figure out where to drop off the groceries Or our deliveries or whatever it's not this cruel game of where's Waldo with our food Step one we're gonna gather all our supplies we borrowed these plans from Tabitha at fresh mommy blog and There were some tweaks From Amy at homemade Haven so we use both of theirs to come up with our version and we have tweaked it even further so Just some tips and tricks But these will get you started and I'll put a link to these in our description We need a one two by two one two by four, but not even like the whole thing You could probably just get a four foot four one by four's a four by four That's the most expensive thing in the car a piece of scrap plywood three-quarter inch We're gonna put a cap on ours. That's got a solar light in it and a hanger for our house numbers Step two now we're gonna make all of our cuts We're gonna cut these one by fours down to 15 and three-quarter inches We're gonna need 16 of them and then we're gonna cut the two by two down to 15 inches We're gonna need four of those So we're not gonna make all of our cuts, but most of our cuts And how do you think we should make these cuts? What tool should we use? I'm gonna use my pocket saw This joke getting worn out it's getting old Kim said maybe I should retire this joke about my pocket So I still think it's funny To make all of our cuts and to make sure these cuts are uniform We're going to put up a stop block at 15 and three-quarter inches I don't have an arm on my miter saw long enough I'm going to clamp my miter saw down to the bench and then I'm going to clamp my Stop block down to the bench at 15 and three-quarter inches away Step three Now we're gonna assembly. We're gonna start by making the four sides At first we're gonna have to put a whole bunch of pilot holes in there so that we don't split the wood and we're gonna counter sink them With this pilot hole countersink bit like two on each board First we have to measure it out. Just line up a bunch of them Gonna take one of the other boards Line it up right on the edge Draw a faint little line and I got these little scraps from when I made all these cuts I'm just gonna use this. I'm gonna place it at the top of each board Show where it crossed the line At the bottom of each board show where it crosses the line on the other side of each board We're gonna Stack those two pieces of scraps place them at the edge and Draw a line and do the same with the little piece of scrap Top and bottom Use sides from the other ones to space them out Lining up the edge, then I'm gonna come in with those shallow pilot holes I'm gonna screw those down to the two by twos and we're gonna semi assemble it Just so that we'll know how to cut the top because we got to do a miter cut on the top So we're just gonna mock assemble it Just put a screw in the top and a screw in the bottom So we'll be able to measure it. Let's measure the top That's 12. The socket saw won't go all the way through a one by four at the 45 so Down to the big saw. I'll meet you there.  I just put two in each side And take those out. We're gonna stain it our four sides together. I'm gonna make the box So kind of like we mocked it up, but we're gonna put screws in all of the holes Inch and five eighths. I'm gonna do it upside down. So it's lined up Hey, that's what we got. We got a box Well, it's upside down. We're gonna add the plywood piece of scrap plywood Perfect fit. It's got a bottom. It's getting heavy. I post it We're gonna use these 15 inch two by fours that I cut some pocket holes into And we're gonna attach them to the bottom of the post And then we're gonna slide the whole thing in and use the pocket holes to Tack it to the bottom post in the box super tight fit a little post You want a hammer or something? What can I do a little wiggling and jiggling why in our so we can actually put plants in it Yeah, so this is folded in half and then we're gonna tuck the folded side right down in there This way it doesn't get the post wet keeps it out of a Keeps it drier anyway. You're gonna tuck one side to the other now. We're gonna use the top frame All those little 45s that we had to cut on the big Microsoft We're gonna put them on the liner and we're gonna nail it down with a one and a quarter inch brad nail I missed my own joke Now we're gonna bunch the middle up together and go find a zip tie Zip tie the middle together step seven now we're gonna add the little topper and we're gonna give it a hanger So that actually can hang our numbers kind of excited about this little topper. It's It's a copper topper. Well, yes, and it's solar power. So hopefully in the dark You'll be able to see the numbers and the whole thing It's kind of like so nice step eight Now we're gonna give it some numbers and to take this piece of acrylic over to my glow forge and cut out our numbers for our house numbers The whole point of this thing His whole point my whole point Well, I guess to get the numbers my whole big thing was the planter, but he was This is like the whole Exciting part of the project for him right here. He did all this to get to this to use the glow forge to cut out These numbers gotta use my tools Got these big tools. I gotta use them So I'll meet you over there in the glow for a job Kim sent me a pin that she wanted me to use for the house numbers. So I'm gonna borrow this image bring it into Photoshop Remove their numbers Put in my own numbers Save it as a JPEG open that JPEG in Adobe Illustrator I'm gonna do an image trace I go deeper into how to set up a glow forge file in an earlier video. I'll link to it here I'm gonna remove the background Give the image a red stroke because I like red for cuts I'm gonna export this out as an SVG. I'm gonna import that same SVG into the glow forge app size the image Select the thin acrylic from the materials menu set the layer to cut and hit print Now we picked up this acrylic from Amazon. This stuff smells real a bad Even with the machine exhaust and an inline exhaust we had to evacuate the craft room I mean it smelled bad now Maybe the glow forge stuff is better and it doesn't stink but I wouldn't recommend using the stuff we used Numbers are all hung. What do you guys think? Not too shabby, huh? Looks pretty classy We haven't seen what it looks like at night yet. So I haven't seen the lights glow You guys like this video give us a like You be sure to share it if you're not yet subscribe subscribe because we do this every week So you should tick that bell and then maybe watch this video right here or her video Watch either one. I will see you guys next week


When you have a crush on someone, every interaction can feel like a potential clue to their feelings. Microflirting involves those subtle, often unintentional gestures and behaviors that suggest someone may be interested in you romantically. In this video, we'll explore the signs that go beyond mere friendliness and could indicate your crush has a romantic interest in you.  Playful teasing. Do they always tease you? For example, they say things like another selfie, you must be trying to break the internet with your amazing duckface skills. Microflirting also involves light-hearted teasing, creating a sense of intimacy and comfort. Backhanded compliments allow someone to test the waters and see if you respond in a favorable manner. Teasing conversations include not talking about anything substantial, but sending out flirty signals all the same. This is a sure-fire flirting sign, whether in person or over text. While not the most straightforward way to flirt, it's extremely common for people who don't want to make their intentions obvious. Eye contact. Do they have a hard time taking their eyes off you? If they maintain eye contact for longer than usual, it can be a sign of microflirting, even after you've broken eye contact. Researchers found that participants who gazed into each other's eyes for prolonged periods were more likely to report feelings of affection for the other person. If you find this video relatable and helpful, please give the video a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel. Now, moving on to the next point. Social media. Social media makes it easy to flirt when it can't quite happen in real life. With all the content flying around nowadays, if someone takes the time to check out everything you post, you know there's more than meets the eye. If you notice someone consistently engaging with your content, such as frequently leaving heart emojis in your comments, it might be worth investigating further. They may comment on the social media posts with inside jokes you are not privy to or like everyday posts and every single status update. It feels like they are closely following the other person's every move. Increased attentiveness. Do they have a habit of becoming all too charming around you every single time? And when you spend time with this friend of theirs, it feels as if their whole personality changes. They may become more outgoing than usual, which is different than their usual behavior when alone with you. Body language can easily give away indications of a romantic interest. Notice if they lean closer during conversations or mirror gestures or movements. Deep compliments. Has this person ever showered you with heartfelt compliments that go beyond the usual pleasantries? And not just superficial compliments, like saying you look pretty. They go a step further and give you more meaningful compliments, such as work ethic or skills. This indicates paying a lot more attention that is slightly more personal or specific than one's given in a friendlier context and possibly even showing more appreciation than they do for you. Vigeting. Yes, you heard that right. Those little fidgets and movements people make can actually be subtle forms of flirting. It's a non-verbal language worth decoding. That subtle tapping of fingers, twirling of hair, or even just playing with an object can convey interest, attraction, or even a hint of shyness. So, the next time you catch someone fidgeting during a conversation, pay close attention. It might just be their way of micro-flirting, saying more than words ever could. Using nicknames. When someone gives you a nickname or a special term of endearment, it signifies that they are taking the time to personalize their interactions with you. This means they are paying attention to you as an individual and want to create a unique connection. Nicknames in terms of endearment create a sense of intimacy and closeness. They often involve using pet names like sweetie, honey, or even more personalized terms that may be based on an inside joke or a shared experience. These terms can be used to create a private and special connection between the two of you. So, how many signs did you relate to? Let us know in the comments. If you enjoyed this video and would like to watch more different flirting styles, click here to watch their five flirting styles. Which do you have?


Okay, I know that weddings can be expensive and that sticking to a budget is extremely important. So a custom suit or tuxedo may not be in the cards and that's perfectly fine. However, if it does fit within your budget, I highly recommend getting a custom suit or tuxedo made for your wedding. And in this video, I'm gonna share five reasons why I think it's a great idea. Reason number one is that it's the best way to get a perfect fit. Before launching this course, I put out a survey to married guys asking them about their biggest style regrets looking back at their wedding day now. And of the hundreds and hundreds of responses I received, having a poorly fitting suit or tuxedo was by far the number one answer. And typically they attributed that to having worn a rented suit or tuxedo. So we all come in different shapes and sizes and off the rack clothing operates in basically a one size fits all mindset. And if that size doesn't work for you, if you have very specific fit issues, like for example, really broad shoulders or larger thighs, it can be difficult and not to mention frustrating to try and squeeze yourself into this pre-made mold. Alterations can help, but oftentimes the lonely gets you so far. So that's why there's no substitute for having a garment made specifically for you in terms of getting that perfect fit. Reason number two is the ability to personalize it and really make it your own. Custom is called custom for a reason and the fact that you have so much control over all the details like linings, pockets, buttons, et cetera, that really gives you an opportunity to add personal touches and personality to your suit or tuxedo. In this sense, I always think about how the bride puts so much time and effort into finding the perfect dress and a dress that really complements her and says something about her. So I feel that if you're able to do the same, that just kind of elevates everything that much more, makes it a bit more special and really adds that extra layer of personalization. One thing to keep in mind though is that different companies offer different levels of what you're able to customize. So if you're going to go the custom route, definitely do your research before you commit so you know exactly what you can and can't do. Reason number three is that a custom suit or tuxedo will generally be much higher quality than one that's rented. Again, going back to my married guy, wedding day style regrets, another big one was that people felt looking back at their photos now that their wedding suit or tuxedo looked cheap. And not only that, but a lot of them also added that it felt cheap as well. Caveat here is that there are plenty of custom suit companies out there that do produce a very cheap garment. So I'll say that if you're looking into it, if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is. Two things to pay attention to here are the fabric and the construction. For a decent custom suit in an entry level quality fabric, you should expect to pay somewhere around $500 minimum. As the quality of the fabric gets better, the price will increase. In terms of construction, never buy a custom suit that is fused. That means it's literally glued together. Always opt for a half canvas or a full canvas construction. Reason number four I recommend getting a custom suit or tuxedo is that it is a special garment you will have for many years to come. Your wedding day is one of those days that you will never forget. And having a custom suit or tuxedo made specifically for that occasion is a great keepsake and reminder of that special day. And if you follow the guidance I've given in the course so far, chances are you might be leaning towards something classic. And the great thing about a classic suit or tuxedo is that it never goes out of style and it will always look good. So even if you don't have opportunities to wear a suit or tuxedo all that often, I'll bet that there will be times you'll need one, whether that's someone else's special event or an anniversary dinner or any other time you and your wife feel like getting dressed up and doing something nice. Having that suit or tux you had made for your wedding and being able to put that on again makes for such a great sentimental connection. And reason number five is that you will be getting a very high return on your investment. Along the same lines of being able to re-wear it and feel that sentimental sense of nostalgia, being able to re-wear it also makes economic sense. If you're renting a suit or tux, probably gonna be spending between $100 and $200 and closer to the top end if you're getting an entire outfit. If there are future occasions where you need to wear a suit or tux and you don't have one and need to rent one again, you can see how in the long run that cost could easily be higher than if you had one made for your wedding. Even at an entry level price point, a custom suit or tuxedo will pay for itself over time. You have to consider it an investment. So there you have it. Those are the five reasons that I really recommend going with a custom suit or tuxedo if it fits in your budget. Just to recap, it's the best way to ensure a perfect fit. It's a great way to add some personalization, generally higher quality. It's a classic garment that you'll always have with the added bonus of that sentimental attachment and it offers a really high return on investment. I know I didn't get into specifics about particular brands, so if you have any questions, let me know.


Hey Marines, Lance Corporal Melissa Bonjock here. I know you just finished some of your favorite meals from the holidays, but you've got to start training for the PFT in 2020. Planks will now be integrated into the PFT standard. All Marines who choose to do the plank will be graded the same regardless of gender or age according to the Mar-Admin 330-19. To perform the perfect plank, you must remain with your back, legs and head straight while keeping your arms at 90 degrees and your legs shoulder-width apart. Planks cannot sag or raise your body or arms or legs. In order to get a perfect score, Marines must hold the plank for 4 minutes and 20 seconds while the minimum passing score is 1 minute and 3 seconds. Although this is an alternative, Marines should still practice to get a perfect score.


I want to say a little bit of why people care about determinants. We'll see some more applications in future lectures as well, but there's one short one we can mention right now. Determinants can be used to calculate area. If we have two vectors, U and V inside the plane, associated to any two vectors, we can form a parallelogram. This is what the parallelogram rule was about all before. With the parallelogram rule, if you put the two vectors, U and V together so that their tails come together, the diagonal of this parallelogram was the sum of the two vectors, and then the other diagonal is the difference of the vectors. This parallelogram, this geometric object is significantly related to the algebraic properties of these vectors, additions and subtraction. What I want to talk about now is actually the area of this parallelogram. It turns out that if we form the matrix A so that its first column is U and its second column is V, then the determinant of this matrix A will equal the area of the parallelogram.  If you choose them in the wrong order, you actually could get a negative number, which doesn't really make sense for area. But as you often see in calculus and such when you do integration, if you get a negative area that's easy to fix, just take the absolute value of that thing. The area of this parallelogram is equal to the absolute value of the determinant. This is also true with respect to three by three matrices. Associated to the three columns of the matrix, there is a parallel pipe head, which is like the three-dimensional analog of the parallelogram. The idea is you stack parallelograms. Green's not going to work there. You can stack parallelograms on top of each other and make some type of three-dimensional object. This is probably the grossest picture anyone's ever drawn in their lives. But you try to get this three-dimensional parallelogram. It's kind of like imagine if you have a stack of cards and you were to push it in a couple different directions. How does the card slant? You have a parallel pipe head. A rectangular prism is a special type of parallel pipe head when the angles are all right angles. Anyways, the volume of said parallel pipe head will equal the determinant of the associated matrix. The columns of the matrix are the vectors that span the parallel pipe head. But again, because of orientation reasons, you might have to take absolute values. And if we take higher-dimensional analogs of this, they hold as well. So if you take a four-by-four matrix, the determinant of that matrix up to sine change is equal to the hypervolume of the hyper-parallel pipe head. Sort of like the four-dimensional analog. You can do five dimensions, six dimensions, et cetera. The reason I want to mention this is that in calculus, we actually use this principle a lot. When we do change of variables in multivariable calculus, we have to calculate the Jacobian, which is the determinant of a change of... It was the determinant of the derivative matrix, the partial derivative matrix there. And so why does the determinant show up in these integrals? Well, because the determinant is calculating area, right? And, well, integrals calculate area. So it kind of makes sense that in order to calculate areas, you're gonna use areas. And the determinant is keeping track of the change of area as you go from one variable to another or change the volume or higher-dimensional analogs. And so determinants is how you calculate linear area. Integrals is how you calculate non-linear area. And integrals, as you're taking limits of linear approximations, it kind of suggests why the linear area formula, aka determinants, is showing up in those integrals. So I want to do an example of this thing. So let's just take a two-dimensional example, take a parallelogram. And so let's take the points negative two, negative two, zero, three, four, negative one, and six, four. How do we calculate the area of that parallelogram using determinants? So I'm gonna graph it right here. I'm gonna zoom out a little bit so we can see it a little, just a tiny bit better. And so let's do those points. So there is the point two, two, negative two, negative two right there. There is the point zero, three right here. There's the point four, negative one right there. And then there's the point six comma four, which is this one right there. In which case if we connect the dots, you can see that we have in fact formed a parallelogram. Okay, I mean it's not perfectly drawn but that's the right idea. Now in order to use the rule we just did a moment ago, you have to have a parallelogram that goes through the origin. So we actually want a point right here. And so what we can do is we can just perform an affine transformation for which we're just gonna translate everything by a factor. So if we have this point two, negative two, negative two, what we can do is we can actually just translate all the points so that negative two, negative two goes to the origin, right? And so basically what we're gonna do is we're just gonna add, we're just gonna do the translation map, translate by this factor two comma two. We're just gonna add two to all the coordinates. And so if we do that we'll take two, two here, two, two here, two, two here. Where do all my points go? Well, you're gonna get the point zero, zero. This point right here, which was, I'm gonna label these things now, you get zero, three. It's going to, if we add points to it, it's gonna become two comma five. I'm sorry, that's not that point. JK about that one. This was the point four, negative one. We get four, negative one. If we add two, two to that, we're gonna get six, one, which is this point right here, six, one. If we do three, zero, that's this one right here, three, zero. When you translate that one, that becomes two, five, which is this point right here, two comma five. And then lastly, if we take the point six, four, which is right there, when we translate that, that'll become the point eight comma six. And so this forms a parallelogram now. I'll try that again. I'll connect the dots one more time. We get a parallelogram. And this parallelogram will be congruent to the original parallelogram. And what we're interested in is these two vectors right here. So this is the vector U and this is the vector V. So to find the area of this thing, we have to calculate the determinant of the first column of the vector U since it goes from zero, zero to two, five, the column will just be two, five, right? And then the second one V, since it goes from zero, zero to six, one, the second column will look like six, one, like so. And so if we calculate the determinant, we get two minus 30, which gives us a negative 28, but as area should be positive, we really needed to take absolute values the whole way. And so we're gonna get 28 square units of area for this parallelogram right here. Now, admittedly in order to calculate the area, we don't have to draw the picture. I mostly wanted to draw the picture to kind of illustrate geometrically what we're doing. But this determinant is what we needed to do to calculate the area of this parallelogram. And that brings us to the end of our lecture today that concludes section 5.1 about introduction to determinants. We'll talk some more about determinants, of course, throughout this chapter. We'll talk about these more next time. But thanks for having you here. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments below. I'll be glad to answer them as soon as I can. If you like this video, please click the like button, subscribe. If you wanna see more videos like this, or you wanna get updates about future videos and other things related to this channel. And best of luck in your journey through linear algebra. I hope to see you next time. Bye, everyone.


What's up everybody, it's Jason here for JaspysCaseRace.com. 2023 hip parade, baseball, autograph, limited edition series 15, just sold out. This is a dual case break. 20 total boxes, random teams number one. Yeah guys, everybody gets a random team in MLB.  So here we go, dice roll it and it is a five out of six 11 times. Randomize the names and teams. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine, 10, 11. Edward, gonna Ethan, 11, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. And Royals down to the New York Mets. All right, 11, 11. So Edward, T, you got the Royals. Eugene with the Rangers mark with the Phillies. Ryan Preston with the Dodgers. Paul, Nationals. Edward, the Cubs, Cardinals, Astros. Sal, you have the Orioles. Gerard with the Pirates. Aaron with the Yankees. Jeremy Smith with the Tigers. Edward with the Diamondbacks. Mark with the Guardians. Jason W with the Red Sox. Josh, Brewers, Sal, Rockies, Nester, Blue Jays, Ethan, Giants. Gerard with the Padres. Eric with the Marlins. Eric, or sorry, Eric with the Marlins. Carlos with the Cardinals. Eric Clicks and that's Eric C and then Eric Clicks. Ray's. Gerald with the A's. Rex, you have the Reds. Michael with the White Sox. Simon with the Angels. Chris with the Braves. Peter with the Mariners. Gerard with the Twins. And then Ethan with the Mets. How crazy is it that you got randomized to Reds again? All right, chairman to open, guys. I didn't see any Reds to be honest. Actually, there is one. You were right until today. The new one came out literally today. Oh. Yeah, yeah. Actually, there is one. It's right there. Obviously, I don't know if it's been hit, but we do have four cases of the 10. So we do have a 40% chance either to hit it on this one or the next one. So actually, yeah, there is one right there, actually. There's a startling. Don't hold it open, man. Again, Rex, they make 10 cases, right? We have four of them, right? Two in this break, two in the next one. So, I mean, we don't get every single hit break case. It's impossible. We're not the only ones trying to buy this. But I'm trying to tell you that there's a 40% chance that it's here with us, because we have four cases of the 10. I don't remember the rest of them, right? Obviously.  Here's our trade for Eugene guys. If not, I'm gonna close it right now. Anybody want to take that chance at a trade with the Rangers? So if not, I'm closing it. Yeah, if it was just really exclusive, obviously, there will be a chance of hitting it because we have all the cases. But for hip raid, we don't, obviously. We try to get as many as we can, but we're not the only people that buy it, because sometimes they also sell these as personal boxes, personal cases on their website. So, we're lucky to even get like four cases, you know? Of each print run, at least. All right, let's close the trade window, then, guys. Jack Carter was just outside the window. No, really? He was totally hit. 100%. It definitely looks like him. He looks exactly like him. Go show him an SNI guarantee, which should be like, oh, that is him. Yeah, dude, he was. Because last time, I remember seeing him, he was like, I remember one time I passed by and that man had to be, or sorry, next to the Mickey's area, and he was on a bike with a kid, and I definitely knew that was Jeff Carter. I was like, dude, he has to be riding a bike with his kid or something. Barron said that Justin Brown walked from him every week. Oh, damn. Yeah, yeah. Sick. Dude, my, it's like a wave, dude, like you didn't see it. It's funny. Hockey players just walking around our store, guys. All right, here we go. We got case four here, and let's say case eight. I did see two more cases back there, so that's why I reposted it up, guys. Give it a little slap, and then they all come out. First one is an Austin Riley. That is from 2020 Stadium Club, PSA nine, and Latin Braves on the board. Braves are going to Chris P. A much better season this year. Healthy, too. 2022 tops baseball. Chicago White Sox going to Michael Stapleton on the board, Michael. That is a 10 out of 25 America's pastime autograph, and it's a rookie for the Pittsburgh Pirates in Girard. Getting that from your Pops Chrome jumbo pack filler, number one. Pristine, autograph there for the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis Cardinals, Carlos, what's a Cardinals? It's a Sparks Select Autograph 19, or is our 10 out of 75 from 2022 Select? That's technically a rookie as well. Actually, they're for the Rays going to Eric Klicks, and I don't know if that's on the cell sheet or not, but it is a wonderful rookie. So yeah, it looks like there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. So I think we might be missing one cell sheet on there. Maybe Nick couldn't collage that one up in there, or that specific collage that he was giving only had nine out of the 10, so there might be one more cell sheet that we're not seeing, but I guess we'll find out. And Hunter Green, well, look at that. Could still go to Ali Rex, but he's still got a Hunter Green though. Find this rookie at a 99. I think this is the cell sheet hit. I see it right there. That is a 2019 Prism rookie autograph, Blue Wave PSA 10, number to 60 for the Toronto Blue Jays going to Nester Rodriguez. There you go, man. So there's cell sheet number one of the case. Now there's another big cell sheet hiding in the next case, but we still have three more hits here to give out for you guys. A Corey Seeger, what a great year. 12 out of 25, that's going to be Dodgers edition. That's 2015 National Treasures. And I want to say that should be a rookie or a prospect at least. Yeah, it says prospect. That is a gold nine, five, 10 for the Dodgers. That's Ryan Preston. God, Josh Young. That's where they're for the Texas Rangers. So try to trade, couldn't trade mojo, Eugene. Last ball mojo, there you go. It's a rookie from Finest. All right, last box and we'll go to the next case. Locker for the Rockies. Nice one, two, three, four color patch out of 25 from Diamond Icons. And this is the same Diamond Icons guys that's on the website for the R&B. Let's get it done. Sal with the Colorado Rockies. All right, nice case. I will say pretty solid. Nice mix of teams there. There's a sell sheet hit. Wander Franco rookie, very solid. So let's switch on over now. Go to the next case. So again, we ain't done yet guys. There's one more case. Josh came in here right at the end, almost the end of the randomizer. We're about to close the trade window. And look at that on the board with the Brewers, man. That is a Kristen Yellich 2018 five star out of 15 silver signatures rated a nine, five, 10. How about that? And it's a gem plus two. All nine fives plus a 10 edges. And we have his doppelganger next door. We got a spring fever, Manny Machado for the Orioles. Orioles is south. That's a nice one there. That's back in 2013 at a 72. Noice. Baseball tops finest. Look at how old that one's poor right there. It's like old school tops finest too. That's from 2002. Don Madeline Ford, the Yankees. Yankees going to Aaron Billingsley. That is from Topps Gold Label. That's a rookie autograph for the Houston Astros. Astros Carlos. Now there is a Gold Label sell sheet hit, but that's actually a Cunha. So that one I don't think was a sell sheet hit. There's the sell sheet hit. Beau Bichette. Look how beautiful that patch is. Signature prime materials, three out of three. Another one there for the Blue Jays, Nestor. Very solid one right there, buddy. All aboard. Your little train whistle there too, man. The big hit express. Woohoo. Case guys, still have five more hits to go. For the Red Sox from Triple Threats, that's number to 75. Red Sox, went to Jason W. One more to go, guys. And a one of one Marcus Simeon from Big League. It's like an orange. And for the Open A's, Gerald. There you go. And we'll also give you a train whistle, right? That's a one to one. All aboard. Very solid, man. The big hit express. Woohoo. Continue on. And Lars Newtbar from Topps Chrome Black and a 99 rookie autograph for the Cardinals. Cards. Carlos. Ike Stanton. Geon Carlorette, that's 47 out of 59. And that's gonna go to the Marlins. Marlins Edition too. That is Miami, Eric C. There you go. Box Mojo. There we go. Hush Warburg. 2014 Balmain Chrome, draft picks. First PSA-9 for the Chicago Cubs. Going to Edward with the Cubs. Nice. So there you go, folks. That was the break. Again, another two cases I've been posted. We can run it back tonight if you guys like. Jasper's case breaks.com, guys. Thank you.