PrivateTim

Great chapter, setting up lots of drama downstream (so to speak). I think a lot of people have nailed the basics. Not a secret I am not Tony's biggest fan, but in seriousness I am willing to allow that he is a work in progress. Dana will try to cause problems, but Tony's family knows he is gay or knows he has the tendency and probaly know about his hook ups, guys are never as discrete as they think they are. I don't think Tony's friends know other than Mason and Mason being smaller and quieter is one of the guys who takes in everything and see things others don't. I don't think his friends will care much once they do find out. A lot of people who think they don't like fags find out that they do afterall when someone they know and like be one. There might be an adjustment time and process, but they usually come around. If I was Will I'd get Tony out of MO and off to Hawaii for a week or two, but then we couldn't see what drama Dana is cooking up, could we

Be still my heart, I can see the blaring headlines now, "Tragic double drowning mars friends float trip!". Dana and Tony headed to watery graves in the mighty Mo! Really a fun chapter... apparently Dana doesn't have a lot of fans anyplace. I'd like to say I found Tony's actions disappointing, but no they are exactly what I would expect from him and why he is poison for Will. Will has handled it well so far, but how long until the 14 year old side reappears? Then is when the fun really starts.

Well that was an innocuous little chapter.... not a lot of drama, one potential future character (Jake) and only one sentence that promises future drama. Will saying of Tony & Dana, “I don’t know. I almost think that unless something happens to force him to do it, he won’t. He’ll avoid it. He’s like that, where he’ll dodge an unpleasant conversation.” So what is going to force it? Will arranging to have Dana catch them in flagrant delicato? That could lead to more drama of Dana trying to mess with them, but that would be a side show at best. Anyway, fun read, always nice to meet straight boys who are into showers with 'mo's and don't take offense at a friendly hummer

Neither Stef nor Warren Buffet are investment geniuses, what they are is disciplined investors who follow their models, not "gut feeling" or instincts. The warning signs were all over the place for the tech bubble (2000). You didn't need to a genius to know that a company trading at 100x its PE ratio was overpriced and risky nor to know that there was a massive housing bubble (2007) since people had been talking about the coming collapse for years (and are again since no one apparently learned any lessons the last time around). People who got hurt in the tech and housing bubbles were people who WERE following gut feeling or instincts, not what the numbers actually said. Hope spings eternal when times are good that they will never end, even thoughthey always do. Laissez les bons temps rouler.

No fancy fonts or special inserts, just a very sincere Happy Birthday and a huge thank you for your amazing contribution to the advancement of the gay/bi community through this site.

I got teary eyed when JP mentioned his mother and aunt. In a testament to your skills as an author Mark, these people are very real to me. I feel like I am 60 something and have made this journey with JP and how he feels the old ties of family and heritage. It must be truly heavy on his heart that Claire doesn't feel those ties and as a result Marie feels them even less. One phrase that leaped out at me, apropos to nothing other than the contrast between generations. JP said to Will “As you mature, controlling your emotions will become easier, but you do not have the luxury to lose it like you did." For JP and Stef and gays of their generation you had to learn early on to control your emotions, control your reactions and not let your expressions give away what lurked inside your head. They had to learn not to check guys out too obviously, TO check out girls and how to maintain that veneer or face possibly dire consequences. Will has no such pressures to deal with. While certainly there are large swatches of the country where in 2001 and even 2013 guys have to maintain the low key approach, that isn't the case in much of California, certainly not in the areas Will has lived. I don't remember when "bi cool" and "gay hip" became things, but I do remember a time when it seemed like every guy I met was at least "bi something". Quite a contrast to the 1960's world JP and Stef grew up in.

Feeling insecure? The comment was to clarify for discussion reasons. Did you mean pretend or portend? It matters since they mean different things. If you think it was mean, sorry, but it just wasn't. If you feel picked upon, I apologize. And I did address your points, with textual references as to why I felt the way I did. If you think Claire and Isidore are pretending to be nice, so be it, but you say you've read this series in the last month; can you show me where in 3,040,021 words of CAP that Claire & Isidore said or did things pretending to be nice that latter proved to not be nice? Sorry.... one "r" in future bouquets and brickbats As to who will be the heir to JP, Jeremy is probably right, no one. As generations move away from that zenith of a figure like JP there are more people, more diversity, etc. Who is the titular head of the Kennedy clan now? I think pretty clearly Teddy was until his passing, but now? Ditto for families like the DuPonts, Pritzkers, Fords and others. The further you get from the bigger than life figures, the more the centrality disolves.

I think you mean "pretend" not "portend". To portend is to be a signal or warning.. I gather you have never been a sports official? Never had to make a call as best you can knowing half the people are going to think it is the wrong call? Whether or not in your scenario the call is correct or incorrect is immaterial, the behavior of the coach gets hims tossed from the game and more to the point, he knows his behavior is incorrect. More times than not replays show umps, referees, officials, etc to be correct. Yes everyone can point to the well known mistakes, while overlooking the thousands of correct calls and how many times the non-neutral person was incorrect. But that is off topic of the point. Had Will chosen a different tack he could have easliy carried the day. I believe JP said so. While he pushed back at Isidore and Claire when they attacked Will's method, but ignored the message, later in his private conversation with Brad JP said, “Will made some very good points, and had very legitimate grievances. He has not yet learned that if he would have dealt with them in a more calm and deliberate manner, he would have gotten better results.” And Will did not just offend the sensibilities of Claire and Isidore, he later came to understand that he offend deeply the sensibilities of JP to the point that it was making him physically sick so he had to call JP and apologize in order to find peace in his mind. Like a veteran coach who knows how to work an official, Will needs to mature to the point to figure out How to Win Friends and Influence People.

1. Sharron is awesome, she has done a great job as has your whole team on polishing CAP to make it the jewel it is. 2. The point with Will is that many people have experienced as bad or worse misfortune without the reactions he has. JP points out in his musings over the lastest Will escapade that there were better ways to get his point across without the scorched earth approach. That is one of the issues I have with all those who praise this 14 year old for his great maturity. 3. I think Claire's reaction in the last two chapter's has been more, "the best defense is a great offense". She is covering her embarassment over what look like poorly thought out actions (dropping Noah and inviting Carter & Erik's families, but not excluding Carter & Erik) by staying in the "I didn't do anything wrong mode" and her embarassment over Marie's failings. Yes it is axiomatic that she is going to defend her daughter publically, that is a typical parental reaction, but I'd love to be a fly on the wall when she gets Marie home. When someone breaks the rules like Will breaking the decorum rules for Escorial it gave others the opportunity to address his behavior and not the issues and I am not sure that is wrong. I officiate a couple of sports and at a pretty high level. If a coach breaks decorum on addressing calls made by my partner or I do you think he is going to get the call he wants? No, more likely he is getting a yellow card. If the coach follows the decorum rules, asks his question the proper way and he is right, he is usually going to get the call he wants, but he will never, ever get it asking the wrong way. I think it would be interesting if the drama moved to Claremont; if Claire decided that Marie and John needed some family time in the mid-west to recenter themselves more than they needed more time at the Stanfurd Shopping Center.

That is actually how I envision JJ. Here is Scott Slater, the real one. The visionary who invented a hamburger that is 50% ground beef, 50% ground bacon. Add in a fried egg, anchovies, fried pickles and blue cheese on a pretzel bun and you are talking genius.

it is nice to see JP as the narrator along with Will in this story and maybe there will be others as well, who knows, there are no rules, just the judgment of the creator of the series to do as he sees best to move the story. I can't imagine Jack is in the loop much; most successful doctors I know have terrible home lives because they are gone so much. Not terrible in the sense they don't get along with their families, but terrible in that there is no consistency and little time so they catch up on family time when and where they can grab 10 or 15 minutes. I suspect some of Claire's push back is embarassment. When you are practically perfect and not used to disharmony, the first line of defense is a good offence. If Will could not sleep well I also think that Claire will not sleep well this night as well. Another well done chapter Mark and a great set-up for what is to come. Perhaps Claire will be in Claremont with two kids in tow and some progress will be made?.

I might suggest you have no idea what my life was like at 14 nor the life my son had when he was around 14. I also notice you didn't address a single point I made.

I just have a hard time with "Will, the Unluckiest Boy Ever". The crazy mother, father's who are busy, a brother who ignores him, other brother is snippy. Boo hoo, cry me a frickin' river. I know the boys from Father's Tim shelter. They didn't have fathers who were too busy, in fact they had fathers who carved out special time to beat the fuck out of the little queer and it never even mattered if they were gay or not, not being maculine enough was reason enough. And far from a bro who ignored them, they had a brother who joined in on the beatings. They didn't have snippy sibblings, they had sibblings who outed them at school and stood by while boyfriends took their crack at them. The moms weren't batshit crazy, they were too strung out to do much of anything. And unlike Will, they aren't almost raped once, they've been raped mutliple times on the street and maybe paid for it, maybe not and maybe infected too. They don't get dropped off by their chauffeur/body guard at school, they don't go to school, because it is either a place they've been abused or if they are on the street, there is no adult to get them into school and even if there was a way in, with maybe two sets of clothes they can wash once a week or so they are too ripe during the week. I was hoping exposure to the kids at Father Tim's or Jeff might get through to Will he had a very charmed existence despite his percieved "tough" circumstances. He needs to go out with Father Tim at 1:30AM and watch how he convinces kids who have entirely given up on humanity that there is a reason to care about their own lives and that there are people who care about them. It doesn't happen over night, it takes months of patient work sometimes and have the kids wonder if you are just another perv wanting in thier pants (and they say so). I love the CAP series to death, it entertains me to no end and I appreciate all the work that Mark pours into it, but sometimes I need to read "A Rent Boy Named...." just for some gritty reality.

Bump de bumpy.

1. Hello..... that is any younger brother, your older brother (or sister) never has the time for you that you think you deserve 2. Long before Will's mother's turned batshit crazy he treated her like dirt and Brad undercut her at every turn, maybe the two of them deserve blame for the breakdown 3. Please.... his father's didn't spend any more time in their jobs than any other high level execs and lots of parents who work three jobs and they turn out fine 4. True, which is why he should have been in therapy from the day he got back and wasn't 5. Well he was actually older and again, lots of people have bitchy siblings and all the above too, it isn't unique 6. His perception is his father turned on him, what do you think Robbie's perception was? How much did Brad leave Robbie out of the loop with Will, just like he did to Jeannie 7. He didn't fight like hell, it was actually fast and Jeannie wasn't even around 8. Will jumped into her world with both feet and stirred up trouble, who is at fault here? 9. I didn't hear Isidore or Claire say any such thing or imply it, but Will still thinks the world revolves around him. I have criticism for Claire, but more on that later. I don't think Will handled it the way a mature person would. You don't create drama and ruin dinner for everyone. You go to JP for quiet advice. Not only is it the mature thing, it is quite Machiavellian. I don't think Claire is a bad person or shallow. She hasn't had reasons to doubt her daughter's word in the past but maybe things are changing with Typhoon Will on the scene or maybe Marie has mislead her parents in the past and didn't get busted. The phrase, "creeps me (her) out" was never in play, it was she was "uncomfortable". Without Noah being part of a prominent family in the area, apparently he was more easily expendable than the hoity toity. I DO think that the Claire we have come to know, would have come and talked to Will about it, because that is how Claire seems to me, but Mark has to take poetic license with the characters to move the drama where he wants it to go. The question is, did the guest list have the name of the inviter? How did Marie know Noah was on it? Surely Marie must have known the spit would hit the fan at some point. Will didn't give Claire a chance to say that Noah should be reinstated, he pulled that class warfare BS straight out of his recently expaned heiny, another immature, passive aggressive stance; "because you didn't invite any Native Americans, you hate Native Americans". It is a straw dog argument straight from the manure pile in the stables. If there was a problem with Claire & Jack and their kids not going to Claremont, that is JP's issue to deal with not Will's. Jack and Claire didn't committ to rebuild Claremont, that was the men of the Crampton/Schluter and now Hayes, based in part on Gathan's challenge. As to Isidore, do we know how much time she spends in The City? Surely she would have an apartment there for business and shopping reasons. Frank and she are bit players so we never know what is going on with them (or Ace) so we don't really know what they know and don't. Speaking of bat shit crazy...... We have gone from Noah making Marie "uncomfortable" and asking her out ONCE to "he creeps her out" and "a nice guys who keeps hitting on her". There is nothing textual or even subtextual to support either of the Tyra Banks pop-psychology assertions.

Ya ever been to Malibu & Palo Alto?? Mmmmm, no. Will would need to go a very long ways to be exposed to different stratas of life. East Palo Alto is just the other side of the 101 and John and Marie would be aware of it and probably interact with those kids at the malls, movies, etc more than Will and JJ would. I do agree that JJ was just following Will's lead, either to support him or just because follow is what JJ does.

Right, but Will can't simultaneously be very mature for his age/wise beyond his years and a typical teenager (dramatic and emotional). The cold rationality of someone who raised the spectre of Tonto would have understood the ramifications of dropping the ring on the table.

The is no trump card for Marie with Will and Tony's relationship (nor for Dana). You have to understand the mind of a prosecuting attorney to understand why no charges would ever be filed against Tony. Prosecutions are not about Truth, Justice and the American way, they are about winning and without a victim on the stand a DA would have no way to win this case, not even if Will and Tony doing it onstage were the halftime show of the Super Bowl. DAs hate to lose cases and look stupid and trying to make Will implicate Tony on the stand would make a DA look stupid. Here is my review, which also serves a good jumping off point on how I saw this chapter (with a correction bolded): I thought this was supposed to be an unhappy chapter? I was grinning ear to ear. It was nice to see Sainte Claire getting it wrong for a change. It is amazing how blind parents can be about their own kids sometimes. Apparently Claire is missing a thing or two in how Marie is. The most interesting part of the whole chapter though was Will's observation about the Bastille Day guest list being weighted to the rich and powerful. I am not sure Will would actually be self aware enough to notice it since his 14 years have been in a cocoon of privilege, but he provides a good vehicle for Mark to show the movement of the Crampton & Schluter clans. In smallish town mid-west America there were prominent families, but you regularly interacted across class lines with. The Crampton & Schluter clans went to public schools in Claremont which brought them into contact with people from all walks of life. In CA they live in elite conclaves. When JP moved to Escorial, Palo Alto was just a nice, upper middle class, intellectually elite conclave, but by 2001 you couldn't swing a dead cat over your head without hitting a multi-millionaire and even several billionaires because of the tech boom in Silicon Valley. Ditto for Malibu and especially The Colony. I am not saying the Cramptons & Schluters are wrong for sending their kids to private school, they pretty much have to at this point in CA and at their station. It isn't a snobbery issue, but safety and education quality. Yes you can still get a good education at Gunn or Palo Alto High, but nothing like The Menlo School and there are real dangers for the wealthy and their children. I don't know how in the loop Isidore is with the daily goings on in the house because we see and hear from her so seldom, but Claire should have been acutely aware of all the ramifications of who was invited and who was not. While not exactly a helicopter mom, I can't see her being so detached that these subtleties escaped her. It makes me question all the 'practically perfect' attributes ascribed to her. It was nice that JJ supported Will in removing the ring, but I think that was over the top for both of them. Given Will's actions over the last year and the amount of support he has had from the people in that room, taking the ring off and letting it fall noisily to the table was over the top. A simple, "what does this ring really mean, if you don't support family over outsiders" should have sufficed. It was a nifty keen bit of writing though.

I thought this was supposed to be an unhappy chapter? I was grinning ear to ear. It was nice to see Sainte Claire getting it wrong for a change. It is amazing how blind parents can be about their own kids sometimes. Apparently Claire is missing a thing or two in how Marie is. The most interesting part of the whole chapter though was Will's observation about the Bastille Day guest list being weighted to the rich and powerful. I am not sure Will would actually be self aware enough to notice it since his 14 years have been in a cocoon of privilege, but he provides a good vehicle for Mark to show the movement of the Crampton & Schluter clans. In smallish town mid-west America there were prominent families, but you regularly interacted across class lines with. The Crampton & Schluter clans went to public schools in Claremont which brought them into contact with people from all walks of life. In CA they live in elite conclaves. When JP moved to Escorial, Palo Alto was just a nice, upper middle class, intellectually elite conclave, but by 2001 you couldn't swing a dead cat over your head without hitting a multi-millionaire and even several billionaires because of the tech boom in Silicon Valley. Ditto for Malibu and especially The Colony. I am not saying the Cramptons & Schluters are wrong for sending their kids to private school, they pretty much have to at this point in CA and at their station. It is a snobbery issue, but safety and education quality. Yes you can still get a good education at Gunn or Palo Alto High, but nothing like The Menlo School and there are real dangers for the wealthy and their children. I don't know how in the loop Isidore is with the daily goings on in the house because we see and hear from her so seldom, but Claire should have been acutely aware of all the ramifications of who was invited and who was not. While not exactly a helicopter mom, I can't see her being so detached that these subtleties escaped her. It makes me question all the 'practically perfect' attributes ascribed to her. It was nice that JJ supported Will in removing the ring, but I think that was over the top for both of them. Given Will's actions over the last year and the amount of support he has had from the people in that room, taking the ring off and letting it fall noisily to the table was over the top. A simple, "what does this ring really mean, if you don't support family over outsiders" should have sufficed. It was a nifty keen bit of writing though.

A winery doesn't need to be big to be highly profitable and if you have more demand for your wine than grapes you can produce can provide, you buy grapes from other growers and crush and ferment them onsite at your winery. Even hobbyist vinters don't work their own vines, you hire people for that.

Oh man that's awesome....... Tony dies next chapter in a horrible river accident! We don't even need to wait for 9-11!! Way to go Arbour!

See ya Tony!!

Naw, 'cuz it'll just be that much better when Tony's bites it...... I've known guys who have been 'in 'n out', 'gay not gay' so many times they had to install a revolving door on their closets. We will see what happens when Tony dumps Dana (if he actually does/can) and what happens when they are back in Palo Alto and Tony has to come to terms with being out to friends on campus (roommates, etc who we have not seen yet). If Tony has any ideas about NOT being open on campus, I am sure Dana will take care of that if Tony actually does dump her. I will grant that the character Tony is marvelous vehicle for Mr. Arbour to present drama and POVs through, but I still think he is a worthless c*!t.

Of interest to followers of the CAP series, Jason Collins, who with his twin Jarron, led Harvard-Westlake to two California state basketball chamionships has come out as gay. He went to Stanfurd (also of interest to CAP followers) after H-W and then on to a 12 year carrer in the NBA. Wonder if he spent anytime at Escorial???

I fukkin' hate Tony