PrivateTim

Gee maybe it was standing on a chair and screaming at the top of your lungs until your face turned red and the muscles in your neck bulged: Or maybe this: You act as if the "thirst for knowledge" can only be exhibited and accomplished in a formal university setting or that the thirst for knowledge has to be pursued in that setting. Then there was this. Okay now granted I don't know what that word esoteric means, I think it is one of those fancy foreign words, but I was always told to use context to decipher meaning so I am going to guess "esoteric" means "completely useless" because when I substitute "completely useless" for esoteric in the sentence above, it makes a lot of sense. Will is a 14 year old and all I've really seen him pursue is cock, alcohol and drugs. He does his homework and wants to do well on it, but so far we have no idea why. He has never, ever that I remember mentioned any kind of interest in anything career wise. I don't recall him wanting to be a "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, or a cowboy, policeman, jailer, engine driver, or a pirate chief". Maybe he once mused on being a psychologist, but I don't remember. What exact field of study has Will exhibited this "thirst for knowledge" in? And what is an "academic", the noun? Here is what Webster has to say. I think #2 does describe Brad because it is his background and his outlook and I think it effects his methods. One characteristic I see in people who like to be in control is never looking stupid; it might be okay to be ignorant for a while, but not long. So when Brad went from being a mere investor in a defense contractor who looked at financials to actually being responsible for running the company I think based on all we've seen about him he does have a thirst for knowledge, but now it is about manufacturing processes, research & development and other aspects now related to his job. When Brad was strictly an investor he still had to have the thirst for knowledge exhibited by his pouring over company research and financials from Hoover, Russell, Mercer, etc in addition to his in-house research staff. He wasn't going to read the esoteric (remember the definition) Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis on how Russell, Mercer, et al get to their numbers, but he does need the information to form judgements. CEO's don't read esoteric journals to get knowledge, but they have to acquire knowledge in a great many areas to be successful.

Are you a student still? Maybe you just don't get it? Do you think the only place you grow as an "academic" is in school? That in a college is the only place that knowledge expands? Most people who work hard in high school and then college are doing so so they can get a great job and make something of themselves. Do you have any idea how much reading a CEO has to do to stay on top of what is going on? How many subjects he needs to an expert on? Any idea how much new knowledge Brad had to acquire to run a large defense contractor? JP knows a shitload about French Imperialism, but do think he knows dank about production lines, supply chains, labor negotiations, resource allocation, right sizing a company, long term strategic planning and all they myriad things a CEO is responsible for? In the safe world of academia you can be a complete f-up and last for ever in your job. In the business world if you are complete f-up you might fool people for a while, but you can't fool them forever. Not even being a huge success in one business doesn't mean you'll be successful in another. Don't forget Apple fired Steve Jobs. It took him a while to figure it out.

Canadian fields have to be larger in case moose wander onto the field during a game.

I don't mind women commenting on sports they played, especially they played at a high level. Cheryl Miller is great at basketball commentary, Brandi Chastain is great on soccer, but women in American football just sound unnatural because they don't have the credibility of a Troy Aikman, Tony Boselli or Phil Simms et al..

Okay serious now. I think sometimes you forget that it is Mr. Arbour who is writing this story and that he chooses to emphasize in his stories what is important to him and moves his story forward. We have been following Brad for 39 years now, but we only see 10 and 15 minute vignettes of him and not always through his POV, but often someone else's POV that Mr. Arbour has created. Mr. Arbour does a marvelous job in telling his story they way he wants to tell it. That Mr. Phillips choose to emphasize different points is his stylistic and artistic choice.

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The best part of the commercial was its lack of punch. The very matter of fact way he dismissed her implication that he was hitting on her was so smooth.

First to the topic, being gay does not being promiscuous, being a male means being promiscuous. The difference between straight men and gay men is that straight men have to work much harder to get laid. I don't know if straight men have apps like Grindr and Jac'd, but I am pretty sure they don't use them the same way gay men do because I spend a lot of time in both communities. At some point most straight men get married and that slows downs their promiscuousness even more. Gay men traditionally have had no such stop point in their lives. I know a lot guys in their 40's & 50's who go out on the prowl every weekend and even if guys are not at a bar or club they are always on the make, whether it is at church or a Gay Pride committee meeting or a volleyball tournament, they are looking for opportunities and I am not talking a few guys, but probably more than 50%. And most of them are normal, well adjusted guys with good jobs. Maybe it is different in Mississippi where you don't have the same culture that you do in LA and San Francisco, but this is my observation in those cities and WDC, ATL and NYC, the other cities I've spent considerable time in. And therein lies the tragedy. I know two guys, 23 and 25, who've become positive in the last 6 months because they felt the same way. Since they didn't (don't) see it, they assume it is gone or no longer an issue. The drugs today are so much better that you can mask the disease easily. Everyone under 30 ought to read the link KC posted. Here it is again HIV Incidence - CDC Here is a sobering quote from that Fact Sheet.

Another good chapter. Will is making friends, building a base and that is nice too, but I think he had good friends at H-W, but maybe he didn't recognize it. There was a point after the raft trip when Will kind of shut himself down and out. I don't know if you changed the direction of the story mid-stream or if you had always planned on Will transferring to Menlo, but after the raft trip, even with getting busted Ryan and Will were kind of the King Shits of their class. It was Will that caused the separation not his friends. We also never saw any of Will's Malibu friends. He had to have them, he is an affable kid and even if it were only the neighborhood kids or the surf crew, these would have been guys and girls he'd known his whole life.

This review covers the last three or so chapters. The story is interesting and taken a turn. I can't quite say I get the introduction of the Cody character or how he'll tie into the rest of the story. As to Det. Fleming and pushing a Commonwealth Attorney to do anything.... ain't gonna happen, Commonwealth Attorneys don't listen to detectives on how to present cases or what charges to bring given how far the grade of a detective is below that of a Commonwealth Attorney. Commonwealth Attorneys look at the evidence and don't file anything until they are sure they have a solid case, otherwise they have very short careers in the state as they hold elective office and bad publicity never helps. Given that a lot of other detectives were at the crime scene and Fleming wouldn't have the opportunity to alter it, even if he wanted to, the physical evidence would pretty quickly eliminate JT as a suspect. Even if someone had attempted to clean up the scene, it would be obvious that such a clean up had been attempted. As to an article of clothing being found at a crime scene, that would be a laugher to crime scene investigator in the absence of any other evidence (fingerprints, fluids, hair, etc). All that aside, the story is still fresh and interesting and I appreciate the effort, writing is never easy.

So I am way behind here because when the story took a break for a couple of months it lost my attention, I am used to the fast pace posting of Mr. Arbour and I am easily distracted. So I haven't read the following on chapters yet, but continue to think letting the boys go on a camping trip when they still have enemies isn't necessarily the greatest idea..... but I guess I'll find out shortly. As to the adoption of Joey, before that can be contemplated a judge would need to revoke Joey's parent's parental rights, not just custodial rights. I gather you weren't too happy with auswombats review, but the comments were meant to be helpful. It is hard to grow and learn as an artist if you only have people blowing smoke in your keester. I appreciate the effort and look forward to the next chapters so I can catch up.

I'm a little bummed that Noah isn't gay, but I like the idea of Will having a straight friend and the idea of kids being friends with lots of people and not hanging in cliques, the gays in one group, the band kids in another, the jocks, the soc's (as in 'socials') and so on. I do hope there is a little drama left

Fatherhood and parenting are interesting things. When you are a kid your parents are your whole world, they are this omniscient presence and you assume they are these special people who know everything and how to do everything and how to handle every situation. When you grow up and get kids of your own you come to realize that your parents are just people, they might be special to you still, but it in the big global scheme, they are just ordinary people with fears and insecurities and hopes and dreams who muddled through raising you as best they could. They didn't always do things right, but they did what they thought was right at the time given the circumstances and based on their beliefs and experience. When you get kids of your own and you need to do some parenting you look for a book on your bookshelf and there isn't one, you go to Wikipedia and it doesn't have any answers, you might talk to other parents who are peers or ask your parents, but that is when you have time. When you are there in the situation and you need to make a decision right now and there are no resources to help you, no one to ask, you just have to do what you think the right thing is and hope it is the right thing. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. The hard part of being the kid on the other end is, if you think your parents don't understand you, you really don't understand them. They've been in your shoes before, they get a little bit of where you are coming from, but you don't have any empathy for them because you have no idea what it is like to be a parent, to love your kid so much, but be so frustrated with them. As the kid at some point you shift from 'your parents know everything' to 'your parents don't know anything'. It is hard being the parent when that transformation happens. You just hope that at some point they come back around and figure out you are just a person like them. I think that is what Paternity has been about.

Fornicate Joe Flacco and all the pampered pro athletes in the NFL, NBA & MLB. Bunch of freakin' prima donnas.

A ri-tawr-i-kuhl ˈkwes-chən is a figure of speech in the form of a question that is asked in order to make a point and without the expectation of a reply.[1] The question is used as a rhetorical device, posed for the sake of encouraging its listener to consider a message or viewpoint. The point was the video......

I am sticking with Steve Garvey or Cardinal Mahony........

Who? I might buy one for my mother. <media>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS3t9reE364</media>

No way man, I still want my scene with Alistair plowing Will for his first time at the "Big A"! Mark has dropped hints that Jeff could be a Hayes, he's dropped hints he could be Ryan's half brother..... given current events in LA (that were ongoing 12 years ago that could have happened in 1981) I'm gonna guess the father is Cardinal Mahony or Steve Garvey.

I too wondered the same thing about Ryan's father when Will was drawing the parallels between Ryan & Jeff, but that would just be a literary device because I think body odor has more to do with diet than genetics. JP's reaction is all Arbour's fault because he needed a way to bridge to the next step with Jeff so we'll blame him

Where do you hear the rumors? There are so many sites now where he could host this it isn't even funny. Times have changed since he first started posting. I don't think he'd have the same issues today. We all think we want to know what happens, I am not sure I do. In real life so few of these stories from the streets of Hollywood have great endings.

How does a straight guy even know something has been posted about him on Craig's List M4M Missed Connections? How many people actually read or even know about Craig's List M4M Missed Connections?

Happy birthday B1ue, just wait until older sister start introducing you as their "older brother"

I am hoping Will is not done with Ryan or Alistair yet as friends. A lot of the "fire road" friends might have been shallow, but I don't think those two are, even if Ryan is current in "little head" mode. As to could Will or Darius have been "taken advantage" of by someone, I don't think I (we) know Darius well enough to make the call. While JJ has clearly been molested, there is also an element of agreement on his part. Don't misunderstand, I am not saying he "wanted it" or "deserved it", but an abuser seduces a kid the kid goes along at some point, may even enjoy it and get into it and it takes years to see it was wrong, or the kid is getting perks and goes along. If you ever want to read a classic seduction, read the Jordan Chandler Declaration in the Michael Jackson first molestation case (that never came to trial). Jordan clearly knew what was going on was wrong, but at some level was willing to go along with it for whatever reason. Boys who have sex with older men or women do so because they are like JJ, have a need that needs filling (adult attention and approval) or they are a horny as hell teen (Will). Does anyone doubt that Will's surfing coach could have had sex with him when Will was 13? Or maybe even Lark? Just because Will might be more willing than JJ doesn't make it any less of a molestation in the eyes of the law or society. Whether boys at 13 years old ought to have the right to choose their sexual partners might be an interesting philosophical discussion (and I think we've had it here a few times) but it is pretty settled in society that the answer is no.

I am going to disagree a little because we do have Alistair, but also because JJ is on the Harvard Westlake Lower Campus with 7th & 8th graders. There are a lot of even 9th graders in his same physical state of development. There are the bigger guys like Ryan and Will, but I don't know that we've had detailed physical descriptions of most of the friends other than the rather graphic one of Alistair.

Sandyraz wonders, "if it's possible to not have your nose in the air, even a little bit, when you are wealthy". The answer is, it is almost irrelevant because even if you are the most down to earth billionaire there is, there are plenty of people who will look for any opportunity to dislike you and look at every action you take in that skewed view just like you skew your view when people you like screw up, you look for ways to excuse the behavior. I did like the dose of reality from Jeff though and like rjo's twisted storyline.