PrivateTim

No spoilers on the "George" stories, because once I got onto CAP I put George on hold.

Popped collars were gone from CA by 2000. Long gone I would think. That seems more like a late 80's, early 90's thing in CA.

Cool chapter. I still think your average teen boy would be more discrete than Andy is when it comes his longing looks at Joey that instantly tell anyone paying attention that he is a love struck puppy. I am kind of curious what happened to Timmy. His character floats into the story and floats right back out again before getting too relevant or advancing the story.

So I haven't read the next chapter yet, I'll do that next. I do get the need to create drama, but hello..... right after the talk about "hey watch your backs" they say "hey let's go in the woods faraway from help where our cellphones probably won't work". Hmmm. And a minor point, again, I get poetic license and the need to create drama, but if JT was suspended from school, he wouldn't be allowed on campus and certainly not to a school activity like a football game. I am sure the judge gets threats all the time and I am sure that is part of what is going on behind the scenes, maybe even bad blood going back generations as can happen in small towns.

I agree partly, I would modify "only parent he really knows or cares about him is out of the picture" to "the parent we have seen interact with him the most". Just because Mark hasn't had the inclination to write more about JJ due to limitations of time, space and not wanting to have too many storylines going, we don't know what JJ's day to day inteactions with Brad and Robbie are. We've seen a lot of conversations between Will and Brad, a couple where Robbie was involved. We haven't seen such conversations with JJ and I am sure they have existed, maybe different , but I am sure they are still there. Brad and Robbie are simply not the type of men who would completely ignore one of their children. I get that Brad or Robbie wouldn't go to his ice skating practices, but I find it highly unlikely, based on the character of Brad and Robbie that Mark has painted that they would miss too many of his competitions. I know he said something to the effect that they didn't go to JJ's competitions, or maybe it was implied, but that would at odds with the characters he has created. Certainly more than just Jeannie would have gone to St Gervais, that is how the entire Schluter-Crampton clans are. Certainly Stef would never pass a chance to go to France. As to Will's reaction and actions. That is more of what I am talking about as to how this family really is a tight family and why it would be inconsistent for Brad and Robbie to be too competely detatched as some people would paint.

I disagree completely. Just because you are not as close to one child or show special attention, or even pay attention to them, doesn't mean when push comes to shove that paternal instincts kick in. Look at how Will's fraternal instincts kicked in. Ryan is behaving the way I would expect a Harvard-Westlake kid to behave. Not every kid at H-W is a saint, but they don't stay at the school long if they don't behave properly. 99% of the kids I've known from there were very high quality individuals. Granted I knew mostly athletes and those involved in drama, music, dance, etc., but even so I knew a lot of their friends who were not involved in those things and they too were pretty solid kids.

Hot.

I meant "good look", not "luck". Been around a while.

Hun, it is 2001, not 1950..... you could never keep a skater's parentage/family story that tightly under wraps not matter how much USFSA would like to think/pretend they can. People in the local skating community would know who JJ was and who is family is and the fake stories would be a bigger scandal/story than the partial truth that his parents are Brad and Robbie.

I would say "good luck" has been a staple in Hollywood sitcoms for a decade or more now.

Disney has been giving "partner" benefits forever. And USA Figure Skating could hardly get away with such an outlandish story with his well known grandfather (Stef) and father (Robbie, not Brad). A lot of the story (CAP) has focused on Brad and his success, but Robbie would be the more well known of the two to the general public. Brad might make the WSJ, but Robbie would be in People.

"bro" has been around for ever in beach culture, it was a variant on the Hawaiian "bra" so it would be completely normal for So Cal beach kids.

This is too contemporary, but too funny and too true. So spot on it is scary.

Here are some H-W ones I love.

With how many kids in Malibu & H-W are tied into "the industry" through family...... duh.

Actually, the AMT should only apply to private activity bonds issued by states or municipalities. You can avoid the AMT altogether if you invest properly, otherwise no one would ever go for the lower yield on munis.

I think it was over the top of Wade to force Carl out of Stanford and will probably come back to bite him. Getting him off the team would have been enough. I think it is cool Matt wants to be a buffer for Riley. Matt and Wade remind me of the parents of Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. One father is the sweet, supportive one, the other is the A type perssonality always pushing. While Wade may not be a strictly A type, the nattiness and anal retentive aspects are a part of it. I think men "come into their own" usually well after college and for gay men, sometimes never. What changes and matures your average straight man seems to be marriage and fatherhood. When you get married, you don't hang with your single friends as much, you tend to gravitate to your friends in the same stage as life. It will be interesting to see where Wade puts his money. Hopefully he throws $50m, a relatively small percent of his money, into a double tax free portfolio. That would bring over $2m a year, $166,000 a month, with no taxes.

Interesting chapter, lots of sub plots. It actually makes sense that the trust has land in Blaine County as the Danfield's or whatever his mother's family name is, would have been friends with the Harrimans. I do think it is a little dicky to force Carl, shit he may be, out of the school. Off the team is fine, but out of a school like Stanford seems exceedingly unfair. I would like to see Frank and Isidore a bit in the story, catch up with their lives. I can imagine she'd be all all giddy with a baby in the house, women seem to love babies.

Ah this brings back sweet memories..... of puking out a window of the SAE house at USC when I was a sophomore in high school. I spent a football weekend at USC visiting my sister, but since I couldn't stay in the Pi Phi house with her, I stayed at SAE with some friends or hers (and mine) from high school. I think the guys in the house had a blast getting me hammered since I wasn't really a drinking kid in high school. Good advancement of the story of Will & Ryan. I am dying to find more about what the deal with his father is. Can't wait for the CO river trip.

First one was funny and pretty spot on, the second one was lame. In 'n Out is good as fast food goes and costs about half of what Five Guys does, but Umami is new In 'n Out. I can see Will being more Nocturnal Wonderland than Coachella.

Very cool Mark, although it almost feels like the end of a story. I know this isn't going to be a 50 chapter book, but where do we go from here?

But even if the bank loses the investment services side of Wade's business, they would likely retain the trust side of the business as they have done a somewhat good job given the size of the trust.

So for a minute I thought I was nuts because JP didn't meet any criteria for sociopahy as I remembered it from college. But then I saw this: Profile of a Sociopath The only one you could say might be promiscuous, but even that, not really. Not compared to everyone else in this story.

My first intro to the world of Arbour was "On The Mark" and still my favorite story.

I love the changing, politically correct thing to call people. My great grand parents called African Americans "coloreds" which is interesting because we are almost back there with the "people of color" label. My grandparents, ever so PC called them Negroes, as in the United Negro College Fund, then my poor parents have had to go through the very brief Afro-American, on to "black" and now to African-American which seems to offend those from the Caribbean and South America.