PrivateTim

Thanks Mark for the latest chapter. I know it has to be a burden as school cranks back up, so I really appreciate the effort to stay on schedule. So many thoughts..... Are you SURE Will and Travis are two pot smoking, Malibu beach kids? I've never seen two people get fired up so fast on trivial crap or before knowing the circumstances. All the pot smoking, Malibu beach kids I know are so mellow you wonder if they are conscious. Masa. Oh I love Masa. His restaurant on Rodeo Drive was my father's favorite. He probably ate there twice a week, usually with clients so the firm paid the hefty tab. People blink when I walk into Masa and he greets me by name and they wonder, "who the fuck is he". NYC is all about prestige and appearances and people don't like it when someone else appears to have more than they do. 🤣

Poly what?

Dec 7, 1985.

Thanks Mark for the latest chapter. I appreciate the time and effort it takes crank out so consistently. Obviously the whole family is going to be at a surprise party for Jeremy, that is why Jacinta is coming along. I hope Matt & Wade make it. More twists on who is really in charge of the plot against Travis. I hope Fellowes dies a slow, painful death.

Money, money, money Must be funny In the rich man's world Money, money, money Always sunny In the rich man's world Aha All the things I could do If I had a little money It's a rich man's world It's a rich man's world

So Arbour, can I just say what a truly twisted, demented, fucked up mind you have? I guess that is why you write such delicious stories and I love them so much. Truly twisted, demented, fucked up minds think alike, or something like that 🤣 Thank you for this latest chapter that clears up so much, but opens a new tentacles that muddy things up more than ever. If I was Will I'd call a War Council with JP, Stef, Brad, and Jake and figure out how to take care of the law firm Dewey Cheatam and Howe (or what ever the firms name is). There are the legal means (boring) or the extra-legal ones.

Travis' nurse who slept with Ryan, John, Jack and Darius.

Never EVER say "the O.C.". It is just "OC". Manhattan Beach is in LA County, right next to LAX. It is part of the South Bay.

Meh. Sez you! 🤣

Jeremy did spend his younger years at the Malibu beach houses, but he wasn't a beach person. He didn't surf, boogie board, tan, anything. He has moved East and embraced the Hampton attitude. I bet he doesn't wear socks his Bass Weejuns.

I am not sure Jeremy is the right person to decorate a Manhattan Beach beach house. I think he is too East Coast/Hamptons/Martha's Vineyard now.

Oh, PS. I don't believe the Rose Bowl had suites until 2013.

John just needs to grow up. He is just another indulged, entitled kid who has never really had anyone say no to him and he's never had a reason to grow and mature. You never know what drives someone. With Trevor it could be gay relationships he has had. Perfectly legal, but in the world he travels in he would view the release of such information as worse than death. It would, in his mind, crumble his world. So thanks Mark for the latest, and it at least answers the question of who was behind the whole thing, not Alexandra or Elizabeth. As to the law firm, you'd have to look at the terms of the trust and how they disbursed the money, but it sure looks like a disbarment to me and grounds for Travis to sue them into insolvency. Then there is this: “John has refused to have any contact with Jack, and I’m having a hard time blaming him,” I said. Jack was lucky I wasn’t his son. John was willing to just tell him to fuck off, while I’d have been a bit more assertive. I internally giggled at what an understatement that was." Yes Jack is lucky Will isn't his kid, but not for the reason Will thinks. 🤣🤣 For the 3,751st time I will point out the hypocrisy of Will of not wanting anyone to tell him how to run his life, while he gets to tell everyone else how to live their lives. John has no right to tell his father how to live or who to screw. John doesn't let Jack tell him crap about his life. As far as I remember John is still 17 so he does need to pay attention to his father.

6 + 8 = 14 14 ÷ 2 = 7 No?

Tomato Martini perhaps? All the rage in So Cal now and on Social Media.

Yeah, no one at Harvard smokes pot.....

One demerit for being late! Naw, thanks for even writing and publishing to amuse us. I truly do appreciate the effort it has taken to produce this body of work. I still don't like Finn. What? Boys at Andover had sex? I am shocked, shocked I tell you! Next you will tell me that Phillips Exeter boys, Deerfield boys, Choate boys, Groton boys and Hotchkis boys do too!

The case is pretty well known here obviously. It is funny that the right to a speedy trial that was so important 200 years ago, is now not so important. As long as a defendant is out on bail, the longer the time until it comes to trial, the better for them as passions and notoriety fade. Obviously I am not privy to what the prosecution has, but if they don't have more than the BMWs black box to prove the speed, Alan Jackson will rip the black box to shreds. I doubt he will skate, but neither do I think he will walk. Much of what has been in the foreign or national press on the case is wrong. His parents are painted as "wealthy", which they are not, they are "well off". One foreign newspaper made a big deal of his home, calling is a "lavish mansion" and "sprawling". Here is the lavish, sprawling mansion. His parents bought their first Malibu home, close to this one, in about 2003, so they probably paid a few hundred thousand for a house now worth several million. Owning a home worth millions doesn't make you rich until you sell it. That is one reason passed Prop 13. School teachers bought a house for $45,000 and 20 years later the state said it was worth $2,000,000 and demanding outrageous property taxes from people who made $40k a year. But I digress. Jackson may manage a plea deal. A trial, even when you are brilliant, is risky. 4 years in state, and you'd probably be released in 2, vs a potential of four 20 to life sentences, if convicted on the murder charges. I am glad it isn't my case.

Must be watching the LLWS Regionals.......

I feel like we are talking about different things. You keep referring to the skills and game actions. I am talking about the intangibles of heart and desire. Baseball players don't sit in the dugout during games and pour out their hearts to each other. It is off the field where bonding occurs. It is over the pizza at Bob's Pizza Shack after the game where players bond. And on long road trips. It happens over time. A pitcher who was always standoffish and didn't mix with his teammates off the field probably wouldn't get the 110% effort that a pitcher who was popular and well liked would. I will say it again, it is not the mechanics, the athletic ability, the making the right moves on the field that make champions. It is the commitment to each other that builds champions and championships. If you know anyone who has ever played in the Little League World Series and ask them about their memories, 90% of the memories are off the field memories. Yeah, the #1 memory might be the walk off home run that Louis hit to win the series, but the rest of the memories are about what it was like with their teammates on the journey. If you get to Williamsport that means you've lived nearly 24/7 with these guys for close to a month. That creates bonds that live long past the tournament. I've seen this over and over for many years with teams in multiple sports.

Team sports is about far more than fitness and physical ability. The team with the best talent doesn't always win. Since 1990 (expanded format) only 14 of 64 #1 seeds have won the Super Bowl. Team sports are about chemistry, cohesiveness and propinquity. The great teams have players who up their game so as to not let down their teammates, whom they care about. A team with a loner, someone standoffish, isn't likely to ultimately successful. No, it isn't impossible, just unlikely. You don't need to tell teammates your life story, everyone has secrets as Devin observed, but it does require engagement and commitment to each other.

I am not sure what country you are from, but I think it is hard to speak in absolutes. There are generalities, but then with in each generality are carve outs based on some kind of community. In the U.S., or at least in So Cal, and then in the "national" communities I am involved with, here are the generalities. Boys in Middle School display much more affection for each other than they will by their Senior year in High School. The exceptions are the carve out communities. like the boys/young men in my church, the wrestling community, water polo community (maybe swimming too, but less than in water polo), and some other, select groups. It is common for hugs and physical signs of affection with no stigma attached. I see such comradery in other sports as well, but not to the extent I do in the ones I've mentioned. Maybe it is because I am around those communities more. As to Joel. It is not impossible that at age 10 he would self identify as gay, anecdotally there are lots of examples of such things, but research still suggests that people don't fully form their sexual identity until late puberty. A lot of experimentation and exploration occurs before boys graduate high school, yet very few of the intrepid explorers actually will later self identify as gay or bi. If Joel was as standoffish with classmates and teammates as he has been presented I find it hard to believe he would as successful as he has been in baseball.

Thanks Mark for sticking to the weekly schedule. I know it isn't easy writing to a deadline, even a self imposed one. So Brad... Brad is not stupid. I think Brad would have figured out by now how to deal with (handle) Will to get the results he wants out of Will. I don't think he'd still be the same Charging Bull, making the same blunders. And then Jeremy.... Jeremy just needs to grow up and have adult conversations with other adults. His growth has been retarded by having nothing to do or focus on. His fooling around with fashion things isn't a focus. He needs adult responsibilities, deadlines, even a little pressure maybe to start to mature. Will is still a dick, he is still trying to run other people's and be the King. I don't like Finn.

You're the top! You're the Coliseum You're the top! You're the Louver Museum You're a melody from a symphony by Strauss You're a Bendel bonnet A Shakespeare's sonnet You're Mickey Mouse You're the Nile You're the Tower of Pisa You're the smile on the Mona Lisa

Thanks for the newest sailor boy chapter! Is Granger's new house based on a real Nash work? Did Nash design homes with showers and water closets, or was that poetic license? In any case, it sounds as if Brentwood's new home will be spectacular. The politics are intriguing, but I like it better when people are shooting at each other with 32-pounder guns. Will Granger ever cruise the Caribbean or South Pacific when he is done with Boney?