PrivateTim

The US is obviously very large, very diverse and very complicated so I'll discuss California only since it is the state I know best. It is easy to find adult and youth leagues in sports like soccer, basketball, softball and volleyball and those tend to be recreational in nature, in other words, not overly competitive. I don't know that the are any adult national championships in basketball that anyone takes seriously because we have the collegiate championship and then the professional championships. Basketball is more commonly played in street 'pick-up' games, anything from 3 on 3 half court to 5 on 5 full court and since the winner stays on, those games can be uber competitive.At the youth level elite players play on club teams that go to highly competitive tournaments throughout the year and these players also play on high school or college teams depending on their ages. Volleyball is highly competitive in California and some think there is even more emphasis on the club level than there is at the high school level. Club starts around 10 and goes all the way through adults and they do have national championships at all levels. Beach volleyball is largely a pick-up sport for two man competitions and there are tournaments all spring and summer and there are different skill levels AA down to B tournaments. There is a large wrestling community also in CA and it competed at on the high school and college level in a style called American folkstyle, but there is also the club level that competes in the Olympic sports of freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. Not all high school wrestlers compete in the Olympic styles, but almost all the Olympic style wrestlers also compete in high school and collegiate wrestling. Water polo is another big sport in CA and like wrestling it has the high school and college level, but no professional leagues like Europe. The club level is also important in water polo and the clubs go from age 10 through adult and even masters, there are national championships for older age groups all the way up to a 60+ national championship. Soccer is hugely popular in CA and at the younger levels is played through club until high and even through high school, some of the elite travel teams can be more important to the players wanting to make US National teams than their high school team. There are adult leagues in soccer too and I think the US powers in soccer are baffled at how the huge popularity at the youth level hasn't translated into more support for professional leagues as the players age. Softball is a very popular sport for adults, there are fast pitch and slow pitch leagues and during the spring and summer there are games going on constantly. There are national championships at both styles. Swimming is another sport with lots of athletes and it is competitively split for adults (USA Masters Swimming) and for everyone else including the national teams. There are swim clubs, but no one needs to belong to a club to compete in meets, they just need to belong to one of the two organizations. I haven't discussed cross country running and track and field (Athletics) or rubgy, lacrosse, crew, tennis, golf, gymnastics, surfing, snow skiing, badminton, field hockey or baseball all of which have organized teams and compete at the high school and or collegiate level in CA. The clubs are also prevalent in these sports although not so much in the individual sports. I would expect in a major CA city you can find these sports being played and clubs or competitions going on. Oh and I competed in water polo, swimming and wrestling in high school, water polo in college and now I compete in open water swimming and some masters water polo. I also surf, snowboard play tennis and golf, beach volleyball and do the occasional 5k weekend run.

Pretty much any Cary Grant or Peter O'Toole movie. Cary Grant could do comedy or serious drama. O'Toole was just brilliant.

If the movie is being delayed it is because they don't want to spend the money to promote it because they aren't sure it can make money for whatever reason. It could be the political climate, Carey's popularity or lack of it, but you can be sure if the studio thought they could turn a profit with it, they'd release it. Lots of movies never get released in the US or anyplace else. Pick a copy of Daily Variety on any Friday and look at the movies "currently in production", you'll never see half of them or more. Leo DiCaprio did a movie called "Don's Plum" with Tobey McGuire that never had a U.S. release.

Okay, sorry, but put me in the camp that believes you are not entitled to any kind of a personal life and thinks even the sleeping and eating can be cut back on so you can finish Perks. Perks reminds me of Sommersturm, like maybe what was happening off camera. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420206/ Skip school today, I mean hell, the college acceptances are in, finish Chapter 12!!!

I get what you are saying Adam, but then again Dallas isn't a small town in TX either. I wonder what it is like for gay kids in Huff Springs, Marfa or Booker. Has enlightenment reached there yet? CA is the same way in many ways, homosexuality is pretty well accepted and entrenched, Virginia Uribe founded Project 10 in 1984 so kids wouldn't have to go through what the young lady in MS did (as a side note Virginia Uribe DID think the prom story was a big deal and she supported her, but then that is what Ms. Uribe has been doing for 54 years, supporting gay youth). But get into the central valley of CA and it is more like Oklahoma than LA or San Francisco. There are state laws trying to protect kids, but state laws can't stop all harassment or shear meanness. I think it is important we fight the small battles to win the big ones especially when it comes to gay youth in the schools feeling supported from the gay community. You make neighborhoods livable by first fixing the broken windows and painting over the graffiti, you tackle the bigger problems after that. It is all about changing people's attitudes and that takes time. I wish I could be as calm and reasonable as Mark

Has anyone ever accused you James of speaking before you think or think of the hurt the words might cause? I know I have been accused of that and not always inaccurately. I am intensely emotional and often fire from the hip before I think. While the prom might seem trivial to you, it might not to the young lady in question, it seems to her a basic right, to take a date of her choice to prom her senior year of high school. I have only read the barest accounts of the story, but I remember correctly, it was in MS and somewhat rural MS. I don't know when Ms. McMillen came out, or if she ever did or if she suffered at her school because she is gay, but I know plenty of gay kids who have been tormented by their classmates, called names, been shoved into lockers, isolated, had their car and or locker defaced maybe even their homes vandalized. Wanting to have one nice memory of high school doesn't seem too much to ask. Gay youth would like to feel the love and support of the gay community since they may not get it anyplace else, not at school or even at home. And then to be told by a gay adult to STFU. I don't think I could take that, that would be the last straw for me. On a personal note, that you don't understand the incredibly high stakes at making public schools safe, supporting and even friendly places for gay youth shocks the conscious. Most gay people will pay for schools they never have children to send to. To think that we can not support one of our own is staggering.

Today is John's birthday, johnwut. John is "Brian" in It Started With Brian. I know he isn't here as often as he used to be, but I wanted to wish him and his son a great day today and thank him once again for allowing Dan to write the story of their lives. The story had a great effect on me and touched me so deeply. It isn't easy to lay your life and emotions out there naked for the world to see, but I hope he knows the great good done by the story. Happy birthday and God bless.

Happy Birthday John, I hope you and your son have a special day.

Love beef liver, coated in in flour, salt and peppered and fried in bacon fat with onions. Chicken liver same way or cooked yakiniku style with gizzards, hearts, and other assorted small meats.

Don't need one, but short and spiky would be cute too.... let's face it, you are very nice looking, there isn't much a different hair style would do to change that.

Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone (November 4, 1916

I guess it depends on what comes to mind when you say incest. I just don't get the parent child thing, I can't imagine how that happens how the normal parent child relationship gets twisted around. Now two brothers experimenting when they are teens or pre-teens, yeah I get how that happens and that doesn't seem odd and might even been more common than not. But at the same time, I don't get or wouldn't get a boy experimenting with his sister, I just didn't grow up that way thinking about my sisters. Flowers in the Attic made me very uncomfortable. Cousins? I guess it depends on how close you both in terms of genetics (first cousin vs third cousin, etc) and how you were raised. I had first cousins I was raised around that were as close as brothers and sisters and I couldn't see them that way because of cultural taboos I suppose, but then there were some of the cousins I never saw except for every 2 - 4 years at family reunions and I didn't feel the same social constraints when it came to attraction (please note attraction, not action). So what am I saying? I would have a hard time reading a story that put a positive light on an incestuous relationship in the parent child situation or opposite sex siblings. I would understand the usage of it as dramatic background to explain how someone developed.

I use Nivea

"churches are masters of indoctrination" Eh not really. Ever been to an Episcopalian service? Nice platitudes.... be nice to everyone, sing Hymn #58, have a nice day..... UCC is pretty similar, be happy, be nice, hug a neighbor.... I wouldn't go to Calvary Chapel or a Foursquare Gospel (did someone put the snakes away?) but a lot of churches barely have any doctrine at all.

It works both ways, a boyfriend can make you a better person or drag you down in the muck. Relationships seldom solve problems, they create new ones and shift focus from the old ones. How you deal with and get through the problems is where growth comes from. And depending on where you are in the relationship (good days, bad days) it has a definite affect on you emotionally and it can have a huge impact on your life as whole.

Ha ha, so sweet, so innocent

Human like creature - Elvis. Animal like creature - Hippogriff.

You are the author hun, make it as big as you want.

Can someone explain TLITE ?

Sam's story I think has made me a better person. I finished ISWB today and spent a good part of the day teary eyed, happy that you and Sam had two years and sorry it wasn't fifteen years like it could have been.

Ha I love words.... by being "disappointed" in their judgment, aren't you saying poor judgment without the poor? People might "choose" to be underweigt, overweight, to cross dress, to act queeny, to butch it up... if you say you are disappointed in the choices, are you not judging? I'm just saying....

I hope I misunderstood Skyline, but then Yang Bang said this: "When a person is strictly under/overweight because of the lifestyle they choose to live, that's "uber" disappointing. Of course, there's a range for what counts as a healthy weight and it varies by individual, but if someone is 20 lbs under/over because they eat poorly and never move, that's grounds for being at the end of critical remarks." If I hadn't seen blatant "size-ism" in the gay community, especially among younger people, I wouldn't give it a second thought, but I've been at tables at the local coffee house, like the Abbey in WeHo before it went crazy bar place, and heard the catty comments from my friends about overweight and underweight guys. It always makes you wonder when you leave the table what comments are made about you. I am okay with the large person having to buy two seats if they won't fit into one without spilling over into the next seat, but not the judgment, especially given that overeating is often a symptom of some deeper hurt, ditto for undereating.

This phrase has been bothering me for days, I keep subbing in words like "gay", "bi" and "cross dresser" , for "large" and "overweight" and the statement, despite your denial, does sound hateful and judgmental. Maybe you don't really mean it that way. It is very easy to be misunderstood on the Internet. I guess if you mean by "you must suffer the consequences of your actions", with things like health problems, I can get that, but not if it means discrimination from people, comments from people, etc. are ok.