PrivateTim

I am very confused by this. Black and White laws work very well, that is why we have them. No means no when ever it is said, at any point it is said in an encounter. Age of consent laws are there to protect minors. Sexual harassment laws are there to protect employees, or anyone in an unequal relationship. They by nature have to be black and white, without gray areas. I am also a little surprised that Will was hitting on and flirting with Falco, especially since he knew about the deal with Patrick AND with Falco's strong push back in the last chapter. He was obviously annoyed at people treating him like an object.

“The other thing is that I have noticed that when you encounter a dilemma, you instinctively want to solve the problem, or right a wrong,” he said. I thought about that. The "problem solver" is a subset of the "control freak". He butts into other people's business when no one has asked him to. The Will apple didn't fall far from the Brad tree.

I will reiterate it is Will who should have apologized to Travis for Will's reaction/behavior. Travis' reaction was understandable. Will, instead of playing games, should have sat down with Travis the minute they were reunited and explained what was going on and why. Will's burning rage is another hint that he is not as grown up as he'd like to pretend and as some here would elevate him to. I will also reiterate I think it is a VERY BAD IDEA to be going out clubbing in a foreign country before Travis turns 18. I'd get off the MY Tonto, as it is easily tracked using the AIS tracking technology. I'd get a villa in Switzerland in Locarno or Geneva and hide out until 4-20, when I'd return to the U.S. Surely Travis knows where he is going to college in the Fall. Lastly, I will reiterate my belief in monogamy. I think the Wade - Matt relationship was a beautifully crafted bit of literature showing the pitfalls when one partner wants monogamy and the other wants an "open" relationship. If a person is unable to curb base, carnal urges then I think they are in need of help.

If you are looking for a nice word to describe a prostitute, maybe use 'politician'.

If Will were a more realistic character, the drugs would begin to wear down his body and I fear he'd develop a habit. Cocaine is very psychologically addicting; that is why so many "smart" people got addicted. The high comes fast, but goes away fast too, which is why people do more and more of it to try and make the euphoria last. Will's handing of Tara was cute, so was the interaction at the KL. Looking forward to the party at the Buck Mansion.

It is a moral judgment and intended to be so. I don't believe in moral relativism or "do your own thing", as it were. I think hooking up with a random guy you've known for 30 seconds and doing it in a shop dressing room is sleazy.

Interesting comments on the taste of beef in different parts of the world. The most different tasting beef I've ever had was in Argentina. My favorite beef is in Japan. Oddly enough, the single best steak I've ever had was at Del Frisco's in Las Vegas, at least it was the most memorable. Nice to see JP & Stef appear. I hope they can work things out with Tom.

I should live so long......

Depending on the sport, I think there are different reasons, because each sport has its own ethos and zeitgeist. I didn't come out in college for some of the reasons Canuk lists below. My teammates would have been fine I think, but it would have changed the dynamics of our relationship and would have changed the climate in the locker room. I felt that if I let them know I liked guys that when they looked at me, saw me, the first thing that would go through there head was, "he's gay" (without noting the difference between gay and bi) not, "oh, there is Tim". In the wrestling world, it is such a close, personal contact sport where two guys are constantly in contact with each others junk, I think it would be nigh on impossible to be out. I've known two, world class wrestlers who cracked under the pressure of being gay and in wrestling, and committed suicide. I think your insights are correct and as I said, maybe sport specific. It is easier to come out as gay in tennis, track, golf, figure skating, etc because of the nature of the sport. I think it would be much harder in football, rugby, soccer and water polo. Yes, but I like hyperbole as a literary device.

I probably would never understand why he couldn’t get to that final point in the first place without taking me on some wild emotional journey first, but I decided that was just how he was, and I’d have to deal with it. And I'd say, why can't you understand he is going to get to that final point from the first place and not let yourself get on some wild emotional journey first? But also elitist. Most people won't have had the advantages or upbringing Will has. Will is smart, but he's also been raised in an environment where education is revered. Hawaii has a notoriously bad public education system. It is very common for students on neighbor islands, students from privileged backgrounds, to go to Oahu to attend Punahou or Iolani. Promising students of Hawaiian ancestry attend the Kamehameha School. Just being privileged doesn't get you into Harvard, but being privileged and smart does. Harvard rejects 40,000 very, very smart people every year. Me either. It is amazing his face has only needed to be fixed twice.

Kahului and Wailuku are relatively small areas, people talk story. When one of the wealthiest families in the world builds a house, let alone a compound, tongues wag. It would also make the local papers. Yes. Putting my fist through a window when I was 10, in a fit of pique it was enough to convince my parents I needed help in dealing with anger issues. I didn't destroy over $1,000,000,000 in property and valuables, steal $50,000, drug either of my parents and runaway 3,000 miles away..... oh and then have them decide the obvious solution to my rage issues was to grant me independence from them. I gained independence through displays of maturity, respect and achievement. Yes, I mean it really isn't harder to do better than Will has. I never forget that Will is a fictional character, written by Mr. Arbour to elicit strong emotions. My joy and delight is calling out characters for their hypocrisy. I don't doubt for one minute that The Creator is not well aware of the hypocritical situations. I think he throws his head back and goes, "mwahahaha, muwhahaha, mwahahaha, muwhahaha" until his sides hurt. What makes my head explode is the Will-ophiles who excuse or explain away the hypocrisy instead of just acknowledging it. It is okay to shrug and say, "so what, he is a hypocrite", but there are some who won't see it, so deep is the love for The Chosen One. I hope it isn't, and I don't think it is. I live in a world that is by nature adversarial. It can start out friendly, even stay friendly, if parties are amenable. But in a world with Curtis Buck and the like, you'd better hire a vicious killing machine as your advocate, not Snowball The Wonder Kitten.

Ahhh, me too. But I've been to the shooting range every day this week. I won't miss again 😁

It was once a FINA rule that swimmers could not have visible tattoos, but that rule went away. My old college teammate had a ton of them.

Is this the last chapter? I've loved the story even if Jackson was more than a little irritating at times. I wonder how important swimming will be to him once he is away at college. Swimming was always important to me, and still is, but swimming is different from competitive swimming. Once I was at Berkeley it was somehow less important than it had been in age group and high school. It didn't happen right away, but by the end of my sophomore year, my passion for the competitive world waned, at least as a competitor. So will Jackson get to UGA and everything seem different and less important? Will other priorities come to the forefront? I hear competing philosophers in my head, Wolfe and Mitchell. One said, "You can't go home again" and the other, "Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone".

Yeah! Well said! Don't we remember when Will was outraged and inappropriately dressed down JP and the other adults for making Austin feel uncomfortable at dinner, even though the tension Austin felt, was not attributable to him.

But... but.... but.... wait! Who was the Black Widow? What happened with Maria? Alexandra? Elizabeth?

Is no one mad at Will for prying into Brad's business and spoiling the surprise of his plan?

“No, he doesn’t want me to join the navy if I’m gay because... Colin is already in the U.S. Navy. When you are a midshipman you are considered an O-1.

The Schluter-Cramptons are in the top 0.01%. Being in top 10% isn't "wealthy", it is maybe "comfortable". In the U.S., in the last year of available tax data, to be in the top 10% of income earners you only had to make $152k, which is barely livable in NYC and SF. The top 1% is only $548k a year. Conservatively, Stef is earning about $30 million a month, Brad about $4 million a month. THAT is wealth.

Will didn't go through shit with Jeanine. He virtually ignored her. He'd go to Brad to get him to say yes after Jeanine said no. Brad treated her like a milch cow and Will absorbed that attitude towards her. You want to see kids with bad mothers? I'll show you ones with cigarette burns, toddlers with spiral fractures of the tibia, starving, neglected, virtually abandoned. Will towered over Jeanine when she "hurt" him in Norway; she was imcapable of doing serious harm to him. Somehow cushioned? It has cushioned beyond belief every problem they've had. Losing Robbie was hard, but every one who lost someone on 9-11 had it rough, but didn't have teams of lawyers, accountants and handlers to take care of the messy issues that happen when someone dies and didn't have to worry about the loss of income when the primary bread winner died. They didn't have mansions to go back to, limos to take them there, staff to pamper them and handle their every need. 9-11 turned the lives of thousands of people upside down forever. It wasn't a speedbump to the Schluter-Crampton clan. It was tragic, but it did not adversely effect their lifestyle a whit. Stef actually got even wealthier by shrewd investing and Triton's thrust into war production. Wealth does not insulate you from emotional pain, but it insulates you from the ongoing complications of tragedy. You have people to tidy the nasty details while you smoke pot on the back porch.

I'd rather shop Savile Row, Jermyn Street, Sloane Street and New Bond Street.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Will has had an INCREDIBLY easy life. Other than the day in Paris when he was kidnapped and having to flee the WTC, he has lived the cushiest life imaginable. Lots of people lost loved ones on 9-11 without billions of dollars to help them cope.

“I am,” I said. “I postponed clubbing until tomorrow.” The grateful look I got from Travis was worth all the money we’d spent on shopping today. I am glad they postponed. I keep waiting for a Curtis Buck revenge shoe to drop. I am also anxious to see Will in college. I loved my freshman year of college, the freedom from my family, dorm life, dining hall adventures, football weekends, etc. Is Will going to allow himself to enjoy ordinary student life as Wade did, or is he going to separate himself because he thinks these people are below him?

Interesting literary tool, putting characters in privacy pods (cars). A car, especially a small car, can create a conducive environment for conversation, as we saw. Being gay in the Navy wasn't that hard, according to my family members who served. You just had to be discrete and careful, which means no gay in the Schluter-Crampton clan could ever serve.

“Right,” he said skeptically. I was starting to piece together the puzzle that was this guy. He seemed honest and honorable, the kind of guy who wouldn’t break the rules, but he was also shy and a little insecure, and completely clueless about how gorgeous he was. And Will is going to do everything in his power to entice Colin to betray his honor... Colin fits the bill? A midshipman at Annapolis, who is forbidden gay sex? Plebes also have very little liberty. Colin's lifestyle would be ten times worse than Zach's.