PrivateTim

🤣 Which is why I've never understood how they ruled China, India, South Africa, Rhodesia, Ceylon and all the rest. The Walt Disney Company has more submarines than the Royal Navy 🤣

In 2026 dollars, Apple was still a phenomenal buy. Even as late as 2016 you could still buy Apple for around $30 in 2026 dollars. It closed at $250 yesterday. $1,000 invested in Apple in 2005 is worth $130,000 today. That takes into account dividends and splits.

I can see Will pleasing Will, which he does a lot of. Will is a player, there is no way around that. He isn't the worst player I've seen, but he's not the Mother Teresa of players either. I think it is great what they did during Katrina, but if I was going to be critical, it is because the suffering was right in their face on every TV channel 24/7. Yes they responded, but it was one week in between jaunts to Europe, Maui, shuttling between Manhattan Beach and Palo Alto on private jets. Will used to do once a month or so visits to Father Tim's mission in LA, but that was when he lived in LA. What has he been doing lately to use his vast resources to relieve every day suffering? I don't know if Will ever made surfing trips to Baja California, but that was my introduction to the third world. I was 10 probably with my father, grandfather and their surf buddies, heading to K-38 for a week of camping and surfing. As we drove past the cardboard houses of Tijuana, I started crying because I saw kids playing outside these dwellings and I knew it just wasn't right. Nothing my grandfather or father said could console me. No, I didn't devote my life to the poor, yes I did become a money-grubbing lawyer, relieving my well heeled clients of substantial cash, but I did go back to Tijuana at least 10 times over the next ten years on mission trips from my church helping in these neighborhoods to build proper homes, bring food and supplies, and like Travis, play with the kids. I was always amazed at the kids resilience and how joyful they could be in tough circumstances. As I got older, I wasn't able to spend the time I once did, meaning weeks at a time, to help others. Now it has to be weekends and funding surrogates. Here is one of my favorite surrogates. I hope Will finds causes to help relieve suffering long term, not just short term. I am pretty sure he will, more so than his father or Stef, who both have baggage that shaped their drive.

Thanks Mark for your latest chapter of just the right length! I have cast the evil eye on two provocateurs who have dared to question the Master in his own house! They shall be smitten! 🤣 But no, seriously, thanks for this chapter, on schedule and humming along. I think it is a foregone conclusion that Will is going to top Colton at some point. Colton will be on a mission. The question is, will Will and Austin hook up? College boys are not known for their strong resistance to temptation. If I was betting, I'd bet in the affirmative, even if just because it would good drama. Mark has created candy, but just a small sparing bit. There are only 7,000 undergrads at Harvard from all over the country. OCC has 24,000 undergrads, mostly from Orange County and mostly Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach. In other words, roughly 12,000 males like Will and Travis. It's no secret I wanted Will to go to UC San Diego, which doesn't have as many hot guys as San Diego State (35,000 undergrads), but the college kids from all the schools in SD hit the same spots because San Diego really isn't that big. Will could have had a field day in SD or at UC Santa Barbara.

But as we know, he will fail. It will be the 'diplomacy' of Lord Nelson who flips the Spanish.

Well I was in elementary school.... so....

Well yes, but my dealing with French men has not been as fortunate.... they were cun_ _ , but the letters on the end were somewhat different.

Thank you Mark for this surprise dropping of a chapter of PoA. I've wracking my brain as to what holiday March 11 is 🤣 Madrid is a very pleasant 3 hour high speed train ride from Santiago de Compostela, after about an hour conventional train from Ferrol. Amazing that it once took days and before that, it took weeks. So nice to see Cardona again, he is one of my favorite characters. Nice to know that after a period of alliance with France that eventually Spain will join England and Portugal for the Peninsular Campaign. I hope all those characters we love survive to that time. Undoubtedly a few will be lost at Trafalgar, but I hope George is able to save a friend or two. As I've said before, I am a huge fan of Spain, probably caused by a great trip there as a pre-teen, but I love the food, the people, the southern coast and probably because so much of Spain feels like So Cal in climate and topography.

Knock off this peace crap! We want "CLEAR THE DECKS"!

The Hurricane Katrina wasn't the real issue, it was the storm surge that followed. The whole debacle was decades in the making. The Mississippi River used to meander its way down to the Gulf, zigzagging back and through wetlands and marshes. Someone (Politicians? Businessmen?) decided that was a waste and they created the 76-mile-long Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, removing all those natural defenses. When Katrina struck, the surge was such that it came rushing down that artificially created water way. It may have even magnified the effect. Why didn’t that happen in previous storms? No idea, but Katrina was a “perfect storm”. Add to that the notorious corruption of New Orleans and the failure to repair/maintain the levees, and that the Lower Ninth Ward really was “lower” as in below the level of the lake, everything came together to spell disaster. Twenty years later the Lower Ninth Ward is still not close to normal and probably never will be.

Well I've never been to New Orleans, but I did read three John Grisham books..... No, actually I've been there quite a few time. My first time on my own I was a 17 year old heading into my senior year of high school and I was there was four friends and an adult advisor for a leadership conference for high school students. The drinking age was 18, but if you looked older than 15 they seemed to have no problem serving you. I remember feeling naughty the whole time I was there because NO just felt so decadent 24/7. I mean where else could you get pancakes and a Schlitz at 1AM?

I think when you say "state" here you are meaning the federal government or maybe government in general. The way it is supposed to work is local help first, meaning city & county resources, then the state government (in this case Louisiana), then aid from neighbor states in what is called mutual aid agreements. The last line of help comes from the federal government in the form of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The key in their name is Management. They are supposed to do what Will was doing; coordinating other agencies, marshaling resources, reallocating resources and the like. They don't have the manpower to be first responders. That is for people on the scene. "The people" stepping in isn't unusual either. It happens in the form private organizations like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Samaritan's Purse, and foundations like the Schluter Foundation in this story. It was nice seeing the teens responding, but certainly Will should realize every day is a tragedy and struggle for someone, somewhere through his work with the mission in LA. The media turns the cameras on the big things, but often ignores the tragedy right under their noses. Thanks Mark, not just for the on-time chapter and the effort it takes to make that happen, but for a very emotional chapter. It is awful feeling powerless in the face of such a massive disaster. You can hold one five year olds hand, but know there are 10, 20, 50 other five year olds whose hand needs holding and you cannot be there be for all of them. It can be overwhelming.

Patti LuPone was the best Evita ever. Maybe the best Broadway leading lady ever.

I never got to see Elaine Paige in Evita, but I did get to see her with the Original Cast of Cats in the West End, Sunset Boulevard in the West End, Sweeney Todd in NY and a concert she gave in Pasadena. I've always been a sucker for a diva. love her, and Patti LuPone. Betty Buckley and now Sutton Foster. I don't like the amplified voices, I preferred when the diva had to be a belter. I would nave loved to have seen Ethel Merman on stage.

Thanks Mark for a very welcome PoA chapter. Again I am amazed by the amount of research that has to have gone into the French, British and Spanish ship design, wood choices and more. George does have a common touch, but in truth the aristocrats of Europe had much in common and many were more comfortable with an "enemy" aristocrat than an ally common man. That is why you re-read the chapters. The timeline is more compressed and each time you pick up different points you missed the first time, or first three times.... Have you been to the West End Production at the Gielgud Theater? Simply Amazing.

Sure it did. It gave Will an opportunity to slut his way through a competition and completely upstage Jeremy in the one thing he was good at 🤣 I also could not help thinking about the discussions we had around the deaths of the 14 people from U.S. Figure Skating. My heart just broke when Maxim Naumov held up the picture of his parents. How tragic to be so young and have lost both your parents, especially when they were so much a part of your skating career.

PS who else thought about Jeremy Schluter while watching the Men's Figure Skating in Milan?

Is neuter like a French word for fuck?

but he didn’t answer, so I decided we’d just surprise them. This line worried me. I was sure Will was going to catch Travis and Frodo en flagrante delicto. “Only a pathetic actor would need to stay in character outside of his scenes to be effective.” Best line in the chapter. I am surprised Julian would challenge Stef's credentials. Surely everyone in Hollywood knows he was Greg's partner for more than 20 years and was an integral part of that production company, and even more involved when Greg passed away. Thanks Mark for this newest chapter and the twin spin with PoA. I assure you I am not being lulled to sleep in a sugar induced coma. I am ready for the drama that is sure to come. 🤣

Thanks Mark for our latest adventure. I appreciate your dedication to getting this story out weekly. I know it cannot be easy. A few quibbles, as always, one I am sure on, the other I am curious about. The Wedge is on the Balboa Peninsula, not Balboa Island, which is in the middle of Newport Harbor and therefore has no surf. The one I am not sure on is paying for $119,000 car with a credit card. Don't most dealers limit how much you can charge since they have to pay the credit card company 2-3% of the total? I suppose if you agreed to pay the cost, they'd be okay with it. On an interesting side note, the West Jetty in Newport that created "the wedge" was the only jetty protecting the entrance to Newport Harbor from big waves. After two notorious incidents of boats being swamped and people dying in 1925 and 1926 the decision was finally made to build a full second jetty on the East entrance, the Corona del Mar side. Those interested can Google Corona del Mar and Duke Kahanamoku for one of the stories. As to the rest, what can one pick apart in such a sweet chapter. The very LEAST Mr. Arbour could have done for me was have Will fuck someone in the dealership or one of the valets (The Ritz Carlton MdR has VERY hot valets).

He's still a dickhead. Did he slash them or just let the air out?

Seemed like "mid" LA, Los Feliz, Melrose, Carthay Circle, but NOT Hancock Park.

It is much easier to do Doo Doo They Say In Oakland than Los Angeles because LA is so huge and diverse. The Doo Doo girls say in Venice is different when coming from Valley Girls, Westside Girls, East LA Girls and so on.

Dat's what I said 🤣