Matthew k

Hmmmm.

I don't get any of the story. I admit that I haven't studied the whole story, just skimmed through the articles, but as I understand it a graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, in 2002 says he saw Jerry Sandusky, who wasn't even a coach at Penn State anymore, he had retired in 1999, in the shower sexually assaulting a 10 year old boy and the next day Mike McQueary told Joe Paterno. Mike McQueary is a current coach at PSU. Okay, this is like Highlights magazine and the dentists office, find the errors in the sentence above. Why was Sandusky on campus with boys to begin with? What adult sees a man sexually assaulting a boy and doesn't intervene right then and there? Who waits until the next day to tell someone? Why is Mike McQueary still coaching at PSU? I did see the video replays of the PSU trustee announcing the firing of Paterno. He just seemed like a smarmy suit to me. I think the officers of the board of trustees at PSU all need to be fired, after all it is under their leadership that this occurred with all the other leaders like the President, AD, Head Coach, etc.

The 2000's weren't that bad. Yes 9-11 exasperated the 2000 recession, but the US pulled out of nicely and did okay until the mortgage crisis started to unwind the financial institutions. The over relaxed attitude of the 90's on everything from defense, homeland security (which wasn't even a phrase yet), financial institutions, etc led to what struggles occurred in the 2000's. I hope Will beds a few of his H-W classmates

Naw see it is exactly because I so well remember my first week of college that I want to kick Gathan's ass. That first week, moving into the dorm, meeting new people in droves, everyone in the same boat of not knowing anyone. The sheer excitement of feeling you are starting life for real, no parents to tell you anything.... just what felt like unbridled freedom. I didn't go away o college with any entanglements. My girlfriend from high school and I agreed since we were going to be hundreds of miles apart we'd break up and date people in college and see who we felt the next summer. Neither one of us ever looked back.

Can I just say what an f-ing pussy I think Gathan is? I mean you are 18 damn years old, away at college, stop moping about your high school crush. I will grant you that Stanfurd women are nothing to write home about, but c'mon man. Loved Will's first day at HW and disappointed in JJ, but whatever. I hope we get to see more of Will's friends and frenemies, especially Alistair and Eric. Will could use a very different friend like Alistair who probably sees the world entirely different than Will and Eric for the love/hate relationship. I think JJ is just a mess. I think Matt's dislike of Gathan is going to trace back to something sexual that Gathan did. Didn't he bed some Stanfurd hockey boy over the summer? If Gathan keeps mooning over what's her face, I hope Matt checks him until he gets some sense beat into him.

Can I just say what an f-ing pussy I think Gathan is? I mean you are 18 damn years old away at college, stop moping about your high school crush. I will grant you that Stanfurd women are nothing to write home about, but c'mon man. Loved Will's first day at HW and disappointed in JJ, but whatever. I hope we get to see more of Will's friends and frenemies, especially Alistair and Eric. Will could use a very different friend like Alistair who probably sees the world entirely different than Will and Eric for the love/hate relationship.

Bula a Fiji. I wanna be Will and work in the South Pacific, live in a grass shack, eat fish, surf and count reef fish.

Realism is fine, but there is still poetic license. Even if JJ gets great at figure skating and makes or almost makes the Olympics, I don't see him going pro in figure skating. A lot of the guy and gals that do it is because they don't know any different or it is their best prospect for making money, but I think once JJ's competitive days are done, he'll be done with it too. He'll find something else that interests. Maybe as an actor in NYC.

It is cute and I am sure love will find a way

Part of the point of going to HW is to get into the best colleges. It is the counselors jobs to help facilitate that. The "thinking outside the box" schools are Crossroads, the Oakwood School and maybe Campbell Hall a little, but those are not the schools you would go to for your best shot at the Ivy League and none of the others offers a better education than HW nor turns out any more well rounded students. HW does a great job in keeping the kids grounded and real.

I think we have discussed the "age thing" ad nauseum in this forum. There are not a lot of 13 and 14 year olds out in West Hollywood, but more and more you see 15 and 16 year olds. (but then I am guesstimating ages, remember Will is 14 (close enough) but looks 17) When I see the dances (that is figuretive, not literal) being done at Starbucks, Greenwich VIllage (pizza place), O Burger, etc. no one is checking ID's before they talk to each other. You never had the attraction to women in the first place to cause confusion it sounds like. A "6" by the scale Tim posted, but you can't generalize your experience to all gay or bi men. There are probably even guys who were 6's, who for reasons of their own, wanted to be 0's. I certainly know guys, now in their 50's and 60's who were that way, did the whole marriage to woman and family thing before they figured it all out. I also know guys in their 50's and 60's who were out in their late teens in the 1970's and these are guys all from the same area, so you can't even blame cultural pressures. It is all internalized and people have to deal with their sexuality in their own way and at their pace, no one elses. I want to punch the little sreaming queen at The Abbey who sits there and says he'd never date a bi man, because he needs someone to commit to their sexuality and stop trying to be someone they aren't. He just doesn't get that the possibility exists that that is exactly who that person is. A bi-sexual, but because the SQ doesn't have those feelings, he assumes no one can. I'll be fine with Tony taking his own sweet time to figure out who he is.

I am not angry that Gathan is around, I am just bored when he is with Kristin. I hope he gets to Stanford and acts like a college freshman and "explores" his new world. Not many high school romances survive long distance when they go off to college, nor should they. Adam P was the exception, not the rule and he certainly had his fun in college. I don't think Tony is uptight at all. I think Tony is one of the most normal people we've seen in a long time. We just have so many extreme people, Will being one, that someone "normal" seems odd.

Not sure your experience with Catholic prep schools, but I know of two in L.A. that go out of their way to integrate students into a true feeling of brotherhood (both all male schools) and there is no hazing, no bullying, no messing around. Their take very seriously their Christian duty of fellowship. No, he wouldn't be exempt at all. He might be given a chance to take the advanced classes or made to take a new one like Latin or Spanish. It is one thing to speak a language, but it is quite another to read it and do well writing in it. The advanced French class would have him reading French authors in French and writing reports/reviews. They would do the same with French magazines, films and newspapers. To give you an idea, the Chinese kids at HW struggle in Chinese IV.

That is pretty much what I have heard about skating "back in the day", but every USOC Group A organization drug tests their winners and runners-up now and has since the mid 90's probably. How far down they test depends on how many qualify for a World's Championship. In wrestling since only one guy goes, they only test the winner and the 2nd place finisher, in case #1 tests dirty. In a competition where three qualify, I would assume they drug test the top five. But I still think some steamy sex happens in that post competition jacuzzi,,,, Tony would be a "standard guy" who was raised with being gay not being acceptable and having to wrestle with his own feelings (if he has any), his feelings about his father's sexuality, and the added burden of how his father died. This world of people being open and accepting of all things homosexual and being open with their feelings would be all new to him as it is for a lot of college freshmen when they no longer have to conform to the "high school" mentality. While there are schools in CA that are progressive, like Gunn, Gunn is the exception in the public school world in CA, not the norm. Despite the face that CA public educators try to put on, the reality in Fresno, Bakersfield, Tulare, Humboldt, San Bernardino, etc. is far different from that of Gunn. In fact, you don't even need to go as far as Fresno, I bet it is far different at Overfelt or Independence in San Jose. Actually as for realism, from my experience in the gay community, age doesn't seem to stop anyone from being with whomever they are attracted to. Now a lot of guys don't like young guys, they want older muscular guys, but everyone has their likes and dislikes. I had a friend who when he was 15, wouldn't date anyone under 25.

When a chapter just comes out and I rate it a five and it doesn't move the rating, I know someone has given Mark's chapter a one to be a shit head. I've never read a Mark Arbour chapter I thought wasn't at least a three, most are fours and some are five, but I've been giving the five just to counter the shit head.

I loved Jackie, I always pictured her like the costume lady in The Incredibles. The chauffeur, I want to say Pablo or something... and then his wife was the cook. They have been in the story for ever so I think they would be almost like family in a lot of ways knowing how Isidore is.

Okay, not just a timeline, we need a dramatis personae. We know when Marcel was born, but I vaguely remember how he came in the story, was he the little kid who Stef gave money to his mother? And Max, Cody, Wade, Sam, Roger, Greg and others.... all have been major characters at one time, some will be again (I hope) but I've forgotten how they wound up in the various stories. I remember Wade met Matt at Stanford (I think) and Cody we met through that talent agent lady, whose name I forget, but who ought to appear occasionally still. What has happened to the domestic help JP got when he built Escorial? Are they the same 38 years later? Wouldn't they be close to retirement? What happened to their kids? They'd have grand kids by now. No homos in that bunch?

We need to be able to have Gathan screw guys at Leland Stanford Junior University (why would anyone go to a junior university instead of a real one?). And Sam? Sam who died of AIDS? Wouldn't his son be late 20's in 2000? Where does he live? I don't necessarily want Bloodlines II, but I did enjoy all the goings on at the college campus.

From the review section. Darius is going to a Jesuit university. It isn't like public school or even Notre Dame or Holy Cross, the Jesuits are decidely more serious.

I know you only have so much room in a story, but I've missed Matt, Wade, Cole and the Stanford part of the story. I assume that will change soon since Gathan will soon be on the Farm. I also hope he and Kristin come to an understanding about dating other people because it would be a shame to waste the bi-sexual aspect of Gathan with his gf 2,000 miles away.

Was Oregon Trail popular in 2000? I don't remember it being a rip roaring game back then.

I am not trying to be hard on mmike1969, so Mmike, please don't take it that way (and I apologize if you did/do). I just want someone to show, based on what we have seen written, where Mr. Hendrickson was not sincere or what justifies Gathan being immature. Mr Hendrickson had his bad behavior (having Gathan arrested) and Gathan had his (almost getting Kristin killed). They both brought baggge to the meeting and Gathan left dimimished imho.

If I have my math right, I think Jeremy was 14 in 2000. I think he just wants in Will's pants!!

Not sure what you are like, but I treat people based on how they treat me in general. If Bob tells me I am a dick, I don't give Ralph attitude. My challenge has been for anyone to show me textually where Mr. Hendrickson flipped Gathan shit in his apology. I quoted text and showed where everything pointed to Mr. Hendrickson being sincere. Up until Kristin almost dying in Paris, the Hendricksons had been pretty lenient. I think it was chicken shit of Gathan to drop Kristin off at her parents and not go with her to face the music. Maybe if the Hendricksons had vented their rage then, there would have been an issue later.

Okay, I couldn't get the formatting the way I wanted exactly, but muddle through it.