Matthew k

Oh gawd you are awful!!

Where did this post come from? Who ever said anything about "saving one's self for marriage"? Just because all of your friends were having sex at 13/14 doesn't mean everyone was, you can not put your anecdotal experiences out there as the norm. If that happened in a club in the U.S. there would be arrests, long jail terms and sexual offender registration for a lot of adults. To name call at people who chose not to have sex is just wrong and juvenile. Not that that was even what we were talking about, no one bemoaned Will's loss of virginity, that was several chapters ago and there wasn't a peep about it. Lastly, what do you pretend to know about my teen and what his morals are, what decisions he has and has not made and how we have reacted to all that? Again, you project your narrow anecdotal experience to everyone and that is a mistake.

I don't think many people have had problems with Will's sexual activities with John, Gathan, Berto and wouldn't if he was hooking up with a 25 year guy he thought was cool or who ever and what ever age, but that is all private conduct. For a 13/14 year old to be out in public, fully naked, completeing a sex act is a whole different category. I do think we owe it to kids, and a 13/14 year old is a kid, to help preserve some level of childhood, even at 13/14 and to set boundries. I know I wouldn't be able to keep my 13/14 year old from having sex with his best friend, or even our 35 year old neighbor, if that is what he wants, but by the same token i think those things are far different from what happened in the club in Rome. What happens to Will in high school when these photos or video appear on various sites? I am not being overly critical of you Mark, just a little, because I think it is one step, maybe two, too far. I wouldn't want my now 18 year old doing that at a club in West Hollywood (and he could not because it would be illegal) because even though at 18 he is now legally an "adult", he would not have thought out the long term ramifications of this kind of thing. I have a friend, Kenny Jordan, who damn near ruined his life over something much less than this. Sorry I couldn't multi-quote, for some reason my anti-pop up program is blocking it.

I've never seen it work that way, or hardly ever. A super sexualized 13/14 year old isn't like to calm down when he gets older, older meaning 18, 19, 20 etc, but to get wilder in college. Maybe in their 30's they slow down, but a lot of the damage is already done.

But he stopped her.

Ha, I was just going to say that. Not only are they going to tighter jeans, but actual "skinny jeans" and every time I see them, I think, "why in the world do they want everyone to know they have no muscle in their legs?? I also thought someone raised a great point in a review of the last chapter, why did the Hendricks let Kirstin go to Paris with Gathan, but get all hyper when she went to stay with him? In fact I don't quite the anger at Gathan, afterall, he did stop Kristin from getting on the plane that crashed....

H-W takes social responsibility pretty seriously. A lot of the parents are concerned that their kids turnout "normal", not affected by money, Hollywood, and the like. The president, Tom Hudnut is an amazing guy, it would be interesting to hear him and JP discuss Tom's book, L'Algérie, de Gaulle et l'armée: 1954-1962.

He is Mark Arbour, but he thinks he is Ethel Merman!

Ha ha OMG, that is Patrick Newman, son of Randy Newman (Short People, Toy Story, etc) and Michael Karsh, son of Bruce Karsh, who at last glance was a billionaire money manager. Typical of the kids at HW. Mr. O'Malley, who they thank at the end is the grandson of Walter O'Malley who owned the L.A. Dodgers before they sold the franchise to what's his face. Here is another HW video, although mostly not shot at HW, just HW guys. http://wn.com/COMMON_DECENCY-The_Ketchup_Story Jake Lasker actually shot a whole movie called "Senioritis" before his senior year of HS, which he released not too long ago If you Google "Senioritis" and Jake Laster you can find it online.

No, you don't need to do Brad and Robbie again Jeremy, but Mark opened the door in describing Berto's grin like Robbies, at least i think it was the grin, in any case it was some physical feature of Berto's that was compared to Robbie and Mark doesn't make casual comparisons, it seems to be a hint that Berto could be in Will's life, if not now, but in the future. As to "small dicks", I doubt Berto is really small, it is more likely that Will will discover Berto is average, something around 6", not 4". But who knows, maybe a nice 'trainer dick' is just what will needs.

Mark is taking poetic license with this incident. It was a charter, not a scheduled flight. Kristen could not have gotten on the flight if she wanted because it was not a public flight. The Air France ground crew could not have booked her on board if they wanted. I was going to crack a joke about "turbo boost" on the picture until it struck me that it was a picture of a bunch of people about to die and then the joke didn't seem so funny.

Fun chapter. Interesting how far ahead you must think to tie Air France 4950 into the story along with kidnappings, etc. to put them in Paris at that time. Obviously I am guessing that she doesn't get on the flight because otherwise you'd have to bring in another female character to write your bi-sexual sex scenes and that would be a lot of hard work

Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger met over 30 years ago when they were both young chefs at a top notch Chicago, Michelin starred restaurant and quickly became best friends. Mary Sue married Susan's ex-husband. Mary Sue and Susan are the Two Hot Tamale and have been business partners for 25 years now in several successful restaurants, cooking books and their own TV series. So it depends.

It is hard for the casual reader to know where a character is because while you might know where Will is heading in the future and you might think of that Will you are heading towards, not the Will that the reader sees based on the available information. On one hand Will seemed very mature for a 13 year old, what might be brattiness in an ordinary 13 year old might not be on a child of affluence. The other hand is how mature and poised kids of the rich and famous can be because of the world they are exposed to. Yes some can be ultra brats, but others can just be mature well beyond their years and some are a healthy dose of both. Kids also have to earn respect and privileges though and have to learn to give respect as well. If you do your job right as a parent it all seems to turn out in the end.

Damn I love teen angst. You think you'll never be happy again, like a piece of you is chopped out forever, but after a while, it is just a memory, if even a bitter sweet one. Very nicely done.

It is a great tradition! It worked well for centuries! Then maybe you can finally declare! I don't what Neil Patrick Harris says, Broadway still belongs to us!

I like the idea of Gathan in a fraternity (not "frat", very rude!). Could be many interesting storylines there. Fraternities were hormonally charged places when I was in college and there plenty of rumors about how "close" some guys appeared to be in the house. This is about the same era as Crosscurrents isn't it? As to lack of drama in the 9th grade!?! Oh puh-leeze, 9th grade was all drama all the time.

I get it! So you mean we should only practice self-abuse! : I am right there with you sister.

So dude..... I am thinking just back on the caffine a bit (I'm just sayin') I always assumed that Jack's family had their money and that as the Crampton's and Schuler's prospered, the families would take care of Claire and the kids. That there would be trust funds, etc., all the things that the uber wealthy do with their money. I had the Hobart's net worth into the $100 million area between the Hobart money and what Claire would have. The uber rich have money because you can't help but make money when you have gobs of it. A $20, 000,000 fund becomes $66,000,000 in 20 years at the relatively modest and safe rate of 6% on monthly compounding, $98,000,000 at a more aggressive 8% and even a modest increase in risk to 9% takes it to $120,000,000 without ever having to add to the principle. But without doing the homework you did today, that was a rough guess. I am guessing the numbers you came up with, upwards of $200,000,000 makes more sense. And to all you youngin's out there do your own math on retirement savings. If youhave $2,000 in saving now and could put away $4,100 a year for 35 years at 9% you'd have over $1,000,000 when you were ready to retire. the most importand lesson you will ever learn financially is the time vale of money. http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm

And yet you bludgeon Matt? All I have seen of Matt is impassioned beliefs, but because those beliefs go against the norms of this community he gets a lot of grief for them. I believe Matt's definition of backstabbing is people negging people without an explanation. I would have negged your post, but I am sure you would have blamed Matt so I didn't. I think your attitude in that post is less than stellar and not in any way civil. Online bullying is name calling and vitriol, I just don't see any vitriol from Matt, I do see it from many of his distractors and shockingly from people you would think were old enough to know better.

Given the recent, woeful results of UK teams in the UEFA Cup, UEFA Champions League and the World Cup many on the continent would contend little 'real' football is played at all these days in the UK.

It looks more and more like the 2011 NFL season will be affected by the current lockout. NFL Lockout: Teams Cut Payrolls If there are no football games on Sunday, what will you do? Is it possible to survive a whole fall and bleak early winter with no football games on Sunday? Maybe the college ranks can shift some high profile games to Sunday or maybe the MLS can get a major channels in prime time viewing slots.

I predict Tracy Morgan and Anthony Weiner will be roommates in rehab...... That is how you absolve yourself of all guilt today, two weeks at Betty Ford.

Why would I want to change its color? Is there something wrong with blue balls?

It wouldn't take me 15 years to get even. Maybe not 15 minutes.