Percy

For a cocktail, I like bourbon and orange bitters which I guess in some quarters is called an old fashioned. Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight orange bitters angostura gum syrup and an orange peel My favorite bar serves this with a single, overly large hand carved ice cube in a simple glass to nice effect. No cherry or lemon. Hate cherries in anything: food or drink Mostly though, wine is my alcholic beverage of choice, especially (sorry Califorina!) Australian or New Zealand reds.

Here are a few examples I’ve witnessed. All these are within the last decade. In the Castro in San Francisco, I was walking with my boyfriend, holding hands, and had some guy forcefully brush past us and the other gay couples on the sidewalk saying “Disgusting!” half under his breath as he went. This one was sort of funny because he was walking so fast that he was practically running to get away –handholding being so threatening, ya know. In Boston’s South End (the city’s gay district), these two guys were standing in line outside a restaurant and gave each other kiss. It was just a “Hi, how was your day?” peck on the cheek. This woman who had been sitting in a parked car on the street got out and worked herself into hysterics over it. She was screaming that that was against God and the children in the neighborhood would burn in hell if they saw that and all sorts of other crazy things. She was crying and wailing invectives at the whole row of us waiting to eat dinner. Eventually she walked on down the street, yelling as she went. Down in Providence, RI a group of us were at an outdoor festival along the river. We were sitting up on an embankment. All of us were queer, but there was only one couple, a lesbian couple, who were sitting with us. One of the girls was leaning back against her girlfriend, who had her arms wrapped around her. We were just watching the festival activities on the river. These two older couples (straight) were passing by on the path below us when they suddenly circled back and marched up the embankment to where we were sitting. One of the women, who I took to be in her ‘50s, glared at the girlfriends and sneered, “Is everyone having a good time here?” They said nothing, didn’t even look at her. She looked around at the rest of us with absolute contempt. Finally one of the older guys in our group told her we were just here to watch the festival like everyone else. She continued to glare at us until the man and the other couple with her pulled her away. This one was pretty funny too because she was so clearly shocked to find gays among her. We were right at this event that everyone else goes to...the same one she herself was at! But the saddest incident happened to me at our state fair in Sacramento, California a couple years ago. I have a good friend who is blind and he was using my arm for guidance through the crowds. I’m gay and my blind friend is straight. This boy, maybe 8 or 9, points at us and yells, “That’s not family values!” The boy’s mother was absolutely mortified as well she should be. Everyone in the vicinity looked at me and my friend and then quickly looked away. Tragic, really, that this child saw what he perceived as evil in a situation that was clearly an act of kindness. A shameful statement on parenting when you’ve taken the time to school your child in hatred instead of compassion. The mother jerked her child away and looked like she was scolding him, but the problem lay with her, not him. I’ve thought about that incident since and it always makes me sad. I asked my blind friend if he got that a lot. He said that it does happen, not often, but it wasn’t the first time he’d encountered such ignorance.

Different but I am intrigued. Well written. I definitely want to learn more about the characters and their world.

Your score: 30 Gender: Male Age range: 40-49 My car is grey but I'm always being told it's blue. Now I know why.

All true and you have some wise words about budgets and making choices and guarding against debt. In your personal scenario, there is another part of the equation. You put $1,000 into the economy thus enabling someone else, if not yourself, to buy mocha blend coffee. If you got the computer at a retail store, that’s one more store that’s less likely to go out of business. That might translate into a bonus or a raise for an employee on the floor who’s been selling a lot of computers or peripherals during their shift. If you bought it online, you’re keeping those delivery drivers at Fedex or UPS in business. If you financed the purchase, a bank is getting the benefit of interest payments and that all flows to their bottom line. If that retail employee or driver at fedex or the drone working for the bank feel secure in their job, feel like business is good and they may even see a raise at their next performance review, they won’t be switching over to cheap drip coffee from their double mocha lattes anytime soon. What’s more, if that retailer and UPS and Fedex and the bank post profits and issue dividends to their shareholders – more money into the economy! Granted, not that many people hold individual stocks these days, but many of us are invested in banks and retail and shipping operations via mutual funds. If my 401(k) mutual funds are going up and I see dividends being reinvested, I become optimistic that I might be able to retire at a reasonable age. Heck, I might even head down to Starbucks and shell out some $$ for a pumpkin flavored fall drink. The bigger concern would be if you and many others decided to cut back your spending without that outlay of $1,000. Then the money is just disappearing from the economy altogether…and that’s when Starbucks start to close.

I've moved around a lot, both as a kid and as an adult. The most recent big move was from Boston to San Francisco when my company expanded and opened an office out here. One of the reasons the move was attractive to me, aside from the career opportunity it presented, was because my family is in the western U.S. It's nice not having to commit a full day, each direction, to travel whenever we want to visit. I've lived in the northeast, the south and in the western states . I like the adventure of exploring new places. My family moved frequently when I was a kid so relocating is something to which I'm accustomed. In my 20s I lived in the city, Boston’s south end, and I loved it. I lived in San Francisco the first year I was here. But, there came a point in my 30s where I was done with city life. I was just over it. Now I live outside SF, in a place where I can walk to restaurants and the gym, pretty much to everything I need, and it doesn’t have the grittiness that is part of urban living. Like anything, there are advantages and disadvantages to moving. I am good at staying in touch with people and I have friends all over the U.S. This is awesome for traveling now. Since I live near a city that others want to travel to, I get my fair share of visitors in my home and can stay in touch with old friends. However, I do notice that I don’t feel a true connection to the physical place where I live. In contrast, my partner can drive through San Francisco and talk about how in 1982 the pig he raised took first place at the cow palace and his mom talks about the days when you got to the airport by turning left at a stop sign on Highway 101. The point is that they have a shared history and it’s a history that’s shared not just within their family but by many of the people around them, the families who have lived in this area for years. I have a history, too, but I experienced it on my own. I can talk about it, but I can’t reminisce over it with someone. The memories aren’t shared by anyone else. Sometimes that feels weird; it’s isolating, especially when I’m with people who have such a rich history that they experienced together. I’m not sure if this was the type of thing you were looking for in your query. That said, I think I’ve heard you say you’re interested in pursuing a law enforcement career. Keep an eye on the San Francisco Police Department if you’re considering a move. They are going to be running a large number of academies in the next few years. They have an unprecedented number of officers who are coming up for retirement in the next 3-5 years, and they are looking to replenish their ranks. I think they just closed their most recent hiring pool but I bet they’ll open the application process again by year end or early next.

Congrats! Sounds like you earned the position - good for you!

If you find that sort of thing interesting, you might enjoy the biography of Samuel Steward. Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring Steward was completely unknown to me before reading the bio, although his pseudonyms Phil Andros and Phil Sparrow rang a bell. The book provides fascinating detail of homosexual life in America – and to a lesser extent Europe – prior to Stonewall. Steward’s life intersected with many artistic giants of the 20th century. After reading the biography, I can’t say I cared for the man, but I appreciate that he was authentically and unapologetically subversive for his time. In his late 40s he abandoned his career as a professor of English at DePaul and took up a new one as a tattoo artist. Nearing that age myself, I can appreciate what a monumental undertaking such a drastic change would have been. The book came to mind because of your Oscar Wilde reference. At one point in his life, Steward sought an interview and meeting with Alfred Douglas, purportedly a one-time lover of Wilde, because he wanted his mouth "to go where Oscar's had gone." That pretty much sums up what you’d be getting into if you read the bio.

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY--HOPE IT WAS A GOOD ONE**

I believe we're returning to a time when we work until death or nearly until death. The concept of a retirement where one does not work for the last 20-30 years of life is disappearing. This trend is starting with the baby boomers but I think with Gen X we will see this in large numbers.

I propose giving us the capability to opt out of having number of posts on our profile. On another site I participate in, we have a choice of whether to display that or not and it's a nice option. Instead of a ranked title linked to number of posts, let each member choose their own title. GA caters to creative types and this would be a fun way for people to personalize their identity, in addition to their name and icon. If people don't want to customize, the default title could be "Member since [year]."

It sounds like you have a lot of friends, Wayne, and that you don't take them for granted. And I'm with you on the painkillers. I did some painting this last week and aggravated an old shoulder injury. I think this is known as "life in your forties."

Wow, you did an impressive amount of research to lend authenticity to this story or you have an impressive well of knowledge to draw from. Interesting facts about the Mayans, archeological digs and the theories of ancient encounters with extra-terrestrial beings!

This was like being inside a graphic novel. I felt like one of the figures and the >,>.> moved me along from panel to panel.

Hmm. Not sure why my previous review came out in two different font sizes. Odd.

You didn't go too corny on the southern dialect which, having been raised in the south, is a pet peeve of mine. Good start there! Family dynamics can make for compelling reading and there are a lot of challenging family dynamics for brothers Braydon and Reilly in this story. I'm not sure the short story format can support both the degree of physical childhood abuse suffered by Reilly and the romantic, incestuous relationship with his older brother. Given the general disapprobation of incest, introducing that aspect in a longer story would help bring the reader along, give them a chance to integrate that complicated relationship with the bigger picture complications faced by the brothers. At its core though, this story is about a couple of teenagers, one suffering terrible hurt and the other tenderly and fiercely lending comfort. On that level the story succeeds. Braydon has an emotional maturity beyond his years in his care of Reilly and given their situation, it was a pleasure to read those heart warming moments. Good structure and pace to the story. Definitely an fitting contribution for the Pandora's Box theme!

A touching story with a happy ending. Thanks for sharing, Ieshwar.

Clever, gripping story. I liked the way everything pointed to the discovery of the Pandora as the root cause of Matt's string of woes, but that you also offered a logical explanation for the problems too. Made it easy for Matt and Kit to dismiss Pandora as a problem and leant an aura of looming doom. Perfect ending too. I liked this.

I like the way you based this story in the original myth. The conflict between mother and daughter felt authentic as did Pyrrha's struggle with how to assert her dreams and goals, which were contrary to society's expectations. Good story!

Amazing, suspenseful story. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. Loved the flawed character of the narrator and the way this was as much a character driven short story as a thriller. You gave just the right level of detail about the apocalypse, letting the reader's imagination do the work. The random introspection on the mundane in the midst of peril was a perfect balance. This paragraph, for example: "That was the party where he told me he was gay and attempted a kiss, I smiled at the memory. We blamed the drink for his advances and bad timing for my rejection of them. I'd just started getting serious with Dan. It's strange how things work out all because of timing, a few weeks earlier I might have said yes to him, a few weeks later I might have been single again, now he's gone and I'm with Dan forever, like things aren't scary enough. I mean really how can you ever split up with someone during an apocalypse? It really is til death do you part now." I recently finished "McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales" which is a collection of adventure short stories from noted authors. Frankly this was better than most of what was in that collection. I'd recommend a second eye on your writing for grammatical corrections but that's about it. A big Like from me!

I agree with Lisa. The epilogue gave me chills. Well written and well structured story here. Look forward to reading more by you.

I liked this. It took a while to see where you were going with the story and it ended up going in a surprising and entertaining direction. Loved the dynamics among the family members at the end.

It takes a good friend to hold a mirror up and make you look at yourself. Nice job, Cia!

Lots of creepy detail here, especially in the basement of the house. The vampire at the end took me by surprise even though I had been partly expecting it from the story tag.

Sweet romance between teens. Nathan was the "Pandora" in this story - ever curious about what was in the diary and finally unable to resist opening it. Nice interpretation of the theme.