Ron

My father was the last child and so both of his older sister's daughters were right around his age. The younger one hurt a foot by stepping on something sharp which later developed gangrene. Even though the infection was thought to have been arrested, over time it lead to the amputation of her leg above the knee. My father was quite fond of his niece and she had a gaggle of kids that were just a little bit younger than my brother and I so we saw the family quite often. Seeing her lack of a lower limb was just a normal part of growing up. As a consequence I never felt the need to stare at anyone missing body parts. I understood that it can happen to anyone.

I leave comments for stories (when I feel I have something to add) where the author is either not publishing anymore, disappeared or has died. My comment may be read by a new reader, and possibly offer something they hadn't considered. This could change a reader's perspective. Comments are good.

I remember talking my uncle and his female partner (later married) into going to the Oberlin, Ohio Apollo movie theater to see Rocky Horror Picture Show. Being virgins (ha!) we didn't know the half of what the audience was going to get up to. After the spectacle of the parade of characters and then rice was tossed around and the squirt guns they could take no more and we left. It was a few years later that I sat through the movie on DVD. I have watched Tim Curry prance around a few times since then. I particularly liked Mr. Curry's portrayal of Darkness in the movie Legend with Tom Cruise and Mia Sara. The movie was one of the last to play at the local mall movie theater before it closed. I went to a matinee showing not really knowing what the movie was about and ended up thoroughly enjoying it. Being a big fantasy fan I've watched the movie several times over the years since.

Yes, that part works. Myr gets a rainbow and a crown on his badge. I have a plain magenta one. And yours is broken.

I do have a nice magenta colored badge, thank you. Even if it has no identifier on it.

A word of advice, if you're going to reply to comments do so individually and not in batches. Those that comment may again add an emoji of some type in response to your reply to their comment, thereby increasing the content in your profile which also increases your standing. To add, I learned about this the hard way. I remain worried about Kevin.

I hadn't a clue, Bill and I didn't go into reading the stories with the intent of trying to figure out who wrote what. Much too complicated and I'm not so familiar with the varying author's works to make educated guesses either.

I see that the rank symbol is broken again. For some of us but not all of us.

Well, that took a turn didn't it! Disaster in the kitchen, what a concept. I say that with confidence knowing most of us have probably had our share of disasters if we are inclined to experiment in the kitchen. But this experiment takes a flight of fancy wholly unexpected. I have to say this was unusually fun. Yet, it begs a question. Poor Kevin, what's to become of him? Thanks for writing this.

Excellent! I readily admit my reluctance to read alternate history stories but this one caught my attention with the prologue, and I decided to 'push on' as it were. Not that I remember a significant amount of the history of the civil war in the first place, I decided to read as if it was all new to me. I'm glad that I did, doing so allowed me to come at the history from a fresh perspective. The author is to be applauded for creating such an interesting work: The opening salvo of the funeral; Mysterious characters; The intrigue that follows; and the more dangerous elements. And let's us not forget the locals of Rocky Harbor who share a starring role along with the main characters. Well done you. Thanks for writing this.

At first I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this story, there was so many small snippets of dialogue. Then after the intermission in the middle there was a good mix of dialogue and exposition. At that point the story became much more enjoyable to read. The reveal about Aunt Millie was interesting and unexpected. Well done. Overall this was a good tale. Thanks for writing it.

Heart of the Tree by @Graeme is one of my favorite stories by this author. You most definitely will become invested in his characters if you read the story. Steve has been reacting to some of the comments readers left for this, including my own comments, and the notifications of those reactions reminded me of just how much I enjoyed reading this story. I may have to go back and read it again. I say, "Well done, Graeme!"

This just in The Boston Globe about William Shatner showing up at Fan Expo Boston August 7-9, a free to read article: Still Trekking.

@Zombie Thanks for the video. But I'm not sure I have 21 minutes to kill.

Goodness! I haven't even begun to read anything and there's optional 'games' to deal with? I'll pass.