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.

Nah, you're way out in the boonies. While here on the glorious East Coast of MA we'll be getting a predicted couple of inches of precipitation through to Saturday along with temps in the 80's. With the exception of one day the rain is expected to come in daylong drizzles (one's day will be dreary for .2" of rain, ugh). But @drsawzall is right in that our state is in a state, as it were, of drought. We need the rain, just not all at once.

According to Neal deGrasse Tyson the rate at which your fingernails grow is about the speed that continents drift across Earth's surface.

Eleven plus two = 13 Twelve plus one = 13 The thirteen letters that spell 'eleven plus two' when rearranged will also spell 'twelve plus one.' That is one crazy factoid!

This is helpful not only for locating stories to read but also deciding which category one's own story might land in (or not land at all).

I was just poking fun because the Sunday blog had been up for several days. Not for any other reason, Bill. I hadn't seen anything that had to do with Cia at that point. But thanks for including that information.

Hmm! I may not be one of the 'originals' that you mention but I've been here a good long time (I've followed {informally} your post(s) as offered). Despite my attempt at yanking your chain, it's good to find you chiming in.

Ahem. Excuse me... It's nearly Tuesday. As pleasant as skinny dipping can be might there be something new ready for posting? What?!!! No? Somebody must have something -- please!

Why, yes, Steve I have been skinny dipping. Thanks for asking. Once upon a time in a far, far away place called Lorain, Ohio there was a Gay bar called Lambda Bar (I know, how original). This was the first Gay bar I ever set foot into. As time and distance works its magic I have lost touch with all of the people I met and used to hang with, including the so-called boyfriends (one lasted for 5 years). Now, back to the topic of skinny dipping: Occasionally on the weekends, during the summer, a group of inebriated Gay men would get into their various vehicles and drive 8.5 miles and park across from the Ford plant in Avon. There we had to traverse railroad tracks to get to a sandy beach on Lake Erie. Then all involved would shuck our clothing and dip into the lake, drunk. In hind sight it was not in our best interests. The po-po (that's police jargon) could have stopped and arrested all of us -- for trespassing (railroad ownership); drunk driving; and skinny dipping. I'm unsure which would have been the greater offense (I mean some of us were not in good shape what with this being back in the 80's before gym culture took hold ). Anyhoo, we never got caught and nobody drowned, so I'd call that having had a good time.

So... Science Fiction it is! This genre seems to meet most of the suggestions presented above with a minor adjustment or two or three to fit the 'needs' of whichever audience you intend to reach. I suppose it's a good thing I'm working on... well, I don't want to give it away just yet.

I assume it's much more nefarious. When you don't see the adds you breath a sigh of relief. Then the adds pop up again and think 'Oh!'. Then it's rinse and repeat.