Will Hawkins

Hospital kitchens have a great many problems. They have to prepare meals that are not going to be in violation of any religious restrictions, are bland in cases of abdominal illness or surgery, and do not cause allergic reactions. They are not truly at fault for the mush they serve for meals. There are so many things affecting them adversely.

Sorry but you are in error. My Portuguese is confined to probably 5-6 phrases. I think I am just getting too old to pick up languages easily!

Hey, CLJ, I would recommend you learn the difference between 'to' and 'too'. That is one homophone which you mess up frequently and it is one of the easiest to learn correctly. It would make a lot of difference in your readibility. I do not hold out much hope for the results of an investigation into Anton's accident; it just happened too many years ago. But the investigation process itself may disclose faults in the system that can be corrected or improved.

When I was in the army, I was assigned to Germany for my overseas service. While I was there I made it a point to learn to speak a little German. Oh, sure, the Masc. Fem. & Neut. endings on the nouns were confusing to an English speaker at first, but I found again and again, if you try to communicate a little, the native speakers will respond well. Of course, they would giggle a little at my poor attempts at German, correct me, then just go on with the conversation. I ended my overseas service with a fair, if baby-talk, ability with German, and lots of friends. Even my poor attempts pleased them, and I discovered that they generated lots of beer-buddies at the Gasthaus. By now, all the German phrases I picked up have flown out of my head, but I can still say, 'Guten Morgan, wie gehts dir?" with a good enough accent that a German speaker can understand me. I remeber one incident that happened to me on a semi-drunken New Years Eve, a motherly type German woman leaned across the aisle in a Gasthaus and asked (in German, of course) if I would like to sleep with her? I replied something to the effect od 'No thank you, perhaps another time.' She then asked if I would like to sleep with her son! That was a time when I was left speechless,,,,

I have a question that has sort of been nibbling at the back of my mind — In reference to the death of the stepmother: if her death is ever investigated by police; she knew the ring was poisoned, so if she put it on as a voluntary act, would that be considered suicide? Or, if she assumed that the ring she put on was the true royal ring and the OTHER ring was the one that was poisoned, would her death be deemed accidental, and the fact that she knew ONE ring was poisoned and that was the ring she tried to have Adam put on be deemed attempter murder? It all is so interwoven and complicated, I know what I believe, but I don't know what a judge/jury who did not know all the things that transpired would decide. "It is a puzzlement!" That expression certainly applies here!

Yep, I remember it well. The house landed on the witch and all the Munchkins were dancing around singing. The only thing sticking out from under the house wasthe witch's legs with the red slippers on her feet. Hey, I am old enough that I saw that movie when it first came out!

OKAY, some points to clear up, the wife of a king is not neccessarily a queen — she may be a royal consort, remember one of the Edwards (I don't remember which one) married an devocee and gave up the crown, but even while he still had it, she was not known as a Queen. The disease that the boy had was shistosomiasis (sp?). it is an infection by a parasitic worm found in tropical lakes and rivers. It can be cured quickly, but the cure is almost as bad as the infection. One pill will cause worms to come out of ones body through every orifice: vomit, diarrhea, and even in the urine. But all the egg laying worms get cleaned out and the overwhelming hunger that they cause (by consuming all the food intake before the body can digest it) is stopped as soon as the worms are cleaned out and normal hunger and digestion resume. The symptoms are overwhelming hunger and a swelling of the lower stomach. If not properly treated it can cause death, literally by starvation.

That is one thing that I have had wonderful luck with in my life. Dental work. I was born in Ohio and lived much of my life in Texas. both states well known for being good for teeth (something in the water I was told). My dentist in Washington cleaned and polished my teeth and ground down a couple of sharp points with the statement, "There, that should improve your love life." He was gay and knew that I was too. When I went to a dentista (fem.) here in Bahia the only thing she discovered was one tooth that was cracked (probably from chomping down on a prune that still had its pit in it.) So she said it should be removed. My sense of humor took over and as she approached with a hypo to deaden the area, I quietly growled at her, She laughed so hard at that she dropped the hypodermic and had to get another one. Well my growling worked because when she was finished, she gave me a little card with four pain pills and told me to take one every four hours "if needed for pain." I never had so much as a twinge – I still have the pills and will not take one until I have a headache. Now that is the kind of dental care that a guy needs. The hypo hurt worse that all the rest of the procedure!

As readers we must remember that as these boys reach maturity they will face many difficult decisions, some with no clear solution, and there will always be aides and guards of one sort or another around them. One precious thing that, after schooling, they will never have again in life, is to be alone. The solitude and quiet they experience while fishing on the lake, will never be theirs again.

Now Adam has the additional responsibility of training a young man in the responsibilities of becoming a national ruler when he turns 21. Because they are going to be living in a country that has no real national ruler to use as an example, only a succession of elected presidents, that is not going to be the easiest job in the world. Perhaps Gerry will remake the political status of his own country into the style of Great Britain, with a king who operates with the suggestions of a national elected Congress (Parliament and Prime Minister?). I am glad to see the creation of a level of protection for the school — all those Kings and Ministers to be, in one place, would be a great temptation for political upset, One wild man could creat world-wide havoc with a couple of grenades at a school such as that!

The honorific 'Sir/Madam' marks a knighthood, the lowest level of recognition that a ruler can give a person, the honorific 'Dad/Mom' is of a MUCH higher ranking. David has surely earned that 60 different ways. Now all we need to do is house cleaning among the people who have been living on the wines and seafood from the storeroom.

Wow! Talk aboit a wicked stepmother, Gerry's reminds me of the one I had, She arranged it so that all of my father's estate went to her when he died, and later, when she passed, it was all willed to the school at which she had worked. I did not need anything from her, but she made sure that there was none of my father's estate left for me to inherit. A security force for the school is an absolute necessity because of the many members of European nobility that are students there. In some countries of the world to be a member of the nobility is a guarantee of a short life. Training the students ti be able to take resposibility for a part of their own protection is an excellent idea. Even a teenager can make a kidnapping very difficult with proper training.

yes my finance is a medical doctor — Woops, your spell checker put in the wrong word. Oh, oh, shrimp, lpbster, octapuss — I assume from that menu that none of your boys are Jewish! Remember that an orthodox Jew can eat any seafood that has scales, but that eliminates many of the goodies from the hidden storage areas.

"Johnny, lay here on your belly" — Johnny, lie here on your belly. This is not quite a homophone, but 'lay' is what chickens do to eggs, animals (and people) 'lie' down. Just don't mix this lie up with 'to tell a falshood'. God, English is a horrible language in which to write. There are so many rules that just don't make sense.

Yes, changing a baby boy's diaper (nappy) can be an amusing thing. There is something about exposure to the cool air that brings on a little boy's fountain.

A pool requires constant maintenance, a water supply, filters and circulating pumps, perhaps heaters as well….probably considered an additional and un-needed expense by the Trustees, an expense that would cut into their profits. While the basketball court might not need all that much support, the two facilities would still require the hiring of a supervisor, and life-guards — once again, an un-needed expense. There is an old, old rule in criminal investigation that is appropriate here: "Just follow the money." I believe that the school might have a strong legal case against the trustees, if Adam wanted to file it. But even if they went to court and won the case, the only return would be fines against the Trustees and who is to say where did the money go? Putting people in jail would not do the school any good, would it?

I agree with Kev 100%. The idea of thin sliced onions on a grilled cheese sandwich gets my mouth to watering, but getting a slice of tomatoe in there — well, it would be too much like a hand-held pizza then. Not that pizza is bad, but for me it needs sliced sausage to make it complete. Oh hell, now I am drooling on the computer keyboard. Mr Will

I am surprised that Adam chose a doctor from a list of applicants and did not select his fiancé as the new doctor. Or would that have been classed as nepotism? If he had selected her and she,for some reason, did not work out, it would have been really hard to fire her, wouldn't it! So he was probably wise NOT to choose her.

I was very fortunate in my teaching career. I retired after 25 years of teaching in a Community College just before the technological revolution struck my specialty (Surveying). I was also very lucky in the type of student in my classroom. Many were "foreign students", usually Korean, some Japanese. I asked one of my students one day why he had chosen my classes for his training. He responded that it was my manner of speaking; I have a rather loud voice, cultivated from attending a military High School, I speak slowly and there is a slight pause in between each word, all of which make my speech easier for a student to whom English is a second language understand. This manner of speaking was not learned by me, it was a combination of nature and miliitary training, but it stood me in good stead all through by teaching career.

At this point, I would consider an audit of the books, with special attention paid to the food costs!!!!!

A Spellcheck progam will accept any word that appears in its dictionary, even if it is the wrong word for the author's meaning. Some Spellcheckers that are combined with a grammar checker do a better job, but if the word should be a verb, for example, and it is a verb, the grammar checker will not object as it cannot read the author's mind The only Spell/Grammar checker that does a complete job is a human (though sometimes I wonder if they are truly human) Editor followed by a Beta Reader. The job of the Beta is to make suggestions about better word choice or pacing, and is a more difficult job. Editors are nit pickers, Beta Readers are supposed to be creative, not an easy job. There are very few people out there who can do BOTH jibs well. And don't get me started on punctuation, that is a La Brea Trap for ANYBODY.

Have I missed something in the writing — There are frequent mentions of boys talking to or visiting with Adam in his office, but I have not run into him having a meeting with or about a girl student????? I suppose with the high percentage of foreign students, many of whom might be from Muslim or Oriental countries where women are not held in very high esteem, it is possible that this school has an all-male student body. If so, a brief mention of that would clarify a situation, With all the books he is giving away, Adam is going to upset his publisher by stearling the market!!!!

A stand-up desk for a male secretary — that is really upsetting the apple cart. Adam is really going to make things interesting around that school. 'You go, guy!'

we saw Billy and Ann was kissing — we saw Billy and Ann were kissing. The last time I checked, it took two peoplr to kiss,

Even in a story about young love with the icing in the cake of the Olympics, Covid-19 has to rear its head. How long, oh Lord, will that evil monster dog our heels? The commenter, Kev, got his second jab, let us hope there are millions more like him who are now protected. I have two things worrying me, one, I am old (88) and, two, I live in Brazil, a country with a very high infection rate. But, in my favor, I live several miles out into the Rain Forest, and never have to go to town as my BF brings everything we need out into the country when he makes a trip to the market.