Mattyboy

Coach tried a couple of times and then dropped it. "Sissy" was a crappy thing to say at the end, but still feels like that nets out to maybe-positive?

"The wild where I was free to prowl, bush-walk and investigate the animals and fungi, a solitary untamed creature beyond the perimeters of civilisation but destined to return out of need." I like the contrast between this line and Corey's disinterest in the manufactured but worthless (to Corey, anyhow, but he makes a good case) stuff in the Corey's house. I had a warehouse job once where it was part of my job to manage a huge inventory of crappily-made ceramic flowers that some buyer thought was a good idea (or a way to get revenge on his boss), so I'm familiar with the category

It was a Golden Age. Thanks

What Billy episode are we at now?

14. I really like the way this has unfolded in non-chronological vignettes, but yeah, that makes it hard to place episodes

wow, that closes some open ends from the early chapters (and 14).

Hurray, the boat floats! Basket Maker's Arms sounds nice (and characteristically vernacular).

This was a boat that needed to be pushed out. Good work, Gray, maybe.

And that slipping off quietly to out-of-the-way places where no one ever goes, is a bad idea when you have a stalker who fantasizes about violence. (And I agree about Val and Marina, but I think there's a good chance they'll come around.)

hmm, maybe. I agree they hadn't thought it through deeply enough. Not convinced that Jasper knows for sure what he thinks he's doing stalking Toby, and possibly letting him know that he's been spotted and questions-are-being-asked means that Jasper will know that he'll be suspect #1 if anything happens to Toby. Which might back him off. (or not, because he's an idiot, but it's plausible). The cottage in Derbyshire sounds nice.

If your pilot is ready to go, you gotta go.

There was a local singer who covered this and sang some lyrics that aren't in the recorded versions; "Life on Mars, it's so much better than ours" was part of it I think. On a re-listen the Bowie lyric "fighting in the dance hall, oh, look at those cavemen go" I keep hearing as "look at those gay men go." I stand by my head-canon. And I'll look into My First Trip to Mars

Yeah, seems like that's not what anyone else has ever thought. I've never paid attention to the non-chorus lyrics. Head-canon for me now, though. Yeah, Christine seems nice. They should be friends, at least.

Is that what Bowie's Life on Mars song is about? TIL, feels like.

That email might have been composed for brotherly consumption, but it sure didn't read like Vince was all that into her.

Yeah, I see that as a definite softener that Tony framed it that hoard will be #1, and you want to be #1 in a relationship. Maybe that business with the wards will help ease Emmett along that path, but yes, probably at least some medium-grade drama along the way. (Very fine quality drama, of course, since it's Emmett and @Celian but maybe a little less than the nearly worst-case scenario we had after the tiger incident.

You, sir, are in for quite a ride.

Billy Morrison is a lot older than the other lost boys, but he probably needs the Academy as much as they do. (I had no idea the FBI had their own medals, but that's quite interesting that they do). Ugh, I feel I'm about to be disappointed by John Renkin, but that scene is unfortunately rather believable (maybe Harvey is there to discuss the Cisco IPO prospectus, but it doesn't feel like it). Feels like there might be a missing Spade loose in Chicago somewhere.

And I hope John Renkin and Hank Monroe are doing alright.

Oorah!, again. There's an interesting theme that developed through this . . . So many of the early chapters featured people trying to figure stuff out while within institutions that weren't working (or weren't working well or were corrupted in some way). But a whole lot of people chose good - in many different ways - since Mike Schultz's "a butterfly flapped its wings" moment in chapter 1. The eventual take down of the four Kings and the rest of the deck seems to have gone pretty flawlessly, and Family Court got it right this day. And the Academy is established and operational, even if Mrs. Lundgren doesn't like it. It feels immensely satisfying to read a story both about people doing the right thing, and the potential for old institutions to work well, or for new institutions to emerge and function. This section was set in 1992, but it feels very much like a story that we need today.

Or driving to a gas station or something. Interesting introspective recap of the story so far.

Hehe love triangle "in the wings"? This is ON, baby 😈⃤😈⃤😈 Will and Jonah are figuring out that they really have a lot in common. Will's wrap-up speech was a perfect complement to Jonah's improv. Also, why don't we have a pink triangle emoji on GA?

Oorah!

I see Puglisi strictly means "someone from Apulia," but it seems so close to "pugilist" in english that the transition from Puglisi to Cicero seems sharp on Roger's part.

One of the first things we learned about Roger, right back in the opening passage of the first chapter was about the watch, and here we are at the 30- mark and the little mystery of the watch's history is finally unwound. And -hehe- Thomas figured out how to slip Roger the equivalent of the mortgage cheque in a way he couldn't refuse, wrapping up that little angle as well. This happening exactly at the 30 chapter mark . . . did you have this all planned out around the motif of the watch, Empath? I hope this means we're halfway, and not at the end? -30-