Mark Arbour

Oh I think Will would have been very interested in bonding with his teammates, but not in the way you're talking about.

I'm glad you posted this! I totally disagree with Mr. Ingram. Nelson's complete victory at the Nile was, in my opinion, largely possible because De Brueys had his ships anchored. If they would have been at sea, and the French would have been more mobile, I suspect that more of them would have been able to escape. I also think that he ignores the inherent problems that huge battle would have caused if it had been at sea. Here are some things to consider: 1. Nelson's ships were badly damaged during the Battle of the Nile. There is no reason to believe this would not have been the case if the battle had been fought at sea. How would Nelson have captured the transports with an incapacitated fleet? 2. The transports would most likely have sailed on, either back to Toulon (most likely) or to Alexandria during the battle. Nelson didn't have frigates to hound and pursue them, so how would he have caught up with them? It is worth referencing the Glorious First of June, where Howe won a victory over the French fleet, but allowed the vital grain convoy to get through to France. I think the same thing would have happened here. 3. I think the battle would have been harder for the British for two reasons. The first is that the French ships were faster and more maneuverable (in general), but the second (and more important) reason is that the French fleet would have been ready for battle. At the Nile, they were not. They did not expect to be engaged on the landward side (there were stored piled amongst those guns on some ships), they were undermanned because a large number of sailors were out scouring for provisions, and they started the battle with their captains frantically trying to get back to their ships after being aboard the flagship. I think that if the battle had been fought at sea, Nelson would still have achieved a victory, but one where he captured 3-4 ships, and the transports would have escaped back to France with Napoleon on board (along with his bevy of generals). While Napoleon would not have conquered Egypt, he'd be back in France with his army of some 40,000 trained veterans, ready to cause further mischief. Instead, that army ended up being decimated in Egypt and the Levant.

Underlying your right-wing tendencies to rant about the general decline and lack of morals (I'm teasing here.. ), you raise a really good point (which is also usually true of you), and that is that Will seems to have rather intense friendships that don't last, or become shallow. With Noah, he had a bond, but Noah seems to be out of the picture right now. The same thing seems to be true with Ryan. Most of the guys he's slept with aren't really in the picture either. You mention Wade, who probably is Will's best friend. I'd add to that list Brad, Stef, and JP, but they're all family members. Also on the list of close friends would be Darius, who he seems to be back on a good plateau with, and possibly JJ, but he's really too self-absorbed to worry much about what Will does. One other person who I'd see as a good friend of Will's is Jeff, even though we haven't seen him recently. I wonder if some of this isn't due to the upheaval and jet-set pace of Will's life. He's not in one place for long, and that makes it hard to build friendship bonds. I'm thinking about times in life when you have significant changes (like graduating from high school or college) and move on to new challenges, and old friends inevitably get left behind. In my experience, if the friendship is tight enough, the bonds will survive the distance and the time. I would not be surprised if Ryan and Alistair both manage to do that with Will, and depending on how this relationship works out with Kai, I can see him in that category as well. Jeff, IMHO, is already there. OK, I had this really wonderful response all drilled down in my brain, and then B1ue went ahead and did it for me. But to address what you said, I largely agree with you, and I really think we're all saying the same thing. Sex is important, but it's not everything. But Tony has shown Will what great sex can be, and that will set the bar for future partners. He'll be able to make any trade-offs knowing what he's leaving behind. Would I trade loyalty, honesty, commitment, and friendship for marginally better sex in my life? No fucking way. 14 (almost 15) year old Will may at this point, but probably wouldn't, and most likely wouldn't over the long-haul either. I was worried that the word "ignorance" would possibly spark some negative reactions, which is why I put that little disclaimer in. I agree with you completely that ignorance is not always a bad thing. Some allege that it is even bliss. But it seemed to describe my sentiment, so I went for it.

Here's wishing you many years of happiness!!

I'm with you on the first two sentences, but not so much after that. Actually, as we'll see in the next chapter, Nelson's fleet wasn't in any condition to rush out and try to find the transports. Most of the ships had damage. The fact that the Guillaume Tell and Genereux would escape from the battle the next day illustrates the relative inability of the fleet to mount an offensive strike. And even if some ships, like Audacious and Defense, were largely intact, the men were no doubt exhausted, and those ships and men would be needed to help repair the others, and their prizes. Further, Napoleon didn't return to France on his transports. Because of British supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea, he was forced to slink back to France aboard a frigate (they are indeed fast!), leaving his army to languish until a British force defeated them a year or so later.

Happy Birthday! And by the way, I appreciate all the stuff you post in the "Make Me Laugh" thread!

Interesting thought. No. I think that premise is based on the theory that you're better off not knowing what great sex is, so if you don't have it, you're fine with that. I'm not saying that sex is everything in a relationship, far from it, but I have a general antipathy for ignorance (using that word in a non-pejorative way, but to indicate a general lack of knowledge), and in this case, I think it's better to know what is possible, than to be satisfied with what is available.

I agree with you, in that it looks like Hank has become a real ground for Jeanine. It's interesting that Will seems much closer to Hank than Jeanine. He really opens up to her. Stef should know better, but I think that what he originally thought was just a funny piece of gossip ("you'll never believe what he's doing now!") was in fact a warning shot to Will. He feels that Stef and Brad are sitting there in snarky judgment, so in typical teenage fashion, he'll solve that problem by closing them out of his private life.

Glad you liked it! Stef's reaction wasn't based on a desire for JP and Isidore to stay married, it was a reflection of his concern for JP. He knows that JP likes his world to be nice and orderly, and that JP dislikes shakeups of this sort. That would be where his mind is at. Stef, for all his flaws and eccentricities, really is devoted to JP. I think that Will is handling these guys (Tony and Kai) pretty well. He's limiting the amount of shit he'll put up with, and letting himself fall for a new guy, at least a little bit, to broaden his horizons.

Have you ever been with someone who you knew was not the person for you on an emotional level, but rocked your sexual world? That's where Will is with Tony. He wants to find that complete package that contains both. I think this is actually good for him, because it gives him a way to know if he's found that guy (can he cause fireworks like Tony). Kai and Will are both going into this relationship with their eyes wide open about how temporary it is. Will leaves to go home in a few weeks, and that's that. Doesn't mean they can't be friends, but they're both tuned into the ridiculousness of long distance relationships at that age. If Kai gets confused about it, Scott will explain it to him. ;-)

Isidore makes mistakes. She is not a deity. I'm glad she's going to be around too. Usually, she lends a calmness and general air of serenity to the place. I think that Kai is as you said, not as personable. Most of the guys Will has been with have been extroverts like him, but Kai is much more introverted. If you think about it, he's pretty much a loner: surfing and going to school and taking care of his father.

Drama? At Escorial? Please. :-) I think that Brad is going to be pissed off that he's being ignored. His normal tactics to deal with that (ranting and raving) don't work real well with his son, though.

Captain White, at your service. :-) If I were to dive into Claire's mind, I'd probably find that she's busy dealing with various issues (not the least of which is her difficult daughter) and, since she knows Will is coming home soon, she's going to wait and chat with him face to face.

I'm glad you liked the chapter. That noblesse oblige thing was what JP was trying to explain, but I think Isidore, Claire (and definitely Jack) already have that down in their minds, if not in practice.

Well said, and I agree. It isn't healthy to be an island, either, and I think those concerns are justified. Being isolated makes JJ vulnerable.

Isidore can be haughty, but her decisions are usually more thought out and planned. It makes sense for her to dump JP for Frank. :-) I think that Brad and Robbie got together for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least was that their mutual neuroses tend to draw them back to each other, if for no other reason than for security. I don't think Will is as messed up as his father.

ANNOUNCEMENT: In case you missed it - we are happy to announce our newest Hosted Author: David McLeod. David has been a Promising Author here and has a great body (of course, I mentally stopped the sentence here) of work. :-)

August 3, 2001 “A divorce?” I asked her, completely stunned. We had been married to each other since 1963, a marriage of convenience to be sure, but one that we had consummated, and one that had been solid all these years. Even during our most intense moments, around the time that Billy died, we had managed to survive as a couple. Our marriage was at this point a formality, but it had remained a stalwart part of my being, one of my keystones, so to have it suddenly pulled aw

The red markers are the British ships (you got that). In some places they're lighter colored, which indicates that they stopped to fight there, but then went on further (dark color). For example, the Theseus is lighter colored when she anchored next to Guerrier, because then when Guerrier surrendered she went further down the line to battle the Spartiate and Aquilon. Nelson comes back up on deck when the L'Orient catches fire. Perhaps he had pyromaniac impulses. I Well, if they take charge of the surrendered French ships (which they did in the van), that helps. L'Orient must have been like a huge lantern, illuminating things for a while. Eventually, though, action died down and resumed the next morning.

I can actually see that, if he's getting regular carnal servicing. I expect that Jeff could have been around occasionally, too. It's tough to meet older guys when you're still a high school freshman. Cut him some slack. Ah, but there's sex, and then there's sex. If we count oral sex the same as butt sex, well...I'd have to seriously revise my own numbers. So would you.

TY TY TY TY TY TY TY

My perception of Nelson is of a man who was a truly brilliant naval strategist, an amazing leader, one who oozed charisma, and was probably always on edge, anxious to get at it. On the flipside, he was surprisingly insecure, and very sensitive to slights (or perceived slights).

Wow, that's quite a compliment. Thank you! I'm targeting the next chapter to publish on August 6. Hopefully I'll make that deadline.

Thank you so much! If I can make that live, I've succeeded. I actually get to correct you on something, which is a rarity. Nelson will actually only be made a baron for this victory, not a viscount, something that will irritate him, as he felt he deserved to be made a viscount. I agree with him, and think he really was short-changed by the government on that one. I think of Granger as one of those people who is not only incredibly self-aware, but generally very tuned in to his environment.

Thank you so much! It's a challenge, because I don't want to be repetitive in my descriptions. It's hard to paint a picture of all the carnage and death/dismemberment at times, when the ships (pre-battle) look so stately.