Mark Arbour

I think you're being just a bit prudish. Just saying. Plus you may want to remember that we are dealing with fiction here. A little exaggeration is allowed.

Something to ponder: I don't get why there's this feeling that Brad and Robbie have become mere foils for Will. As someone quite astute pointed out sometime earlier in this thread, we are seeing things through Will's eyes, so he's bound to view them with a relative amount of disdain when dealing with their crap. In the current situation, Brad has some reasonable arguments to back up his position. Is he right? Personally, I think he's right about some things, but not about others. He and Will are viewing things differently. I don't think that makes Brad and Robbie reprehensible. I can totally see where Brad was coming from in the "Michael" situation. He knew that if he made a big deal out of it, that things, as many of you pointed out, would undoubtedly bounce back onto Jeanine. He also knew that JJ wanted to forget the whole thing and move on. And he also realized that having the guard of a world-famous figure skater (well, marginally famous) take pornographic pictures of that skater would probably be newsworthy, and that those stories would have a significant negative impact on JJ. His decision, to hush the whole thing up, makes sense from that standpoint. The other family members, including Will, view it a little differently. They don't understand how Brad can let Michael get away with doing that to JJ and Will, and they don't understand how Brad can let this guy walk away, only to probably perpetrate the same things onto some other kid. But the thing that pisses all of them off, and really gives them solidarity, is the way Brad made these decisions in isolation. When Will says he's demanding a place 'at the table', this is what he's referring to. It drives him crazy that Brad is sneaking off behind a curtain (metaphorically) to then make these big decisions about his life, without being allowed to provide any meaningful input. Where's the reprehensibility here?

I think that's a sign of the Wade who is becoming his own person. He's dealing with his mother, rebuilding ties to his father, and grappling with who he is. And he's doing a damn good job of it.

I suspect that was a particularly unpleasant experience at the toilet. :-)

Thanks for the nice review! I think the thing with David won't be a big deal; it was more of an indication of how settled in his relationship with Matt Wade really is. He can handle fucking a guy who's a virtual stranger, and it doesn't shake him up at all.

Not likely, at least not soon. Wade's got some legwork to do first. His logical path, if he were to enter the Senate, would be a state rep or senator, then a US representative, then maybe a run at the senate. That's a long way off.

Wow. That was amazingly insightful. Just, wow.

What he said. Happy Birthday Bill!

You're right about authors being sensitive. My frame of reference is this: I spend a lot of my time doing this (writing) for the enjoyment of it. If someone has something constructive to add, that's great, but if they're just going to be a dick, well, it's pretty demotivating. As for your editing method, I personally prefer the review function in Microsoft Word, which makes things pretty damn easy.

November 7, 2000 Arlington, VA Wade The meeting with veterans turned out to be at Arlington National Cemetery. I thought it was a grim place, but it had strong symbolism, so I focused on that. The veterans had been mostly really old guys, and even though I’d anticipated some attitude from them, I’d gotten none. They’d been very nice to me, most of them asking me about school, or about hockey once they asked me if I played sports. It was just like David Banister had said: to them

Happy Birthday Cia!!!

I'm quite good at banging them out.

I'll throw out a spoiler here from Chapter 60. I agree that Will is using this for leverage (big time), but the thing that bugs him the most is that it's an invasion of his privacy.

You would have been so bored. OR.. Think who you may have ended up editing for if you wouldn't have been overloaded by me.

Thanks. I've kept busy.

Chad Johnson was cut from the Miami Dolphins after head-butting his woman.

I thought the whole thing was done really well! The closing ceremony last night was really cool. I wasn't expecting a Goth Annie Lennox, but that worked! Kudos to our British cousins!

That just explains so much. We'll plead with the court for some poetic license in this situation.

I think that the frustration Will has is that his father is notorious for wanting to know all the secrets, yet is becoming quite adept at keeping things from his son.

Great to hear from you! If I can respond to reviews on my iPad, you can write them on your iPad. :-)

You made my point for me. Emancipation can only go forward in this case if Brad agrees with it, much as his lawyer said. Will and his attorney are banking on the fact that there's been enough crap over the past few months that Brad will decide he's not on solid enough ground to fight, especially when the other guardian is in the mental hospital (again). Will doesn't want to go running off and join a commune. What he wants is to be treated like an adult, which he isn't. He figures that if he is an adult, he'll actually get the consideration on decision-making that he thinks he deserves. What he's doing is announcing to everyone that he's tired of being a pawn, and that from now on, he's in charge of his own life, and no one else.

Wow. Thanks for all the research. I especially liked the line above that I bolded. It took a particularly crappy day and made it better.

If you think about it, Brad has been saddled with Jeanine and her situation, so he's trying to just get things back to a calm, level place. He's decided that the price for that, letting Michael go with a pat on the back, is worth avoiding traumatizing JJ and possibly dragging Jeanine into court to answer for her antics. I really don't think he's all that worried about the publicity from his own aspect, but it would be problematic for JJ, and maybe even for Robbie. So is Brad really making the wrong decisions here? Will's point is more based on righteous indignation. He's flummoxed that Brad is letting this asshole go, and he can't imagine that Brad would let someone get away with doing that to him or to JJ. He's seen what his father has done to people who have crossed the family before, guys like Carson and Brian, and he's wondering why Michael doesn't warrant the same kind of treatment. I think that JP, Claire, and Stef tend to see things more in line with Will's point of view, and to the degree that they don't, they're really irritated with how Brad is handling this, how he's making these decisions in isolation.

Brad is doing what he always does: he's making decisions on a broad basis. Will's not willing to be put into that kind of a corner.

Well, I think that Sean would be really careful in this situation. Wade is his big-deer client, and he's not going to mess that up. I think you made some of the key arguments about the problems they face with this issue...like Jeanine being involved in child porn...so I think the issues are more significant than a bratty outburst. And your final paragraph sums it up. Will's at the point where he's determined that he will have a say in how his life is run.