Former Member

Team BeMie?

Unlike the camming, this was age appropriate exploration. ;–)

So I guess we’ll see a few chapters of the two of them struggling without each other? Will the mutual visits make things better or worse? Nearly half a world apart… ;–)

Yes! I need a husband like that – especially if he does the cleaning too! Those are all the things I struggle with… ;–)

In one story, a bully was robbing kids, so EB caught him by only giving the victim a handful of coins that couldn’t make change (the defense the bully used). ;–)

@wildone Thanks for featuring Foster's poem It's always nice when GA poetry is highlighted for people to discover

Has anyone else noticed how this list is posted in JAM, but it’s arranged for Wesley & Seamus? ;–)

Have you ever talked to @R. Eric? He’s younger than you are, but he’s also a vet with cataracts and vision-impairment. He’s been struggling with his writing because of his issues…

That was me! I graduated from Crawford in ’77. But through my father’s church, I knew people who attended Madison, Patrick Henry, Helix, and other schools around the area. My older brother graduated in ’73, but I can only remember one of his friends (among his many) and she graduated from Crawford too. ;–) My brother ran cross-country for Crawford… ;–)

The girls probably did more planning – they aren’t overwhelmed by testosterone flowing through their veins like the boys! ;–)

Alice still has eight cookies, Jaime is not a thief! ;–) Just because Jaime ate six cookies doesn’t mean he took Alice’s cookies! Maybe he baked his own cookies. Why do math teachers think one kid had all the cookies available? Maybe fiends stole the cookies. Maybe fiends ate all the cookies in the world, creating a cookie shortage. Fiends are the worst. ;–)

I was expecting little Lenny to be the placement. But since it was Melvin, at least he apologized to JAM earlier. It would have been much more stressful if they hadn’t talked first. ;–)

Debora is a very incestuous small town where everyone knows everyone else’s problems – because they’re all related to each other somehow! ;–)

Your husband who does all the cooking and all the laundry! ;–)

And his teacher read the whole paper! How many classes did that take? Or did JAM use a 72pt font? ;–)

I don’t think medicinal marijuana is indicated for Abandonment Issues. And even in states where pot is legal, it’s still not legal for 14-year-olds! I’m sure Dad & Pop won’t be encouraging JAM to take up the habit… ;–)

Well, to make Jam, you have to crush some berries and cook them with sugar… ;–)

Mother and son? ;–)

If anyone has any ideas, I would like to talk about them, but I really struggle to see how these six movements form a cohesive work of art. Naturally, one can default to Mahler's descriptions for each movement, but I immediately go beyond that and just listen to the progress of the work itself. I don't get it. It seems such a potpourri, like some leftover studies expanded and cobbled together. If the triumph of spirit and music known as Mahler's 2nd Symphony had not been there, then perhaps this 3rd titled symphony would have seemed like a step towards greatness, but as it is...what is going on? For my taste, movements 1 through 3 are far too alike. Then the two choral numbers don't belong together either: first a dirge-like solo followed by a ding-dong Christmas carol. And then, omg, the concluding movement belongs somewhere else again. It has none of the noisy brassiness of the opening movements, or none of the tinkling percussions of the Christmas movement, but forms a long, slow unwinding for the strings. Don't get me wrong, I feel each movement on its own is interesting and engaging, but how they are all supposed to come together to form a whole musically (without his written descriptions) escapes me totally. As for the final movement, I think it alone can stand as one of the greatest symphonies ever written. It is amazing, but again, how does it fit with the rest...?

I like the rendering of the aria very much here. Makes me wonder if I should try for a performance translation of the Latin.... *rubs chin thoughtfully* hmmm

I had forgotten you wrote that! ;–)

Did you read the earlier W.A.R. stories first? Not only is the backstory covered there, but they are interesting in their own right. Reading this is like seeing Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi without having seen Ep IV: A New Hope and Ep V: The Empire Strikes Back. Or seeing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King without having seen The Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers. ;–)

I found this on a French Tumblr of all places… The link if you, like me, block automatic loading of videos and autoplay YouTube. ;–) I should point out that Hanukkah is a minor holiday in Israel. It was elevated to major status in the US as an anti-christmas countermeasure. Along with the ‘Hanukkah Bush,’ it is an effort to mollify Jewish kids who see all the hype around Santa and christianity’s second biggest holy day (behind easter, of course – even this Agnostic know that!). ;–)

And your first copyrighted book will cover epic sagas Neanderthals told each other? ;–) Or will it be a collection of Neanderthal redhead and blond jokes? ;–) I know! Adam’s first knock-knock joke! (Knock-knock! Who’s there? [silence]) ;–)

A grand conclusion to an epic tale. All the threads we were following in the earlier books in the W.A.R. series have been woven together in the the final book that we needed to read. We get to catch up on many characters from throughout the series with a few surprises and even more sad but predictable outcomes. Like the best stories, unfortunately, this story leaves you wanting more – and the author has been pretty emphatic that this is his final story here on GA.