Former Member

Not everyone takes all the items. My sister-in-law, who didn’t grow up eating lots of rice, doesn’t eat the rice, for example. My mother used rice as a filling dinner item much as you describe Yorkshire Pudding. Asians eat more rice than the entree(s). That’s the way Chinese and Japanese food is supposed to be eaten. That’s why many non-Asians complain about being hungry 30 minutes after they’ve eaten – they didn’t eat properly! My friends are amused because I always ask for more rice at Chinese or Japanese restaurants – even when it is delivered in a covered bowl and we serve ourselves. (Most restaurants will give you the refill at no extra charge.)

I was a guest. I was brought up to be polite. I quickly ate the steamed white rice first (it was off to the side). Then I ate the spaghetti. But most people think nothing of having bread or rolls and potatoes on the same plate (with an entrée, of course). When we have turkey with all the trimmings, we often have stuffing (a form of bread), potatoes, bread, and steamed white rice. (I grew up eating rice 5 or 6 times a week.)

Than why do you eat chip butties? ;-)

That’s still fried potatoes on bread. Putting butter and condiments on it doesn’t change that fact. A family friend once served me spaghetti with a tomato-based sauce – with a side of steamed white rice! Too many mismatched starches!

Peanut butter and Jello sandwiches would be rather unusual! It sounds disgusting to me! But I wouldn’t put it past some people though. ;-) It’s usually peanut butter and jelly or jam. US Jelly being a form of fruit preserves that lacks pieces of fruit in it – the cooked fruit is strained out before it is poured into the jar. Grape jelly is the most commonly sold variety in stores, but other types of jelly are sometimes sold, including strawberry jelly. Homemade jelly, like jam, uses pectin to thicken and firm up the spread. Pectin is often derived from apples. Jello, on the other hand, is a brandname for flavored gelatin. While there are some visual similarities, there aren’t a whole lot of things they have in common. Jello is usually artificially flavored and is jiggly. Gelatin is usually derived from hooves.

Most of us in the US have no idea what it is. I’m having a difficult time imagining anything that might have chips (french fries?) substituting for bacon.

Is that anything like the Bacon Butty that Onslow* is always asking for? * Brother in law of Hyacinth Bucket (it’s ‘boo KAY’!) on Keeping up Appearances

Not a conventional division of housework? ;-) My younger brother does the grocery shopping since he loves to shop and my sister in law doesn’t! ;-) But Paddy only made the comment about a sister, not a sibling. A subconscious bias, maybe? I wonder whose? ;-)

Many readers already seem to find the whole Comment process intimidating. I think that’s why only a small percentage of readers React (with the emoji at the end of the chapter) and an even smaller percentage actually Comment. Some may have had a bad experience being castigated for expressing an opinion when they’re already feeling insecure about their sexuality, sexual orientation, or sexual desires. Many people are here just for entertainment. They don’t want to think about how they felt when they read the story, what it made them think about, or what was technically wrong with the writing. I’m on Disability so I have more spare time than most readers to cogitate and comment. And some readers seek out exactly the themes that bother me most! ;-)

That’s why you are my Prime Suspect! ;-)

Military personnel (and most security people are ex-military) always know where the bars and entertainment districts are. ;-) The question is whether Olek has assigned Gay security people to Peter & Eric… ;-)

How ironic and sexist that Paddy would say that about his potential baby sister when he’s dating Sasha at their age! ;-)

Hmmmm. Beatings or killings. Either way you need to get your violence in somehow, don’t you? ;-)

I had to go back and reread the first chapter. @Dahawk and @Bndmetl share the blame by posting so many new chapters. At least @Wesley8890 hasn't helped you inundate me since he hasn’t been feeling well recently. (Nan might be there quite a while since Wesley has the flu.) I’m following way too many stories… ;-)

No, I quoted your line, but I was trying to make it clear I wasn’t referring to you or anything you wrote when I was complaining about characters that were unintentional caricatures.

I have read several stories that were set in Hawaii where the speakers sounded more like caricatures rather than real people. When I PM’d one of the authors, he said he was copying the TV show, Hawaii 5-0. Movies and TV shows are often not accurate representations of the locations they are set. People in Hawaii do not sprinkle their conversations with Hawaiian words, one per sentence. Yes, they have slang that’s different from what we use on the mainland, but public schools teach standard English and everybody knows how to speak standard English even if they don’t use it all the time. I spent the first 8 years of my life there and things can only have become more like the rest of the US with all the immigration from the mainland. The vast majority of Californians never use Valley Speak or other exaggerated slang. ‘Honoring the culture and ways of the locale’ does not mean you should imitate a comedy movie or TV show (unless that is the effect you are going for). I want to specifically point out that I am not criticizing or critiquing @BlindAmbition or any of his stories when I quoted him.

Finding the right balance between keeping things the way they’ve always been and adding new conveniences and features will be difficult. Wholesale Americanization is not the answer. Makarovia is European. Adopting European standards and practices makes more sense. All those mountains suggest that hydroelectric power could be a big export. That also means that Aluminum (Aluminium to Brits and Canadians) production would be another industry to explore since it requires lots of electricity. Hydrogen production could also be a good industry to create. Electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are much cleaner than petroleum-fueled cars and trucks – infrastructure to support them is much easier to build out in a small country. But care should be taken to protect the environment as much as possible. State of the art technologies can be much cleaner than older, cheaper ones. Controlled growth and development should be encouraged.

It’s the classic Closeted Gay man (or boy) hiding his big secret by attacking or harassing others so no one notices who he’s actually attracted to. Sometimes the pushing, shoving, and hitting is just a way to touch what they simultaneously fear and want. There’s a long list of homophobes who are known to have had Same-Sex attractions – J Edgar Hoover, Roy Cohn, Ted Haggard, and many, many others. In some cases, it explains their obsession.

How much detail can there be? Just about every Legoland face looks like the others down to the Simpson-esque yellow color. Even the same slightly effeminate androgynous eyebrows! You’d think they all came out of a factory or something! ;-) Is this phrasing less offensive, @Sam Wyer? ;-)

I forgot another over-used theme: the use of vast wealth to solve every problem. It bothers me when the protagonist goes to great pains to tell us that he doesn’t like effeminate, flamboyant, and visually identifiably Gay people. How he’s not like those people. How he hates Gay ghettoes (and ends up creating his own mini-ghetto by the end of the story). I get it, some LGBTQs are butch, masculine, and macho. But differences should be celebrated, not denigrated. Being proud of your identity should not require insulting other people's identities and how they present. I skip stories where large groups of previously very heterosexual young men suddenly turn Gay after the protagonist Comes Out in school. LGBTQ is not an infection. Straight boys don’t suddenly fall in love with each other just because they’ve been exposed to a classmate who is Gay. Whole schools do not switch sexual orientations! Most studies have found that LGBTQs are minority populations. A straight boy who experiments is still a straight boy – behavior is not the same as identity.

I’m bothered by misspellings and grammatical errors. But I understand why one author (who seems to have been alluded to for several different issues) writes the way he does without editors, it’s because his writing is his therapy. I used to offer suggestions to him with corrections in my Comments, but gave up when I noticed that even though he appreciated the help, he wasn’t updating the chapter to fix the errors. (Sometimes descriptions of hair color and other characteristics are in-story thank you's or inside jokes.) I'm actually more likely to PM an author when there’s a mistake that really bothers me. But I’m tired of seeing the same incorrect homonyms being used. I hate it when authors use texting abbreviations out of context. Why don’t some people know when and where to use an apostrophe correctly? I understand and make allowances for non-native speakers, but their English is often much better than those of us who only speak a single language. Sex scenes are boring. I really don’t want to read someone else’s fantasies. I’m not here to read porn.

Thank you for not using money to solve every problem like some authors do! ;-) That leaves the legal system. Adam should file for divorce, sue for fraud and theft, and demand custody of his baby. She should be forced to pay back every penny she spent of Adam’s money!

The Professor is an idiot. If Peter had expected special treatment, he would have had his status mentioned to the school administration with the request that the information remain private. Ironically, it’s likely that the administration would have mentioned Peter’s status to all of his professors due to the secrecy involved to insure that they avoid mentioning that Peter was Royalty. ;-)

I guess you’ll be signing up to be one of the first to get a thought-to-text brain implants then. You’ll just need to download them into your computer for editing and posting. It should be ready by the time you’re writing the ‘Benny’s Grandchild's Wedding’ chapter!

I knew it sounded wrong. But I’m reading too many stories simultaneously. And here you go adding yet another side story… ;-)