methodwriter85

That seems especially true of the du Ponts. They were such a strong presence in this region, but as the family company turned into a globalist conglomerate run by other people, their central prescence diminished. I think the last notable thing that's happened with the du Ponts was when John du Pont killed his wrestling "friend" at his estate in the 1990's. It makes sense that the same kind of thing is happening with the Cramptons/Schluters, because it's become less of family company centered in a small area and more of globalist company run by non-family members, with the family splintering around all these different areas. I mean it is pretty jarring if you compare how the business was being run circa The Land Whore, vs. how it's being run now. I do think the Hobarts vs. Cramptons/Schluters deal is interesting, because it's always kind of been there. Jack's parents or greater family (is Jack an only child?) have never been that involved in anything the Cramptons/Schluters do. The Hobarts aren't like the Hendricksons- the one time we see mention of Jack's mother, it's her chatising Jack for letting John have a boyfriend. They were never fully enfolded into the family like the Hendricksons, or the process we're seeing with the Danfields. Although with the Danfields it feels a little more like a "frenemy" situaton- Wade, Nana, and his father are truly being enfolded into the family, but his mother and sister won't be.

Angelina Jolie Reveals She Had Double Mastectomy I think it's pretty interesting that someone as young and as widely known as Jolie got the procedure done and was pretty open about it. Bravo to Jolie for raising awareness about this. I first heard about women (and men) getting this done a couple of years ago...Nip/Tuck even had a plot about it. It is really awesome to see how medical advances in genectic testing have brought us to the point of being able to make some really informed decisions about our health. I read an interesting book once about the history of treating breast cancer It definitely makes me wonder about what I'd do if I were in the same position- like let's say, I get a test, and it tells me that it's 90 percent likely that I'd get testicular cancer or prostate cancer. Would I get that removed, or would I take my chances? Have any of you had a similiar kind of dilemna, or know people who had?

43 Things That Will Make You Feel Really Old The ones of note for me: 39. You can go up to a 15-year old and say, "I have MP3's that are older than you." 37. 34. In two years it will be 2015 and you will be as far removed from 1985 as Marty McFly was from 1955. 32. People born in 1995 graduated high school this year. 29. Here's how old the Backstreet Boys's currently are: 26. The Power Rangers made their debut in 1993, twenty years ago. 19. And these are the Rugrat's current ages: 18. Monica and Chandler's twins should be 9, Phoebe's triplets would be 14, Benjamin should be 18, and Emma would be 11. 17. Home Alone was released closer to The MOON LANDING than to now. 2. **** Man time goes by.

I'm not so sure there will be a JP "heir", so to speak. I think JP's having the realization that the way in which they conducted the family- the French model of the family head- isn't really going to work in the globalist 21st century with their 21st century rising generation. It might be more of a democracy than an absolute power monarchy. Congrats on Minnesota getting gay marriage. We're getting gay marriage in Delaware on July 1st. That should make Rehoboth Beach businesses very happy.

Congrats on hitting this huge milestone. Here's to another half-century, Mark!!! LOL. All kidding aside, you got any big plans for this, Mark? For the summer I'm 50 (because I'm not doing this in December), I really want to travel around the U.S.A. in a Winnebago, like Road Rules.

Okay guys, I think we're getting waaaayyyy off topic here. This discussion is about the plot points, characters and themes of 9.11 and CAP, not about calling on posters on their behavior. That is strictly boards-on-boards...it's banned at TWOP, and I'm sure it's probably at least frowned upon here. Please if you two have any issues with each other, take it to private messages, okay? Anyway, back to the story...we're now about ten weeks, give or take, from 9/11. I'd love to see Mark try and incorporate some big New York City events that were taking place that summer, like the 2001 MTV Music Awards. I remember it being a big deal for my school, because one of our students was appearing as a back-up dancer to Jay Z's number. I remember people from New York were saying that the week previous to 9.11 had been such a fun week for New York City- the MTV Music Awards, the Michael Jackson concert, the big racing regatta. And if I'm remembering correctly, the weather in the region had been basically perfect late summer East Coast weather- that's why it was being called an Indian Summer. Blue skies, warm, but not humid. That's what made it so weird to look at the skies on 9/11...the skies were beautiful, and utterly silent. I'll never forget that- school was dismissed because the governor of Delaware declared a state of emergency- there were concerns that the Delaware Memorial Bridge and Dover Air Force Base could be targets, and after I got picked up from school I just remember lying back in the car and staring out the windows at the sky above.

I've already used it- it was Bitty's theme, and it was the song I used for the fallout of the Triton scandal.

....JJ has strawberry blond hair. I do like your Scott Slater a lot, though. He kind of reminds me of how I'd picture a guy who was probably once a surfer hunk as a young guy, and has grown into a pleasantly good-looking older man.

Chapter 8 -When JP despairs over the realization that there isn't the tight, cohesive family bond that he thought there was. -When JP looks out over the Bay Area, and reflects.

You are too much fun.

I've been thinking about my lack of getting a successful Darius lately...and then I realized that you've never really described Darius in terms of his face other than the fact that he's considered beautiful but in an exotic, ethically ambigious way. Probably because as a straight guy, and more importantly, as the straight guy who's the brother to the main protagonist, he's never going to be included in any CAP sexual encounters or be a leading character and thus how he looks isn't something that you have "clearly" in your head the way you would for someone like Matt. Am I right about that, Mark? My next (of many) guesses in the "Let's find Darius" game is this male model, Tyson Ballou. I noticed his modeling ads at H&M. I find him pretty hot in an exotic kind of way. I do feel like Darius as described would probably look like someone that could model Dolce and Gabbana. Will, Cody, and Ryan seem like they'd be Abercrombie and Fitch Models. Matt would be a beefcake model in a gay magaizine type, while Wade and "Sergio" would be Euro-thin runway models. JJ and Allistair would look they belong on the Disney channel, but dress like the junior division of Brooks Brothers. That's what I think in terms of how I found the "face" models, so to speak, for the guys.

Really good point. I have this online friend who's life, on the surface, is pretty much a wet dream for anybody. Great parents, massively talented, affluent upbringing, nice looks, great relationships, great job...but he's also prone to bouts of intense melancholy, and has an extremely hard time dealing with things not working out as he wants them to. I didn't get it for the first couple of years I talked to him- this guy's life has pretty much anything he could want, so why would he ever be sad? Then I got it explained to me. I remember our mutual online friend told me once that when someone's lived a Golden Boy life, it makes it that much more difficult when life does hand you setbacks, as opposed to the people who've learned to deal with disapointment early and often. When I got it, I had much more sympathy for him, like I would have for Will. It is interesting how Will does differ from Brad in that regard. Brad had no trouble beating the shit out of Neal in Man In Motion, and he didn't bat an eye about his own sister and uncle getting whacked. Will does have a temper (as Brad and Robbie's wadrobe can attest to) but it's not really been directed in violence. And the one time he got himself involved in the "revenge" side of the family, Will had an extremely difficult time with the notion of playing God with people's lives. I really like that Mark has written that into Will as a core part of who he is, because it's so different from a core part of who Brad is. It feels like something that Will would have gotten from Tonto. I do wonder how Will is going to view the upcoming War on Terror, especially if he knows people who go over the course of the 2000's. I feel like that's part of why Mark's having Will in Claremont and making acquaintances there- Claremont will have a lot of people that go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KHzz7xqG7A

Ace is technically the oldest son. Ace was born in March 1962, Brad was born in October 1962. I'm kinda curious actually if Ace was held back a year, because Ace should have graduated from high school in 1980 instead of '81 like Brad and Robbie. Brad started kindergarten in Ohio, so that date is right, and Robbie was born in March 1963, so that's right. The birth order for Isidore and JP's kids are Ace (March 1962), Brad (October 1962), Claire and Billy (October 1964). (Billy died October 1980.) The birth order for Brad, Robbie, and Jeanine's kids are Darius (January 1982), JJ (December 1985), and Will (September 1986.) The birth order for Claire and Jack's kids are Marie (April 1986) and John (July 1987.) Ace's only child, Courtney, was born in September 1995. I would imagine that as bad as Marie's Princess Complex is, Courtney's will be much, much worse because she's an only child. Only children can be precocious little monsters. Although Westie does have a good point.We've never seen CAP through the eyes of a female. As someone who went to a high school that was over 2/3's female, I noticed that girls will often have to deal with nice guys who keep hitting on them but just refuse to get the hint. I can see the point of view with Marie, where Noah was making her feel uncomfortable and guilty because he liked her and she felt like a bitch for saying no because a nice girl doesn't say no to a nice guy who likes her. Will only joined up with Menlo by January and we didn't see any of the school year at Menlo...we don't know how Noah interacted with Marie or whether or not he tried to "shame" her into dating him. It's actually something that's been discussed in feminist circles... "Nice Guy Syndrome" is the idea of men who become fixated on being "nice" towards a pretty girl, and begins to develop feelings for her. Because he's nice to her, it starts to become this expectation that she'll reciprocate his feelings. Women are trained to be culturally gentle when trying to let down a guy, and maybe Noah just didn't get the hint so she finally went the bitch route.

If there's one thing I've learned in life, no matter how stong the arguments of the Alpha male are, he will always lose in a fight with an Alpha female.

Bryan Craig (the new Morgan Corrinthos on General Hospital) as Noah? I remember you said you pictured Noah as good looking, but with a very disproportionate nose, which is true of this guy. The hair's not really period, but eh.

JJ isn't actually younger than Will. He's actually 9 months older than Will. JJ's just a late bloomer so he seems younger. Other than that, good points. You gotta love the life of a soap opera teenager.

I don't think that's quite true about Marie- Marie has been described as being an eclectic young woman who has an eclectic taste in friends. Marie doesn't strike me as someone who gives a shit about becoming Homecoming Queen of the school. Wasn't it kind of a sticking point between Ella and Marie that Marie didn't want anything to do with the uber-elite crowd at Menlo, and Marie didn't dress head-to-toe preppy? (At the time, that probably would have meant Abercrombie and Fitch and Tommy Hilfiger.) Then again, you can be a pretty bitchy queen bee of any social group. The high school social scene tends to be way more complicated than it is on t.v., where it's the quarterback/head cheerleader "ruling" over and torturing the poor nerdy types. More often than not, high school was made of little cliques where people did their own thing and didn't really bother much with people outside of their social group. The real bullying and terrorizing came within their own social groups, as seen in Mean Girls, and what we've seen in Marie's bitchy behavior towards Noah. I do like that Mark's approaching high school this time around much more differently this time as opposed to Brad at Gunn or Matt at The University School...it's less a feeling of "needing" the social power that comes from being at the top of the heap. Brad and Matt both really liked and needed the power of being Mr. Popular, and Brad especially seemed to think of his "friends" as his personal chess pieces to move around. Brad and Matt would have likely befriended Carter as part of the idea of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer...Will flat out refuses to pretend to like people he can't stand.

This is sooooooo far ahead, but I was watching the Ender's Game trailer and thought, "Asa Butterfield as Riley Danfield at age 12?"

Delaware to Become 11th State with Gay Marriage Pretty cool. I honestly thought that this wouldn't have happened until I was at least in my mid-30's. I remember back around 2004, I was a camp counselor visiting the Delaware Legislative Hall with my middle school charges. We brought up gay marriage, and one of our tour guides said that with the gay marriage ban in our state it'd take a long time for that to happen here. Pretty incredible how fast things changed. I am in no way thinking about marriage for myself, but I'm glad that it's an option on the table now, without even having to leave the sate. In practical terms, it'lll be really good for the gay tourism segment at Rehoboth Beach. Anyway, I've met more than a few gay couples with families, so I'm excited for them.

Of course, we gotta qualify this analysis by remembering that in terms of Brad's kids, Darius went all the way through the public school system and graduated from Malibu High, and JJ and Will attended public school through 8th grade. Of course, it's not that JJ and Will would have been interacting with kids from the ghetto at Malibu Middle, but they still would have interacted with people that weren't at the same income price point. It's possible that's why Will is not quite as cocooned in priviliege and more empathetic than Marie and John are. I agree that Will knew fully and exactly what he was doing there. I think JJ probably didn't, but he also knew that his brother needed to someone to stand behind him, and did it out of reflex. I also get the feeling with JJ that he's never been as tightly bond to the family's protocol as Darius and Will are, so he didn't have the framework for fully understanding the significance of what they were doing. It was like when JP was going off on JJ, and he almost didn't seem to care all that much. That's a very good point. It's not to say that our generation isn't materalistic...but there was something just incredibly greedy about Mark's generation where it really did seem to matter what labels you were wearing. Will is such a great example of how things had changed- not just in terms of the coming out narrative, but in terms of how peers related to each other. Yes, we had Mean Girls and Mean Guys, but there was also this strong sense of Do Your Own Thing, and a stronger sense of social activism. (Of course, that volunteerism was pretty much becoming expected or even mandatory in high school probably ushered that in.)

God, 13 through 15 are such incredibly bitchy ages. I wouldn't go back there for anything. I think Marie will be fine, but she's suffering through "everything is about ME and MY feelings" teenaged mindset right now. I'm a little disapointed in Claire, though. This feels really out of character for Claire to be that out-of-touch with what's going on. I loved Will pointing out about how Claire and her kids never show up for the Claremont events. Given that JP, Nick, and Brad have been busting their asses off to create a revival, and that Tonto's grand message was noblesse oblige, I can totally get why that bothers him. My guess is that Claire and her kids have firmly trended towards the Hobart side, and didn't do the Claremont events because they're too busy with Hobart Bay Area events. Finally, I loved that seven months ago, JJ and Will couldn't stand to be in the same room together, but now they're to the point where JJ backs Will up without even thinking.

On one hand, it sucks. On the other hand, it'll be really, really good for all the new tax-free shopping centers they're putting up in Delaware. So wait though...sales taxes can apply to things like memberships and the like? That's crazy. I didn't even know that was possible- so you're saying like if I joined a gym in a state that had sales tax, I might have to pay a sales tax for that membership? And if I did, would it just be for the initial purpose or every month?

Chapter 7 -When Will tells Stefan about his romantic weekend with Tony, and the two analyze what this all means. -When Will realizes that Erik and Carter are still invited to Bastille's Day, and his friend is not, and slams the family for their snobbery and materialism. -When Will and JJ discuss at the end how horribly bitchy Marie's been. "Jaded" by Aerosmith

True. Sleeping with a Crampton or Schluter boy and having a conversation about how you're down on your luck can get you anything from a really nice car up to a 5 million dollar trust fund. Noah could have gotten so much more than three Abercrombie polo shirts if he had decided to get all gay with Will. Although...I'm getting an inkling with Will that he's not going to be quite along the same lines of his grandfather and father in terms of giving nice cars to his sleeping partners. The deal with Noah was about making reparations, and Will seems a bit more wary about people only wanting to be his friends to mooch off him than either JP or Brad in their youth did. Which makes sense, because the Cramptons/Schluters seem to be much more infinitely wealthy than they were a generation or two ago. They haven't really met up against the "proud" blue collar mindset, where taking gifts like that is just not something you're supposed to do. We got an inkling of that with Wally and Clara- it would be stupid for them to turn down having their kids's college education funded but they haven't really taken much personally from Robbie, as well as Noah's mother not being cool with her son being given three 70 dollar shirts, but no one has ever flat out refused.