apjordan

Excited to see where the new story takes us, Carlos. And you can count me among those happy to hear CJ's editorializing about the cheetoh-in-chief. A small writing correction: Owen is CJ's fiancé (just one e); the second e is just for women.

Just popping back to this thread to note that, with today's generous double posting of new chapters, Mark has returned to his rightful place atop the list of prolific authors. Thanks, Mark and team, for your continued gifts to GA's readers... ....Allyster

Since Beautiful Thing is one of my favorite movies, my brain made little sqeeing noises at the first flashback scene. I enjoyed this version of the future for Jamie and his mum. (And I might be a bit more optimistic regarding Ste's future...) Readers who haven't seen Beautiful Thing should do so immediately... and then come back and read this story again

And we're back! How else would Mark return than with an update on a holiday? (And the timing is perfect for me, since I used the hiatus as an excuse to re-read the last several CAP stories and had just worked through to where Black Widow was paused, which means most of the relevant story details were fresh-ish in my mind. Lucky me!) Mark: I'll add my voice to the chorus in other threads wishing you well as you return to health. It's very good to have your authorial voice back in form, and to know that things in your real life continue to improve. All best, Allyster

Have just discovered your writing as a result of the Secret Santa competition. This is a lovely story, and I'll add my voice to the chorus hoping it will have more chapters soon.

As more and more signs point to Elizabeth as the mastermind, a little voice in the back of my head won't let go of the fact that she's not, technically, a widow. (Recall that that technicality mattered quite a bit in the planning of the Senator's funeral and the settling of his estate.) Even though Mark has hinted that the title might not be literal, I can't help but notice that we still don't have any actual confirmation that Elizabeth is even involved, let alone in charge. In his conversation with Wade in chapter 12, Trevor denies that Mary Ellen is involved; but when Wade implicates Elizabeth, Trevor doesn't say anything at all. The only things Trevor says about Elizabeth are generic observations about her character. I think there's also at least a part of me that wants the small shred of humanity buried inside Elizabeth, particularly the affection and respect she has for Brad, to make it unlikely that she would mastermind a plot that would hurt his children so badly. (And while we haven't seen it yet, I won't be surprised if the plot eventually expands to place Darius in harm's way as well.) So, I'm holding out for the revelation of a surprise antagonist. As for Will and Zach, I'm struck by a parallel that I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't dedicated some summer reading time to revisiting the older CAP stories: Will's need to regularly reassess and renegotiate the terms of his relationship with Zach is so reminiscent of how Brad handled his relationship with Robbie, especially while they were in school. If they were aware of these similarities in language, forceful certainty, and elicited reactions, I think it would freak Will out and make Brad chuckle. Thanks, as always, Mark and team, for keeping us engaged and entertained!

And with Chapter 34 of HMS Valiant posted, all is right with the universe again...

Hmm...and now it says 4,989,798. Perhaps the algorithm is recounting slowly? Edit: Apparently the algorithm was tweaked again a little bit ago and the counts were re-run.

So, the algorithm that counts words at GA was changed yesterday to something which defines words much more conservatively, dropping most word counts by ca. 10%. The upshot is that Mark's total as of this moment now registers as a mere 4,997,244. The next posted chapter will presumably push it back over five million again.

I'm pretty sure I first found GA by following Dom Luka's stories (it's been long enough ago I can't be entirely certain). But I quickly found many more good authors to follow and have enjoyed being a frequent visitor.

Delighted to hear from several of my favorites in this installment and to see more of them on the docket for next time. I'm especially pleased that Comicality has returned to "My One True Weakness," since it's long been a favorite of mine among his unfinished stories. But it might not be the best example of the author "not leaving us hanging": the gap between chapters 3 and 4 was 12 years! Don't know whether you intended that to be funny, Dark, but it definitely made me laugh!

There are a handful of NFL players who have come out after retiring from the game. The trailblazer in that regard is David Kopay, who came out in 1975, one of the first to do so in association with any professional sport. Others who have publicly come out include Roy Simmons (1992), Esera Tuaolo (2002), Wade Davis (2012), and Kwame Harris (2013). Ray McDonald and Jerry Smith were apparently known to be gay in personal and professional circles, but never publicly came out before their deaths. I'd imagine that Esera Tuaolo's coming out in October of 2002 would have a pretty big impact on Zach.

I'm also pretty sure it's not true. You have a citation for that, Bucket? I know personal anecdotes aren't data. But since every retired academic I know (and I know a lot of them) has lived more than 18 months post retirement (and several are at 20+ years), a lot of folks would need to be dying even earlier than that for the average to work out. About the only way I could imagine that stat pans out is if people who die while still employed are considered to have retired at the moment of their death. This BBC News piece suggests that claims that specific professions (apparently teachers are mentioned most often in this regard) have life expectancies of 18 months post-retirement are both common and false.

When I lived in Chicago (1994-2000), I never spent much time in Boystown and never got into the club scene there. But reading about some of these clubs in Flux is definitely bringing back details I might not otherwise have recalled... Quoting Mark from the Reviews: I did some research, and all I could find in 2002, for clubs in Boystown (that looked interesting) were Manhole and Circuit. SideTrack and Roscoe's were both incredibly popular in the late 90s. And since they're still going strong today, I expect they were still big deals in 2002. SideTrack was very popular with the UChicago gay crowd in the 90s (though I can't speak for the B-schoolers), so perhaps Matt's classmates can nudge him in that direction. My recollection of Manhole (which I never went in) is that it was very forbidding—a stark blacked-out glass storefront that suggested a very nasty backroom—and very much a club of the established (and slightly older) serious partying community, for whom it was almost a sacred space. Their print ads ran to the raunchy side of Tom of Finland. It wasn't a place for people who were unsure of themselves. I did some googling to check on its fate, as I was pretty sure it's not there anymore: It doesn't last much longer than its current appearance in Flux. It closes at the beginning of May 2003 and is replaced a month later by Hydrate. Today, Hydrate hosts occasional "Manhole Night" events, in commemoration of its predecessor. Stories about the opening of Hydrate seem to suggest that the Manhole was in desperate need of a major overhaul/remodel by the time it closed due to years of poor maintenance (minds out of the gutters, boys!). That could make an interesting complement to the renovations at Spartacus.

My own thoughts on the second question include two possibilities not listed here: a) Wade came to Paris because he realized that Matt was hurt by his plan to go straight back to Boston, or Wade came to Paris because JP asked him to. These are not mutually exclusive, of course...