paya

Gays are one of the most lucrative target groups, so that makes sense... But if it were so, there would be some message after all that coming out thing, something like "Now Ricky is working hard preparing his next album to be released blah blah blah..." I've also read somewhere that in Hollywood it's in to be at least bi-curious in public nowadays. On the other hand, I take it also as a positive sign that those people are no more afraid to admit their sexual orientation to the public. Here, our first winner of what you call American Idol came out as lesbian recently. They're not afraid to be ridiculed any more, so maybe our society is changing for better.

Happy Birthday!

Hi! Your life story is just amazing. I'm glad your coming out goes so smoothly! I've come out to my family around last Christmas, so I know the feeling! Now when I think about it, I've come out only to girls/women so far - same as you And as for the coming out to others, I'd stick to "come out to who you feel comfortable". There's no obligation to tell everyone once you start. For me, there's no point in telling my 87-year-old grandma, as well as there's no point in telling others that I'm afraid would have problems with it. Until I have someone that would help me deal with the pain it could bring, I'm not doing it alone.

Are you looking for a Daddy, Vic?

sooo... let the games begin? Do you think he's dating someone?

I've come across a nice video apologetics of grindr. It's pretty hard on concentration because of nipples but once you get over it and stop following them... what I wanted to say?

Oh you have to show me to some Mark, if I ever get to the US!

Well he knew what happened... Or at least he had that suspicion. His brain is logical. He deduced Sam could have met Jeff in the time of his death and that he could be somehow involved. For me it was also "enough is enough" as Sharon said. JP just resigned to do anything about Jeff anymore. BUT! I blame Mark! He's the author, so he decides how it goes. He needed JP to lose somebody as close to him as Jeff was, so he just did it. You can blame JP, you can blame Jeff, Sam, whoever you want, it won't resurrect Jeff, nor it will change anything else. 1968 is a very emotional story, one that is hard to grasp rationally. I've read it once because I had to go through it and I'm not planning to do it ever again. I just don't like that one.

I think that happens when you really love them - you don't want to see you in that bad state you are - it may happen also after some major surgery, etc.

It seems Yang you're a compulsive liar too!

Well... if I may add my impression of the story... For me the main shock came with the first paragraphs. I couldn't grasp how a man, an intelligent one, in a loving relationship with family and kids, could have got on drugs. I need to rationally understand the story I'm reading, even if there are emotions and all (and I think I can be pretty emotional about some stories...) to really accept the story my brain has to confirm "yes, that's possible". So my major objection against that story was "Why it had to be Jeff to be written as a crackhead?" There was plenty of secondary characters to write off, why it had to be one of THE couple? Once I got over the fact that Jeff became just by a turn of a page (and sort of in five years) a heavy drug addict, it was obvious for me that he's going to end up badly. In fact, making Jeff a drug addict was such an impulse for me that I came out from being an anonymous reader and asked at your yahoo group why did you do that! In general, 1968 didn't have such bad impact on me - mainly because I knew what's going to happen (I got it in the answers to my question) and I could prepare myself for that and I loosened my attachment to that character, to be prepared to let him go. In other cases however I'm a similar case like Adam, I get too attached to the characters and don't want them hurt (or dead :wacko:) Side note: so "Robbie has grown on you", huh? So why are you making him such a whiner in the last stories - and mainly in the Box, huh?! You're mean to him! To polemicize with Sharon's point: JP is the bad guy here because you just don't throw the member of your family overboard. This is of course only my opinion and of course I may be naive because I didn't go through any such period in my life (lucky me!) but you just don't do that. Not in 1960s. I'm not defending Jeff and what he did to JP in Paris, I'm aware of the fact that drugs change people. To get to my objection to the story, JP's main fault was he let Jeff get to the state where he couldn't be helped any more. We of course can argue what else JP could/might/should have done, but I don't want to divert this discussion, moreover we really don't know what JP did during those years 1966-8 when Jeff started to experiment with drugs if I remember correctly. And because I like to oppose myself (it has indisputable advantages - e.g. I can have arguments with myself... ) I admit that people divorce, people say "that's enough, go away", hell people even kill their partners if they become inconvenient... so in fact, I really don't know. I can't stand up to defend JP for what he did or better said for what he didn't do... but on the other hand to blame ONLY him... that would be unjust as well. Edit: And while I was typing this long exposé (I really didn't mean it to be that long), Adam has already answered to what Sharon's saying and sort of expressed in better way my "You don't throw a member of your family overboard." You wouldn'd do it to your son,why do it to his father?

At the end of the chapter JP says Aaron died in the WWII.

No, I'm not going to post a lecture on honesty, nor any other virtue of a noble gentleman. I came across a very interesting chart: And with all due respect to the ideas of socialism and welfare state that we all enjoy as members of the Western civilization, I'd like to point out, that in 1938 Czechoslovakia was at the same economical level as Austria and Finland (and e.g. better than Italy). What followed was the 1938-1945 Nazi rule - and despite that we were the first country from the above mentioned states where the industry overcame the agriculture in 1940 (when there was no Czechoslovakia at all but a small protectorate under the Nazi rule). Then came more than 40 years (1948-1989) of the communist experiments and "building of socialism" (which we solemnly declared reaching in 1960) and "marching to the communism". Because of these "happy years" of the socialist and communist rule Czechoslovakia managed to almost double its economical performance in 50 years! Isn't it great? I know that between the A (1938) and B (1990), there are many variables that interfered and that from this one chart one should not jump to any fast conclusions (as "socialism sucks and should be erased from the surface of the Earth" ). But all of you who are supporters of socialism and socialist ideas (and I hope you're not offended by this chart or blog), be honest and tell me, how my country benefited from those 40 years of attempting at reaching socialism (communism). It's hard to do "ifs" but every now and then when I see some benchmarking chart of the economical level of various countries or their development I always have to think "what if the Americans didn't stop where they agreed with the Soviets and reached Prague one day before them (as they would have if...)? What if we had become some central European version of Finland or Austria? This is my Spring Anthology. "Vote the communists? I'd never do that."

After reading some of the stories in this anthology, I must say that I'm really thankful for this one! It really has great stories in it! Kudos to all of you who make this happen! Ummm, I'd like to add one thing... it looks that not many readers leave a comment or a review after reading that story, which is pretty sad, because I think all the authors are on their toes to get some feedback. So either people don't read the anthologies or they don't comment. I hope it's the latter - and I'd like to ask all that read a story to leave some comment in the story discussion!

On the other hand it would be nice if they found a 70something lady named Barbara Idon'tknowhersurname who after seeing Stefan would remember her first true love... Wouldn't it be a nice farewell remembrance of Steven? If she talked to them about him... I'm such a hopeless romantic Frank should know more about "Uncle Aaron".

it looks like a big meat market

Ohh... Smooth by Santana is such a turn on! Rob Thomas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXp413NynFk

Well that's for sure, Sam! All awesome people were born in Domtober!

to me, this looks like when the communists here made their own textbooks about history (social science wasn't that much taught anyway) so that it looked more friendly to them... OK, it was celebrating the communism but that was an authoritarian regime after all.