FreeThinker

At a BNP Paribas tournement in New York, Roger Federer, maybe the best tennis player ever (though I still daydream about Rafael Nadal), was upstaged by a kid from the stands when Grigor Dimitrov let him face the giant of tennis. Here's what happened:

I don't see why any member of Awesome Dude would be offended by watching the scene. There's nothing in the scene that's offensive at all. Our stories, after all, are romances among teenage boys. I'm not a big television watcher and was unaware of the program until now, but I applaud ABC and ABC Family for this important step.

Yes, she says her character is pushing 110-- actually in 1924, she would be 82. She is getting bored with the character and believes Season 6 may be the last one anyway. And Tea with Mussolini, IS excellent. She and Judy made the movie, though I fell in love with the Luca after he grew up. My ex went to Florence with his mother and says he can understand why the English ladies were reluctant to leave.

I've always thought this was Cole's best story--and that's saying a lot.

This is old news to our British Dudes, but the Season 5 finale of Downton Abbey aired this evening in the US. I know there are those who roll their eyes at English period shows, but I am absolutely devoted to Downton and the finale tonight was marvelous and left me with moist eyes. I am grateful to our British friends, who saw this three months ago, for not spoiling it for the rest of us and I'm glad I resisted the urge to read the synopsis on IMDB or Wikipedia. I hope the long ordeal of Bates and Anna is FINALLY over. I hope that dreary Edith can now start to be happy. And I hope Lady Mary will quit being a bitch to her sister. I'm sorry to see Tom leave for America and I hope he can return occasionally. And it is heartwarming to see the Dowager Countess is not a stranger to the fierce passions of the young! I also hope Isobel turns her attention to Dr. Clarkson, who should have made his move years ago. How will I get by for the next ten months without Maggie Smith's marvelous quips? (IN season 1, she sits in a swivel office chair and finds it confusing. When she's told that it was invented by Thomas Jefferson, she replied, "Why must every day begin as a struggle with an American?")

Well, you can't beat that! I shall certainly do my part to reduce global warming! I have a feeling the entire Awesome Dude community can make a significant contribution to beating this problem!

Education--rather than indoctrination--teaches people to think critically, to ask questions, to think for themselves rather than to just blindly accept what they are told. It teaches one to make one's own decisions rather than to conform, to behave. THAT is what scares the right wing. Don't ask questions. The worst thing you can do in right-world is ask, "Why?"

Don't worry. They'll clone him and bring him back for the sequel. Even though he fought in the early years to be seen as more than just that one role--he even wrote a memoir entitled I am Not Spock-- his was the character that made the first series. He was quoted on NPR this afternoon as hoping his character had inspired kids to study science and I'm sure he did. Leonard Nimoy was far more than Spock. He will be missed. Live long and prosper.

I have found an article on Salon.com which has moved me. Edwin Lyngar, who grew up in a Nevada mining town with all the anti-education prejudices one might expect, along with the conservative political views that often accompany such prejudices, took years to complete a college education and has discovered the value of being exposed to more than simply the narrow and simplistic views of those who hate education. In his experience, he sees a similar strain among American anti-intellectualism and that of Islamic extremism and Boko Haram--which translates as "Education is Forbidden." It's an eye-opening piece that exposes the prejudice that is exploited by politicians such as Scott Walker and Rick Santorum. http://www.salon.com/2015/02/26/the_rights_fear_of_education_what_i_learned_as_a_former_conservative_military_man/

The Huffington Post called it the most moving acceptance speech of the night. Graham Moore won the Oscar for best Screenplay for The Imitation Game, the movie about Alan Turing, who basically won World War Two for the Allies by breaking the Nazi's code. Yeah. What he said.

He's an amazing dancer. He caused quite a stir when he quit the Royal Ballet at 25-- he was a principal dancer!-- to go out on his own. He is amazing and gifted, though the tattoos don't do much for me. (I'm not adjusting to contemporary tastes very well).

I hate it when my participle dangles, as it is wont to do more frequently now...

I was referring to the several different subplots. Did my comment not make sense? Also, I've read the whole story. Did I just spoil it?

I absolutely love the way Cole has taken all these many, many threads and brought them together. It is absolutely masterful. I had to make notes to keep track of everyone, but now... It's amazing.

Beautifully written and moving. I empathize with Javier. I know the insecurity and fear, the longing. Eloquently described. And a marvelous setting. A jewel of a story.

I've heard that about McAfee and my experiences wiith Norton have been absolute nightmares. Thank you! I'll go ahead and install the Kaspersky before I remove the McAfee.

I just bought another laptop and I was given free Kaspersky for six months. I also have free McAfee from my ISP. Is it good to run both for added seccurity, or will there be conflicts between the two? I was planning to keep the Kaspersky after the free period. Suggestions?

According to several reports, this was the first novel she had written, set when Scout was an adult coming back to Macomb to see her father. Lee's agent or editor read it and thought the flashbacks to Scout's childhood would make a more compelling story and that was when Mockingbird was born. She obviously never intended the manuscript to be published and probably forgot all about it. As private as she's been and protective of her legacy, I have to think that someone is taking advantage of her. I will read it, because I've loved the Mockingbird and the movie for decades, but I will do so knowing that she didn't intend to publish, that it was a first effort, a first draft. I know I wouldn't want the first drafts of anything I've written to be read by anyone.

Written fifty years ago and put away, the novel will focus on the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird twenty years after the events in the first book. It was written before Mockingbird and abandoned. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/books/harper-lee-author-of-to-kill-a-mockingbird-is-to-publish-a-new-novel.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0

Cheerios uploaded this commercial to YouTube recently. This is too cool for school. "How to Dad," ("Dad" as a verb). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GYxH2-WeZY

DaBeagle, I'm crediting parents with a degree of common sense. No, this won't work in every situation, and, yes, it is a generalization. In general, when one lets children make mistakes--within reason--children learn for themselves, which is better than merely being lectured to-- or equipped with a tracking device. How Orwellian, or is this what we've descended to. Overprotection breeds children who are neither equipped for the world when they break free nor are trusting of others. It results in paranoia and hysteria, which we seem to have a lot of today.

I think if a child is mistrusted, he or she is more likely to engage in behavior that the parents object to. I think if a parent is respectful and firm and doesn't try to smother the child and will rationally and respectfully explain their fears and concerns, kids will respond. They may (and probably will) make mistakes, but kids HAVE to make mistakes to learn. I don't think there are more dangers for kids today than for Gen X or the Boomers-- they've just taken different forms. I think we just didn't hear about it back then. NBC reporter Robin Lloyd wrote a book in the mid-seventies entitled For Money or Love in which he described the many crimes committed against children at that time. I was struck by how he described the difficulty some reporters at the time had in getting editors or producers to allow their reports into the papers or the evening news. Most news outlets refused to report these stories. Now, we seem to have gone to the opposite extreme and it seems almost as if that's all we hear about, which contributes to a near-hysteria. Parents seem either to dramatically over-react or to show absolutely no concern at all. Yes, teens need some limits. They may strenuously object-- I certainly did-- but if it's done with respect and restraint and with the knowledge that they WILL make mistakes, I think in the long run the result will be better than producing resentments and secrecy that lead to even worse results. In my own case, I became secretive and engaged in behaviors in high school that horrify me now and which I know I wouldn't have engaged in if I had been trusted and respected instead of ridiculed and verbally abused. Overprotection breeds the very problems that parents try to avoid.

I have been devoted to Stephen Fry for decades. His three novels-- The Liar, The Hippopotamus, and Making History are absolute delights. I wasn't very pleased with The Star's Tennis Balls (I think it has another title in the US- a British friend sent me a copy through the mail back in the 90's). His memoir Moab Is My Washpot is also wonderful. The movie Peter's Friends includes his friends from the Cambridge Footlights, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson, and is very moving. He was also Oscar Wilde, a role he was born to play, in the movie Wilde and was Thomas Arnold in a less than satisfying remake of Tom Brown's Schooldays. BTW, the Footlights production from 1981 can be found on YouTube in five parts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FA9qaHKod0 I am devoted to Stephen Fry. And I agree with Merkin, The Ode Less Traveled is a a fascinating guide to writing one's own verse. I have the tools now; I just wish I had the talent! We often discuss Stephen Fry here on AD.

I am outlining a high school romance set in Paris in May 1968 between an American foreign exchange student and a French boy and I would like someone to help me with certain details so I don't make a fool of myself (as I am wont to do). In one of my Canterbury stories, written in 2002-- pre- Awesome Dude-- I included an English boy and received numerous emails from British readers who told me how off his speaking style and grammar were. I want to avoid similar mistakes with my French characters. Would anyone like to volunteer? Also I would like someone to translate just a little bit of dialogue into French, not proper schoolboy French, but the idiomatic and actual French a fifteen year-old in The Latin Quarter whose parents are French Intellectuals would speak. Also this is 1968. Two questions right now, however. Was the French system of education-- primary followed by secondary consisting of "college" and then Lycee before moving on to High Ed-- the same in 1968? I've read extensively about French schools but I don't know if there was a different organization forty-seven years ago. Second-- what would have been the uniform of a male French student in seconde in 1968? And anyone who might have lived through the momentous events of May 68 in Paris who has personal recollections, I would appreciate reading them! I want this to be as honest and realistic as possible. My email address is---- freethinker1957@gmail.com Thank you.

I had the privilege of reading this before it was posted and its one of the most moving stories Cole has written. A number of Cole's recent stories have fallen in the thriller genre and this one is an example. He could easily become a successful writer of thrillers and find himself on the bestseller list. This one also has the trademark Cole Parker compassion for the underdog and the downtrodden. AND its loaded with romance. A cornucopia of genres and thrills! Read it.