Rutabaga

This refurbished Pick from the Past is found here. The story was first serialized at AD in the 2005-2006 time frame. @Alien Son asked me to go through and bring it up to modern web coding standards as a prelude to making it an April Pick from the Past. It was a somewhat arduous task, because the old-style Microsoft FrontPage coding is awful and difficult to update, but it is now completed. This story is different from any I can recall reading here, and has intriguing intertwined story lines. It is long, and will require some time commitment. And it is full of surprises. If you have a chance, take a look at it. And let me know if you see any glitches that I missed. R

There definitely is a kind of eerie Animal Farm-like quality to the manner in which the GSA members have become the bullies here. The school would need to suspend that organization pending review of how to preclude a repetition of the events involving Perry. Expelling Jason and Dante would help send that message, but the rest of the organization needs to feel some pain as well and understand that all of them who had any awareness of what was going on bear some responsibility and must face some consequences. I realize how radical it is to assert that people should bear consequences, but that's my view. R

Why assume there is a rational explanation? Jason, the ringleader, is a sociopathic narcissist who lacks any moral compass or empathy for others. It is all about him and his ego. He lies freely (as in his false claim to Ross that they weren't going to do anything to Perry) when it suits his purposes, and would not understand why anyone would see anything wrong with that. Perry is a challenge to his ego, and must be dealt with. There is no logic to it. Inflicting pain or discomfort nourishes Jason. He will grow up to be a career criminal or a politician. Dante, as far as I can tell, is just a thug who gets off on acting as Jason's enforcer. I doubt if he has had an original thought in his life. Adam is just an idiot who has never had to face real consequences for his irresponsible actions and loyalties. Which I suppose is another way of stating that he is very immature. There is no hope for Jason, and probably none for Dante either. They don't belong at that school. The others are probably salvageable with proper guidance. R

Though a little out of season for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, this new story will brighten your day. Good job. R

In sixth grade there was a guy, I'll call him John B, who was the same age as the rest of us but already was about 6 feet tall. He was taller than many of the teachers, and I think this made him uncomfortable. He would often be asked to reach things down from a high shelf. He was the nicest, gentlest guy imaginable, but I think his unexpected maturity made him shy about dealing with the rest of us. I'm not sure whether he continued with us into 7th grade and beyond . . . but I can see how the issues you mention could easily develop. R

My suggestion would be to contact this person and say that we are looking for candidates to take on this project, and ask not only if he would be interested but also whether he can think of anyone else we should talk to, especially if he says he is not interested. R

Here is the path over the U.S. and Canada:

I have the impression that there was significant influence from The Mail Crew in the early days of CW. I'm not sure but what Blue, one of the early architects, was part of that group. But The Mail Crew is long gone, as noted here. I don't know if there is a similar group still in existence somewhere in the English-speaking world. It may be that the internet was still new enough in the early 2000s that there was a sense of adventure and pioneering then that does not exist any more. On the other hand, a nearby (to me) magnet school still has quite an active robotics club. We need to find one or more people with the same blend of nerdiness and adventure that Mike brought to founding the original AD site. The need is still there, as we see when reading about adolescent depression in today's world. Let's keep thinking, and looking. R

I wonder if someone who works (or had worked) as a teacher or counselor of teens would be a possible choice? R

Thanks @Talo Segura for the shoe leather in research. There is some very high quality stuff at Codey's World if a visitor knows how to find it. We have added a Google-linked site map to help this happen via searches. The design of the home page has been fairly similar over the years, after an initial bit of weirdness. 2007: https://web.archive.org/web/20070621221109/http://www.codeysworld.com/home.html (glad the garish red theme is gone now) 2010: https://web.archive.org/web/20100105032825/http://codeysworld.com/ 2014: https://web.archive.org/web/20140625122929/http://www.codeysworld.com/ 2018: https://web.archive.org/web/20180706175204/http://www.codeysworld.com/ 2022: https://web.archive.org/web/20220630233034/http://www.codeysworld.com/ I did some experimenting to see whether it made any sense to look at a Wordpress installation to facilitate the site, but so far I don't see it as helpful -- it just moves the same amount of effort into different places. The Castle Roland story site uses a custom Wordpress theme but I'm not persuaded that it really helps things -- in its own way, that site seems as mysterious to navigate as Codey's World. I also agree with Cole's philosophy and that is why we need someone to be the "conscience" of Codey's World. Other thoughts, anyone? R

We have not been able to get hold of Colin using any contact info we had. @Alien Son and I have migrated the site to its new home at www.codeysworld.org but we really would like to find someone to take charge of the site content. We can continue to provide technical support. R

I left out the potential charge of kidnapping under 13 V.S.A. § 2405(a)(1)(C) or (D) in that they knowingly restrained Perry under circumstances that would place him in fear of bodily injury (subdivision C) or sexual assault (subdivision D). The fact that they stripped him naked would especially suggest the latter. The maximum penalty for kidnapping in Vermont is life in prison. R

What might be helpful would be for someone to do some online research to see what is available for that age group and demographic. In this day and age of instant everything, it may be that sites full of static stories and helpful articles are kind of passé. On the other hand, it may be that interesting things to read might appeal to the young adults who are more socially timid or feel disconnected from the mainstream. That could be an important lifeline for some. How can we get this train moving? R

Sociopaths -- all of them. They don't belong in school. A quick look at the relevant Vermont statutes suggests that all of the young men who came after Perry could be convicted of assault under 13 V.S.A. § 1023(a), aggravated stalking under 13 V.S.A. § 1063(a)(4) because the person stalked (Perry) is under 16 years of age, and all with the hate crime enhancement under 13 V.S.A. § 1455(a) because the "conduct is motivated, in whole or in part, by the victim’s actual or perceived protected category." Under 13 V.S.A. § 1455(c), “'protected category' includes . . . sexual orientation, . . . and perceived membership in any such group." They all should be arrested and charged. And of course if this course of events leads to Perry's death, they all should be charged with second degree murder. R

I agree with @Altimexis about the unique quality of the French horn. I think of the haunting opening of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, or the Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker, or even the Wolf theme from Peter and the Wolf. In cinema scores, French horns often signify some major development. The French horn is featured in Princess Leia's Theme from "Star Wars." And no doubt many people are familiar with the French horns in "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by the Beatles. R

As everyone is aware, John and I have gotten Codey's World back on the air at its new URL, and the vast majority of broken links have been fixed. Google has reported that people are clicking through to that site from web searches. But we really need someone to take the reins, figure out what the future of the site should be, and carry that future out. At present the site is basically dormant, and has been since Colin disappeared. John (@Alien Son) and I can continue to provide technical support for the CW site, but the housekeeping for the AwesomeDude site keeps us both pretty busy. We need someone with the available bandwidth to take a look at what's there on the CW site and decide where it should grow, change, or whatever. Should new stories be solicited? Should the non-story areas be augmented? Is there obsolete content that should be updated or eliminated? Are there new features that should be added? Please speak up, either here or in a private message to John or me, if you have any suggestions on this or want to volunteer to take on this assignment. Cheers, R

Never underestimate the educational value of Cole's stories, like the cooking lessons in stories such as "The Boy on the Plane" or, in this case, a stroll through classical repertoire. I am a huge Mozart fan but all of the other pieces were new to me. The music director would have been a complete moron to reject James because of the technical failure. Then again, I would have expected savvy teens to bring along the charger cord. Maybe the music director realized that he would have Mrs. Ford to answer to if he didn't behave and find a way to get James in the orchestra. He might well not want to incur her wrath. If James is living at Freddie's house he should be able to continue his lessons with Mrs. Ford. He may also be able to bug Freddie into actually doing some work on his horn technique. Undoubtedly other techniques will be polished as well. R

“I can’t believe those guys won’t just leave him alone.” Immaturity, thy name is Jason. R

Skinny dipping and soccer. Progress is being made. I would not have thought of auditioning to a recording . . . and of course if the playback fails, Freddie could probably supply the other part. Assuming he had practiced it. And the two boys certainly should practice that piece together. R

Chapter 9 -- Freddie is kind of a tease in that rather cerebral conversation he has with James in the bedroom. But it seems that the outcome was a good one. There can be little doubt that the two will be good for one another, filling holes in each one's respective life. I remember having an American Flyer "S" gauge train set when I was in elementary school. My dad built a kind of Murphy bed arrangement on one wall of the bedroom I shared with my next younger brother, with a big sheet of plywood hinged on the bottom so it would swing down to reveal the train set mounted on it. When it was in the up position, the bottom of the plywood that showed was painted with chalkboard paint so my brother and I could write and draw stuff on it. We took the train set along when my family moved back East during my third grade, but I can't remember ever setting it up again. Last I knew it was in a box in the basement. Meanwhile, the end of the chapter had me wondering: Does anyone actually count sheep in order to go to sleep? I'm not even sure how to do that. Wouldn't the concentration on that activity keep you awake? I don't normally have trouble falling asleep so I'm not well acquainted with the methods some people reportedly use. R

John and I have been developing ways to measure site activity, but we're still exploring what can be measured and how best to measure it. Our newest stories have code embedded that tracks the number of times a page is viewed. While the method is not foolproof, it's likely to be fairly representative. Here is a graph showing clicks on the index page and the individual chapter pages of Cole Parker's current serial story, "Two Part Harmony": The graph begins at February 27, 2024 and goes through this morning, March 26, 2024. The top line is the index page for the story, which is where the home page link directs people. As of this morning there are 4,994 clicks on that page, and you can see little hills in the graph every few days when a new chapter posts. The lines underneath are for each individual chapter, of which eight are live as of this snapshot. Not surprisingly, the oldest chapters tend to have the most clicks. It's interesting to see the bumps in each chapter when it goes live, which correspond to the bumps in the index page. For some reason chapter 6 has more clicks than chapters 4 and 5 as of this morning, so its graph shows higher in the listing than those two, because they are listed in the order of how many clicks were received. (The number of views is shown as a number in the far left column.) Our web host spits out detailed logs of every single transaction carried out by the server, and looking at the raw logs is like reading a telephone book. Human beings need to use analysis software to extract information from these logs. Here is a monthly summary of site activity to date since we opened the new site in January, produced by the AWStats program: As of this morning, here are the most popular pages (note that the very top line is a sitewide total): On the search side, Google reports the following overall search activity (note that "impressions" means that one of our pages appeared in search results, and "clicks" means that the person actually clicked on a displayed link): Here are the most frequent search terms entered (again remember the meaning of clicks and impressions): Of course we have no access to comparative stats from 2023 and earlier, since we lost all ability to connect to the previous host. These numbers seem fairly respectable to me under the circumstances. And, in response to your last comment, I would say it's "our" baby. It all starts with the folks who write and submit stories for publication here. John and I and the others who contribute behind the scenes have a common objective of providing a good reading experience. For better or worse, our technical platform and the existing standard for preparing and displaying stories will not accommodate a "like" function on the actual story pages, so this forum is the place for people to express appreciation. Or they can email the authors directly in many cases (some of the oldest stories no longer have functioning email links). We could consider putting legends at the end of stories to encourage people to visit the forum and post their comments, although my read of things is that the vast majority of stie visitors are bashful and would rather lurk than post. Too, we have still not figured out the best long-term plan for this forum and its hosting by Invision in the aftermath of Mike's passing. John and I hope to make progress on that in April or May. Anyway, your suggestions are and will be appreciated as are your contributions as an author. Cheers, R

Back in 1962 when the Beatles first began recording, the final product was always going to be monaural. The fact that two-track masters still exist is somewhat of an historical accident, but there was never an intent to release those as stereo recordings per se. It was not until later in the 60s that the idea of stereo record releases really took hold at that level. Before that, the two tracks were used so that the vocals could be overdubbed, or tracks could be bounced so that other changes could be layered on. It didn't matter what was on which track because it was all going to monaural in the end. R

I found the persistence of this hostility a bit hard to believe. It makes me think there must be some underlying issue with the tormentors that causes Parry's mere presence to be a threat to them. What are they so afraid of? What are they trying to prove? R

This is painfully obvious on Nifty, but people going there know what to expect. Well more than half of the stories there start out with a burst of energy and then peter out when the author has no idea what to do next, or just loses interest. Mostly this happens when the author doesn't really have a story, but only has a premise. Occasionally we see the opposite phenomenon, when it is obvious that the author can't stand to end the story and keeps coming up with more and more contrived events and circumstances to keep the saga going. I would just add that nothing like this will ever happen unless someone new steps up to handle it. John (@Alien Son) is already at or beyond capacity and in danger of burning out. There is only so much I can do from the opposite hemisphere to help him. It's remarkable how much housekeeping this site requires, and he is bearing the brunt of it. Cheers, R

I, too, do not like raw tomatoes. I can't explain why. I'm not allergic or anything; it's just that something about them is off-putting. I completely understand Cole's attitude toward them. I grew up surrounded by rock, jazz (some), and big band music. I played drums in the school jazz band from 7th grade onward and learned a raft of standards. It wasn't until I was I my 30s that I decided to learn what classical music was all about. In typical fashion for me, I bought a couple of encyclopedia-like classical music guides, and started working my way through composers. I was blown away. I discovered that my all time favorite piece was Beethoven's 7th Symphony, especially the second movement. But I came to love Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and many others. Bach I liked but it did not move me as much as later composers. And after I watched Leonard Bernstein explaining Debussy on a TV program, I became a fan of Debussy as well. And I am now familiar with a number of mainstream operas, and even had season tickets to the L.A. Opera until the price went clear up to the stratosphere. But I still like popular music in its many forms. On the occasions when I turn on the radio in my car, I tune to stations that play pop music (oldies, typically). I grew up with those songs. I remember listening to "Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley when I was 5 or 6 years old and had put on the radio to help me get to sleep. Or "Witch Doctor" by David Seville. (As a youngster I loved the novelty songs.) Now, getting back to the story: Hopefully James's mom is on the title for whatever car she wants to sell, because otherwise she may have difficulty transferring title to a buyer. At that point they only know that Frank has disappeared earlier that day. I share Altimexis's puzzlement as to how Frank could have developed into such a POS. How fortunate for James that he had a Mrs. Ford to turn to in times of need. R