Merkin

A new Cole Parker story “With A Little Help From Zeus” over on IoMfAtS (on our Links page) responding to a picture challenge. I knew all along that Cole was all wet. Have a look and give him a vote!

I especially remember the short shorts worn by French boys in the 1960s.

Your 'usual fare' Cole is so varied and inspired I cannot imagine any new fare from you not sitting well. And stay away from my butt in future remarks, if you please.

Working on getting my eyes fixed. Reading with difficulty. Writing a no-go. Thinking of hiring a lithesome boy secretary with strong spelling skills to help with dangling participles.

A fitting ending indeed to “Jack in the Box”, made all the more moving thanks to the personal note now appended to Chapter 59, explaining a lot about how this tale grew by stumbles and starts and sheer determination. “Jack in the Box” demonstrates once again that Driver is right up there among the best of our online writers in describing the human condition with sympathy and understanding.

Bummer. I barely remember anything.

Rory's nickname should be 'Slick'.

Yeah, balderdash.

Stephen Fry speaks so rapidly he cannot be understood by Americans. He wrote a brilliant book entitled The Ode Less Travelled in which he explains everything you will ever need to know about poetic forms. Thankfully you can read it at your own pace, not his.

Based on your reviews, Root, I plan to look for the Philo Vance series. Thanks for taking the effort to alert us to these musty mysteries.

Chapter Nine. ‘What a piece of work is Man…’ Hamlet. I thought Cary was going to be the challenge, but Rory has certainly captured my attention: “I learned from dealing with my father not to show emotions. Once you’ve started doing that, you get in the habit and it’s hard to change”.

YESS!

Over on IOMfAtS the latest chapter 10 of Making Nico , by cm, deals with discovering, diagnosing, and treatment for testicular cancer. It is completely authentic in its presentation and can be read as a stand-alone narrative without having to read the previous chapters. This is an extremely important bit of information for all of us and knowing how to practice regular self-examination may save a few lives. Please have a look.https://iomfats.org/storyshelf/hosted/c-m/making-nico/10.html

Much about WWII still needs to emerge from behind the myths and legends.

Thank you, John, for keeping us informed, and for all you do to maintain the site.

Well put, Nigel. I'm getting that too, plus realizing that Rory is the ultimate catch. He's gotta have a flaw somewhere!

I quote the last graph of Cole's fine story: 'What happened with James? Nothing. Well, not really nothing. He stayed on the team. None of us cared if he was gay. Well, that wasn’t true, either. I cared. But that’s a story for another time.' That sure looks like a commitment to me.

So nice to be brought up-to-date on young Cormac. He’s had quite a career since he was named Chorister of the Year in 2021. Now we must hope he will make it through his gawky years with a voice that will mature successfully. BTW when will some designer come up with a dress shirt that can be unbuttoned and worn under a jacket with some élan?

It's been a while since I tried to watch "Vera" but she kept putting me off because she was/is so unlikable. I felt most sorry for her sergeant, whose family life was constantly being thrown under the bus by Vera's incessant need for hand-holding.

More and more Americans identify as LGBTQ The percent of U.S. adults who identify as something other than heterosexual has doubled over the last 10 years, from 3.5 percent in 2012 to 7.1 percent, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday. Even more striking is the differences among our “generations”: more than 1 in 5, or 21 percent, of Generation Z adults identify as LGBTQ, Gallup found. That’s almost double the proportion of millennials, who are 26 to 41, at 10.5 percent, and nearly five times the proportion of Generation X, who are 42 to 57, at 4.2 percent. Less than 3 percent of baby boomers, who are 58 to 76, identify as LGBTQ, compared to just 0.8 percent of traditionalists, who are 77 or older. If younger Americans continue to come out at increasing rates, Gallup predicts the proportion of adults who identify as LGBTQ will exceed 10 percent in the near future (from NBC News). https://news.gallup.com/poll/470708/lgbt-identification-steady.aspx

Hooray for you, Jason. This is an enormously inspiring, heart-gladdening account of a man who has faced his demons and is winning his life back to where he wants to be. You have my very best wishes. James Merkin

Beats me. I did see the notice in 2012, and so did TracyMN. I am confused and have no other information. James

You’ve got it in one, Alien Son. Thank you. I never thought to check Nifty. My, how I’ve misremembered this story! Including the title itself: since I referred to in in my note to Nexis Pas as ‘your morning coffee story’ that’s the way it stuck in my head all these years. When I first read “Coffee in the Morning” in 2008 it struck home, since it presented a history I’d participated in and captured the mood of it completely. I saw the story as a perfect summing-up of the strain—paranoia, if you will—of being gay that my partner and I had lived through and endured as aging professionals each with “proper” careers. Even though I had lost most of the details of the tale over time I’ve always remembered it as a milestone story for gay readers of a certain generation. Although I was a little shocked to reread it this morning and finally get it right in my memory, I’ll still include it in my list to pack for the desert island. But not at the expense of leaving out any of Cole’s tales, whose thread I shamelessly seemed to have pirated. Apologies.

Thank you, Cole. I must have missed Mr. Patterson somewhere along the way and he will serve as an inspiration to me to have greater confidence in the nursing staff the next time I land in the hospital. A jolly tale indeed. I finally had a moment of inspiration and looked through old email files, thinking if I liked a story that much, still vaguely remembered as “Morning Coffee”, I might have written its author. And I had. The story I’m searching for is indeed named “Morning Coffee” and Nexis Pas, of fond memory, wrote it circa 2008. Unfortunately I still can’t locate the story—most of the sites that hosted him are either defunct or his wonderful tales were removed upon his demise. If anyone has access to a copy I’d love to hear about it. James

It is near impossible to single out any of Cole’s fine stories as a favorite, but “Dinner for One” would certainly be on my short list of those I’d take with me to read again if I became a castaway on some tropical island. Trouble is that short list keeps getting longer and longer (“When He Was Five”! , “Duck, Duck, Goose”!, “Courage”!, “On the High Plains of Wyoming”!... you see the problem). “Dinner for One”, however, is especially heartrending for an old geezer like me. It also reminds me of a somewhat similar tale that I’ve lost track of and can no longer find on any list of stories, either here on AD or on IOMfAtS or elsewhere, and if you recognize my vague description I’d appreciate your help in locating it. The story involves an old man, gay, who makes his way to the same café every morning to break his fast, and a young waiter who responds to him, learns the story of his lost love, and—my memory is really dim on this—walks him home. Ring any bells? The tale, like Cole’s, is about one box of tissues in length and I think its title might be something like “Morning Coffee”. It, too, would be on my short list, but by now all the manuscript pages I’d be loathe to leave behind would pack a large suitcase and probably wouldn’t survive the plane crash. I’ll just have to sit it out on that deserted island and write poems in the sand.