Merkin

The Muppets have just bailed on Chick-Fil-A: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/jim-henson-company-chick-fil-a-anti-gay_n_1694809.html

I second the nomination. "Dies the Fire" by S.M. Stirling is a great read, and only the first of what has turned out to be a complex and thoughtful series. James

Potpourri. Snow globes.

I wish I had a dollar for every lassie who believed the lad who said "Don't worry, I'll pull out in time."

On topic, nowadays I find that I spend more time reading online than on the page. Off topic, Guinness in the bottle misses the mark, in my estimation, for the flavor lies in the pour. Unless it takes at least ten minutes to draw it lacks character.

Not to mention living arrangements for Dallas...

Well said, Des.

Do Canadian kids go around with Kinderegg toys stuck in their throats? I think not.

Perhaps the use of the term SPOILER AHEAD would help in these situations.

I would be interested to know who will be tracking your every move on it.

According to my born-again neighbors, it IS that easy. But only they have the privilege...

Chris leads us into territory that in the hands of most of the writers over on Nifty would have become just another sheer fantasy of the flesh. This time around, however, the situation is handled with thoughtful delicacy so that it unfolds firmly in a real world of convincing values and level-headed mentoring. Thanks for this uplifting story.

No, celebrity is not at all what it used to be. Perhaps the very first celebrity-performer, Franz Liszt, was a charismatic pianist who drew a frenzied following during his lifetime. We are told that women fainted at the sound of his music and snatched at his garments after concerts. Any relic of the great man — even his discarded coffee grounds — was snatched up by rabid fans. Yet he managed to develop a rich, productive and thoughtful career. Liszt was a prodigious composer of works in almost every genre, an acknowledged master conductor, a skillful writer, and perceptive critic. He transcribed for the keyboard songs, operatic excerpts, and symphonic masterpieces of other 18th and 19th century composers. He was an influential piano teacher who reportedly never charged for lessons. Unfortunately, his example for how a celebrity-performer might conduct a professional career in the public eye does not seem to have caught on.

Hang onto that phone book, Colin; Verizon has ended distribution of residential white pages, although the Yellow Pages continue. Shall we look forward to characters in your next story named Luigi Pizza and Ace Plumbing?

Thanks to Lug for a totally believable and very sweet addition to the Sanitaria Saga. Every time I thought it was going to end, another layer of story appeared that added to its charm. He even got a Jeep into it.

I salute Bi Janus for his achievement in writing Cover and Book and its sequel, Book Uncovered, just completed here on AD. This pair of Goldendale novels have surpassed, magnificently, the original premise concerning how to cope with displacement and disclosure, and have become by the end a stirring testament to the ability of the human spirit to grow and flourish. They celebrate the essential goodness and potential that may be found in the least of us, however lost and cast aside, if only it can be nurtured and cultivated. And they demonstrate the power of the family, no matter how untraditionally it is constituted and organized, to surround and support and make possible that growth. A wonderful story, wonderfully written. James

Great link, Free. Thanks for it. It will be a big help for someone who lives in the past as much as I do.

Good one, Gee. Almost a parable. Love the age-range mentoring.

Whatever names you choose to use it's wise to keep a careful log of what names belong to what story, including flash pieces. I speak from the embarassing experience of having used the same character name twice, in two different pieces, and having bewildered readers ask me if one was intended to be a sequel to the other.

I fully understand, FreeThinker, how the event can seem to flash by in an instant, and then the aftermath is steadily worse. I am grateful that there is an aftermath for you where you are whole and intact and still able, finally, to smile a little. I sincerely hope that, since posting, you have been able to debrief, face-to-face, with someone receptive and understanding. James

If we and other nations continue to develop and train personnel for space programs through existing military structures and models we will inevitably end up with mission commanders and other quasi-military personnel manning space flights. I would anticipate 'them vs. us' attitudes to prevail, and shoot first actions to dominate over wait and see precautions.

When I grew up and attended public school (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) we had no male teachers in my elementary or low secondary experience. Our "schoolmarms" were typically maiden ladies who enforced behaviors from above through expectations and commentary. Girls behaved and boys didn't, in their world view, and for the most part we lived up to their preconceptions. It wasn't until I was in high school that I encountered male teachers==but these were, for the most part, tired old men who had no use for fulfilling anyone's idea of a role model. For a boy to emerge from that molding process with any attributes other than rough and tumble ones would have required a clear and consistent counterpressure from his own family or his social setting.

OMG I had forgotten all about Duco cement and the model airplane high. That was back in the day when every young boy's room had a model plane or car laid out on the desk (in lieu of a computer screen). Some of us purists curled our lips at plastic models and had balsa sticks pinned to a pattern. Duco model cement was the fast-drying glue of choice and few savvy mothers made us work on our models with the window open and the fan blowing, but kids being kids we knew the thrill of a little sniff now and then. Some kids, unfortunately, went on to a little more than a little sniff, but at age eleven or twelve who knew what dangers the world held in store? We melted lead fishing sinkers with casual ease to make "pirate coins" and played with mercury blobs from broken house thermometers. I'm surprised any of us survived the forties and fifties.

I've read this off and on for a while, and find the reviewer's comments generally fair and evenhanded. As the name implies, he reviews stories about gay boys with some tie to a school situation. Among other titles his current posting reviews Cover and Book by Bi Janus here at AD. He appears to spend a lot of time digging up photos of lovely (though young) boys. James

You should see him when he dresses up in a chicken suit.