Richard Norway

Damn. This reminds me of the films I had to watch in the early 60's about pot and other sins, (dire drug addiction akin to heroin and the sex that followed) when I went into the Navy. They showed me how to avoid the 'homosexuals' in the world. However, there were no 'homosexuals' in the Navy at that time...just out there...somewhere.

Thank you so mouch for that Cole. i'm that neyofite riter, and I now that I really needs all help that I get. This is Godsent to moi (notice the French...I'm also intelekual). I really need rules, you know, to keep me from doing wrong. I need discilpine! (jst no whips, okay?) Okay, I have story ideas, but I needs to get them to adher to these rules. I mean, how else will I be famouse and sell a million books? Its importnt to me that I follow the rules to form me riting into what the ignrant (sp, hehe) pupulation wants, right? And Bruin...you cant brake these rules. theyre importnt. it's what we rite 4, right? I mean to rite rite, rite?

Yeah, but I only practiced 3 times, each time, my lips pounding together on 'cobber.' I guess that you and I won't be Aussies this year. Maybe if we practiced cricket enough, they'll be sympathetic and give us a second chance. And yeah, I shouldn't have asked a question about how do you play cricket. Dumb question asking about the unknowable. "In, out." Ah...nevermind.

Thanks Camy. Actually, for me, it's turning out to be a good year...so far. I've just retired, and am looking at my full calander which i can now finally get to some sort of realization. I wish everyone the same joy in the coming year that I'm finally realizing.What a wonderful life!Happy New Year to everyone, not just my friends here.

This may be totally off topic, but the game 'cricket' has came up a couple of times. Okay. I'm from the good old US of A and have absolutely no clue what cricket is or even how it's played. Please tell me how it's played. Although Gen Doubleday is credited for inventing baseball, it was actually Alexandre Cartwright, a bookstore owner. who wrote the first rules which became the way we play the game. But what about cricket? It's similar, right? Does our baseball have roots in cricket? Stupid American here.

So life isn't fair. Who ever said it was was or is going to be? Trab's right. Who ever said or even thought that it's a black and white world that we won't be put on sometimes, is just plain not realistic. Of course there will be disparages in equal treatment. But that's not the point...at least for me. What's important is that we don't become lethargic or even cynical and stop trying. Things happen. BIG things happen. Great elections are won. How do they? They happen by doing small things...constantly. I'm creating the first LGBTQ centers organization in New Mexico. Is it going to change the world? Of course not. Is it going to change the level of homophobia in New Mexico? Probably not. But it might change ONE persons mind. That's enough for me, because that one person's mind, coupled with all the other people's minds that have been changed by the countless other people that are trying, WILL eventually make a difference. Maybe I'm Pollyanna incarnate, but I can't give up hope. Because...and this is the biggest reason ever....if I don't believe in a better life, than I have no hope to keep living. I'm sorry James, but I can't embrace your cynicism. You may think I'm not being realistic. Maybe I'm not, but it's the way I get through my day and be happy to fall asleep at the end of it.

Great find Des. I've always found it difficult to find a quote specific to what I'm thinking about. I've now added this site to my favorites. It was rather fun brousing through this huge depository. Just reading the many quotes spawned many story ideas.

I really have to agree with brit18uk, in that the gay activists are taking gay marriage too fast. I believe the real change for us will only occur generationally. What I mean is that bigotry is ingrained on people at a very young age and that they will not change from these deep ingrained beliefs. Oh, they may hide it because new civil rights laws are enacted and they don't want to go to jail, but that still doesn't change the deep way they feel. What happens is that their kids see the new way that their parents act and adopt that stance as the ingrained way they believe. This change then continues on with their offspring. We saw it in the the African American struggle. People really didn't change the way they were brought up until the Civil Rights legislation in the 1960's, and people were forced to act differently. It became politacally correct to be inclusive. As the general public becomes more aware of our plight and begins to feel that we are normal, the better chances we have of eventually achieving real and lasting human rights. I believe that the public is just about ready to accept civil unions or domestic partnerships, but they are still hung up on the word 'marrage.' So we won't get it until they accept the idea that marriage can be civil as well as religious. That may take another generation, which is passing through high school right now. We'll get there. Unfortunately, I may not see it, but the gay kids going through high school now will. And that's what I work for.

I don't think we've been 'sold down the river' yet. Politics is not an 'all or nothing' activity steeped in one groups wants, but rather in reality. The reality is that we're not the only group in a diverse America, and I'd like to think that Obama is a much more asutute politician than I might have previously understood.

There's a new pizza place that's recently opened up in Las Cruces, NM called 'Papa Murphy's' where they will make your pizza for you fresh, and then you take it home and bake it yourself (they include an instruction sheet too.). I think there are other places around the world that do similar. It's one of the better tasting pizzas that I've tasted, everything fresh, and the list of items seems endless. Although I've not seen shark or mayonnaise. I like mayo on just about everything but have never tried it on pizza. That's going to be my next adventure.

Good idea!

I believe that what you're saying is that the US position is based on a religious belief (from you know who). Here's what I can't get my mind to understand. This nation was founded on religious tolerance. Persecution of their religious beliefs are what drove people here. And now, our president is acting like his religion is the only one that is graced by God. Sorry...that's just, well...bullshit. We don't want a theocracy, but feel that we've been served one. Sometimes I feel that I should just move to Canada, but that would be giving up. No, I'm here. Richard

Is IE gay? Hmmmmm!

Sorry Cole. I usually write the author when he's done well and I like the story, but I didn't see an email link on the title page of the story. Then again, I didn't go to the 'Cole Parker Home' page either, where it's located. I'm kinda lazy like that. Richard

I read the story yesterday, and was amazed that Cole's editors had such a hard time with the backwater, rural dialog. After reading Cole's questions about struggling with grammar vs. artistic prose, I was very curious. Cole is absolutely right. The grammar (or lack thereof) had to be there. It had such a necessary part of the story that if it were corrected, the story would have fallen apart. My hat goes off to you Cole. Since I started reading your works a few months ago, you have never ceased to amaze me with your talent...and it keeps getting better. Bruin, don't worry about a contentious stance from Cole. He will take the opposite stance no matter what anyone says just to get an argument...or to make us think. He's like that. Richard

It's absolutely amazing how an originally Italian dish has become so American. By the way...the American version of pizza has no resemblance to the real Italian version (which was the original, by the way.). (Double play on words was intentional.) Ever notice that when the teen characters of the stories that we read are always eating pizza when it's their choice? Pizza has become an icon of food from America. I occasionally do actually eat broccoli, you know?

PIZZA! Now we're on a subject the I love. I like to add Italian sausage and mushrooms as my first choice. Now pepperoni has it's place as another favorite. But pineapple? That is just too weird. We don't have the best pizza makers here in taco land New Mexico, but they try. Colin...you mention one more pizza place that I've been to and so sorely miss the variety there, I'm going to...to...nevermind. You know what I mean.

I have to agree with Cole. I have pictured you with a straight face, not rounded, slightly turned up nose, but still protruding as lost from youth. Grey hair was a surprise, but then 'WE' can't complain to nature. I had envisioned you as cute. I know it's not right to call you cute, as that's a term for children, and you're not a child. So handsome is what I'm looking for. Oh. I've got to go. My date has arrived. He's so cute wearing that white coat. He's even holding up a new jacket that he must have bought for me to put on. What are those straps at the ends of the sleeves for? Must be a new fad.

Hey Civil (You're not a Civil Engineering major are you?),Don't knock Michigan too much, although it does have it's faults (and pasties are NOT one of them)...just like Ohio. I think you'll enjoy your tour in rural America. I've lived in both major cities (I've never been so happy to get out of Detroit, but San Francisco is cool.) and backwater small towns and they both have a lot to offer. And don't believe Camy. Just keep your eyes on Put In Bay on Lake Erie for British frigates trying to relive history and then sigh and shake your head at the futility of Sir Gorden. Hehe.Richard

As I was reading this phrase from Des' blog entry...'Yet if we want to touch on the human element of life's experiences, if we want to conceal within our story an expose of injustice, or aberrations of commonly held untruths, let alone describe the possibilities of human goodness'...my mind went to the question of how readers perceive gay fiction as realistic or unrealistic. While writing my first novel, I perceived the reader as an idiot, one who had no clue of how life is for a gay man or women. As such, I felt that I had to hit the reader over the head to make him take notice. About 2/3's through the story, I had one of my loving and good characters murdered in an act of hate violence and then proceeded to describe the aftermath of that incident through the protagonist's anguish and eventual recovery.I guess I felt that I had to do that, to make the reader look up and take notice.This maybe off thread, but that's what went through my mind in reading Des' blog entry.

I have GOT to get an English (British) dictionary if I continue to read stuff from our over the bay friends. I'm going through Camy's shorts now, and every word that I've had to look up is not in my Webster's.

Yes, the times are indeed changing. Society is now starting to accept (or tolerate) the fact that homosexuality does exist, and many parents are starting to accept that their sons or daughters might be gay. Added to that realization is the knowledge that their son's or daughter's possible homosexuality is not of their choosing. Although, the parents of these kids grew up in a different era and when it comes to their own children, their hopes and dreams for them hold them back from becoming totally accepting. So, as society becomes more accepting, the parents also become so, just at a lower rate then society as a whole. But to answer Cole's question, I do think that more and more parents are willing to send their kids off to boarding school knowing that homosexuality exists and that the orientation of their sons or daughters has been fixed and there's nothing that they can do about it. I'm talking about a small change, but a growing one.

I've had to do a lot of thinking on this subject, mostly because I hadn't thought much about it before, so I had to start from zero and investigate my beliefs. I was about to respond, but our local intellectual with a brain the size of the continent of Australia had to beat me to the punch. I'm an engineer, and when I design a building, I do not think about who will be occupying it other than they are human beings. That's all, and their safety is important to me. Hell, they may be Mormons or even Jerry Falwell himself, but that's not the issue to me. I think anyone in the medical profession should think about what they're there for...healing PEOPLE. The idea that a medical professional has to take his/her own views of politics, religion, social status or whatever into their medical profession is just self serving. They've forgotten their oath. It's people they're serving, not their own dogmas. Christ, the next thing they'll be saying is that 'I can't heal him/her because I'm Jewish and the patient is a Christian or I'm from New York and this person is from New Jersey' for Christ's sake!

I only wish I could stop crying.

Do you think the DVD was Latter Days?