Gee Whillickers

:lol:

Darn chopping onions, making my tear up like that. I had a monkey quite similar to that when I was very young. Only it was black instead of blue. His name was Cheetah. I haven't thought of him in years, but this brought back so many memories. He was worn, ripped, and sewn back together in a hundred places, but I loved that silly thing. I wonder what ever happened to it.

I'd agree with a lot of what Freethinker said above. Nifty has its place, as do its stories. Like for many of us, it was one of the first, if not the first, gay story site I found on the web a number of years ago. True, most of the stories are poor from a literary standpoint, and years ago I remember skimming over the first few paragraphs of many a story and dismissing them quickly. But there were the exceptions. Hard to find, true, and scattered thin, but they're there. And there's nothing wrong with a quick wank story if that's what someone is looking for, if that's what they came (ahem) to the site to find, then they'll find plenty of it. And it provided and continues to provide a place for budding writers to submit stories. New writers that don't have any idea if what they're writing is any good at all. Many of our favorite writers on the net, on this and other websites, can trace their first stories to a tentative nifty posting back in the mists of time. Nifty is easy to slam, easy to laugh at, but it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is, and it does that job just fine.

Absolutely epic response. Just perfect. Gosh, Burns might now be incensed enough to stop watching football!! What a horrible loss to all!

As I understand it, the explanation for this phenomena is simple. If you see something once again that you haven't seen since you were a young preteen, it inevitably looks smaller. That makes sense. You were smaller. It's all relative. We remember objects based on their size relative to our own. So, your perceptions were perfectly valid. You weren't remembering the size of the house or yard or barn wrongly, you were simply comparing them to a different baseline. Of course, this is moot for things you see from time to time as you grow, since you adjust each time.

Just to clear up a few things for those in other countries chuckling about all this. Yes, there's a "strategic reserve" of maple syrup. That makes sense when you think about it. Canada produces 80% of the world's supply, and in economic terms that massively significant. Maple syrup is finicky. Maple trees like chilly nights and moderate days to produce the best syrup. Weather is a huge factor. Some years are great. Other years are lousy. But, the world doesn't care. It wants its syrup. So, the reserve keeps the prices somewhat stable and keeps the yummy stuff flowing even when there's two or three bad years in a row. Real maple syrup has about as much relationship to Aunt Jemima as Brunschwig & Fils does to Ikea furniture. There really is no comparison. At all. It's hard to eat maple flavored Aunt Jemima after you've enjoyed the real thing. It's almost certainly an inside job. Access to the supplies, transport of it, and, most importantly, worldwide connections to sell the (ahem) hot syrup would result in a real (ahem) sticky situation if you didn't know what you were doing. Chances are reasonable that some or all of it will be recovered as a result. We'll see. Now, go make some pancakes. With real maple syrup. While you have the chance. The price is about to skyrocket.

I'm going to carefully dip my toe into the discussion here, though I admit I already know I may end of regretting it. Getting back to Afghanistan: My country is at war. It is not the United States. Canada has been fighting and dying in Afghanistan for years now. This gives me incentive and, thanks to research and reading, knowledge on what is going on over there. Our current right-wing conservative government insists what we are doing over there is good and right, and protects all of us. Many young brave Canadian soldiers have died in the past few years. I wish I could say they died protecting our freedom, or our country, or something tangible. They did not. I wish I could say they died to help those being viciously oppressed. They did not. There has not been one single convincing argument for what exactly we hope to accomplish over there. Yet, there we are. Like Elecivil's story, many kids and even adults are unaware of what's going on there, or even that we are there. There are very, very few explanations for all this that make any sense, but one or two stand out clearly: Someone is making a shitload of money out of all this. Human lives for cash? I cannot, and absolutely never, ever will support or agree with what our conservative government is doing internationally. They have, in three short years, undid decades of hard work effort in establishing this country's global reputation. More importantly, and fundamentally the only issue that matters: young people's lives are being lost or ruined due to old, wealthy people's decisions. Decisions they will not have to pay any significant consequences for. As to Iran and Israel? Israel, as is obvious with anyone who follows history and in-depth news, is far from a golden upstanding example of a shining, free, middle eastern country. Of course, neither is Iran. That's not the point. Taking sides implies that there is a side to be taken. It implies the issue is simple. Black and White. Good and bad. It also implies to some degree that force must be used, that it is the only option. Each side believes that if their side won, then all would be well. Despite millenia of contradictory evidence. As long as this is the mindset prevails, nothing solid and long lasting can or will be done. And that thought, along with the global implications, breaks my heart and terrifies me.

Lucky kid!

Some follow up reading shows that there are two issues here, both of which will cause huge legal headaches for the city. First, NYC cops currently have some of the poorest training and lowest scores in firearms anywhere. And second, a recent change to standard issue guns to NYC cops has resulted in trigger pulls that require 12 pounds of force rather than 5, possibly resulting in considerable decrease in accuracy as the extra effort required pulls the barrel off target.

Most of you have undoubtedly heard some of the details of this incident. Disgruntled man shoots and kills co-worker, police take him down. You may also have heard that nine others were injured by gunfire in the incident. But not gunfire from the assailant. Oh, no. In every case, the gunfire came from the overzealous rain of bullets from the police officers trying to take him down. Really makes me wonder who people need the most protection from these days. http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/justice/new-york-empire-state-shooting/

Very sad news. The first man to walk on the surface of the moon, an event that changed the course of human history, probably more than many people understand, has passed away. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/25/us-usa-neilarmstrong-idUSBRE87O0B020120825

Wow. Very well done, and very depressing.

This was just a great read. I have to admit (SPOILER!!) I figured out both the whodunnit crook and the title pun by the second chapter. That didn't detract from the story at all, in fact I think it added to it. Excellent story!

This kid does cancer research for fun after school. And he invented a method of testing for pancreatic cancer that is far, far, cheaper, 400x more sensitive, and 168x faster than the old testing methods. Our future is in good hands. http://www.bbc.co.uk...gazine-19291258 (Anyone else's gaydar pinging a bit after watching that?)

Studies also show that castration leads to a 100% decrease in all forms of testicular cancer. But that doesn't mean I'd support that medical procedure. The study sounds limited in scope and incomplete. Data is data, but I'd like to know several things: What is the incidence of the aforementioned diseases in uncircumcised men, and their partners, who have been taught, and regularly perform, proper hygiene as opposed to those who do not? What is the incidence in both circumcised and uncircumcised men in the aforementioned diseases in the countries where the study was performed as compared to my country? What social and cultural issues impact those differences, particularly those regarding sexual mores and hygiene? What is the incidence of other, non-sexually transmitted, diseases in those countries not impacted by insect or rodent infestation or water purity, but focused particularly on social issues? Studies are great. But context is everything.

At a guess, an automatic update to either windows or the Kindle reader messed something up. If you have the Chrome browser installed (a free safe download) you could use the Kindle Cloud Reader from inside Chrome to read your books.

As a teenager when this song was released, I remember it well. It's funny how the music we all listened to as teens, as we were going through that literally life-changing time, seems to stick with us forever.

Rather than just repeat what everyone else has said about how wonderful a story this is (and it very much is) I'd like to point out one aspect that was brilliantly done and is the mark of a very talented writer: The written voice of Toby and his Dad. Both believable, both well done, and both completely and utterly distinct. Excellent, absolutely excellent writing.

Yes, it's a wonderful little story with a great ending.

I loved this story. Very well done. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Though my parents were rather old-fashioned, and I knew they didn't exactly condone the activity, it was rarely brought up as a subject for discussion. And, I had an older brother. So the activity itself was never guilt inducing for me. However, what I thought about while engaging in said activity most definitely was. That was the crux of the issue. Not for religious reasons, but simply because I knew it wouldn't be accepted by those closest to me. The sex-ed I had received at the time, which was actually fairly enlightened considering it was the seventies, did explain that it was fine, healthy, and normal. Not a word though, back then, about homosexuality.

Doing Something is an incredible accomplishment on a number of levels. Cole breaks new ground here in his characterization, in plot, and in his pacing and storytelling. This is a wonderful tale and I found myself completely immersed and had difficulty putting it down to get other chores accomplished this weekend. Not to mention, I'm pleased I managed my own little accomplishment, having avoided this thread and the story completely until it was finished, so I wouldn't see spoilers and so I could read it right through. I'm glad I waited, it was very much worth it. Congratulations Cole on another wonderful story. And thank you.

Personally, I still have trouble keeping a straight face when talking about Wang office equipment.

And the referenced video about the golden retriever saving her pup from the swimming pool was great too.

One of the best things about Cory Doctorow's wonderful books is that many of them are made available completely free, in various formats, for download on his site. "Little Brother" is a great read.