I do apologise to those few readers who may have been waiting for another chapter of my last story "After The Ball". I have just not been able to come up with anything which satisfies me or seems to be a valid continuation and so I have retitled the previous post "Just For The Ball?" with very minor changes to make it a stand-alone. If anyone thinks that they can continue the tale please feel free to do so. Just run it past me before posting. Sorry,

Joanne

Here I am, fairly late at night, had maybe one wine too many, tears streaming down my face as I listen to Phil Collins' "Another Day In Paradise", a song that I love, but it always makes me feel so guilty.

The destitute woman pleads for help and the man pretends he doesn't hear and ignores her. Which of us at some time hasn't done the same? Ignored that desperate plea for help because it was too embarrassing or inconvenient, or too much trouble.

I woke up this morning, hoping that for once I would be able to log on without getting a "site down" notice, and I did!!

Sometimes something comes along that you just have to share!

ABOUT THE WRITER, Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald.

WARNING! NO TG CONTENT!

I had a couple of hundred buttons last time I looked and now they are all gone.

Woe is me!

Joanne

A Canadian Miss Universe contestant has been banned from the competition after organisers found out that she had been born male.

The 23 year-old girl said she had known that she was a female at age four, had commenced hormone therapy at fourteen and finally transitioned at nineteen.

This is absolutely stunning and totally "green-with-envy" making!

This is Andrej Pejic, a male model, being used to promote a new bra

I'm thinking of writing a story about a trans-girl driving a TransAM up the trans continental highway Route 66, racing a T-girl in a T-Bird dressed in a tight little Tee with Daddy's Girl embroidered on it in glitter,

Joanne

The wedding night of British royalty is steeped in as much tradition as the public ceremony.

It is the custom for the bride, when she is finally undressed and ready for the nuptial bed, to say to her new husband;

"Sir, I offer you my honour."

He replies;

"Madam, I honour your offer."

Then he's on 'er and off 'er all night.

Fictionmania seems to have disappeared again, at least for me. I can't raise it on the link from this site or by googling direct.

Is it just me and something I'm doing wrong or has anybody else experienced the same problem?

Joanne

Leviticus rules
Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 15:38:30 +0800

This was sent to me today. It is self-explanatory and, in my opinion, very, very funny:

In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura, penned by a US resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative:

Dear Dr. Laura:

I have been a little uncomfortable with the debate on "ownership" of stories. The theory is fine. An author owns their story and the rights to deal with that story as they see fit.

Dead easy, right?

But then you get to the somewhat more messy realities. A week or so ago I was trying to post a story and I was having Hell's own difficulties with formatting; can't blame anybody. It was me that was stuffing it up. Eventually I posted it. I took one look and (shock! horror!) deleted it. My pride wouldn't allow me to leave it there.

Am I missing something?

There is no "Comment" bar at the end of "Sarah Palin" (on my screen anyway).

Is this an error or a pre-emptive measure to prevent a flame war?

I just wanted to say that the story explains everything, but how does she spell "potatoe"?

Joanne

Here I go agine, somewhat emboldened by Angela Rasch. I posted a story five days ago. The first two days 500+ hits, 50 votes and half a dozen comments. OK, not a stellar success. I can live with that, but for the last three days, 300+ hits and virtually NO votes and not a single comment.

I wish that someone would tell me if I'm wasting my time posting here, that I don't gibe with the BC vibe, that there's little interest in what I post, that I'm a lousy writer, anything but this deafening silence. Indifference; disapproval??

There are recurring stories about plagues or diseases decimating (I use the word in its modern sense, not the Roman one of one in ten) humanity. There has not yet been a disease that took more than one in three of the population, which is not to say that a more virulent disease could not arise in the future.

However, if we experienced now a plague which took one in three, the problems are that first our medical resources would be overburdened to breaking point, and so would all our infrastructure.

Our civilization is now so complex that it could not survive a plague of this magnitude.

One of my early stories "Choices" has just passed 4000 hits after about 18 months. This shows that people do continue to read submissions when the gloss of newness and novelty has worn off.