#SORRY I JUST RANTED ABOUT IDENTITY FOR A MILLION PARAGRAPHS

[letapollojusticesayfuck]

Your post about Klavier being unbendingly lawful made me think about how hilarious it is that if you put Apollo, looking all proper and serious when suited up, next to Klavier, grinning rockstar decked out in chains and shirt partly unbuttoned, one would think Apollo would be the stickler for rules and laws.

But in reality Klavier has managed to make even being a rock star all about law, while Apollo was raised by literal rebels, has possibly been living with forged papers ever since being sent away at age [young], and also can and will punch someone for being too much of a dick. Not to mention what else he might have been up to inbetween age [young] and now.

Kinda makes me wonder if Klavier would assume the same, and how long it would take for him to realize otherwise... 🤔

okay so i'm going to take this as an opportunity to talk about one of my favorite things from aa4: the way that almost all the characters entirely subvert your expectations of them based on their outward appearance. (obvious spoilers ahead, if you're somehow following me without having played aa4)

So, yeah, there's Klavier and Apollo--the supposedly "bad boy" rockstar with a motorcycle and self-branded boots, contrasted with the seemingly straightlaced Brand New Defense Attorney in his comparably normal businesswear. ...and then Klavier turns out to make music entirely about upholding the law and is the prosecutor in the series most dedicated to finding the truth above all else right from the start, and Apollo punches his first ever client in the face once he discovers that the guy was...let's politely say not giving him all the information about the evidence he had.

The most obvious way AA4 subverts expectations surrounding appearances is probably in Turnabout Trump--you expect the legal mentor figure (Kristoph Gavin, in this case) to be trustworthy and upstanding. You're introduced to your somewhat shady-looking client who's Obviously hiding something. And then it turns out that the sketchy guy you're defending is Phoenix Wright, former paragon of justice; and you realize your mentor is significantly more personally involved in this case than you could have imagined, and by the end of the trial you're not really sure what the status quo is actually going to be for this game.

(the rest of this is under a cut because I uh. had a lot to say about this)

And then this subversion continues with characters like the Kitakis, who are notorious for organized crime but who are revealed to be trying to put that behind them and open a bakery; or Alita Tiala, who at first glance seems to be a devoted fiancée but who's been planning on taking advantage of Wocky's inevitable death for her own financial gains. You've got Lamiroir, the "landscape painter in sound," who turns out to be blind; and Machi Tobaye, the young boy who's actually been caught up in a smuggling plot.

(...come to think of it, AA4 has a lot of children who end up involved in dubiously legal schemes through the influence of parents/guardian figures in their lives (Machi and Daryan; Vera and Drew Misham; Trucy and Zak Gramarye--and even Trucy and Phoenix Wright, honestly).)

Ultimately, almost everyone you encounter throughout AA4 is lying about who they are--they're acting, putting on a performance. And this is one of the things about the game that I think is genuinely so brilliant--because Perceive, as a mechanic, is all about seeing through this seemingly-perfect image to what's being concealed. You have a game full of people whose identities involve some form of pretense (Phoenix, pretending to be a washed-up piano/poker player; Klavier, and the inherent pretense that comes with being a celebrity; Trucy, and her whole family's illusion-based magic; Lamiroir, who doesn't even know her previous identity; etc, etc, etc), and the whole point, more than ever, is being able to understand and see through to what truth they're hiding.

(this is one of the things that annoys me about the fact that we never got a resolution for Kristoph Gavin's black psyche-locks, actually--because the game leaves that as a dangling plot thread, because we never do get to find out entirely what he's concealing with his polished, perfectly composed facade. We can make educated guesses based on everything we find out--he's a perfectionist, obsessed with being in control; he wants to be admired and have people depend on him. But the why is never resolved in a satisfying manner within the text of the game, and then isn't revisited)

...I can't remember if I had some sort of profound point to this--I think I just wanted to talk about how interesting the characters in AA4 were, honestly--and because I really, really love themes of concealed/hidden identity, whether it's more concrete or abstract. I think I was probably supposed to talk about klapollo here and not give you half an English Lit essay--but i've been wanting to ramble about this for ages and this gave me an excuse.

[christinaroseandrews]

Part 1

First off, I’m going to have to break this review up into pieces. I’ve got too much to rant about - complete with screen grabs - that tumblr will hate me. Not to mention, I want to show you the pain and then talk about some of the more salient problems with this book in depth. 

A little over a month and a half ago I said I was going to do something stupid. I was going to read my way through Faleena Hopkins’ book You Don’t Know Me. I got through the first half in a fairly decent clip - the writing was not good, the characters weren’t good, the plots were flying more than mosquitoes in summer... and then I got to the part where I just started continually shouting.

Laws of physics, laws of nature, laws of storytelling were all thrown aside as if they were garbage and then literal garbage was shoved into its place.

This was not a good book. This is not me ragging on her as an author. But I am not joking when I say I’ve read stuff by actual teenagers that was much, much better than this. And because I had to suffer through it, you have to suffer through my ranting.  Aren’t I nice?

The story takes a common trope “Secret Love Child” and combines it with another “The Missing Heir” and adds a dash of “Draco in Leather Pants” and “Poor Little Rich Boy” into the mix. By the way, if you can’t guess, TV Tropes is my wiki-walk rabbit hole and I have no regrets. The same cannot be said for this book.

Rue Calliwell (and I don’t care if I misspell the name - the author doesn’t; why should I?) is trying to make it in Los Angeles. She works the graveyard shift at a local grocery store while trying to catch her big break as a dancer. When Jack Stone, one of America’s Famous Billionaire Playboys, suddenly appears on her doorstep hopping mad, she wonders what died in his Wheaties and maybe if she can kiss away the frown he’s fixing her with. (Yep, she’s dreaming about some brother banging.) After dragging the story out for way too long, it’s finally revealed that Rue is the bastard daughter of Jack’s father and that he’s been embezzling from his company to stock up an inheritance of $50 million that has Rue’s name all over it. If she refuses the money, it goes to the KKK and she can’t allow that to happen. While her other brother, Sean, treats her to a Pretty Woman makeover, Jack wrangles their best friend Alec (and super hot lead singer of a band that’s never mentioned and isn't important to the plot in any way) to seduce his sister and then break her heart. Because that’s what all pissed off brothers do, dontcha know? 

So where do I even begin with this?

How about at the beginning... I have over 120 notes that I made on this as I read it. I’ll share some of them with you.

This is the opening paragraph to this book. There is so much wrong with this I just can’t even. From the random thought, to the run-on sentence (a Faleena Hopkins Trademark), to the weird-ass descriptors. Frowning Forehead? Are there lips on this forehead? Another face? Not to mention that there are missing en-dashes and it’s in a confusing tense. (Most of the book is in first person/present tense... because of the contraction, the sentence can be read as both present and past tense.)

The story introduces us to Rue, Jack, and Sean in pretty short order. Rue is supposed to be the heroine. The one we’re rooting for. Jack is the antagonist. One of the two wronged brothers and the one who thinks that Rue has an agenda. He is not a nice character. Then there’s Sean who is too good for this world and is written like every single stereotypical gay best friend but he’s got a “SECRET!” You have one guess what that is going to be.

If you can’t tell, this is in reference to Jack. But not only do we have a wild apostrophe, but we also have Exorcist levels of neck contortion. Not to mention a super awkward sentence.

This is also a Faleena Hopkins Trademark.

See...

I also mentioned that the story was in need of a good editor. Not just a proofreader, but an actual story doctor who could prune the 15 or so subplots down to something manageable while actually giving us a romance. Not a sex story shoved into a family drama. By the way, this story BARELY qualifies as a romance and I’m not totally convinced it is. The main characters end up together, but it is in no way satisfying and the focus of the story wasn’t on the relationship. More on that later.

But let’s go back to the editing.

Sorry about the italics not translating between Goodreads (where I can access my notes) and what’s in the actual book.  Trust me when I say that this woman hasn’t met an italic she didn’t love, except when she should use them.

As you can see, there are now enough errors for me to mark it down a star for poor proofreading.  And I’m not even a quarter of my way through this. The errors continued including something I find a death knell... the author spelling her main character’s name wrong. I’m not going to bother sharing more of her proofreading errors, unless they are really eye-roll enducing.

Another reason why this book is so bad is because the foreshadowing is heavy-handed as fuck. Like I’m going to hit you over a brick with it but I want you to act surprised when the reveal takes place. It’s that bad.

Here’s one of the most egregious examples.

We didn’t get the actual reveal of what was in the summary until 7% of the way into the book. Which is 21 pages and 5 Chapters into the book. Even then, the author played with it for a while, making it so that Rue didn’t believe the lawyer and thought this was some elaborate reality show prank. Yeah.

The author also wasn’t terribly good at hiding her foreshadowing.

This was in the character’s head. You don’t hide that kind of thing in your own head. It’s why most mystery writers don’t write from the POV of the killer, “The Strange Case of Roger Ackroyd” aside. It gives away the mystery. Coupled with the over abundance of POVs and this heavy handed handling of the character. I would have dropped this plot line entirely.... More on this later.  Trust me, what goes on with Sean is a rant in and of itself and is enough for me to rate this one star.

Now let’s get into the flashback portion and will portion of the plot.

This is where the first gif really starts showing through.

Part of me really wanted to send Hopkins the Wikipedia article on cancer. The other part of me wondered: if this is what she considers hyperbole, then what other horrors did I have in store?

I shouldn’t have asked.

This is brought up, but never actually addressed. Also I need to talk about how the father gave Rue the money. He gave it to her in a lump sum. $50 million. Not a trust. Not a foundation. Just here! Cash!

The author tries to address it later. But fails.

And that’s assuming that there aren’t locality taxes and again congrats you’re in a higher income bracket.

The biggest problem with this is that the father would know better. Or have the money offshore... not something that would be transferred into a U.S. checking account to make the IRS piddle their pants like an errant puppy. The father who claims to have loved the mother and the daughter, would make sure that the daughter had the money to keep her comfortable for the rest of her life and not able to spend it or give it away all in one go.

I used to work for a lawyer’s office who specialized in estate planning (and real estate) - in most cases, if you have more than $250,000 in assets that will survive your death, it’s recommended to have a trust because the federal government takes so much.

These tricks are one of the many ways that the rich stay rich.

As I mentioned before Rue gets a makeover, courtesy of Sean.

I’m thinking of the now deleted video of hers... But here’s the author.

So of course from here on out, I’m picturing Faleena as Rue... which did not help matters.

The reason why I say this is a nice lampshade is literally until she finds out that Jack and Sean are her brothers, she’s fantasizing about sleeping with them and kissing them.  Which again is “Ew!!!” for the reader and not funny and kinda crosses the pseudo-incest vibe that Amazon will allow and goes into Incest because again, we the reader know what the score is, it’s in the damned summary.

This is a huge problem in the book. The sainted mother who died of the mystical cancer is the sole woman who doesn’t get the slut/bitch/sexist treatment. Huge problem. Not even Jenna is immune (which happens later) and Jenna falls into another bad trope which I will get to later.

There’s more, but let me tell you, headhopping in the first person, present tense is tough. You’re deep into one character’s head. That takes talent.

Crappy talent. But talent.

This is where I’m going to stop my first post. We’ve just got the first mention of the love interest, Alec. And opened up another problem.

How is Alec Sean and Jack’s only friend? I say this as someone whose best friends growing up were identical twins. Most siblings, especially those that aren’t twins, won’t have the same bestie. They don’t want the same bestie. It’s a thing. They may have friends in common, but most best friends tend to be someone else. Mostly so they have someone they can rant to about the other.

If you think this is bad, wait until you meet Alec and the new siblings have a night on the town.

It’s going to be great....

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[teamsharoncarter-archive]

Hey dude, I'm sorry if my tag give you negative impressions and it triggers problems god knows you don't want to experience. It would be hard to accept different opinions on tumblr because we're communicating in a third medium, misunderstandings are bound to happen. If people in the fandom are actually making your life hell and actually personally attack you, I'm offering ears to your story. I know how shitty people can give anxiety and maybe sharing it can ease your burden. That if you want to

I have calmed down now (who knew chores could clear your mind right?). Also, I want this ask and answer to be public so people know what happened and don’t send either of us hate or whatever. (That’s happened before so it’s for mine and your protection). But if you feel uncomfortable with that, I will gladly delete this post and send it via submission.

Hey I want to say thank you, for apologizing. I would also like to apologize. I was already in a beginnings of a manic episode that I felt in me, and when that volcano just erupted, I “spewed the lava” onto you and you didn’t deserve that so I’m sorry about that. I’m trying to do better with it. And I probably should have been more clear, I will work on that too.

Yeah the five years of being on here were hell. (In fact I have a post labeled “Five Fucking Years [link]” that is the summary of the hell - but no where near explains exactly what I’ve had to deal with.) My blog archive on this one only shows 3 years, but I had two different blogs—and a failed remake for this blog—until I remade into “teamsharoncarter” (tsc is like, my tenth url on this blog omg).

I kinda ranted about the Five Hell Years of Fandom below, it’s kinda long, so it’s under a read more.

So my Fandom Life started way back in 2012 on fanfictiondotnet, and 2013 on tumblr.

First thing negative I ever had happen to me, is that a person reported and had my fanfic deleted because I “falsely advertised on the fanfic summary” as stated on the last review before my fanfic was just Gone. FFN didn’t even warn me or back it up at all. And because people badgered me for an update because I wasn’t Spitting Out A New Chapter Every Hour, the demands made a deadline for something that wasn’t supposed to have a deadline made me worry that people would hate me if I didn’t Immediately Post Now, so I posted One Paragraph chapters that were rushed and gross, because I thought they just wanted quantity, not quality. So then I started getting Hate Reviews because it was rushed and not “proper length for a chapter.” (Thank God for James Patterson for his One Page Chapters that taught me, who cares if it’s one page? You wrote down what you wanted in the story without somehow jamming it into another chapter.)

Imaginary deadline made me anxious like a school deadline, which made me feel bad for not posting anything for months which lead to more anxiety which lead to feeling like crap everyday for not posting which eventually lead to spiraling depression.

So I left fanfictiondotnet behind me. And did a dumbass decision to join tumblr. I’ve seen other authors on FFN talk about visiting their blogs and chat with them and stuff, so I thought it would be a fun place to hang with fellow fans.

I was right for a little bit.

Then I reblogged a post that upset one of my few followers. Next thing I knew, I was getting sent messages about how I’m a menace to society for liking this one couple or something (like if I remember correctly, it was a think it was thalico - about 7 months before Nico was confirmed gay). And so because I said “fuck off” because like, 13 years old, why do you wanna worry about that stuff when all you want is fun right? So whenever I got a message from them, I’d delete it. I’d block them over and over again, because either they were using friend’s accounts or a different computer, I’ll never know. After they were Proven Right that their headcanon was canon, they were like “see! i told you!” as if it was okay for them to constantly harass me because their headcanon that a character was gay was confirmed.

What made me finally leave that blog was that I kinda got into a fight, like we did, but they twisted the words I was trying to say, which I got irrationally angry at, and they vagued me, and also not so vagued me, (which is why I don’t take kindly to that anymore) to their followers, which lead to hundreds of anons in my inbox about how I should die and should kill myself. I tried to tell the person, but they had me blocked after they vagued me, and so I had my friend tell them, but all they got was a laugh in the face about how I was childish for trying to stop what I deserved.

So I deleted that blog, remade another one, where I would just reblog, not comment, not have ask open, not post personal opinions, nothing. Just a simple reblog blog. That didn’t work either because I started to feel lonely, and the only follower I had was my sister.

So I tried FFN again, new account, new fanfic ideas, new ships, new identity, and put a link to my blog on my bio and decided to open up my ask for any convos my readers wanted for the fanfic—specifically things like theories for the next chapter. I even made sure to have three chapters ready, so I would post one chapter per week, which gave me time to write the next one, to give a nice flow. Which was a big mistake. I started to get the same “UPDATE!” messages, so I would post the next chapter anyway because I have a compulsion to please people, which restarted the spiraling because I no longer had the cushion to have more time to write. I though the update demands would shut up if I gave them three in the same day. But then, I also got hate reviews for my fanfics in my ask. About how everyone was Out Of Character or Not Together With Their OTP. And so I deleted the accounts and just started over again.

With this blog.

I started not talking to anyone but the few friends I made on my previous blog. I reblogged a lot of gen stuff, then as a month went by with nothing, no sign of hate, I decided to reblog shippy stuff, I changed my icon to my OTP.

Which upset practically everyone.

I was sent not only that I should die or kill myself, but death threats and rape threats and just weird ass shit. I get sent messages that my otp/fave character was abusive (steve/tony, fave character is tony) and that I was an abuse apologist and that I should be filled with concrete to they could “smash me into a million piece or sculp me into a human being with more decency”. So since then I just would, block anyone who I saw was even a little negative toward the things I loved, because I thought, if I put up the barricade now, they can’t get me later. But then I started showing love to other ships and characters and it would just start all over again. And then people I already had blocked would somehow find my posts, screenshot them, post it making fun of it without removing my url, then send hoards of people after me. And when asked to stop, they laughed at me more.

I changed my url, and saved the old url with a redirect to a “not found” page so they thing I deleted and I was save for awhile.

I posted a picture of me as sharon for halloween - I didn’t have a white catsuit, but I did have a vest like Sharon did in CW so I wore that (2 people recognized who I was trying to be) - and then I got this ask: “You are ugly. So is Sharon. [link]” and yeah my answer was basically “wow anon lol pathetic hate”, it still got to me?

I don’t know what has made me stick it out with this one for so long. Maybe because I have a lot of followers now, maybe because of the friends I made, maybe it’s my “fuck this fuck you i’m staying” spite. I don’t know. I just know that I’m tired.

I’m tired of defending myself and the fiction characters I love. I’m tired of constantly being told by my own invasive thoughts and by real people, that my life doesn’t equal that of a fiction characters. That fiction characters are somehow worth more than me, a living breathing human.

[missbaphomet]

Forgive me, I used the wrong word in my 3am rant, that is entirely on me.

However, here’s the thing... the “people who menstruate” are biologically female. Regardless of their status as cis or trans, the prerequisite for having a period is to be biologically female. That being said, you are also gleefully ignoring the context of the tweet you yourself mentioned. It was in response to an article on Devex.com that goes on ad nauseum *about women and girls impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.* to quote the article:

“Importantly, advocates are calling attention to the many gendered aspects of the pandemic, including increased vulnerabilities to gender-based violence during lockdowns, and the risks faced by primary caretakers — particularly women in the household and health care workers, approximately 75% of which are women.

An estimated 1.8 billion girls, women, and gender non-binary persons menstruate, and this has not stopped because of the pandemic. They still require menstrual materials, safe access to toilets, soap, water, and private spaces in the face of lockdown living conditions that have eliminated privacy for many populations.

Of equal concern, progress already made or underway around important gender issues is now halted or reversing. Menstruation serves as a proxy for this observation. 2020 started out as a year of progress, with a groundswell of interest and potential for improved investment to address the menstrual health and hygiene needs of girls, women, and all people who menstruate.

Investment is urgently needed, as a recent report estimates that over 500 million women worldwide do not have what they need to manage their menstruation. The inability to manage menstruation with safety, dignity, and comfort may negatively impact the physical and mental health of those who menstruate around the world.”

That is three unbroken paragraphs taken directly from the article, which is half of the article’s length, discounting a “why you should donate” list. The article itself was actually about women and non-binary individuals who are still biologically women and face the struggles associated with womanhood despite their gender identity. JK Rowling just made a joke regarding the title that fell flat. That isn’t transphobia, that’s relevant to what the article was about— women and people who struggle with feminine issues.

Also, love that we’re discounting Mars (@_Mars_F), Buck Angel (@BuckAngel), Blair White (@msblairwhite)... and even Marilyn (@MisterMarilyn), a trans woman and personal friend of JK Rowling, who regarded her as “one of the most supportive individuals I have ever met with regards to individual’s choices to be whoever they want”. Regardless of your opinion of any of these individuals, these are a select few of many that agree with and support JK Rowling. But we’re gonna overlook actually trans individuals in favor of woke allies like George Takei and Ben O’Keefe... okay.

I don’t have the time or effort to go through all the tweet and all the threads and compile every single trans person who stands with JK, but that’s a very select few I found rather easily.

Anyway denying biology is for clowns and to deny biological sex it to erase trans people. Sorry not sorry.

Forever rolling my eyes at this JK Rowling drama... y’all really offended because she said biological gender exists? If biological gender doesn’t exist, neither could being transgender. To ‘trans’ your gender, you HAVE to have a gender in the first place. I’m tired y’all. Can we stop ignoring the trans voices that agree with Rowling because it doesn’t fit your pretty, neat little ‘UwU I’m special’ fantasy? Without gender there would be no transgender, die mad about it.

[theroyalbard]

1st Attempt Slam Poem

Into to my scars (literary) - By Sophia Anne Moore 

 Context: I had a lot of heart surgeries when I was little and I now have a lot of scars on my chest, this is basically a rambling about how I feel about them and basically a ranting rhyme. 

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

        Within 30 seconds of meeting me I will tell you three different things, not because I really want to, not because most people can already read my arts and crafts, cut and paste, marking that draw away from my face body like an open book, that I have to give them some explanation, some apology for my autonomy, not because I don’t have a million other story’s to tell, because I do...but because when I went to my K-8 Catholic school in my pressed uniforms and to my inner city high-school where drugs where a social norm or even when I was just sitting on my phone - I was told that I that I was a lot, I had a strong voice, now that’s blessing for for the stage but not for impressing the boys, but that’s not why I wrote this poem today, because if it was I wouldn’t be standing here in the first place - 

   The reason I tell you these things when we meet  starts from my middle school days, when we where changing for gym or the track meet, the markings on my chest sparked murmmers  and whispers, in the locker rooms they crawled on my body like flies from my class, the eyes that followed me, digging into my back, looking for some explanation that would be my social hall pass, I guess it’s irony, the timing you see, they where being taught the same as me, the Widom of god and his son and the trinity, to cast out the devil, do the lords work, without envy, so I guess I can’t blame them, I guess I just needed to save face, I guess that’s what happens when your chest looks like It went through a fucking cheese grate and has the carved symbol of the devil incarnate. 

The image that you see in every horror movie, the conjuring, the nun, the upside down cross that sparked so much interest, I didn’t think it was a problem until I was at a pool and was called a saitanist, I was 9 years old, I didn’t even know that that meant. But don’t worry you learn real quick, when it’s label on your chest. 

     So think you have some context to why I act the way I do, when we first meet and say how do you do, here are the things that I might say to you - 

   Now The first thing I will tell you when I meet you at party is that I’m already sorry for my presents in the entry way, I’m sorry for speaking, for asking for a drink, but just as quick I will mask my embarrassment of myself with fake confidence ive pladgerized, that isn’t  even mine to think. The second thing I will tell you but only when I’m sober is that dispite what I order I shouldn’t be drinking in the first place, my history of heart disease might resurface with a new face, but I want to find a place within the crowd just to have a taste the approval of my peers, that I don’t care what it does to my body as long as everyone sayin cheers.  The third and final thing I might say is very circumstantial, I’ll only ever say it if I feel we are compadable. If I really like you, and you think I’m alright, I’ll apologize for my body and wanting absolutely no light. Now I know most people don’t really care about the scars, they say they look “supa fine”  but I’ve had one to many tinder dates that tell me they didn’t like the movie frankinstine. 

So this why I’m so open with anyone who shows me any human deascently, I spill my guts to people who barley know me, when meeting someone new I am not an open book but an ideology of an identity that is drilled into your head like a manifesto of recency . Its like a warning shot, a paragraph of a welcome mat, because its better to be judged up front than find knives in your back. Better to be an open fool that a stigmatized tool. Because if I dont get my voice heard I think I will scream, so that why I now say “ Vi Va La “seen” (long live the seen) 

[allanpaulvin]

A RETURN HOME

My fingers are gently tickling the keys that reside on my IdeaPad to extend to you, my loyal fans, my wish that you enjoy a pleasant good morning and an enjoyable day.  First, I need to extend my apologies for not supplying you with my daily dose of sarcastic humor twenty-four hours ago.  I was otherwise involved.  More about my involvement, in later paragraphs of today's rant.  

Enough about me, at least for the moment.  To avoid you thinking of me as, self-involved, I have some imposing questions, about you and your life, that I need to ask.  So here goes.

1.  I wonder if you missed me?  Not to worry if you didn't, you'll remain on my list of those who will receive a free, autographed copy of my first million-selling book. 2.  My birthday is coming up in another fifty-two days.  Would you like my contact information so that you could send a gift or at least a greeting card?   Remember, you can visit your local "Dollar Store," and purchase a card for just a buck. 3.  Have you, as of yet, made plans on how you'll be spending your Memorial Day weekend? 4.  Did you have the opportunity to view last night's induction ceremony into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame?  I did and was amazed by the performances of Jon Bon Jovi and his band of merry men. 5.  If you needed to decide as to whether or not you would attend a local Jazz Concert, would you?

Please note, after much thought, these questions were cleverly crafted. Your identity will not be compromised.  Your answers will be carefully screened and filed in a secure place.

I just received my daily dose of headlines from my sources at the New York Times.  I'd like to share them with you.

1.  "How Trump's Lawyer Built a Business Empire in the Shadows."  He had a good teacher who goes by the name of the "DUMPSTER." 2.  "An Ailing McCain Reflects with Friends at His Ranch."  Mr. McCain, even though you represent the "Red Party," I still have the utmost respect for and wish you a speedy recovery. 3.  "Yes, It's Bad.  Robocalls and their Scams are Surging."  They certainly are.  My computer was hacked, and I was contacted by a crew who promised to remove the virus at a prohibitive charge.   4.  "Kanye West Likened to a Choice.  History Says Otherwise."  Anyone who listens to the useless words of Mr. West must be imbibing some heavy duty pharmaceutical.     5.  "The Naked Truth About Trump."  First, I never want to even think about "The Donald," unclothed.  Is there anything truthful about the words and deeds of our Commander and  Chief?  

My word count is ever-mounting, so I'll quickly move along to today's edition of:  "Al's Diatribes."  Our Subject is:  "A RETURN HOME"  

Yesterday, I paid a visit to the place in which I entered God's Earth.  I found that;

-  lots of the stores I frequented in my youth, are gone but not forgotten by both me and mine   -  the borough has become quite gentrified, but I did see some folks that could be classified as "baby boomers." -  lots of neighborhoods, in which one can reside, have become a lot more expensive -  the traffic, along the highways and byways, was more intense -  the pizza is still great, lo these many years -   Prospect Park and the Botanical Gardens, have been redesigned and were packed to the gills -  the neighborhood in which I attained adulthood has become more Carribean -  all my favorite eateries have disappeared -  a tear or two did appear in my ocular organs -  my heart beat loud and proud as I passed my alma mater -  I'm sorry I ever left

Those of you that grew up in the former home of the: Brooklyn Dodgers, the original Nathan's Famous, Coney Island Fireworks, Jahn's Ice Cream Parlor, and the Spinelli's Bowling Alleys and Poolroom, should return, at least for a quick visit.  I promise it will enable you to dance the night away.  Make it a great day!