Cloyne Court- Excerpts 17 and 18

Cloyne Court, Episode 17
By Dodie Katague
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Rated "R" by the Author.

Cloyne Court, Berkeley, California in the late 1970s.
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Astronomy 10: Heavenly Bodies

I grabbed my toiletry bag and towel and headed to the basement. Leaving the shower room was Laurent, the house drug dealer. He was of French, Middle-Eastern descent, had a full but well-trimmed beard and like any successful commissioned salesman, he was gregarious and friendly to a fault. He was wearing a silk bathrobe with a designer logo on the front-left pocket.

“Derek,” he said, as if we were best friends, “I’m Laurent in room 8A. You should stop by, and we should party sometime. You are into partying, aren’t you?”

“Sure, Laurent,” I said cautiously. Why did he want to party with me? We didn’t have much in common. I wasn’t female, and I didn’t have any spare cash to buy what he was selling. Why was he acting friendly?

“Awesome! I have some quality shit from Hawaii—Maui Wowee. It’ll send you on a wicked trip. If you want anything special, let me know. I can usually obtain it at a good price. Leave a note in my message box.”

I could not see myself spending money I didn’t have to buy any of his goods, and I didn’t need too. The weekend parties at Cloyne were accentuated with a distinct reefer smoke that permeated the hallways and furniture and lingered for days. You could get high just breathing the secondhand smoke.

At that time of the morning, the communal shower room was as busy as Grand Central Station. Two women and one man were taking a shower.

When I tell people about the co-ed showers, they titter and wonder what kind of depraved lifestyle I was living. However, the novelty of seeing naked bodies everyday in the shower room wore off quickly and became nothing more than a hygienic, morning ritual.

The naked female bodies in the shower that morning were typical of what I would see while I lived in the house. One woman, Betsy, had firm breasts with pink areolas, bushy pubic hair and nicely shaped hips. She was washing her hair with a lavender scented shampoo.

"Good morning," I said in a pleasant voice.

She gave me the once-over and went back to washing her hair.

Because most of us at Cloyne Court were eighteen, nineteen or twenty, I did see some gorgeously shaped female bodies. While I lived there, I ogled only a handful that could have been Playboy centerfold material. However, for every attractive eye candy I saw in the shower room, I also saw a mélange of bulges, flabbiness, tattoos, birthmarks, scars, moles, skin rashes, and unusually hairy body parts, including backs, necks, legs and armpits. Actual nudity without the proper mindset did not live up to its billing as a sexy experience.

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Cloyne Court, Episode 18
By Dodie Katague
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Rated "R" by the Author.

Cloyne Court, Berkeley, California in the late 1970s.

After a few weeks, I attributed private body characteristics to people when I saw them at meal times or walking down the main hallway. Just as I would meet people and recognize them by a distinctive facial feature like a big nose or a dimpled chin, I would also think, “That’s Susan, nicely trimmed pubic hair, or there’s Jennifer, big half-dollar sized areolas.”

The other woman taking a shower was Cindy, who I had first met at the telephone switchboard. Her breasts were shaped like pears and sagged. This morning, she wasn’t sporting the nose ring, but as I looked her over, I saw a flash of gold in her shaved pubic region. She had a gold ring attached to her labia. I had never seen one before. As I imagined how and who did the actual piercing, a tingle went through my groin.

Before becoming desensitized to seeing a naked female body in the shower, I worried about embarrassing myself by getting an erection. While that possibility always remained, fortunately for most of winter quarter at that time of morning, it was cold in the large shower room and nothing could coax a chilly Willie to raise its bulbous head in excitement. At least, not mine anyway.

The man showering opposite the two women was Richard Hein, whom the women in the house nicknamed 'Dick Fine'. He was a six-foot tall Adonis with short curly blond hair, a muscular V-shaped chest and a washboard stomach. Richard didn’t earn his nickname from his six-pack abdominals. He had a ten-inch long male member that was two inches thick in its flaccid state, and I was only guessing. I never actually measured it. I had no idea what it looked like in an erect state, but many women did, hence his nickname. He was a second-year senior, graduating in five years instead of four. At twenty-one, he had more worldly experience than a freshman. He walked the halls and played basketball in the courtyard with a self-assured air and an innocent smile that attracted women like night bugs to UV lights. He had certainly zapped his share.

Down in the showers after a basketball game when it was just the guys showering, someone tried to get Dick to tell stories about his love life. "So, Dick, who are you fucking this weekend?"

Dick was a gentleman and wouldn’t brag. "I have a dinner date with Lorna tonight."

"Lorna?" someone said. "She's the ugliest women in the house. Are you desperate?"

"She asked me out."

"And you said yes? You'll need three paper bags. One to put over your head and two to put over her head in case one breaks."

Dick just smiled with confidence.

My Favorite Philippine Dishes

My wife and I have resided here in the US since 1960. We have adapted to hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, cottage cheese, yogurt and other typical American fast foods, as well as Filipino dishes that we craved once in a while. Cooking Filipino food here in Northern California is no longer a problem, since we can purchase the ingredients in the Filipino-American store or an Oriental store (Chinese, Korean or Japanese) within 10 to 20 miles driving distance from our residence.

In the 1960's there was only one Filipino store near our residence in Chicago, Illinois. We oftentimes have to shop in China Town downtown. Today, there are Filipino grocery stores in almost all the medium-sized and big cities in US to cater to the expanding population of Filipino Americans who had immigrated to US in the 1980's.

We have resided in several cities here in US ( Sacramento, Pinole, Modesto,(California), Chicago, Illinois, Kansas City, Missouri and Colesville, Maryland). Every time we moved, my first job was to look at the telephone directory for the nearest oriental or Filipino store to our house.

The Philippines have a lot of dishes that I love. But my favorite dishes are fresh lumpia( eggrolls), lechon (roasted pig), pancit ( rice noodles), chicken and/or pork afritada ( cooked in tomato sauce with potatoes and green peppers),dinuguan ( blood pudding) and deboned and stuffed chicken called relleno. The above dishes are also the favorites of our four children who grew up here in US and does not really know the cuisine of the Philippines-the country of their ancestry.

Our children are brown and looked very Filipino, but they are as American as apple pie. In their college years, some of their friends called them “coconuts”. Their friends would comment, “you guys are brown outside but very white inside”. That indeed is the truth! Sometimes my children thinks, this is a racial slur. I told them to accept the comment and not worry about it.

My wife is an excellent cook. The saying "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach", applies to our life. When we were students at the University of the Philippines in the early 1950s, our romance was on and off. I was not really ready to get married at that time, since I was still planning to do graduate studies in the US.

One day before my 21st birthday (we have not talked or seen each other for almost a year), I was surprised to receive a birthday gift from her. Her gift was a chiffon orange cake that she baked from scratch. It was the most delicious cake I have ever eaten. It reignited our romance and we started dating again. The next year we got married. I was only 23 years old at that time. The next year, we had our oldest son and I was already in US doing graduate work at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Do you have a favorite dish, perhaps a native dish of your country of origin? I will appreciate if you share it.

Cloyne Court- Excerpt 16

Cloyne Court, Episode 16
By Dodie Katague
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Rated "R" by the Author.

Cloyne Court, Berkeley, California in the late 1970s.

"What is it with men and their need to overpower their natural environment?" Carrie, the lesbian, asked the day after Alan went on a Saturday afternoon marathon of loud music in the backyard.

I replied, "The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.1]"

She huffed. "You men are all alike. You stick together even when you know you're wrong."

"Wrong about what?"

"His choice of music. Making fun of transvestites just leads to violence against transgender people. Besides, The Kinks are so passé."

"Lola was only one song out of the dozens he played," I said, and thought she should have objected to Alan's airing of Village People's Macho Man, which he played repeatedly. I was humming the chorus for days afterward.

I told Alan what Carrie had said. The next Saturday he proclaimed it "Transgender and Crossdresser Appreciation Day" and recorded a cassette tape of songs that included Pink Floyd's Arnold Layne, Little Richard's Long Tall Sally, Led Zeppelin’s Royal Orleans, Rebel, Rebel by David Bowie, Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side and Monty Python's The Lumberjack Song, which he played repeatedly all afternoon.

* * *

Our third roommate was Mark or Mike or Matt. I never actually knew his name. Alan and I hardly saw him. When we did, he was asleep. He was an engineering student from the San Jose area not far from Berkeley, so he went home most weekends. He may have had a girlfriend back home, but he was shy, didn’t talk much, and Alan and I didn’t get to know him well enough to learn anything about him.

One weekend, Alan came into the room looking worried. He said, “I met some homeless dude downstairs. He doesn’t live here, but I think he sleeps in the basement. He knows I have some cool, stereo equipment. I think he’s been peeking in our window.”
“Alan, everyone with ears knows you have expensive stereo equipment. I think everyone within six-blocks knows.”

“Well, I think we need to take some precautions. Someone may want to steal it."

“What do you want to do?"

“Let’s take a bed sheet and cover the window, so thieves can’t look into the room."

We looked at all our possessions. We did not have a spare bed sheet to cover the window. Our absent roommate did. It was on his bed, neatly made.

“Let’s use our roomie’s bed sheet," he said. "We’ll have to put it back before he returns Sunday night.” He pulled the sheet off the bed.

"We should use duct tape to hang that up," I said.
"Naw, these thumbtacks will do just fine."

For weeks, after Mark or Mike or Matt left for home on Friday afternoons, Alan removed the bed sheet from his bed and thumb tacked it over the window. Every Sunday afternoon, we would have to remember to take it down and put it back on his bed. This worked fine until the end of the quarter during finals, when both of us forgot to remake his bed and Mark or Mike or Matt returned to find his property covering the window. He didn’t say a word. He took it down, made his bed and moved out at the end of the term. His only complaint was left in a written message in my telephone message box at the front switchboard. It said, "There were thumbtack holes in my bed sheet". I knew we should have used duct tape.
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This episode is based on a true story.

Although seventy-five percent of this memoir is factual, liberties were taken with the other twenty-five percent for plot purposes. That is where scenes were recreated from memory when they were not clearly defined in the journals written by the author from 1976 to 1980.

Individual characters are composites of several people and do not represent any one person, and the names have been changed to protect innocent people that may be guilty of indiscretions in their youth.


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[1] However, as I was to discover in my mid-forties, the price of a sports car is inversely proportional to the amount of hair remaining on your head.

Simplified Overview of New Drug Development in the US

David Katague working in the research laboratory, 1980

As a retired Food and Drug Administration(FDA) employee involved in the development of new drugs in the Division of Anti-Infective Drug Products, Office of New Drug Chemistry (ONDC), Center of Drugs and Evaluation Research (CDER), I had been often asked by several of my blog readers to write a simplified overview and the cost of new drug development in the US as well as the role of FDA.

I had been postponing it, because I thought the subject is confidential. However, when I started browsing the Internet, I found several articles on the subject. I even found several Chemistry Manufacturing Supplements that I had reviewed and approved several years ago.

The letters of approval and the chemist reviews were published in full, with the exception of the specifics in the supplement which were redacted in the approval letter as well as in the chemist review. The patent of the drugs discussed had expired, so it was now open to all generic companies for development. Otherwise the chemist review and the letter of approval will never be made public.

I know I am getting out of the topic, but the above information makes me feel that the subject of drug development in the US, its cost and the role of FDA is an important topic that should be of interest to all.

Drug development starts from new compounds that are man-made or synthesized in the laboratory. It may be discovered also from the extracts of plants and/or animals or even from the soil. It is also possible that new compounds that can cure cancer, Alzheimers disease and viral diseases can be found from the oceans, the tropical jungles of South America or from soils in the Philippines or in other parts of the world. These new compounds are called new chemical entity (NCE) or sometimes known as new molecular entities( NME).

In general the process of drug development can be divided into two steps: the pre-clinical(laboratory) and clinical (human) trials.

Pre-clinical (Laboratory)

The new chemical entities studied will have promising activity against a particular biological target thought to be important in the disease cure; however, little will be known about the safety, toxicity, pharmacokinetics and metabolism of this NCEs in humans.

During the pre-clinical trials all parameters of safety and toxicity of these drug candidates will be assessed and studied prior to the important and necessary human clinical trials. A major objective of this step is to make a recommendation of the proper dose and schedule to be used the first time it is used in a human clinical trial. This is known as "first-in-man" (FIM) or first human dose (FHD) trials.

In addition, drug development procedures are required to establish the physical and chemical properties of the NCE. Its chemical makeup, stability, solubility and other physical properties are studied rigorously. The process by which the chemical is made will be also optimized so that from being made at the bench on a milligram scale by a synthetic chemist, it can be manufactured on the kilogram scale in the pilot plant and then on the ton scale in the manufacturing facilities of the pharmaceutical firm.

These drug candidates will be further examined for their suitability to be made into capsules, tablets, aerosols, creams, ointments, intramuscular injectables, subcutaneous injectables, or intravenous formulations. After the active ingredient (drug substance) has been formulated into a capsules, creams, injectables, etc.., it known as the drug product. Together these processes are known in preclinical development as the Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC) procedures.

Many aspects of drug development are focused on satisfying the legal and regulatory requirements of the drug licensing authorities. These generally constitute a number of tests designed to determine the major toxicities of a novel compound prior to first use in man.

It is a legal requirement that an assessment of major organ toxicity be performed, that is the effects of the drug on the heart and lungs, brain, kidney, liver and digestive system, as well as effects on other parts of the body that might be affected by the drug, for example the skin if the new drug is to be delivered through the skin.

These tests can be made using in vitro methods (e.g. with isolated cells), however many tests can only be made by using experimental animals, since it is only in an intact organism that the complex interplay of metabolism and drug exposure on toxicity can be examined. Most common experimental animals are mice, rabbits and monkeys. These tests are called in vivo testing, the opposite of in vitro testing.

The information gathered from this pre-clinical testing, as well as the information on the CMC, is submitted to regulatory authorities (in the US, to the FDA), as an Investigational New Drug application or IND. If the IND is approved, development moves to the human clinical phase. The reviews of INDs occupied about 10% of my time when I was still working for FDA.

Human Clinical phase

The human clinical trials involve three steps:

Phase I trials are conducted in small number of healthy patients to determine safety and dosing.

Phase II trials are used to get an initial reading of efficacy and further explore safety in small numbers of sick patients.

Phase III trials are large pivotal trials to determine safety and efficacy in sufficiently large numbers of patients, preferably of all ages and to children if the drug is to be sold as a pediatric drug product. The larger the number of patients the better it is, with regards to the statistical vigor and integrity of the clinicl trials.

The process of drug development does not stop once an NCE begins human clinical trials. In addition to the tests required to move a novel drug into the clinic for the first time it is also important to ensure that long-term or chronic toxicities are determined. The drug effects on systems not previously monitored such as its effect on fertility, reproduction, and immune systems will have to be conducted. The compound will also have be tested for its capability to cause cancer commonly known as carcinogenicity testing.

If a compound emerges from these tests with an acceptable toxicity and safety profile, and it can further be demonstrated to have the desired effect in clinical trials, then it can be submitted for marketing approval in the various countries where it will be sold.

In the US, this process is called a New Drug Application or NDA. Most NCEs, however, fail during drug development, either because they have some unacceptable toxicity, or because they simply do not work in clinical trials. In some cases, a drug originally studied for a specific disease turned out to be a better cure for another indication. A good example is Viagra originally studied for hypertension. Further testing however showed it was a better cure for erectile dysfunction.

Before a drug is approved for marketing, the manufacturing facility for that drug has to pass inspection conducted rigorously by the FDA field and research inspectors sometimes accompanied by the review chemist. This insures that the production facility follows good current manufacturing practices (GCMP) and the drug product marketed has all the qualities it purports and that is safe and effective.

The approval or disapproval of the CMC portion of the INDs and NDAs was my primary responsibility as a Chemistry reviewer and later as a Chemistry Team Leader during my employment with FDA from 1990 to 2002.

Cost of new Drug Development

Studies published by DiMasi et al in 2003 report an average pre-tax cost of approximately $800 million to bring a new drug to market. A study published in 2006 estimates that costs vary from around $500 million to $2 billion depending on the therapy or the developing firm.

A study published in 2010 in the Journal of Health Economics, including an author from the US Federal Trade Commission, was critical of the methods used by DiMasi but came up with a higher estimate of about $1.2 billion. Critic Marcia Angell, M.D., a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, has called that number grossly inflated, and estimates that the total cost is closer to $100 million. A 2011 study also critical of the DiMasi methods, puts average costs at $55 million.

Success rate

Candidates for a new drug to treat a disease might theoretically include from 5,000 to 10,000 chemical compounds. On average about 250 of these will show sufficient promise for further evaluation using laboratory tests, mice and other test animals. Typically, about ten of these will qualify for tests on humans. Of the ten only two will finally be approved for marketing.

Drugs with high therapeutic importance such as cancer and anti-viral drugs are scheduled with the highest priority and are usually approved in a much shorter times than the standard drug candidates.

A study conducted by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development covering the 1980s and 1990s found that only 21.5 percent of drugs that start phase I trials are eventually approved for marketing. Now you know why the drugs you purchased in the pharmacy is very expensive ( except the generic drugs). I am sure that most Americans will not be able to afford new drugs if they do not have medical insurance.

FDA Role and Mission

The mission of FDA is to enforce laws enacted by the U.S. Congress and regulations established by the Agency to protect the consumer's health, safety, and pocketbook. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is the basic food and drug law of the U.S. With numerous amendments it is the most extensive law of its kind in the world.

The law is intended to assure consumers that foods are pure and wholesome, safe to eat, and produced under sanitary conditions; that drugs and devices are safe and effective for their intended uses; that cosmetics are safe and made from appropriate ingredients; and that all labeling and packaging is truthful, informative, and not deceptive.

Conclusion

The new drug approval process in the US is considered to be the most strict in the world. On the average, it costs a company around $360 million to get one new medicine from the laboratory to the drug store, according to a February 1993 report by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. It takes between 10 to 12 years for an experimental drug to advance from the laboratory to the medicine cabinet. However, drugs with high therapeutic value are given the highest priority in scheduling and are normally approved much faster than the standard drugs. Only 5 in 5,000 compounds that enter preclinical testing make it to human testing. Only one of these five tested in people is finally approved for marketing. This rigorous process assures all consumers that the drug approved by FDA is not only safe but also effective and of good quality.

FDA's role does not end after approval. Post marketing activities are undergoing, such as monitoring of adverse reaction reports, and most of all the post approval changes in the manufacturing, chemistry and control procedures that are submitted to the agency for review.

Among the post approval changes that FDA has to approve are changes in the synthesis of the drug substance, changes in the formulation of the drug product, a change in location of the manufacturing facility as well as changes in the analytical procedure for testing the drug substance and/or drug product.

Guidances published by FDA informed the pharmaceutical firms the requirements and data needed to facilitate the approval of these changes. These submissions are called manufacturing and control supplements. The approval of these supplements occupied about 50% of my time when I was still working for FDA.

I hope you found the above article informative and now have a clear idea why new drugs are very expensive in the US.

Rederence: Wikipedia

Cloyne Court- Excerpts 14 and 15

Alpha, Epsilion, Pi Fraternity Logo

Cloyne Court, Episode 14
By Dodie Katague
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Rated "R" by the Author.

History 4G: The Modern Greeks

I awoke forty-five minutes before my eight o’clock morning class. During the second week of January, my room was still dreary and dark at dawn. I cursed myself for deciding early classes would give me more time to do the things I wanted to do, because now, at 7:15, I wanted to stay in bed.

One of my roommates, Alan, was still asleep, snoring gently, hidden under a pile of bedding and blankets. He was a large, rotund man with a hairy chest, legs and back. I wondered about the beauty who would want him lying on top of her, humping the hairy beast.

Alan was living at Cloyne Court by default. He needed a cheap place to stay for one quarter as he rushed the different fraternities. The Co-op was a wayside inn for his true housing and social goals.

Alan made no secret about his reasons to join a fraternity. "My father was in a fraternity at UCLA in the mid-1950s,” he said. “He met my mother at a sorority party. He loved the Greek system. It was the best thing that happened to him in college."

According to Alan, his parents, Marvin and Rachel Schwartzman's college romance revolved around the Greek system at UCLA. Therefore, he wasn’t surprised that they expected him to follow their example.

However, Alan was at Berkeley, not UCLA. Instead of following his father’s goose step, he sidestepped, skipping and hopping around what was expected of him. Alan was outright relieved, but his father’s influence had done its damage.

Alan explained one of his many fraternity secrets to me one day. “Never tell a sorority woman you live here in this dive or you live in the co-op housing system. That’s like telling them you’re a communist sympathizer. Lie and tell them you live in the dorms. People start at the dorms and move to fraternities or sororities. But telling them you live here means you’re too poor to afford the dorms or you’re too freaky to join the Greek system. No sorority woman will go out with me until I’m in a respectable fraternity with an outstanding reputation.”

He went out most nights during rush week visiting different fraternities, drinking beer, trying to act cool and impress these guys, and act as if he belonged. But each evening, he'd come back to Cloyne Court and kvetch about the whole experience.

"What a bunch of idiots. I went to a jock frat last night. They took one look at me and ignored me. One guy told me that I should find a fraternity with my kind, because I wasn't their type."

"What type were they?" I asked.

"Assholes."

"Why do you want to belong there?"

"I don't. I just want someone to tell me they like me enough to want me to live with them."

"Isn't that what a girlfriend is for?"

No matter how persistently Alan tried to find his type, he came up lacking. With a last name of Schwartzman, it was obvious he was Jewish. He looked Jewish. He had the Jewish nose. He talked like a New York Jew, though he was from Southern California. I am not saying fraternities are anti-Semitic. Alan’s father was a Polish Jew who found social success in the Greek system. Alan needed to find a fraternity that had Jewish members who would mentor him and champion his admission into their brotherhood. He was having no luck. Alan did not fit into the milieu of rich, white-boy suburban snobbery.
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Cloyne Court, Episode 15
By Dodie Katague
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Rated "R" by the Author.

Cloyne Court, Berkeley, California in the late 1970s.

Alan was also overweight. Not obese, but fat enough for women to scan a group of young men and unconsciously not give him a second glance.

Alan said, “Getting into a fraternity is like going out on a blind date. You keep wondering as you're talking to these guys whether they’re going to call you for a second date.

“I asked the recruiting chairman at the Pi Delta Phi's frat house what type of members they're looking for and he said it was a je ne sais quoi feeling. I don't even know what that means."

"How do you feel when you meet them?" I asked. The feeling had to be mutual if there was going to be any chance for a long-term relationship.

"All I get is a stomachache and gas." He punctuated his point with an explosive example.

On the final day of rush week, after Alan received no bids from any fraternity, he said in a pique of sour grapes, "I don't know why I wanted to join a fraternity. I'll have better luck losing my cherry in a place where I can shower with naked women and watch them sunbathe nude in the backyard than at some snobby fraternity."

His admission to me that he was a virgin bonded us in mutual support and common need. It overcame our different upbringing and culture. And if we hadn’t looked like Laurel and Hardy standing next to each other, the boys in room 4C might have been more successful in our endeavors.

Room 4C was a ground-floor triple on the north side of the building. Trees shaded the large set of double-hung windows with thick black security bars bolted to the outside window frame, so even on the sunniest days the room rarely received any natural light. The windows had no curtains permitting any passersby a full and unintentional view of a room with its false ceiling of water-stained acoustical tiles, a cold linoleum floor and fake wood paneling on three of the walls. Each of the three occupants claimed possessory rights to one wall. We decorated and furnished the room with what we could scrounge like the plastic milk crates stolen from a 7-Eleven store. The red bricks and pine-board shelves gave it an eclectic early college, post prison ambience.

I didn't put up my Cheryl Tiegs and Farah Fawcett Majors posters I had in my room during high school. I was a college man now, not some pimply adolescent groupie having wet dreams about television idols. Whatever I exhibited would have to reflect my experience, my good taste and be a conversation piece. My walls were bare.

Instead, I had one of my artistic color photos of my best friend Jeanette in a five-by-seven black frame on my dresser. I hoped the picture would lead to a conversation about my photography and of course, the women who came by my room to see my artwork would learn about the talented, sensitive, caring, Renaissance man I was, or trying to become. Who knows what would happen? Weren’t women looking for that type of man?

Alan decorated his wall with the same panache. What would create the most attention for women to notice us? He used his first scholarship check to buy the most powerful stereo system he could piece together and placed the two five-foot tall, floor speakers in each corner. He put on his shelves the Marantz turntable, a Sony preamp and tuner, and the envy of audiophiles everywhere, a TEAC dual cassette deck, the newest technology in the market at the time. When Alan cranked up the volume, no one in the house was spared.
______________________________________

This episode is based on a true story.
Just in case this is your first time reading this post.

Although seventy-five percent of this memoir is factual, liberties were taken with the other twenty-five percent for plot purposes. That is where scenes were recreated from memory when they were not clearly defined in the journals written by the author from 1976 to 1980.

Individual characters are composites of several people and do not represent any one person, and the names have been changed to protect innocent people that may be guilty of indiscretions in their youth.

"Cloyne Court" was written by Dodie Katague my oldest son in 2009. As his father who is also a blogger and an aspiring writer, I am really proud of my son's writing accomplishments, considering this is not his primary job. He is a prosecuting attorney for a local county in Northern California speciliazing in computer crimes.

Below are several reviews of his book as published by www.virtualauthorbooktours.com. I hope you have time to read his book, Cloyne Court.

"In 1977, when 18-year-old Berkeley college student, Derek moved into the student residence co-op, Cloyne Court, sight unseen, little did he know he would learn about life, love, sex, drugs, music, alcohol and co-ed showers—all on the first day.

Located one block North of the University of California, Berkeley campus, this real and notorious student-run house has provided an alternative, counter-culture, hedonistic, raucous, and unique living experience for the “Clones”, as the students call themselves, who choose to live here each year, despite the public and parents calling for a permanent shut down of this enduring and historic building.

Based on his journals and memories of his college days at this real-life “Animal House”, author, Dodie Katague weaves true events of life at Cloyne Court co-op into a zany, wild, and nostalgic story about the carefree time of every college student’s life.

"Sure to entertain any of those who enjoy a good story of the world of the fraternities and sororities. " Cloyne Court" is a fine memoir and a read well worth considering." Midwest Book Review

"If you like the movie Animal House, and have any interest in the going-ons of College in the 70s, or Berkeley in particular, you're also going to love this book. Get it, read it slowly, and enjoy!"-S. Davidian, Amazon Reviewer

"I found this book to be an AMAZING, page turning read. The rich story is very much worth it and leaves you dreaming of college days, and thinking about taking a drive to Berkeley to see the real Cloyne Court."-L. Couture, Amazon Reviewer

"I wish I had as much fun as Derek did in college, I recommend this book for anyone that has gone to college, or plans to go to college, or thought about going to college. Also for anyone who knows someone who went to college, because that buttoned up shirt wearing respectable man might have some stories to tell"-Genoa Dillon, Amazon Reviewer

"Sex, Betrayal, Drugs, Rock and Roll, nudist, co-ed showers, and the politics of the house make for a novel that has to be read. I loved this book."-Lori Cianfichi, Amazon Reviewer

Cloyne Court- Excerpt 13

This is a continuation of Dodie's Katague book, Cloyne Court. Episode 1 to 12 had been posted in this blog about 8 weeks ago (9/15-24/11). Enjoy!

Cloyne Court, Episode 13
By Dodie Katague
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Rated "R" by the Author.

Cloyne Court, Berkeley, California in the late 1970s.

Wow, I had never seen that before, and it wasn’t just one slide of clitoris rising through the pubic hair, but twenty or thirty slides of buttons in every shape, size, skin color, pubic hair color and vaginal area. I must admit at first I was excited to see color slides of a woman’s erogenous zone, but after the eighth or ninth slide, the presentation was becoming a numb, clinical anatomy lesson.

When the room lights came back on, several men were standing by the hallway doors peering into the room. They had seen the slides of the giant vaginas from the hallway.

Mary Jewell asked them to come in and join the discussion or leave. The men quickly left allowing me to savor my honored role as the token male.

Once the women had become comfortable again, Candace opened the discussion on successful techniques for orgasm. I hoped she had a CliffNotes® version to hand out with the answers, pictures and drawings, but I was overly optimistic. She wanted suggestions from the audience.

A bashful silence filled the room for several minutes, until one brave soul, a woman who lived on the eighth floor with her lesbian lover said, “My partner and I like to use our tongues. It can be supersensitive, and she’s very sensitive down there.”

As I listened to this woman describe a private intimate detail between them, my mind wandered. I imagined her and her partner with their heads between each other's legs.

The discussion continued for several minutes until my fantasy was interrupted by a question directed at me. “Derek, what do you think?" Candace asked. "From the male perspective, because you are the only male here, and of course, we won’t stereotype your answer as being applicable to all the male species, do you have any special techniques that you find helpful for your partner?”

I could feel everyone staring at me. I couldn’t answer this question from experience. I had none. I wouldn’t admit it either, and I wasn’t going to let down the entire male species by not giving an answer. I blurted the first lines I remembered from the October 1976 Penthouse Magazine, the Forum section.

“I like to thrust deeply.”

Several of the men-haters in the group made audible comments. “Typical man!” “It’s always about the penis, isn’t it?” “Animalist!”

I said, “No wait, hear me out!

It appeared to me whatever I had to say would be meaningless to those close-minded women opposed to my presence because of my gender.

“Please go on,” Candace said. “We’re listening.”
“It’s not the penis that is doing the stimulation, but the man’s body rubbing against her repeatedly in rhythmic thrusts.”

I heard more anti-male murmurs and some allusions to rape and violence.

“Gently, at first,” I said. “Slowly building in intensity while looking for signals from her, like her breathing or her muscle spasms or the expressions on her face.”

What did I know about a woman’s muscle spasm or facial expression? Nothing. I was quoting verbatim from page 57 of The Sensuous Man by M 1], but it was working. "I like women who voice their pleasure. It tells me whether I'm doing something right or whether I should try something else."

Several women verbally endorsed the statement. “You tell ‘um, girl,” Keisha said, the only black woman living in the house. Keisha had Bo Derek cornrow braids and light-chocolate skin that made me think of brown sugar. Her show of support was followed by suppressed tittering and giggling from the rest of the room.

I looked around. The women would never think I had anything germane to say. Then it occurred to me that I had actually learned something from the slide show.

“Wasn't the whole point of the slides to show that every woman has the same body parts, but every woman is different? Different techniques for different women.2]”

I continued for a minute or two explaining in the most feminine erotica of terms, the sex scene from some Mitchell Brothers porn movie I had seen at my best friend, Jeannette’s older brother's friend's bachelor party, and attributing it to me. When I finished, the room fell silent. I felt like smoking a cigarette.

Keisha fanned herself in exaggeration. “Wow, I’m exhausted. You can roll over and fall asleep now.” Keisha was wearing a tight Danskin’s Camisole that clung to her dancer’s body. I couldn’t imagine falling asleep with her.

Several of the other heterosexual women in the room murmured in agreement. Carrie and her lesbian lover hugged each other tighter and glared at me in disgust while the other lesbians kept reassuring themselves by repeating their mantra, "A woman doesn’t need a man to satisfy themselves," to anyone that listened. I was proud of myself. I had upheld the benefits of the male penis in front of a legion of lesbians.

At the end of the discussion, Candace held up a reference book. It was the revised and updated version of Our Bodies, Ourselves. She said, “I recommend that your Co-op purchase several copies for your house library.”

“Let’s vote on it at tomorrow night’s house meeting,” Mary Jewell said.

“Can we get it on the agenda this quickly?” Jill asked.

“Not a problem,” Lisa said. “I’ll just show my bunkie the coital positions in chapter twelve. It’ll be on the agenda tomorrow.”

The meeting ended and several women, who I did not know but wanted to know, approached me.

“You were brave to attend this meeting,” said one. “Welcome to Cloyne Court.”

“Yeah, I wish my bunkie would have attended. He might have learned a lesson or two,” said another. “Glad there’s a sensitive man who understands women.”

I basked in the attention. I looked around the room. My mystery woman was leaving. She was cheerless and silent unlike the rest of the attendees, who seemed energized and empowered from the evening’s information. I wanted to introduce myself, but she disappeared up the stairs. I wondered why she looked so sad.
______________________________________________

Just in case this is your first time reading this post.

Although seventy-five percent of this memoir is factual, liberties were taken with the other twenty-five percent for plot purposes. That is where scenes were recreated from memory when they were not clearly defined in the journals written by the author from 1976 to 1980.

Individual characters are composites of several people and do not represent any one person, and the names have been changed to protect innocent people that may be guilty of indiscretions in their youth.

"Cloyne Court" was written by Dodie Katague my oldest son in 2009. As his father who is also a blogger and an aspiring writer, I am really proud of my son's writing accomplishments, considering this is not his primary job. He is a prosecuting attorney for a local county in Northern California speciliazing in computer crimes.

Below are several reviews of his book as published by www.virtualauthorbooktours.com. I hope you have time to read his book, Cloyne Court.

"In 1977, when 18-year-old Berkeley college student, Derek moved into the student residence co-op, Cloyne Court, sight unseen, little did he know he would learn about life, love, sex, drugs, music, alcohol and co-ed showers—all on the first day.

Located one block North of the University of California, Berkeley campus, this real and notorious student-run house has provided an alternative, counter-culture, hedonistic, raucous, and unique living experience for the “Clones”, as the students call themselves, who choose to live here each year, despite the public and parents calling for a permanent shut down of this enduring and historic building.

Based on his journals and memories of his college days at this real-life “Animal House”, author, Dodie Katague weaves true events of life at Cloyne Court co-op into a zany, wild, and nostalgic story about the carefree time of every college student’s life.

"Sure to entertain any of those who enjoy a good story of the world of the fraternities and sororities. " Cloyne Court" is a fine memoir and a read well worth considering." Midwest Book Review

"If you like the movie Animal House, and have any interest in the going-ons of College in the 70s, or Berkeley in particular, you're also going to love this book. Get it, read it slowly, and enjoy!"-S. Davidian, Amazon Reviewer

"I found this book to be an AMAZING, page turning read. The rich story is very much worth it and leaves you dreaming of college days, and thinking about taking a drive to Berkeley to see the real Cloyne Court."-L. Couture, Amazon Reviewer

"I wish I had as much fun as Derek did in college, I recommend this book for anyone that has gone to college, or plans to go to college, or thought about going to college. Also for anyone who knows someone who went to college, because that buttoned up shirt wearing respectable man might have some stories to tell"-Genoa Dillon, Amazon Reviewer

"Sex, Betrayal, Drugs, Rock and Roll, nudist, co-ed showers, and the politics of the house make for a novel that has to be read. I loved this book."-Lori Cianfichi, Amazon Reviewer

Addition to the Afterglows in the Sunset of My Life

Afterglows in the sunset of our lives | ViewsHound

An addition to the afterglows in the sunset of my life is my writing activities for ViewsHound. I started writing last August for this widely read Internet magazine. As of today I have published 47 articles, over 11,000 views, one gold award winner and have 12 followers. My goal is to write 50 articles by the end of this year.

Amendment 28 to the US Constitution?

I received this article from my e-mail about 3 months ago. It is sort of a chain letter. I normally do not respond to letters like this, but the argument that we need to add amendment #28 to the US constitution makes sense to me. Read the article and see if you agree with me.

"No one has been able to explain to me why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay. While politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense.

A most recent news on Fox indicated that staffers of Congress family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. This will get national attention if other news networks will broadcast it. There is another news circulating in the Internet as follows:

35 States file lawsuit against the Federal Government

Governors of 35 states have filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention. This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on.

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop. If each person that receives this will forward it on to 20 people, in three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one proposal that really should be passed around.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States."

Along this same subject, last August my first article on the US Constitution was posted on Viewshound. It received a Badge " Article Read 250 Times".

Test your knowledge of the US Constitution by reading the ViewsHound article below. For example, do you know how many articles are there in the US Constitution? What is the most popular Amendment? When was the exact date of its ratification? Do you know at least 3 of the signers of this document? Do you know the preamble by memory?

Quiz: Do you know your constitution? | ViewsHound

The Gardens of Chateau Du Mer Slide Show

The Gardens of Chateau du Mer Slideshow | TripAdvisor™

Self-Doubts of My Writing Abilities

My first Symposium Award, University of the Philippines, Iloilo College, 1952
I am in the front row first from the left with guests and judges.

I have an inferiority complex writing for ViewsHound | ViewsHound