The Bitch

Dear M.,
I just ate two tamales happily microwaved into melty Trader Joe’s delight, and feel fortified to write what I was going to originally try to work into my earlier post.  On one of my recent library scavenging hunts, I picked up Norman Mailer’s The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing.  I read it yesterday while [...]

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Bromance Vs. Romance: Cross-Dressing For Love

Dear C Fran,
If you love someone, you have to become them. That’s the thesis of Book One of the oldest and oddest bromance I’ve encountered yet, Philip Sidney’s Old Arcadia, published in 1590.
It’s a fun read. For one thing, the narrative voice is modern; urbane, sarcastic, and touchingly sensitive to the desires of its characters. [...]

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Sterling sounds like an affordable drugstore cologne

Oh my! The Sterling Institute looks terrifying.  I am fascinated that your friend presented it to you.  I keep thinking of Jez and Super Hans in their button up shirts and clean hair.  This reminds me again of that story in Jezebel that ran about men needing to release their inner douche-bag to claim their [...]

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Introducing The Sterling Institute Men’s Weekend

I think I’ve found the grown-up version of Calvin and Hobbes’ secret club, G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid of Slimy girlS): it is called The Sterling Institute Men’s Weekend. It seems to share genes with Robert Bly’s Mythopoetic Men’s Movement, but it has certain things that make it all its own animal.
First, it’s Purpose:
To engage in the [...]

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On Flirting: The Meeting of Eyes and Ayes and Is: Part 2–Practice

Dear Carla Fran,
Migraine struck again, but as it happened it worked out well. I have further results to report!
To continue where I left off in Part 1 (available here): Our mission was to flirt in the time-honored way through eye contact, smiles, coy glances etc. My friend was more experienced in this than I, but [...]

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On Flirting: The Meeting of Eyes and Ayes and Is: Part I–Theory

Dear CF,
So enjoyed your last few posts which–as it happens–coincide with what I wanted to write you about anyway: flirting. I’ve conducted a smallish experiment and am eager to share the results with you.
But first, let me agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the sexes’ attitudes toward pizzle and cooch instrumentality. Yes! Having read figleaf [...]

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Penvy Is A Bad Word, I Swear I Know

Dear Millicent,
In a surprising gesture of affection, my cat has decided to take a nap on my back while I type.  It is really a gesture for warmth, but I am interpreting it as affection, and that she thinks of me as a really big cat.  Queen cat.
Onwards! As the wise have said since the [...]

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