Why Women Don’t Make Top Ten Lists: Prose on Prose

Dear CF,
Laura Miller’s article on Publishers Weekly’s top ten list led me to Francine Prose’s article, “Scent of a Woman’s Ink,” which was published in Harper’s Magazine in 1998.  It’s not available to nonsubscribers but it’s a formidable piece and relevant still, though it’s equally interesting to think about the ways in which some things [...]

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Respect the Cock

Dear CF,
I learned yesterday that in my city one can legally own no more than 12 chickens. This puzzled me. Why 12? At first I thought it might have to do with egg packaging—grocery stores do tend to sell chicken thighs and breasts in packages of six or twelve. Maybe we’ve just internalized the base-12 [...]

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Girltalk and Boytalk

I like Roseanne because it gives both genders enough rope to believably hang themselves. The NY Times ran a depressing article yesterday on sexless marriages. Here’s how Roseanne deals with the problems of bad sex and no sex in marriage. Jackie’s Fred “gets in the elevator but won’t go down” post-baby, Roseanne is pregnant and [...]

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Crooked Piece of Man. Or, Odd Saint: Sir Thomas Browne

Sir Thomas Browne was born in 1605 in London’s Cheapside. He went to Oxford, became an apprentice-physician, but stayed invested in religion and what it meant to be a religious practitioner of the healing arts. He ponders—often thoughtfully and sanely—his own temptation to follow typically “Catholic” conventions, like kneeling or removing his cap in church, [...]

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The Body and The Mind

Dear Millicent,
Forgive me as I continue talking about the divine Ms. Sayers and her great character, the divine Ms. Vane.  I was reading a section that hit on a conversation we have had at least once or twice.  You and I have discussed the magic of our younger and less boy-ridden days, where our mind [...]

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No Means Yes

Thought this might enrich our approach to the Funny Girl “date rape” question, dear CF. Judy’s playing with fire here, pushing the No Means Yes trope for all its worth. My inclination, re: Funny Girl, is to say (insert Judy’s molasses-sweet voice here) no, no, no no no. But then, I’ve had my “nos” respected [...]

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Sex: Now We Know

In response to your lovely observations on how, when it comes to sex, we really sort of always knew. Or else we still have absolutely no idea.

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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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A Nerve Is A Nerve Is A Nerve

Back to the original conversation, my last post was a bit of a detour, I think you are right about the strange lack of real sex on the Internet.  I perused Figleaf’s website, and was charmed.  This also led me to a resource called Scarleteen, which has an amazingly articulate stance on teens and sex [...]

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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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