The reclusive American author's alter ego, Jeremy.Simon@JWT.com, took a long draw on his cheroot, and exhaling began to ramble... 1) I have been struck recently by all this talk of love. In particular, the idea of having a single perfect partner out there in the world, just waiting to be found. Life as quest, constantly disappointing... I was particularly intrigued by Arantxa's Spanish phrase "half an orange", referring to ideal partners. It reminded me of a Classics lesson I was taught long ago. I hazily remember learning about Plato's thesis on love, "Symposium" but I was half asleep for much of my school years, and so probably got it wrong. As I recall, Aristophanes expounds on his theory that when the world was young, humans were actually these giant balls of flesh that went rolling round the place, happy as larry. One dreadful day, for reasons I don't fully understand, the balls were all cut in half, leaving each half-sphere as the basic human form as we know it. Aristophanes suggests that each half spends the rest of his/her life searching for the other perfect match. When he/her finds that long lost match, they unite and combine in perfect harmony, forming through the medium of great sex the original fleshy mass. But then again, what did they know. They were all Romans. Or something. 2) I think I'll leave the thread on female masturbation well alone. Just as in real life, it's better to observe than take part. 3) In Trousers' last post, all of the abbreviation marks were replaced on my computer with solid vertical lines, giving the whole page the look of one of those old music rolls people used to entertain themselves with before gramophones. Which I liked. 4) I hope everyone has seen the rebelstrange site. The photos of B&S are ace. Stuart Murdoch grins like a thin-faced monkey. That is all. I'm off to visit the Kirsty Smith website. J. D. Salinger, pleased because he has got "Plato", "Aristophanes" and "Kirsty Smith" on the Sinister archive search. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "you take a really sleepy man, Esmé, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac - with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact" +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+