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It’s Your Right When I searched for an image appropriate for this story by requesting images of “public nudity” the search engine thought I was looking for “public libraries” and so gave me this picture of books in a library. I love libraries and I think you should be allowed to be naked in them, so…
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The devotion of modern life to the concept of equality has had the perverse effect of making the word “elite” into one of the most toxic words in the language. One can be called many bad things in life, but few are as bad as being called an “elitist.” To be an elitist in modern…
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The article explores the concept of “ethical failure” when wrongdoers face few consequences for their actions. It argues that ethical theories fail to consider hierarchy as a moral category, affecting our decision-making. The author emphasizes the role of hierarchy in individual and institutional ethical choices and proposes a theory of moral hierarchy.
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A New Politics of Intimacy The Purchase of Intimacy I owe the consideration of this topic to a good online female friend, Madame Roosevelt, a publicly proclaimed whore, who recently posed a question about the ethics of prostitution. Let’s just say that she and I disagree. So, to the question: Can one engage in the world’s oldest profession…
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Perhaps it’s just because it’s 2020 and I’m having good luck or something, but these days I seem to be getting a lot more female attention. Before I go further, let me say that I’m a bisexual married man in his 50s with two young children. My wife and I have an open marriage where…
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Not too long ago I posed a question about sex work and polyamory on a poly site I am a member of. My question was whether people in the poly community saw any relationship between these two ways of sexually relating to the world. Many people were intrigued, but quite a number thought I was…
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As a frequent reader of sex columns in Medium, one of the most common stories I run across is of a woman who does sex work of one sort or another writing to defend her choices. The main motivation for sex work among most women, both on Medium and elsewhere, is that the money is…
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For a long time I’ve suspected that I might be gay or bisexual. Years and years ago when I lived in NYC as a boy I used to wander down Christopher Street–then ground-zero for gay culture–and be fascinated and curious about the leather culture that seemed to dominate the street back then. My boy-on-boy experiences…
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I am catastrophizing. I can’t help it. The first few weeks of Ethan’s birth and my own worries about my health are making it really hard to stay focused on the here and now–the present moment. I’m not sure where this tendency comes from, but it seems to be an old and strong habit.
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Every life follows a different trajectory and each comes with its share of joys and disappointments. For me, now, at 53, life is better than it has ever been. I have a wife and two (young) children. I have the best job I’ve ever had, and I enjoy it. At the same time I’m feeling…
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For a long time I’ve suspected that I might be gay or bisexual. Years and years ago when I lived in NYC as a boy I used to wander down Christopher Street–then ground-zero for gay culture–and be fascinated and curious about the leather culture that seemed to dominate the street back then. My boy-on-boy experiences…
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I have a spot on my head that itches–it’s near the crown of my head, on the right hand side–from what I can see it looks pinkish. I can’t see the proper dimensions because my hair covers it. About seven months ago I went to a dermatologist who said it was nothing, but something feels…
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We’re the Vancouver Art Gallery. Our permanent collection is full of local and contemporary art. If you’ve spent most of your life looking at great art (e.g. art of enduring historical value) you won’t recognize anything much in our collection. Somewhere–deep in our storage vaults–we apparently have some Dutch paintings from the 17th century, but…
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News has broken today of groundbreaking for a town to be called Doggy Sparrow in South Carolina. Doggy Sparrow will be located near Love Angel Valley where in 2002 the obscure Wrong Sisters established a cemetery for deniers of global warming. Wilma Wrong, (Olive Wrong’s sister) was quoted as saying “This here cemetery is for…
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Why We Need the Tabloids – NYTimes.com. The tabloids may test the limits of the ethically or legally acceptable, but they are often doing so in the service of a popular desire to see behind the facade of public life. They rely on the appeal (a very human one) of seeing elements of our societies…
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To criticize movie violence is the surest way to be branded a scold, a moralist, a worrywart who refuses to understand that movies are not real. As someone who often revels in the visceral thrills of cinematic action and the bloodthirsty satisfactions of dramatic vengeance, I’m not inclined to fit that stereotype. But I also…
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The New York Times has a debate running on going car-free in North America. It’s controversial, but quite interesting.
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What is your favorite pun in the works of Jane Austen? My own has got to be in Chapter 19 of Sense and Sensibility when Sir John Middleton says of Marianne “her instrument is open.” How many puns can you find in Jane Austen’s works? Which ones are the best?
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Today is a great day for word and literature lovers the world over. George the “misunderestimated” is leaving office. The man who more than any other has made a virtue of stupidity will be gone forever, hopefully never to be heard from again.
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A Fine Art of Balance Poetry Review As anyone who’s ever taken a course in literature knows, the two basic elements of any narrative are plot and character. Without these bare-bones elements a narrative loses its legs and collapses. Yet the hard part every writer struggles with is how to make their choices about plot…
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Charles Durning Carroll 