Gee, Del, it seems like a LOT of people you know are abandoning their humdrum, local sort of lives and taking a chance on the cyber love train. I hope you will keep us posted on your son's friend's mother and her English romance. I wonder if part of the attraction isn't the exotic foreign geography. We will all see, I guess!!
My own opinion is that at some point the internet will simply be one more place to meet people, not that special at all as it becomes more common. I do think that finding out each other's feelings and thoughts and commonalities before a rapid plunge into physicality can be a disciplined and rewarding way of getting to know each other. On the other hand, the physical attraction still needs to be there when you do meet, and some agreement on toothpaste tubes, laundry-sorting efficiencies and worthwhile ways to spend time needs to develop rapidly.
I suspect that the newness of the relationship would dwindle even more quickly in a relationship that starts on the net, because in real life as the fluttering hearts/heightened sexual desire/dreamlike infatuation state start to return to more normal levels, you are busy really getting to know each other. Much of that has already been done by TYPING to each other in an internet love affair.
I think you need to be really cautious on the net, also. I know of someone who is obsessive and basically almost totally off his rocker, as my grandmother would have said, who participates in a chat room on AOL where the people are so perverted that there was someone who was discussing sewing women's labia together. That sounds a lot like a serial murderer to me!!!
So you are shooting the flounder with stun-guns? It sounds an awful lot like shooting fish in a barrel or something!!! As to their rapid disappearance, I read something the other day that extremely slight variations in water temperature, as much as one degree, may stop or retard fish reproduction in many species. So we are in for a lot of surprises with all the global warming going on!!!
San Francisco is rife with Gardenburgers. All the restaurants and cafeteria grills offer them as their vegetarian hamburger patty. My husband's best friend, who is not only Armenian but also vegetarian, loves them and eats them all the time. We bought a whole bunch of them at Costco and I ended up throwing substantial remains away, however. Unlike other soy-based vegetarian patties, which make an attempt to taste like hamburger, these taste like cheese and vegetables, which is what they are made of, to me. I think they are generally very popular, though, and might be a good investment if the share price is right!!
There is a vegetarian patty which is delicious, though. I bought some once at Cala, because I was intrigued with the package statement that they were really GOOD (unlike any soy product I have ever had). So I brought them home and took a nap, and woke up to discover that my tiny family had fried up all four patties and wolfed them down. They said they were absolutely wonderful, and they are both picky eaters who like meat a lot better than soy products. When I get some more I will let you know the brand name.
Incidentally, if anyone has ever had a non-meat hotdog that actually tasted like one, please post and let me know what it is.
Perhaps when we are old, and have retired to bucolic country fantasy lifestyles with our huge stock market profits, some of us can raise exotic varieties of hens and compare egg sizes and whatever here. The Feelings thread can turn into the Old Fogies thread, as we all get creaky and stiff, and we can talk about the same things over and over again as our memories fail us!!! |
