***The OFFICIAL Weekend Singles Thread*** March 28-30 - Platonic Friends and Marrying Ugly

March 28, 2008 | WFTR

[WFTR]

Welcome to the Weekend Singles' Thread

The last thread I hosted was called "The Bucket List" and was based loosely on a movie that I'd never seen. I'm repeating the idea of threads about movies I've never seen again this week. In my defense, this one wasn't my idea. Someone else suggested a discussion of platonic friendships between men and women and the idea from the "Harry met Sally" movie that those friendships can't exist. I'm going to add an idea from a news story this week in part because the story seemed amusing and in part because I wonder whether there is a connection.

From what I've heard, the idea behind the movie When Harry Met Sally is that men, or at least Bill Crystal's character, believe that they can never have a truly platonic relationship with a woman because they'll eventually want to have sex with that woman. I don't remember whether this idea applies only to situations where the man feels a strong physical attraction to a woman or whether any man will eventually want to have sex with any woman. Apparently, "Harry" claims that this desire will eventually doom the friendship because the man won't be able to endure the stress of the unfulfilled desire.

The second part of the topic is a short article that was published this week claiming that the happiest marriages are those where the woman is more physically attractive than the man. The whole article is only a few sentences and can be found at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,340869,00.html. Important points in the article include the fact that only 82 couples were included in the study and that they had been married only six months. The study that led to the article requires a subscription to read, so I don't know whether the details of the study strengthen the idea.

Combining these topics leads to several points of discussion.

First, do you agree with the idea that men and women cannot form platonic friendships? Are those friendships destined to be disrupted by sexual desire on one side or the other? If so, does that desire generally come from the man? If those friendships are possible, what are the factors that lead to those friendships and what are the factors that make them impossible? Is appearance a big part of the equation?

Secondly, do you agree with the idea that marriages will generally be better if the woman is more attractive than the man? Obviously, if you're a guy, you're going to look at any couple and find the woman more attractive, but in a more objective sense, will the relationship be stronger if the woman is more attractive? If you're a gal, you're likely to see things just the opposite, but the same question applies.

[LaineyDee]

If twenty men were asked to rate the best looking woman, they'd mostly agree on just two or three women.

Blonde, Bimbo and Bazooms? *chuckle*

[snugs]

I am not a great lover of oranges as I find they vary so much one week they are lovely and juicy and sweet and the next they are dry and tart the same goes for apples.

I tend to prefer satsumas or clemintines as opposed to oranges though these again do vary from week to week.

Oranges are plentiful in Britain and popular.

[snugs]

I think you may well be right in that women do seem to have many different views over what is attractive in a man whereas men do normally agree.

Maybe this is because generally men are more physically stimulated whether they be a leg, hair or breast man whereas women tend not to go on looks alone.

This I think is a traditional view and often women have conformed to this belief whereas over that last 40 years women are now not afraid to admit that actually they also are physically stimulated by a good looking man.

[snugs]

I have been contributing between 5 and 6.5 per cent of my salary since I was 20 and now to keep to the lower band which was introduced last year I have to increase my contribution to 10 per cent which with current expenditure at home and an increase in tax and national insurance next month I cannot afford to do this.

I will still have a pension from the 27 years I have already paid plus my State Pension and if I can re-start again in a few years time I will meanwhile I will pay the additonal national insurance which at least will mean my state pension will be higher than the basic one.

[snugs]

Rub them firmly between your hand until you can actually feel the skin starting to come away from the flesh after that they can be quite easily to peel.

[WFTR]

Blonde, Bimbo and Bazooms? *chuckle*

So far, two of us have expressed at least a moderate preference for dark hair, so the first of these characteristics doesn't necessarily apply. Bimbo is a matter of definition. I don't like the exaggerated bazooms that we see so often today.

In any group of guys, a few will be attracted to these extremes. I think most like a little less extreme look, but most guys are attracted to the standard characteristics.

[WFTR]

I know what you mean about oranges varying too much. I often become frustrated with them for that reason as well.

[WFTR]

I know what you mean about not wanting to be part of any mass phenomenon, but I accept that some women are just attractive and almost every guy is going to feel that way. I agree with you completely about the Lord of the Rings movie. When I first saw the movie, I wrote about twenty or thirty things that annoyed me. I had been talking to someone about them, and she invited me to post them on whichever forum was discussing the movie. I’ve said some controversial things about all kinds of topics, but that thread made me as many enemies as half the other stuff I’ve said.

[WFTR]

I think you may be right.

[WFTR]

Sunday Night Singles
Please freepmail DaveLoneRanger to be added / removed

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Bonus Questions

1. In post # 194, My hearts in London - Everett tells a joke about making a phone call to God. If you could pick up a phone and ask God one question and receive an answer as clearly as talking on a phone, what would you ask?

2. In post # 164, Dave mentions that Pluto is no longer considered a planet. Needless to say, anyone who's gone to school in the United States for the past hundred or so years is going to have to unlearn the notion that Pluto is a planet. What other astronomy "facts" do you think we'll have to unlearn in the next twenty years?

3. In post # 111, Rca2000 mentions that many women are attracted to Jack Black. To the women in particular, is Jack Black an example of what us guys should aspire to be?

[My hearts in London - Everett]

1. My question also would be too personal to write here.

2. Having to “unlearn” “facts” I learned in school about petroleum (fossil fuel), Pluto, Columbus, etc lately, I doubt I’ll be much surprised by other facts I’ll soon have to unlearn!

3. Heaven forbid!! Please aspire higher than that! This is one woman who feels no attraction for his type whatsoever.

[redhead]

"Bonus Questions

1. Have you been following the NCAA basketball tournament? How are your teams doing?

No. Basketball is NOT my sport. Fishing...now, THERE'S a sport. Salmon fishing. In Alaska. Yeaaaahhhhhh...

2. What are you doing with your extra hour of daylight in the evenings?

Up here, an extra hour is basically meaningless. Daylight is growing by about 6 minutes a day, last time I checked.

3. What will you do with your tax rebate check?

I think I'm going to stash it away somewhere and use it for mad money. I like the idea of having a few large-denomination bills hidden here and there. Hubby thought it was a good idea, too, and after he died, I found $1,000 in hundreds stashed in his dresser. Man, did that ever come in handy!

[WFTR]

3. Heaven forbid!! Please aspire higher than that! This is one woman who feels no attraction for his type whatsoever.

Any suggestions?

[WFTR]

Stashing a little cash for a rainy day is always a good plan. I'm glad that your husband had that foresight to help you.

If I lived in Alaska, I might have to take up fishing just to try some salmon fishing. I would think that the first rule of salmon fishing in Alaska would be be learning not to catch a bear.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

1. I think I’ll keep my questions to God to myself, for now.

2. I think we may be disabusing ourselves of the notion that the speed of light is fixed. While we normally think of it as a constant, I did read somewhere that some scientist(s) claimed that it was faster (or slower) in the Universe’s past, and that it was gradually getting slower (or faster). I think we’ll also disabuse ourselves of the notion that the speed of light cannot be surpassed; we’ll come up with some way to break that barrier.

3. I can’t say that I discern what these women see in Jack Black. I suspect he wouldn’t be my first choice, were I a woman.