How about recreating the kiss photo for us? There's a little café table right next to BHV where the photog can get the right angle. The Hotel de Ville still looks the same but you're not going to get the '40s model Citroen. It'd be fun, though.

We did recreate it -- but over by the Third Street Promenade after Bewitched -- but Gregg is as private as he is spontaneously romantic, so sorry, no photos...you'll have to take my word for it!

I always thought the point of that pic was that it was a "surprise encounter"!!

I believe that touching being taboo is a manifestation of the repression in our society. People are not allowed to be comfortable with who they are, so they don't want others coming into their personal space.

Personally, I'm a hugger, and pretty much hug everywhere except work. I'm very affectionate with my friends.

My new guy and I tend to act like 15 year olds around each other, though, and that can get annoying for those around us. We're trying to rein it in. Hee hee.

Most couples I know who have been very public with their affection generally end up broken up not long afterwards.

That includes the only thing close to a couple I was ever part of.

I'm from a hardcore WASP family and married the daughter of a French Jew. What a refreshing change! Her mom had nude paintings of women all over her house, bought porn for her dad and gave her daughter a nice selection of lingerie for a wedding present. In high school she would make sure her daughter had her shirt unbuttoned a bit before she sent her off to school. This and the food are things we could really learn from the French.

> Most couples I know who have been very public
> with their affection generally end up broken up
> not long afterwards.

Remember Anne & Ellen? Sure ya do. It was just a few years ago. Paglia said:

"Nor was the gay cause helped by the grotesque way both women reportedly behaved at the black-tie White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C., on April 26. Who among the heterosexual guests were ostentatiously nuzzling and necking like that? -- always the sign, by the way, of people insecure in their own mutual feelings. In a photograph that will live in infamy, the two women are standing with the tuxedo-clad president of the United States, a formal situation that demands dignity and respect. But Heche has her arm obnoxiously thrown around Ellen's shoulders, as if it were the annual softball picnic of a small-town gay bar." - Salon, 5/13/97

LYTs right: People so eager to share the work of their deepest heart so broadly are probably not dealing with anything too heavy in there.

Re Bewitched... When I was six years old I'd park myself on a kitchen chair a yard away from our 19" B&W TV set and drink that show like water. I insisted to my mother that the blond woman, the one with the tic, would one day be my bride. A few years later I was appalled by the stupidity of the show, the grotesque lighting, and the hideous laugh track. It was hard to imagine what had grasped my attention.

A few weeks ago, the internet offered a reminder.

I'm not suggesting that people should suck face at state dinners, but Luke, you've seen Gregg and me...it's just normal to be affectionate with the person you're with.

PS I'm with you, Todd.