I, personally, can't be arsed to put the effort into kissing someone (French or American) if there's no lust on *my* part.

I used to not. Like, to the point where I wouldn't kiss someone unless I intended to have sex with them within the hour.

And then, suddenly, someone said "Hey, give Craig a kiss from me. A long slow wet one." and it all changed. It became arch and playful.

I'm still not big on sexual kissing that doesn't lead to sex though.

I meant that having pets around, or babies around, tends to lead to non-sexual kissing

Never did for me, the pet thing. The idea of kissing an animal to me is pretty much verboten. And I have no surprise at a guy who's never kissed a kid that's not his.

Crap, Debra Messing is on Letterman tonight. Do I need to wait for the clip, for research purposes?

I would love for Debra Messing to get a real acting job again.

Of course, I haven't watched Will and Grace for a few years, and she could be adding nuances to her character.

I wear a worn-in cotton shirt and pajama pants to bed. Not a particularly sexy look, but luckily I have a non-lingerie-centric boyfriend.

I come from a kissy and huggy family. I peck my mom on the mouth in greeting and goodnight but she gives me long lipstick-leaving kisses on my cheek. She and my Aunt Nancy are menaces, I tell you, and noone remotely related to them escapes their orbit with cheek unscathed.

Never did for me, the pet thing. The idea of kissing an animal to me is pretty much verboten. And I have no surprise at a guy who's never kissed a kid that's not his.

But you just explained your weird pet thing, growing up. I agree that it probably wouldn't happen if this guy sprouted, full grown, from his non-sexual family. But was he never a kid with a pet? I know lots of little boys who kiss everything.

Which can be really bothersome, when it crosses your own personal boundaries.

I don't think it ever would occur to me to kiss a pet.

I kiss my cats on the head all the time. I thought everybody did that.

I kiss Ruby ALL THE TIME.

Me, too. Cats and dogs (though not all of either that we have.)

But you just explained your weird pet thing, growing up.

This isn't about my weird pet thing -- this is not only an entire country, but most of the black Americans I've polled recoil the same way and call pet kissing a white thing.

And, it's not just black folk.

Hmm. The only pets I ever had as a kid were hermit crabs.