Yeah.But not as much as when he told me how the sex was. One more detail and I might have written back: Sorry this is messy. It's hard to type with a razor blade in my vein this way. The Other White Meat

Ouch, indeed. I remember feeling like that in high school. It sucks there's times I still feel like that.

Oh, erika. Owch indeed. Yes. I feel your pain. Been there, done that.

Further to a kerfuffle over the RWA which some of you may have been following (and if not, never mind), the following quote strikes me as something of a gauntlet:

Romance is apple pie, not anal sex.

...it makes me want to write a romance. Although possibly not one that would find easy mainstream publication.

Fay, I've been hearing about it from several people. My own feeling is that the outgoing president is a dopey little Anne Coulter wannabe who ought to be dropped down a laundry chute into an escape-proof room containing thirty horny sailors.

Fay, where did you see the "apple pie" quote? Because I think it originated in a comments thread on the Smart Bitches blog, and the poster was paraphrasing her perception of the current leadership's views--i.e. it's not any kind of official statement whatsoever.

But yeah, it's quite a kerfuffle. I wrote my region's board members last night (at least one of whom has posted on one of the email loops to say that the presentation wasn't what she'd been led to expect based on the planning meetings they had back in March, and she's angry and trying to get to the bottom of it), saying that the only thing keeping me in the organization is the local and special interest chapters, and that I joined for career development, not to revisit the culture wars of the last two elections.

it's not any kind of official statement whatsoever.

? My bad, I had no intention of weighing in on the actual fracas, and I didn't mean to imply that anyone had made an official statement pertaining to the relative romanticism of apple pie versus anal sex. Without going back to check, I can't recall who said it - I rather thought it was one of the girls who (if I understood right) run the Smart Bitch website, whom I understood to have nothing to do with the fracas itself. But the line is practically begging for a reply in the form of romantic fic with anal sex, imho. (Although I guess that Bridget Jones already went there, now I come to think on it.)

OK, got it. I misunderstood from seeing it from the midst of the kerfuffle, where everyone is trying to figure out exactly what really happened (which AFAICT was bad enough), and watching the post-mortem spiral out of control even as I participate in it.

Ah, well, if we refer to the actual kerfuffle - my take on that is very much mediated by the various lenses through which I've glimpsed it. I know Betsy was there, and I'd got the impression you were there too, although I may have misunderstood that? Still, it sounds like whoever was responsible demonstrated a pretty astounding lack of empathy and imagination, to be able to juxtapose images of human suffering against a banal pop soundtrack in order to convey a message (presumably?)of "hey, bad stuff happens, but let's ignore it and read romantic novels!" I mean, setting footage of Tiananmen Square to 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' is a gesture of such startlingly black humour that it takes my breath away.

I mean, setting footage of Tiananmen Square to 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' is a gesture of such startlingly black humour that it takes my breath away.

I've been getting the impression that black humour wasn't the intent, unfortunately....

I know Betsy was there, and I'd got the impression you were there too, although I may have misunderstood that?

No, I wasn't--finances/Annabel made it impossible this year. I didn't hear about any of this until yesterday.