He's having muscle spasms in his lower back.

Is he using a heating pad, or one of those ThermaCare wrap thingies? Might really help.

Yeah. I also included my retirement fund.

I left mine out, since that's money I don't have ready access to. I was really surprised to see my income ranked as upper middle class, though it compares favorably with flyover state per capitas. But the job prestige and net assets rankings handily dispelled any pride that category would have engendered.

were it not for a massive crush, I would not have bothered

erika, I think this is quite often true. At least, in my case there was a guy whose girlfriend couldn't finish it, which definitely added some motivation. IJ is... well, it's flawed. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't tread through it again, especially since what resolution there is (which is at the beginning of the book -- another problem) seems to be so depressing. But I do find myself thinking about the tongue-scraper-death-of-network-television cycle every once in a while.

Does that differ from maintaining a heightened state of arousal and having sequential orgasms with no refractory period?

ita, I think Hec was agreeing with and clarifying the definitions you'd presented, in response to my question which proposed a different definition, i.e. a short refractory (or recovery) period between successive orgasms.

Based on the definition you and Hec present, I don't find the 13% statistic so surprising, but I'm not convinced it's the definition in use in common parlance.

I think in the American class system, money trumps everything else.

I would have said the opposite. But maybe that's because I've spent my life surrounded by academics and clergy, who always feel higher-class than their income.

I think probably class is used in different ways depending on context. Sometimes it has to do with standard of living, other times with "culture" factors.

Retirement fund should be counted towards wealth, as should property. Wealth /= cash, it's value of assets.

I think probably class is used in different ways depending on context. Sometimes it has to do with standard of living, other times with "culture" factors.

Buffista axiom # 1274: Spend enough time trying to come up with the right phrasing for something, and someone else will say it for you.

My wealth takes a big nosedive if retirement funds don't get counted.

I think Hec was agreeing with and clarifying the definitions you'd presented, in response to my question which proposed a different definition

I'm good -- I wasn't arguing with him, I was clarifying my understanding of his position. Which he did.

academics and clergy, who always feel higher-class than their income.

I wonder if that's a left over from the second (and etc) sons in the upper classes going into the clergy (or the military) in post-Civil War England? Plus the whole bit with poor gentry women becoming governesses. And I understand that under Elizabeth I, getting into college (with the idea of going on to a clergy position, but often ending up in some sort of academic post) was seen as a route up to the middle class or even lower-upper class for poorer folks (ie the route Christopher Marlow was supposed to take, instead of becoming a playwright and atheist spy and etc.). It seems like the educated jobs were seen as what poorer members of the gentry did when they didn't have the money to support their class positions, but didn't want to move allegedly down into trade.

Or it could be I just read too much Jane Austen.