Boo Fleas (of the not Casper kind).

YAY Mac Soon.

I have already been to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond and had very good pumpkin pancakes, and now it may be going back to bed time.

msbelle!!!

Tony v. Paul

That was so cool and must have taken for. ev. er.

I don't have anything useful to add about beauty.

Mmmm, pumpkin pancakes. And bed. Sounds like a winner.

I, on the other hand, am finally going to see Casino Royale. Then, I'll be able to go enjoy the whitefont in Movies.

msbelle! Sleep tight! don't let the bed bugs bite Crunchy yummy salad soon. Son sooner!

Missed msbelle. Son tomorrow. That's just... wow.

msbelle!!!

Anyone having oddness with WX?

It was inaccesssible for me almost all of Friday and has been intermittently slow since, but I am seeing all my know posts. (That I know of.)

Beauty as indicators of status or wealth or value to the family is, I posit, a practical definition and using physical traits as shorthand--we're back to dowry and ability to bear children expressed visually

The western values you're contrasting them to likely have similar inspirations... pale women didn't have to work out doors because of their wealth, a shapely figure meant she'd be good for carrying babies, etc. And the fertility argument only goes so far... a woman who's had kids would be at a PREMIUM if that's what "beauty" was short-hand for, but you certainly don't see much in story and song about the lucky guy who snags a widow.

"Once upon a time a man had six really fertile daughters. One was more fertile than the next. And boy could they thresh! The eldest was exceptionally funny and would make a husband a happy man by making faces and whistling through the gap in her teeth that she lost while killing the largest boar the village had ever seen. Her tall sister with a limp had three fat sons and though she could not thresh, she could weave fabric that brought a high price, etc. The youngest sister was exceptionally lovely but only ever talked about her hair and shoes but her father was confident she's wed eventually (albeit dead last) since odds are she was a fecund as the rest -- put pitty the poor son-in-law who was married to that dope."

But beauty for beauty's sake has always been prized -- and romanticized. Yes, songs and poetry about a woman's beauty have always been around, because why not? Beauty touches us all -- whether it's a woman's beauty, or a summer day, or a piece of art.

Henry VIII was definitely prone to the lure of beauty. Anne Boleyn is a perfect example. But would he have married her if she hadn't been of the right family? Nope. He would have simply slept with her, the way he did with plenty of other pretty women he lusted after.

This probably won't help msbelle NOW, but when my aunt was living in Cairo, she discovered she was terribly allergic to sand flea bites. She acquired a bunch of flea collars she wore around her ankles, and that worked better than anything else. Oh so attractive, but better than swollen, oozing calves.