Afterthought: Can one successfully microwave a cucumber? I was just wondering. Would the seeds spit out all over the place? I'm not in the mood for a mess right now.<p>
SORRY - I JUST HAD TO SAY THAT [img]images/icons/shocked.gif" border="0[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif" border="0[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif" border="0[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif" border="0[/img]

Ditto on what DeWayne and Justhe wife said.<p>And I'm typing this with both hands. [img]images/icons/grin.gif" border="0[/img]

Hi, I'm back, and for some reason I am very relaxed, and feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. In fact I am blissful.<p>If everyone would take a quick relaxation break every day this world would be a much kinder place.<p>I propose that it become law.<p>It should be taught in schools and federally funded.<p>Either that or we have to put prozac in the water supply.<p>Elizabeth

Newstartj:<p>Taking your questions, one at a time:<p>Q: Are you a human or an animal?<p>A: Both. Humans are animals.<p>Q: Are you a man or a beast?<p>A: Same question, same answer.<p>Q: Are you a person or an ape?<p>A: Similar quesion, similar answer. Apes and humans are primates.<p>Q: Are you made in the image & likeness of God?<p>A: This is a toughy. Depends on one's religious beliefs, or lack thereof. I'm an atheist, but was a Christian. Most people would say yes to this question. That's fine with me.<p>Q: Are you able to use reason and intellect or are you unenlightened & dense?<p>A: My WW would have me believe I'm unenlightened and definetly, definitely dense! I like to think I can reason, though. Some people think that Dolphins and Amazon Gray parrots can, too. <p>Q: Are you able to FREELY CHOOSE your actions or are you driven by blind instinct like a dog in heat?<p>A: Hm... Okay, I think I choose.<p>Q: Are you able to make FREE WILL DECISIONS informed by your CONSCIENCE or are you a robot?<p>A: Similar to the dog question. Similar answer.<p>Q: Are you able to LOVE UNSELFISHLY?<p>A: Yes. I think dogs do this too.<p>No offense meant, and I certainly don't take any. <p>I surprised my IC on Friday when I told him that when I fantasize, I fantasize about my W, not about models or actresses (although Jennifer Connely is pretty cute, she's not my W). Don't know why my IC was surprised. I guess he must expect me to lust after other women like "most men" do. I don't. I won't.

I hope we haven't chased off newstartj. I intended no offense with my arguments.<p>Doodle's Daddy, for an explanation of Plan A, see What are Plan A and Plan B?.<p>Elizabeth, I don't know whether Prozac in the water supply would do me much good. I generally drink distilled water.<p>Bill, I thank you for your compliments and I can assure you that even if you had played a homosexual on TV, I would have been adequately protected from any misunderstanding by my remarkable capacity to remain utterly oblivious to possible romantic subtexts (or any emotional subtext for that matter).<p>Here's the answer to your question about how we got from masturbation to mushrooms: Having apparently failed at my first attempt to communicate to newstartj just which link in the chain of her reasoning I found problematic, I thought perhaps a more oblique approach might prove more effective. Alas, my extended metaphor lost any impact it might have had when the post from which it derives was deleted.<p>When categorizing foods into food groups, mushrooms tend to get lumped together with vegetables, even though by strict definition a mushroom is not a vegetable. Similarly, masturbation sometimes gets lumped together with other expressions of sexuality, even though masturbation does not strictly belong to the category of sexual relations.<p>Context must be taken into account when deciding whether it is appropriate to think of a mushroom as a vegetable, just as (in my opinion) context should be taken into account when deciding whether it is appropriate to think of masturbation as a sexual sin.<p>But perhaps in my distaste for direct confrontation I was overly subtle. In retrospect it occurs to me that my approach could have been mistaken for mockery, and I sincerely regret any discomfort it may have caused.<p>[ March 20, 2002: Message edited by: GnomeDePlume ]</p>

I won't let you be the bad guy by yourself. Actually I was quite suprized by all the quick edits she preformed.<p>I am not suprized that she chose to leave, if that is the case.<p>Newstartj had some very strong opinions of how people should behave, and I think was unwilling to see any grey area or believe that anyone could live in any other way than what she deemed appropriate. <p>I told her on another post that I believed she could be quite an asset here, but also warned her that her strong opinions would be met with equally strong and differing opinions.<p>I also told her that if she wanted to give someone a piece of her mind she should hit gloryb and let them know what she thought. Maybe the whole idea that there was a place like gloryb sent her screaming into the night.<p>I hope she returns. I do think she had some good points. But nobody can tell me that I can't masturbate and expect that I won't answer. <p>I think that she would have burned out quickly here, some of the posts she made were very inflamitory. Of course they are all gone now, so you'll have to take my word for it.<p>Elizabeth