Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!rex!uflorida!haven!rutgers!iuvax!uceng!dmocsny
From: dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny)
Newsgroups: alt.romance
Subject: Re: Morality and kissing...
Keywords: morality, kissing
Message-ID: <3351@uceng.UC.EDU>
Date: 18 Jan 90 03:35:13 GMT
References: <747@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Organization: College of Engg., Univ. of Cincinnati
Lines: 39

In article <747@darkstar.ucsc.edu> lechner@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Eric Lechner) writes:
>You are on a bus, going home from either school or work, and
>are approached by a reasonably attractive member of the appropriate
>sex who politely asks the question "excuse me, but would you
>mind terribly if i were to kiss you?".
>
>What is your response?

First off, I'm not sure what "reasonably" attractive means, since I
don't arrive at an attraction as a result of any reasoning process. I
am either attracted to someone or not, and that is that. But apart
from that, my response would simply have to be one of shock or perhaps
some suspicion, because a scenario such as this has never happened to
me or to any heterosexual man I can recall hearing about. The sheer
improbability of it would lead me to question whether something
"funny" was going on, for example is she an actress and is a hidden
camera trained on us, or is she a partner in a pickpocket team. Or
maybe this is part of crazy Machavellian scheme hatched by one of my
multifarious political rivals bent on publicly compromising me and
subjecting me to blackmail. Or perhaps Zaphod Beeblebrox is making an
overflight with the pedal-to-the-metal on the Improbability Drive.

Assuming, however, that I could rid myself of all suspicions, I would
have to conclude that I was simply experiencing an elaborate
hallucination. I would take a quick mental inventory of my last
several meals and drinks. Perhaps someone had drugged me. I'd do a few
quick sums in my head, and count backwards by sevens from some large
number to see if my mental faculties were degraded. Failing that, I
would announce to anyone interested that I was being confronted by an
apparition. I would examine the eyes of bystanders to see if they were
seeing the apparition too, just to satisfy my curiosity. (If the
hallucination turned out to be a mass hallucination, it wouldn't
change the absurd impossibility of the whole situation.) I would not,
of course, address the apparition directly, for fear of being taken
away by the men in white coats.

Dan Mocsny
dmocsny@uceng.uc.edu

:-)