Bye-Bye Benefits

Dating someone less than eligible (read: jobless, aimless, pot habit etc)? A solution emerges in this week's The New York Observer. The answer? Dump him. This act will apparently set off the "Butterfly Effect" and spur the loser to get his (the article is gender-specific) act together. But alas, once he's done that and got himself a job and life, he might not fly back to you... Could the message be that what's broke isn't worth fixing? 

The Far Side

Lust. How far can it take you? Apparently to all kinds of weirdo places. Daniel Bergner's The Other Side of Desire: Four Journeys into the Far Realms of Lust and Longing out today, promises a tour of sorts (amputee chasers, foot fetishists etc). The author, who's reported from Sierra Leone and Angola (as in the infamous Louisiana prison), discusses the book here. While you are at it, you might want to check out his recent Times Magazine piece entitled 'What do Women Want?' It's eight pages long but features a lady scientist who makes people (with wires attached to their bits) watch apes in action.