Celestial Reviews 179 - May 7, 1997

Note:  There's no nice way to say this.  Some of you authors have your 
facts of life screwed up.  Many women in these stories have their 
"aureole" stimulated by the tongue or teeth of a lover.  This is a 
highly unlikely event.  Indeed, if I may pass judgment on some of the 
women who experience this stimulation, this activity would be not only 
unlikely, but actually impossible.  An aureole, you see, is a circle of 
light or radiance surrounding the head or body of a representation of a 
deity or holy person; in short, it's a halo.  {The term is also used by 
astronomers to refer to the corona around the sun.}  The word these 
authors undoubtedly mean to use is "areola" (also referred to as 
"areole" when it is a specifically biological term), which refers to a 
small ring of color around a center portion, as about the nipple of the 
breast or the part of the iris surrounding the pupil of the eye.  I have 
seen other bizarre spellings, including "aereole" - a word which doesn't 
exist but which would appear to be related to "aer" or "aero," a root 
that refers to air or gas.  I suppose this spelling could suggest that 
the lover was nibbling an aperture through which air or gas might be 
expunged - but I rather think this is a simple spelling error.  Anyway, 
when my husband makes love to me, I prefer that he nibble on an areola 
when the spirit moves him.  If he wants them both, they're called either 
areolas or areolae.  There's also a noun called areolation.  That sounds 
like a good title for a story.

Second note:  In recent discussions on a.s.s.d. some critics have 
accused me of being "arrogant."  If by arrogance they mean things like 
the preceding note, they can kiss my ass - in the arrogant, metaphorical 
sense, of course.  I honestly don't understand why a person should be 
accused of arrogance for authoritatively pointing out useful information 
to other people.  I try not to appear condescending, and I sincerely do 
not believe that I am somehow a superior human being because I happen to 
be able to apply grammar rules and to know the meanings of some words 
that others do not know.  Likewise, when I criticize a story for having 
a "weakness," I think it should be obvious that I am offering an 
opinion.  I, of course, think my opinions are valid, and so do a lot of 
readers and authors who seem to respect my opinions; but certainly 
people have a right to disagree with my comments.  I try to give reasons 
for my criticisms, and a sensible course of action would be to look at 
my remarks in context and to make up your own mind about them.  

I think I have a right to bring my personal value system into these 
reviews (just as people who write stories have a right to base their 
stories on a given value system, if they wish to do so).  When I do 
this, I try to be explicit about where I am coming from; and if you want 
to reject or ignore my value system, the fact that I am clear about my 
position should make this easier for you.  In most cases I think I am 
fairly tolerant of value systems that differ from my own - at least 
compared to the vast number of people who would like to suppress 
expression of sexual values that differ from their own.

And by the way, when I lay claim to being the goddess of this newsgroup, 
I'm kidding.  That was a title bestowed on me a long time ago by a 
reader, and I liked it.  I really lay no claims to divinity of any kind.

My point here is that if I appear to be arrogant, maybe you should give 
me a break.  In most cases I think you'll discover that I'm simply 
trying to have some fun while writing a set of friendly essays that give 
feedback to authors and help readers find some good stories.

Third Note:  Remember the Third Annual Celestial Writing Contest.  The 
rules are that the story must in some way be about sex and must be 
restricted to 500 words or less.  In addition, the story should include 
some sort of unusual twist - like the unexpected self-revelation Robert 
Browning's poem "My Last Duchess" or the surprise endings in several of 
Vickie Tern's "Teasers" or Deirdre's stories.  If you wish, you can 
submit several super-short stories together (as Vickie Tern has now done 
on two occasions), or you can post them separately under separate 
titles.  However, I'll give first prize to the best STORY, not to the 
best collection.  The deadline for submissions will be June 3, which my 
calendar tells me is the date on which the Catholic Church will 
celebrate the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions. 

Fourth Note: Some people have been expressing frustration over my 
failure to review their stories.  If I have given the impression that I 
am willing to spend 20 or 30 hours a week on a "job" that requires me to 
read and review every story that deserves to be reviewed, I'm sorry; I 
can't do that.

To be perfectly honest, I DO have biases in favor of certain authors.  
By that I mean I like these people and will go out of my way to read and 
review anything they send me.  When another person whom I don't know 
gets a bit impatient because I have not yet read his/her 250 page novel, 
I simply have to ask that person to be patient.  The fact is that there 
are authors whose work I dearly love and whom I consider to be personal 
friends, but I am unable to read and respond to all of their work.

I enjoy doing these reviews, and I genuinely feel good when authors show 
an appreciation for my efforts.  But I am not being paid for this job, 
and I give priority to my family life and to the various activities for 
which people compensate me and have a right to expect me to finish 
assignments on schedule.

In addition, I am going to read stories that I think I'll enjoy.  I 
realize that it can be profitable for me to expand my horizons by 
reading stories that may not seem initially attractive to me; and I am 
thrilled when I find that I have enjoyed a story that sounded like I 
might not enjoy it.  But remember: the reason I give so many high 
ratings is because I deliberately seek stories that appear to be well 
written and which I think I am likely to enjoy.

When it stops being fun to write these reviews, I'll stop doing them.  
It's that simple.  I don't foresee this happening anytime soon, but I 
thought that clarifying my ground rules would make this easier for all 
of us.  

So go ahead and send me any stories you want to send me.  I'll continue 
to try to be fair.  If I fail to review your story, it's OK to remind me 
about its existence.  But the simple fact is that there will be stories 
that I am unable to review.

Final Note: Remember: even though someone else may be posting my reviews 
for me, my e-mail address is still Celeste801@aol.com.

And a Joke: The man comes home from work, looking for his girlfriend. He 
hears her in the bedroom making a lot of noise. As he looks in he sees 
her tossing all her clothes into a suitcase.

"What in the of GOD are you doing?" he asks.

His girlfriend says, "I'm leaving you and going home to my mother."

"What did I do to make you won't to leave me like this?"

I just found out that you are a PEDOFILE ! ! ! ! 

The man looks at her with a big question mark in his eyes "Well, Donna, 
that sure is a BIG word for an 11 year-old!"

- Celeste

      "Sarah" by The Star (father/daughter romance) 10, 10, 10
      "Kimiko Dreams: Carol", by Deidre Ng (ff sex) 9, 8, 8
      "Instant Romance" by Dafney Dewitt (con job) 9, 8, 8
      "On the Air" by RC (hypnosis) 10, 9, 9
      "Samantha and Brian" by Brian Foster (sexual initiation)
            8, 9, 9
      "Erotic Foolishness" by Renae Nicks (romance) 10, 5, 10
      "Detention" by MD James (blackmailing a prude) 9, 9, 9
      "A Cut of the Cards" by Anon747 (bondage) 8, 10, 10
      "Complexities and Paradoxes" by Dimitri (sci fi sex) 9, 8, 9
      "Minding Mike" by Paddy Toute (household hint) 10, 10, 10
      "Seductions" by MrSpraycan (seduction & submission) 10, 6, 6
    * "Pillow Fight" by Dulcinea (playful romance) 10, 9, 10
    * "One of Those Days?" by Dulcinea (quickie in elevator)
           10, 10, 10
    * "The Party" by Dulcinea (quickie at the party)
            10, 10, 10

* = Repost of a previous review (because the story has 
      recently been reposted)

"Sarah" by The Star (extar@hotmail.com). In this story a man survives an 
automobile accident in which his beloved wife dies.  He is nursed back 
to health by his young adult daughter, who subsequently proclaims her 
love for him, and they happily fall in love and have wonderful sex 
together.  I suppose some people would classify this story as incest, 
but I have stubbornly insisted on labeling it a father/daughter romance.  
Actually, according to both my American Heritage Unabridged Dictionary 
and the laws in most of the western world, the activities described in 
this story DO constitute incest - sexual relations between persons who 
are so closely related that their marriage is illegal or forbidden by 
custom.

As I have said in other reviews, I think there is a good reason for 
society's general prohibition of incest.  I can think of three good 
reasons for this taboo.  First, when the incest is between children and 
adults there is almost always a strong possibility of inappropriate 
coercion and exploitation of the child by the adult.  For this reason 
social scientists and the courts in most jurisdictions have few kind 
words for adults who engage in incest with children.  Second, there is a 
possibility of genetic difficulties arising from "inbreeding."  This 
means that when some sort of problem is caused by a double recessive 
gene combination, the problem would be more likely to occur when the 
individuals who are producing a child would be closely related (because 
siblings or parents, for example, are more likely than an unrelated 
person to have the same recessive allele).  Although I have taught 
children whose retardation I have been told was the result of inbreeding 
and although there are some famous studies of American families that 
were noteworthy for their inbreeding, I am not really certain how 
serious this problem is.  This problem could obviously be overcome by 
the simple expedient of using effective birth control.  Finally, incest 
could exert an undue pressure for people to narrow their range when 
looking for spouses or permanent sexual partners.  In other words, mommy 
and her little boy should be able to love each other a lot, but society 
(and the son) would probably be better off if mommy cuts the apron 
strings and encourages him to seek sexual fulfillment somewhere else 
besides in her arms.

Although most societies have long displayed the incest taboo, it was 
Freud who invented the term Oedipus Complex to describe the urge of boys 
to fall in love with their mothers and Electra Complex to describe the 
similar urge of girls to develop a sexual attachment with their fathers.  
Most developmental psychologists assume that children work through or 
"resolve" these complexes as a part of their "normal" development.  
Mister Rogers (of television fame) even sings a kiddie song about it.

But there's also a basic stupidity behind this taboo.  For example, in 
the original story of Oedipus (after whom the complex is named), Oedipus 
grows up in exile, returns to his country, accidentally kills his father 
(because he didn't know who the guy was when his father approached him 
acting like a complete asshole), and then marries his mother (because 
she was the widowed queen).  Several years later, after lots of 
unrecorded happy mutual orgasms, Oedipus suddenly finds out that his 
wife his also his mother.  My advice to Oedy would be something like 
this: "It's too bad you killed your father, but it was his fault, not 
yours.  Your mother has loved you for twenty years and has somehow 
avoided menopause.  Your children have no noticeable genetic defects.  
Get a grip.  It's OK."  Instead he gouges his eyes out, goes into exile, 
and dies a miserable death.   This same story appears frequently in 
American soap operas and possibly in one of Bill and Ted's Excellent 
Adventures.

The upshot of this discussion is that I think it makes sense to 
speculate about the values of apparently incestuous relationships.  
{It's also fun to challenge the biblical fundamentalists who both (1) 
take the biblical story of creation literally and (2) denounce incest 
with this question: "Since Adam and Eve had only sons, who was the 
mother of their children?"} In real life I strongly recommend that my 
husband leave my daughters alone.  If he has sex with them, he will not 
have to gouge his own eyes out: I'll perform that service for him.  The 
present story offers an interesting insight into this topic.  Michael K. 
Smith's "Dyad" (reviewed in CR 177) likewise does a good job.

Ratings for "Sarah"
Athena (technical quality): 8
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Kimiko Dreams: Carol", by Deidre Ng (kimiko@unforgettable.com).  I 
haven't seen a new posting by Deidre Ng for a long time.  This one was 
sent to me by a person who had posted the story on her web site at 
http://www.virtualchemy.com/Kimiko/.  I am used to a more free-flowing, 
spontaneous style from Deidre Ng.  In this story she writes in very 
simple, almost choppy sentences about two women going to a movie 
together, holding hands, reaching orgasm, playing with cosmetics, and 
reaching more orgasms.  It's interesting stuff, but not in the category 
with some of Deidre Ng's previous material.

Ratings for "Kimiko Dreams: Carol"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

"Instant Romance" by Dafney Dewitt (dafneydewitt@juno.com).  In my 
Honors English Class several years ago I had a lazy student who was the 
scion of a wealthy family.   The assignment was to write a short story, 
and he turned in a short masterpiece entitled something like "The 
Surprise."  I recognized it immediately as a slightly modified version 
of Saki's "The Open Window."  Instead of accusing him of plagiarism, I 
simply gave him an F and made up silly criticisms of the story - 
describing it as shallow and unimaginative and accusing the author of 
such foibles as "poor word choice" and "unimaginative imagery."  It was 
an exquisite form of torture.  The kid knew I was full of baloney - 
after all, the story was actually written by H.H. Munro (Saki), one of 
the greatest authors of short stories in the English language.  But he 
couldn't say that to me or even tell anybody else, because to do so he 
would have to admit that he had plagiarized the story.

The present story is also an adaptation of "The Open Window."  The 
author openly admits the connection; so this is NOT plagiarism.  It's a 
pretty good story, but a weak adaptation.  If you've never read "The 
Open Window" - or, for that matter, if a smart-assed English teacher 
once gave you an F for plagiarizing it - you should dig that story out 
from your old anthology or get it from the library and take a look at 
it.  The main feature that the original story possesses but the present 
story lacks is the double whammy.  In Saki's story a fiendishly clever 
little girl scares the shit out of a simple-minded visitor by feeding 
him a scenario about something that was supposed to have happened in the 
past.  The visitor accepts this lie as true, and then is horrified to 
see the scene re-enacted before his eyes.  He runs away in terror, 
thinking he has seen a ghost.  The little girl, of course, knew this 
would happen.  The family expresses wonderment over the visitor's sudden 
departure, and with equal facility the little demon generates an equally 
untrue story to explain why the guest ran away.  Romance at short notice 
was indeed her specialty.  In the present story, a surprise visitor 
simply "wings it" to have some fun with his sister's roommate.  It's 
fun, but nowhere near the level of sophistication of Saki's story.

I think there's huge potential to turn this and other classical short 
stories into really sexy masterpieces.  The present author has merely 
taken a kernel of an idea and has omitted most of the original author's 
insights - the ability of the little girl to build up in the mind of her 
listener the irrational reaction which caused him to run out of the room 
and then to explain his unnatural behavior through a second lie.  If 
anyone has the time, I'd love to see someone else take a shot at a sexy 
version of this story line.  There are many other possibilities - an x-
rated version of O. Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief" or "The Gift of 
the Magi"; a sexy rendition of Conrad's "The Secret Sharer"; any number 
of Poe's stories.  I would even proclaim another new contest, but 
someone has pointed out  to me that my current Third contest is actually 
my Fourth. Life gets complicated when you get past eighteen....

Ratings for "Instant Romance"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

"On the Air" by RC (74734.271@CompuServe.Com).  Back during his college 
days our narrator had been involved in a romantic liaison with a young 
lady.  As is commonly the case among technology geeks, this young man 
had hypnotized his lover, and she had eagerly engaged in all manner of 
wonderful things with him before she dumped him for a football 
quarterback.  Eventually she also dumped the jock and got religion, and 
that's where the story begins.  She's appearing on a TV show with an 
evangelist, who is denouncing the evils of sex for pleasure.  Well, as 
you may easily imagine, the lady is still responsive to post-hypnotic 
suggestions from strobe lights, which happen to be abundant and under 
the control of the narrator; and before we know it, she's entering into 
the Rapture in front of both live and filmed audiences.

Ratings for "On the Air"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

"Samantha and Brian" by Brian Foster (Mr. Double Repost).  Remember the 
old Dragnet shows, where Joe Friday used to read a lecture on Public 
Safety in the context of a weekly television show?  That's what this 
story does: it offers a context for an essay or lecture on the harmful 
effects of repressing childhood sexuality and the virtues of having a 
warm adult gently introduce a child to the mysteries of her own body.

A lot of people comment to me that they enjoy this newsgroup "except for 
the incest and pedophile stuff."  Maybe these people should give the 
"real perverts" a chance to present their case.  This story makes 
perfect sense to me - except, I guess, in real life maybe adults are 
more likely to exploit little girls for their own gratification.

Ratings for "Samantha and Brian"
Athena (technical quality): 8
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

"Erotic Foolishness" by Renae Nicks (RenaeNicks@aol.com).  The woman has 
broken up after a long relationship and has befriended a guy whose 
girlfriend lives far away.  Things start out platonic and cool, but they 
warm up quickly. The main reason this story has received a low rating in 
"plot and character" is because it's not complete.  I hope this author 
goes ahead and finishes a good story for us.

Ratings for "Erotic Foolishness"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Detention" by MD James (d2beast@aol.com).  Ms. Jay is that polygon of 
evil - er, paragon, I guess - the prudish English teacher who comes down 
hard on innocent teenagers but inside is a boiling cauldron of illicit 
lust.  Ms. Jay inflicts one too many detentions on Our Hero, and he 
really sticks it to her.  It seems Ms. Jay has been boinking a City 
Councilman.  Our Hero has obtained evidence of this and uses that 
information to blackmail, humiliate, and generally enjoy Ms Jay before 
he gives her a stern warning and sends her on her way.  I normally don't 
approve of these things, but with prudish English teachers or 
librarians, anything goes!

The author makes some minor but annoying mistakes in verb tenses and in 
spelling.  He obviously ran a spellcheck, which missed a few spelling 
errors (e.g., "throws of passion" for "throes of passion") and which 
brought to mind the following poem:

THE DEAN'S WORD PROCESSOR
(By Graduate School Dean Jerrold Zar)

I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see.

Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a blessing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore a veiling checkers
Hour spelling mite decline,
And if we're laks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.

Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.

Now spelling does not phase me,
I does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped words fare as hear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.

Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too please.

Ratings for "Detention"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

"A Cut of the Cards" by Anon747 (Anon747@aol.com).  I possibly know as 
much about sex stories as anybody in the world.  I mean, I have reviewed 
something like 1577 of them; and you would think by now I would at least 
have an idea who all the good writers are.  Not true!  Not even close!  
Recently I was politely denounced by an author who wondered what it took 
to get me to read his stories.  I read one, and it was excellent!  Then 
the present author sent me this story along with her web site address 
(http://members.aol.com/Anon747/index2.html).  The story was very good, 
and the web site is loaded with other good stories that I had never 
heard of and cross references to other sites, most of which I have never 
visited.  

This is crazy.  By my calculations, in order to keep abreast of matters 
I would have to read stories almost constantly from sunrise to sunset.  
I would have no time to seduce anyone; at the most I might have time to 
let my husband crawl under my desk and eat me out while I read a story.  
I would be so busy that I would say "abreast" without even adding <g>.  
I would probably get aroused by all kinds of things that would remind me 
of these stories - baseball players and cops with tight asses, checkout 
girls who are possibly not wearing underpants, students who are probably 
fantasizing about my pussy....  Life would be crazy.  The upside is that 
I would probably figure out how to do mind control, and I could possibly 
use this information to become rich or control the world or something.  
But I don't know.  I think I'd miss the simple things of life - like 
correcting student papers, seducing my husband, getting and giving hand 
jobs - the things that the simple folk do in "Camelot."

Anyway, in this story the man and his wife draw cards.  He gets the low 
card.  I'm not really sure whether this means he won or lost, but the 
result is that he gets to decide WHAT they do, but she gets to determine 
HOW they do it.  He decides he wants to watch her make love with a 
woman, but she decides he will be tied up while she does so.  It's a 
good story!

Ratings for "A Cut of the Cards"
Athena (technical quality): 8
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Complexities and Paradoxes" by Dimitri (dimitri@ihug.co.nz).  The gang 
from Star Trek are returning through space or hyperspace or maybe 
traveling through time.  I don't know enough about what they are doing 
to know what they are doing.  That sounds like a complexity or paradox; 
and if you can understand what I said, maybe you are ready for this 
story.  This story takes place within the last 30 seconds of the movie 
"Star Trek: First Contact."  However, that doesn't mean that the action 
takes only 30 seconds; trekkies travel through time, space, and each 
other according to laws that actually make sense to people imbued with 
the culture.

I really do think this is probably a good Star Trek story.  It doesn't 
have all that much sex in it, but it does include an humanoid dildo and 
the aphorism, "I'll scratch your cunt, you scratch mine."  

As a result of several stories like this, I have begun to enjoy Star 
Trek more than before.  This superficial familiarity leads to practical 
problems.  I was recently at a party with some engineers and they were 
discussing Picard and Troi or something like that.  Years ago I would 
have ignored such creatures, because I would have had no idea what they 
were talking about.  This time I easily followed the conversation and 
almost joined in - which would have been a grave faux pas, since my 
knowledge is seriously tainted by a.s.s. stories of Picard and Troi 
doing things together that have never occurred on TV or in any of the 
movies - at least not without resorting to time warps.

I liked this story.  I think a person who is really familiar with the 
whole Star Trek saga would enjoy it even more.

Ratings for "Complexities and Paradoxes"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

"Minding Mike" by Paddy Toute (Paddy22@aol.com).  Most local newspapers 
have a self-help column - "Hints for the Happy Homemaker" or "Tool Time" 
or something like that - what to do when an unusual problem occurs.  
Personally, I just use the World Wide Web, but I'm not sure what search 
words I'd use on the Excite Search Engine for the problem presented in 
this story.  It's an ordinary problem.  I have encountered it myself 
several times when I have been asked to baby-sit for a neighborhood 
teenager who has been in an accident and has to go to the bathroom but 
he can't get out of bed and his fingers are so thoroughly wrapped in 
bandages that he can't aim his own pecker into the bottle that he keeps 
under the bed for such emergencies.  That's not the problem, of course: 
anyone who can think and chew gum at the same time can handle that part 
easily enough <g>.  The problem occurs when the helper helps the helpee 
put the penis inside the narrowing opening of the bottle but the 
helpee's little weenie for whatever reason becomes engorged with blood 
and increases in girth to the extent that it presses firmly against the 
sides of the bottle, thus inhibiting both intinction and removal.  Now 
there's a problem that could easily get out of hand!

The nice thing about this story is that the author knows when to stop.

Ratings for "Minding Mike"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Seductions" by MrSpraycan (mrspraycan.an@edtec.com).  So far I've seen 
"Seductions 1 and 2," which are part of "An Unnamed Work In Progress."  
The story has some erotic parts to it, but it seems to go nowhere - 
unless you think that just having sex is a plot.  Of course, the problem 
is that the story isn't complete.  I guess maybe I should have waited 
till the story was finished before reviewing it.  The author seems to 
write very well: maybe it will be eventually be a really good story.

Ratings for "Seductions"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 6
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6

* "Pillow Fight" by Dulcinea (ImDulcinea@aol.com).  This was one of the 
first stories I ever reviewed - back in CR 2.  It's the kind of romantic 
story I'd like to write myself.  I guess that's because this is the kind 
of life I'd like to live myself.  Dulcinea does a good job making a 
woman wish this were happening to her.  This is a playful story with 
nothing kinky - just good, hot passion.  Way to go, Dulcinea!

Ratings for "Pillow Fight"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* "One of Those Days?" by Dulcinea (ImDulcinea@aol.com).  It's one of 
those days.  The elevator is packed with wall to wall people; it's going 
to be uncomfortable.  But then the sexy lady he just noticed in the 
restaurant is being forced back against Adam; and - wouldn't you know it 
- his cock decides not to remain quiescent.  It's one of those days.  
Noticing his tumescence, Tami suggests that they introduce themselves.  
"Madam I'm Adam," he replies; and she responds "Able was I ere I saw 
Elba."  That's not exactly what they said, but I've always wanted to 
write two palindromes in a single sentence.  Well, anyway, if everyone 
adapted this well to overcrowding, we'd be a lot less concerned about 
the population explosion.  It's a sexy story.

Ratings for "One of Those Days?"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* "The Party" by Dulcinea (ImDulcinea@aol.com).  The officer's wife is 
bored with the party.  She slips away to the master bedroom and soon one 
of the officers meets her there for a romantic romp before they rejoin 
the others.  Dulcinea's stories are simple and sweet, and sometimes 
that's very nice.

Ratings for "The Party"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

