Friday Philtrum*

* Philtrum - phil⋅trum
/ˈfɪltrəm/ – noun, plural -tra  
1. Anatomy. the vertical groove on the surface of the upper lip, below the septum of the nose.
2. a philter. Love itself is the most potent philtrum. Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 434.
Origin:
1600–10; < L: love philter < Gk phíltron love philter, dimple in upper lip. See phil-, -tron


Philter - Function: noun

Etymology: Middle French philtre, from Latin philtrum, from Greek philtron; akin to Greek philos dear

Date: circa 1587

1 : a potion credited with magical power
2 : a potion, drug, or charm held to have the power to arouse sexual passion

I woke up this morning and immediately went to check my email, as is my habit of late. I received my first system update on the Droid today and it is interesting. I don't know the totality of the fix but did immediately notice that the hip arcing finger sweep that empowered the old phone has now been updated to a rather plain and boring horizontal pull.  No doubt the squares were put off by the curvature in space.


I am getting used to the phone. Don't know vis a vis the iphone but it has some neat apps and features. The physical keyboard is problematic for a fat fingered former blackberry user. The battery door likes to come off too easily. You can't select a letter and get all the names that correspond. The contact search is a bit cumbersome. But it is a very smart phone. Great navigation system, although it did try to take me through a secure military base.


Get a lot of play on the fart app. There is a program application called layars that is very cool. I like the "where" program. Pretty much can do anything. Great constellation mapper and portable flashlight and I get to read the daily analects of Confucious. The camera, while shooting a healthy 5 megapixel shot, is pretty godawful. Terrible flash. No documentation for the phone, the guy at Verizon said not to throw it against the wall for at least two weeks and you will figure it out.


My back has been pretty much fucked for a week. Living on flexoril, ibuprofin and you know.  Have a christmas party coming up and don't know how I will get it together in time.


I had an interesting interaction in the shop yesterday. Actually several. A woman came in very nervously in the morning. I asked if I could help her? She stammered that she owed me an apology. Several months ago she brought some Nazi items of her late husbands in for me to appraise or sell. Not wishing to deal with that kind of stuff, I gave her a number of someone who could help her.  My friend told her of my apprehension and I guess she felt really bad. I told her it was no big deal. It was heartfelt and I am glad she got it off her chest, for her sake.


I was ruminating on the tiger thing this morning. Will any skank that hasn't slept with him please step forward?  My thoughts took a different twist today. The link between sex and power. I remember reading a book about northwest coast and eskimo shamans. They were sometimes selected by looking for adolescents who engaged in abnormal hypersexual activity. Extreme masturbation, etc. There is a particular alpha male archetype that is heavily linked with sexual promiscuity. Think JFK, Clinton, Tiger. Picasso. Don't know if conquest is the main component, but there seems to be a lot of risk involved in the equation. 


I was talking to a male buddy recently who played around and paid the price with his family and he said something interesting: it's not necessarily a sex addiction, it might be a love addiction. Certain people need to feel loved all the time. Maybe they didn't get enough as kids. I don't know if this is the norm. Tiger told people that the strain of his life was overwhelming. I don't know if it was or if it wasn't. I do know that to have the level of skill and focus that enables him to dominate the very best must take an unbelievable level of narcissism and hubris. And just because you are very rich doesn't mean that you are a good guy. Maybe he is? Hope he doesn't crack.