Living Flirtatiously Dating Blog

Of all of summer's traditions — watermelon-eating, picnics, Fourth of July fireworks — one of my favorites is watching free and excellent performances of Shakespeare in Central Park. (And we New Yorkers aren't the only ones privy to such high-brow no-cost entertainment. Theater companies across the country perform outdoor productions of the Bard's work, and many of them don't charge an admission fee either.)

Gay marriage was (finally) legalized in New York over the weekend — and writing in Slate, author Linda Hirshman argues that any victory for gay marriage is also a victory for straight women who want to marry.

After 16 years on the run, big-time Boston mobster Whitey Bulger, 81, and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, 60, were arrested on Wednesday at an apartment in Santa Monica, California. The FBI, who had Bulger on their Most Wanted List, had recently launched a campaign to find him, and the idea was to try to find someone who'd encountered Grieg, a dental hygienist who reportedly had a number of appearance-enhancing surgeries. The FBI placed ads in a national dentists' journal last year, and in a plastic surgery one this year. Mere days ago, the FBI took things up a notch, running public service announcements on daytime TV in 14 cities — and the new effort paid off.

Say what you will about the current crop of Republican Presidential contenders (and frankly, there's plenty of stuff I'd say if this were a political blog, rather than a dating blog), but one thing we all have to concede is that there a lot of hotties in the running — and as Slate's John Dickerson points out, the three hottest might be Jon Huntsman, Obama's former ambassador to China; Rick Perry, current governor of Texas; and Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts. (To be more accurate, Dickerson says these three are the ones who most resemble the actors who play presidents in B-list movies.)

When I first heard about Anthony Weiner's lewd pictures, I thought, Well, that's disgusting — but what he does is also completely common out there in Internetland.

I know this because, unfortunately, once upon a time, not all that long ago, putting up a personal ad on Craigslist seemed like a good idea to me — until I actually did it.

Bowing to the pressure his fellow Democrats have put on him, Congressman Anthony Weiner — husband of the beautiful aide to Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin — resigned today. Abedin has worked for Hillary for years — and she is so close to her boss and to the Clinton family that the former president officiated at her wedding.

In an interesting new novel, Enough About Love — about two married women in their forties who fall into affairs — Herve Le Tellier describes the compulsive vanity of one of his characters.

My latest question about the whole Weinergate situation is this: Do you think Congressman Anthony Weiner is closer to moron or sleazeball than cheater? Like former Congressman Chris Lee — who resigned almost immediately after a somewhat similar scandal in February — Weiner is married, but he doesn't seem to have been soliciting sexual relationships with the women he was in communication with, the way Lee was. And unlike a lot of other politicians who have been engulfed by sexual scandals, Weiner does not seem to have had inappropriate physical contact with any of the women with whom he exchanged electronic communications.

I imagine you're all having different reactions to Congressman Anthony Weiner's public confession that he sent inappropriate texts and photos to six young women he met online — including the scandal-causing shot of his gray underwear. Maybe you feel like it was disgusting and pathetic, maybe you feel like it's not such a big deal, maybe you wish politicians could focus a little more on their jobs and a little less on what's under their boxer briefs, or maybe you wish the media would just shut up already.

A respected documentary filmmaker named Liz Canner recently made a documentary, available on DVD June 21, called Orgasm Inc. — about the companies and entrepreneurs who are trying to convince women that it's a physiological problem if they don't climax every time they have sex, one that can be "fixed" with pills or creams. Canner asks the questions: Is "female sexual dysfunction" really a disorder or a genius marketing stroke? And could the products that are being developed do more harm than good?

Yesterday, I talked a little about the new Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris, about a young couple from L.A. on vacation in The City of Love — where their different outlooks on life, less apparent at home, begin to seem more problematic. Inez wants to live a rich, wealthy life, full of expensive furniture, expensive wine, and fancy friends. Her fiancé Gil is more interested in connecting with people and finding beauty and adventure in more humble settings.

Have you seen the new Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris? Slate's movie critic described it as "a trifle in both senses of the word: a feather-light, disposable thing, and a rich dessert." I agree: It may not be too filling or sustaining, but it sure tastes great.

Over the weekend, I happened to be talking to a friend about prostitution. I mentioned an article I'd written about a former sex worker named Rachel Lloyd who founded a group called Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, or GEMS. Through her organization, she helps hundreds of young girls — many of them younger than 12 — get off the streets every year. She is a woman who is truly devoted to helping kids who really want a way out of the bad situations they're in. "Until I wrote that piece," I told my friend, "I'd never really thought much about prostitution. It never occurred to me that, hey, maybe this isn't exactly a career choice for most people — but rather something they feel forced into, because of poverty or because of a manipulative or abusive pimp."

Have you guys been following the story of two New York City cops who were accused of raping a severely intoxicated woman they'd been dispatched to help? The case went to trial after the woman said that she'd blacked out at a certain point but woke up to a memory of being penetrated from behind by one of them.

Do men who are drunk with power often turn into sexual predators — or is there some kind of behavioral link between being a power-monger and being someone who gets off on sexual assault? This chicken-or-egg question was posed in a recent New York Times article that noted, "the headlines are a relentless reminder of how often success seems to breed serial philanderers, groping boors, and worse, sexual deviants."

In two recent posts, I've talked about the advice grief educator Val Walker gives on how to help friends who are dealing with the end of a relationship, whether from a breakup or the loss of a loved one. Those posts have focused mostly on what to say. Now, let's talk about myths surrounding the art of comforting — and about a few things you should (and shouldn't) do if you want to help.

Last week, I wrote about the insights that a grief educator, Val Walker, had into the process of helping a friend through a breakup. Today, I'll give you Val's specific examples of what to say and what not to say.

Yesterday, I read about a trend so hilarious and unlikely that I almost thought I was reading a piece from The Onion, rather than The Associated Press. In northeastern Mexico, an unusual look is the new fad: Men are wearing boots with pointy toes so long that they look more like the footwear of genies or elves than cowboys. They're paying big money for kickers that have 35-inch-long extensions coming off the front.

The latest battle in the war over gay marriage is being led by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who's hoping to legalize it by the time his state's legislative session comes to a close next month. The Daily applauds his efforts — but they also say this:

Although I usually don't have such an emotional response to the Day's Craziest Story, I teared up when reading about the jilted bride in eastern China who tried to commit suicide.

On what was supposed to be her wedding day, she heard that her partner had called off the wedding — and married someone else. The distraught 22-year-old student was in a community center when she pushed herself off the 80-foot-tall ledge of the building. But amazingly, the center's director managed to grab the skirt of her white gown, and then her neck ... and with some assistance from people on the floor below, who were pushing up her feet, he eventually managed to pull her back inside the window. The pictures are pretty crazy, and the video is a bit hard to believe at first — you wonder a little if the whole thing was some kind of weird stunt — until you see the EMTs rushing the weakened young woman into an ambulance.