Completely, but I think that's because they invented the idea of "polite society" and in polite society, one would never be so gauche as to insult someone directly, much better to throw shade. Oscar Wilde was skilled in it. As was Austen and Sir Conan Doyle. Aristocracy's desire to maintain their network while…

Don't forget Dorothy!

I'm a newbie to this concept (and an Old) but it seems to me that Jane Austen would have been an expert thrower of shade.

Semi-related to Downton Abbey - I think the Brits as a culture are pretty good throwers of shade. I remember working with this one British woman who said this to me after I got my hair cut into a bob: "I love your haircut. It makes you look very fashionable."

i hope some bee-jones baby marries an arnette-poehler baby and make the funniest person of all time.

He's been declining for years, but he's always been amongst the top 7 QBs in the league because so many teams are so uncertain at that position. He hasn't been able to complete a deep pass to save his life since about 2010. They had the 3rd ranked offense last year because their line was still close to full strength…

I know you're not arguing for a QB change, Barry, but if the "bench Brady" idea picks up any traction (and it probably will with the Boston media), I might just give up on the football press altogether. As you noted, his line is a sieve, he has no WR that's effective past 10 yards down the field, one WR that's…

I'm a long time Pats fan and to me the issue is Belichick and his gigantic fucking ego. "Oh I can coach anyone." Guy has made terrible personnel decisions for five years now. One blatantly stupid move each season. This year was Mankins.

Because he's not getting less effective, he's just all of a sudden ineffective. There wasn't a gradual decline and they had the 3rd ranked offense last year by at least some measure.s That's unusual.

And when the dude takes his shirt off, he's always somehow tanned. And the main characters in the story are always the biggest scandal/most famous/richest people in London. BEST.

I read a lot, and when I read a book with sex, all I want is the sex part. I do not care about plot (but I do care about punctuation). I like erotica, and I'll go back to the same story over and over and over again. I do indeed have a secret stash of books, both paper and Kindle, including some Penthouse Forum…

Just stopping by to say that I grew up on my mother's 1990s historical romance novels, and I think that steady diet of feisty women taming roguish men forever impacted my taste in entertainment. I haven't read a romance novel in about a decade, but I always enjoyed the raunchy bits as a teen. Nowadays, as an English…

I read a lot of period romance novels (for work, not personal). I'm fine with every kind of description of sex, from the mildly metaphoric to the outright graphic, as long as the book is well-written.

Period Romance. And not Shark Week, but like Regency England or whatever. Elaborate clothing and tons of kisses/oral before the actual act and everybody mysteriously bathes and has all their teeth. Yeaaaaahhh.

I like regencies. Sort of like naughty Janes Austen. They're kind of predictable. Scene one - passionate kissing, scene 2 - cunnilingus (0h my!), scene 3 - dammit, let's have sex! And then, even though she's decided to live forever an old maid with a happy memory, he's in love and honorable and MUST marry her! I…

The End of the Affair (read stealthily in the library stacks, first semester of college) opened my eyes to the joys of hot, complicated, literary sex. From D.H. Lawrence to Jeanette Winterson, I like my sex in books to be transgressive, entangled with lots of Big Ideas, and written about in stimulating (!) prose.…

I love romances where the hero and heroine have a tense, fraught, angsty relationship and fight all the time right up to when they finally do the deed (at the end of the book or possibly book 2 or 3). I think it is because all the conflict ups the erotic tension. The sex doesn't work for me unless it is really drawn…

Team smut, here. Detail, not euphemisms, fade-to-black irritates me. But I really appreciate a balance of engaging characters and plot with great, dirrrty sex scenes, and Elizabeth Holt's Maiden Lane series nails it. If I want something that takes more effort and makes more of an impact, I go with Tiffany Reisz.

I survived on historical romances through middle and high school. "The Viscount's Bawdy Bargain" as well as anything by Lisa Kleypas. The combination of Victorian sexual repression and explicit sexuality was my favorite. I still enjoy romances, but I'm more into fantasy now (especially the ones with sexy stuff).