Mutual vs. in common

OK this pisses me off so I'm just going to explain it once.

A mutual friend is when you and another person both like each other. Your friendship is mutual. I would highly recommend that you try and ensure that all of your friendship are like this, otherwise you are a bit weird.

A friend in common is where you and someone else are both friends with the same person. It is the most interesting thing about social networking sites (yes, more interesting then being a pirate zombie, if you can believe that).

Just because Charles Dickens and Facebook both seem to confuse the terms, doesn't mean I have to like it.

Does this make me a slut?

Some things that girls think make them 'a slut' but are actually perfectly reasonable behavior:

• Carrying condoms in your purse
• Carrying a toothbrush in your purse
• Keeping a spare pair of panties in your desk
• Going to second base on the first date
• Going to third base on the second date
• Having sex with a guy before he says 'I love you'

Things that actually make you a slut:

• Getting drunk and having sex with a guy you just met in a bar
• ... and his roommate
• ... on camera

Hope that clears things up.

Losing my virginity

My first blog post ever. Decided this was a better title than 'Test'.

So, three relatively random thoughts on virginity:

In popular culture, 'virgin' seems synonymous with 'young beautiful girl'. Major mistake. Look where biblical scholars mistranslating 'young woman' as 'virgin' got us: Catholicism.

Islam anecdotally promises 72 virgins to martyrs in heaven. Why virgins? Wouldn't they have more fun with 72 hookers? Or, even better, 50 hookers and two soccer teams so they have sport to watch while they recover from sexual exhaustion.
And please, spare a thought for the virgins. Where do they come from? I don't think sharing some psycho suicide bomber with 71 other virgins is their idea of heaven, so maybe is this their hell. What kind of virgins end up in hell? Presumably murderers, thieves and blasphemers, which doesn't bode well for the original martyr...
I'm just saying, these are the questions I'd be asking before putting on the semtex vest and strolling to the nearest cafe.

Here in the US teen abstinence campaigns are apparently huge (don't ask me, I've never seen the appeal) along with pledges, rings, pins, and anti-masturbation support groups (that last one seems kind of self-defeating, but hey...). Instead, according to this article, they all go out and have loads of oral sex (it seems Jesus doesn't mind that) and they unsurprisingly still have a high rate of STDs and teen pregnancy. To my mind, the religious campaigns against sex education in school make about as much sense as arguing that if you don't explain to kids that firing a gun at someone will kill them then gun crime will decrease...

The excellently and ironically straight-talking Dan Savage often has a lot to say about this. (His podcasts are awesome, especially when he's hung over).