Friends in low places

 ...if I can find something worth discussing...

No kidding, Mr. Beagles.  There is a lot of goofy stuff in the media and I wonder if some of it is to distract those of us further down the food chain.  A lot of smoke but no heat or light, it seems to me.  Wasn't there a lot of hoopla not long ago about UFOs only to find out there is not much to get worked up about?  No aliens, folks, kindly go about your business.  This week I've been reading about billionaires that are in a race to go in orbit aboard their shiny new rockets.  Their stockholders must be thrilled.

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I've found the Catfish saga a more pleasurable reading experience than I did four years ago when I read it all in one go.  The more leisurely pace allows me to give certain aspects of the characters more thought.

I still think, however, that Gina is a manipulative bitch.

Maybe, but not unreasonably so.  The Catfish can talk a good line but I think he is a chump, ready to be picked clean by any cutie who may give him a second glance.  Low hanging fruit, as they say.  If this story is in the 1970s timeline, and I think it is, he would have been up to his eyebrows in pussy, especially in a bar/tavern/roadhouse environment.  But the Catfish acts like he's never been laid or had any long term relationship with a woman.  The 70s were a wild time and folks were frisky in those pre-herpes and pre-AIDS days; the worst that would happen would be crabs,  the clap, or a dead rabbit.  Or so I've read.  But that bit with what's-her-name in the motel defies belief.  Wouldn't the Catfish think that, despite the allure of his animal magnetism, she was a little too easy?  I almost expected her to say, "Hey, Joe!  Want some short-time boom boom?"  And since when do hookers not demand payment up front?  Or so I've read.

I think Gina is playing it smart, testing the Catfish to see what kind of commitment he is willing to make.  She's not making it easy, so Good for Her!