Collie's Bestiary

Continuing from yesterday… Replies Erin (Brace yourself, Erin: I'm going to gush a little. *coughcough* Ahem. ;) ) Thank goodness for folks like you, who don't just think things through before acting — but try their best to pass that on to friends and children! Heh. All gushing aside, I've really enjoyed reading your calmly [...]

Continuing from yesterday… "Whatcha gonna do / When they come for you?" So why exactly does a bad boy seem to "get" more women? Leaving aside the repugnant assumptions inherent in that query (which would be an article in itself), the simple answer seems to be they're self-centered and arrogant enough to simply keep propositioning [...]

I was going to simply reply to the comments I received concerning the Firestarter titled Why Do We Ask Why Women Seem to Prefer Bad Boys to Nice Guys? However, I realized I had no way of notifying these kind individuals that I immensely appreciated their feedback, and had replied to them. Further, I wanted [...]

Read part I and part II of this article So no, I don't think women like assholes better. I think it's more they believe they don't deserve any better, or they're buying into societal myths about who they must be. They don't feel they can even ask the right guy without scaring him off… and [...]

Read parts I and III of this article Our hypothetical young female will probably deeply internalize just how much she sucks. No one could possibly ever like someone who is so worthless as she. She'll be lucky if anyone ever shows any interest in her at all. In fact, she'd probably better latch onto the [...]

Originally posted November 2003 Thanks for article inspiration to Jonathan, who pointed me to an LJ which made me initially start thinking about this. Thanks for suggestions on this article go to George, Ian, and Dave, who made it a better read. You all rock! ;-) I've heard the plaintive question 'why do women want [...]

I've changed somewhat in the handful of years since I wrote the Firestarter titled "What is Friendship?" I like to think my opinions have grown and matured somewhat as well. This is, therefore, a sort of musing friendship redux. In retrospect, my writing seems a bit rough to me, and the article itself is pretty [...]

Originally posted October 2003 I ask this question because I've always had fairly strong ideas about "real" friendship, as opposed to simple acquaintanceship. To me an acquaintance was always someone you'd be happy to smile and greet pleasantly, or chat with, or do a simple favor for, but with whom you'd not made any really [...]

July 2006 Firestarter column by Collie Collier I recently spent a long weekend in the not-really-uncharted wilds of the Northeastern US, for a family gathering. This was a very mixed event for me, interestingly enough, as the family was thrilled and I had a great time. On the other hand, I managed to spend much [...]

June 2006 Firestarter columnby Collie Collier For my readers: All the images in this Firestarter are thumbnails which can be clicked for larger versions of the graphics. Please use your "Back" button on your menu bar to return to this page. Cultural beliefs and taboos are, by their naturalized imprinting into the brains of those [...]