Good story, I laughed so loud I startled my office mates (and I have an office with a door!)

Liked the moral of the story too... Happily, my wife has no such problem with pr0n on my computer.

Intregity -- the wholeness of being -- is a hard thing to achieve.
It is a good thing the guy took it on the chin. And was bright enough to know that he had been stupid.
Pornography demeans guys as well.

Pornography only demeans the user if the user's too ashamed of their desires to buck social stigma.

Pornography only demeans the participants if they didn't consent to said participation.

Pornography only demeans when sex in multiple contexts is shameful.

What demeaned the man was his furtive nature, not his porn.

Sheesh.

While the writing certainly was good, it frustrates me that people are so concerned with such things. We've got an AIDS epidemic in Africa, starvation and poverty run rampant in 3rd world countries, not to mention homesless people on our very streets.

And she gets upset over a porn clip.

Priorities people, priorities.

Brandon, it's a story. As a story, it cannot cover all of humanity's woes. It can only cover a very small part of human experience, and describe how different characters behaved.

Great story! Too bad that thing about Paul Ford being able to lift a car with his mouth is a lie. I can't believe I fell for that one. :)

Paul,

I understand the purpose of a story, but thank you for going over it for clarity's sake. I wasn't simply talking about the woman in the story, but using her as more of a generalization of people in our society who are so engrossed with their own lives and their own feelings that they forget that there are other people out there. It just seemed to me such a disproportionate response to such a minor incident. Perhaps she (and others like her in our society) could focus that energy into more productive channels.

Just my two little cents.

Brandon,

I agree with you that "people in our society who are so engrossed with their own lives and their own feelings that they forget that there are other people out there." However, I think the problem with the relationship is not pornography, it is lying. The man in the story, apparantly, lied to his wife. Her catching him in the lie eroded the trust that she had in him. It doesn't matter what the lie was about, it matters that there was dishonesty and secrets in the relationship. It will take some time for trust and integrity to return.

Not bad, but who pronounces the "-" in "rm -rf" as a minus? Dash maybe, or hyphen -- but MINUS??

Totally uncool, ruined the whole story.

Worthy of an ABC Afterschool Special.

Paul,

You make a very good point, and I agree with it. I think, however, I was led to believe through her reaction of squirting toothpaste over his face, that she was more upset over the pornography and its suggustive nature, than his dishonesty. It's a very well written story, and I certainly am not trying to detract from it in anyway, it just seemed a somewhat unwarranted reaction to an otherwise harmless event. Then again some people will say it's the little things in life that make it worth living.

Thanks for sharing your story.

Paul Ford is an amazing writer. I was actually engrossed in one of his articles the other day about the semantic web. I didn't even know what that was before I read his piece and now I feel like I could (almost) explain the theory to someone else. I am not a programmer. I can barely defrag my own hard-drive. Yet I was engrossed in a piece about the semantic web. That is how good a writer Paul Ford is.

Hi Paul!

I can't believe that I've lived this long, and been online this long, without ANYONE telling me about Paul Ford.

Thanks for nothing, people. ;)

ToastedAmigo: I pronounce "rm -rf" with a minus.

But now I feel ashamed that I'm so uncool, and that I've been doing it wrong for the last 10 years. Thank you for setting me on the One True Path to Pronunciation Nirvana.

Gareth: You're welcome. Now start pronouncing it right, sucka.

Cool article!!!

Cool article!!!