Changing Times, Cate, and Cat Fights.

The article I was reading on Catherine the Great sought to dispel the more lurid myths which took hold after her death. It said that she had twenty two male lovers (all human) during her reign, and went on: ‘While this would be considered modest by today’s standards…’

It would?

*  *  *

During my late teens I had a spell in trainee retail management. One day I was sitting in the canteen taking lunch with my then girlfriend – the ubiquitous Mary Davies who makes a habit of turning up on this blog – when one of the older women decided to have a go at me:

‘My husband says that real men either do labouring jobs or work in offices. He says men who work in shops are wimps.’

Mary, bless all 112lbs of her (which I could lift above my head in those days,) grabbed one of my hands and thrust it forward for general inspection.

‘Look,’ she hissed, ‘he’s got calluses.’

Which I had. Mary seethed; the accuser did the dismissive look; I smiled; times change. You get to be a member of the club these days if you’ve got a job at all.