Casually realizing it’s who I am

San and Beth are good about putting pictures in their entries, and it looks like I’ve snagged that habit off of them. Will keep it going for the time being…

In my previous entry I wondered whether I’ve ever stepped on any part of the planet that no human ever had before. I figured not (and the next day’s hiking, while lots of fun, was so rain-soaked that it allowed for no new opportunities) — but thinking back, I did a lot of off-trail hiking and climbing around Aspen (the cliff above was one of our conquests) with my friend Andrew over the course of several summers while I was growing up. Chances are I scored then. Woohoo!

The UConn men and women are both doing amazingly well. Both were two-seeds going into the tournament (ha!), but both have made it to the Final Four in dominant fashion. In fact, they’re doing so well that my paranoid fan-ness (cultivated by years of being a Red Sox, England, and Newcastle fan) suggests that a collapse before the end seems inevitable. The men play Duke, perhaps the most hated team in college basketball, on Saturday. I’m pumped!

Last week I got on Lee’s case for not updating his blog in almost a year (never mind not replying to my emails :). But then I went and reread his last entry, which included this snippet:

Foosball was a learning experience, as AJ dominated the ranks and also strove to emphasize the beauty and science of the game and to elevate our play.

In fact, I think that’s one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said about me. So in the interest of keeping that entry as his latest, I’ve decided to stop bugging him :).

I really wanted to write about tradition (at least from a naive, outsider’s point of view) but I haven’t quite solidified my thoughts yet. So instead I’ll talk about attractiveness.

Okay, first: yes, physical attractiveness is a superficial trait. But then again, so are other seemingly more respectable traits, such as intelligence and, to a lesser degree, sense of humor. (I do think that the way someone’s sense of humor manifests itself — the types of jokes he or she makes or laughs at — is telling.) Neither attractiveness nor intelligence says anything about the kind of person someone is: whether she’s trustworthy, kind, good-natured, generous, etc.

Now I’ll be the first to admit I’m a superficial guy: I like attractive, smart, funny women. But as I get older, it becomes more and more obvious that these traits alone do not a good relationship make. Still nice to have though!

I had a point here, but I don’t remember what it was… probably some attempt to rationalize why I always write about superficial things. Haha.

Anyway, now that I’ve cleared my conscience (phew! :), I can continue. The way I see it, there are three qualities that guys find physically attractive in women: cuteness, hotness, and beauty. Women can exhibit any combination of the three (or, possibly, all three at once!). No one quality is intrinsically valued higher than the other two, although I imagine different guys weight each of the three differently according to personal taste. Furthermore, possessing two or three of the qualities is not necessarily better than possessing just one. In short, I’d consider the metrics roughly orthogonal and thus not comparable.

I’ll give some examples:
Cute: Renee Zellweger
Hot: Carmen Electra
Beautiful: Nicole Kidman
Cute and hot: Britney Spears, Tara Reid
Cute and beautiful: Julianne Moore
Hot and beautiful: Liz Hurley

I don’t want to give any more examples because I fear that they (and even the ones I listed) might stir up controversy and obscure the underlying theory, which I think is quite sound :). However, if you mention any particular actress, it’s fairly easy to categorize her in any of the eight possible categories.