Monster trucks. I just don't get it. <scratching head> Is it... is it like grotesquely huge breast implants? Repulsive yet you can't take your eyes off them cos they're so weird?

I'm reading through Jane Austen's Guide to Dating (Lauren Henderson; 2005). The author has compiled a list of 10 dating 'principles' that constantly pop up in Austen's stories. The author says that after consulting (having foisted on her) dating 'manuals' and advice that not only needlessly complicated the process of finding a mate but turned everything into adversarial powerplay, she found herself turning back to Austen's simple, common-sense notions of over a century ago - back to a time when divorce wasn't an option so one had to be more selective in one's choices. : )
It's amusing, though some of the sweeping generalisations make my lip curl, and Henderson very deftly uses examples from the novels to illustrate the principles as well as modern-day anecdotes from her friends and family to demonstrate how it all works in real-life.
Amusing an' all as it is I can't see myself using the advice with any regularity though. I'm not likely to 'date' anymore, but you never know, I might meet someone nice in the retirement village to hold hands with after a suitable amount of time strolling about the elegantly manicured gardens. One wouldn't want to appear too forward, would one? <g>
(And on a side note: I keep meaning to read something of Austen's. I've seen a few of the dramatisations and loved those but the prose is harder to decipher than Dickens. Admittedly, the only attempt I made on one of the novels was when I was pregnant and therefore only had half a brain, but still, it'd be easier now, surely?)

Joules has finished Band 3, another of her Alternate Oedo stories, and it's fabulous! Had me cackling aloud in places, and I definitely want "I'd rather be eaten alive by weasels..." (© to Joules, of course) on a t-shirt! Says it all, really. <snerk>