Are thorns happy?

Friday, December 1, Bounce showed Steven Seagal’s Above the Law.

He always plays opposite some eye candy, a term I learned from a Doonesbury strip about Uncle Duke’s presidential campaign.  In Above the Law, it was Sharon Stone.  In On Deadly Ground, it was Joan Chen, a Chinese actress cast as a Native American, with no real function but to look nice and follow him around.

“Eye candy” isn’t a mere phrase.  I saw again that when I see a pretty woman, such as Stone in that scene, I get a sweet taste in my mouth.  This is a physiological reaction, and potentially raises lots of questions about how we respond to beauty — or ugliness.

Related:  For us.

I have much the same reaction whenever I see a rose.

Which recalls my interactions with that rose bush in the garden. Continue reading Why do roses have thorns? →