Editorial»
The ultimate kiss story
DEC 02 - As you may have noticed, we have entered the Golden Age of public kissing in this country.
Every time you turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper, someone's planting a wet one on someone else.
Politicians are smooching with their wives in record numbers -- during the California recall campaign, toothy actor Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to be mashing his face into that of his wife, the perpetually gaunt Maria Shriver, every five minutes.
And entertainers are doing way more than just air-kissing these days, as Madonna and Britney Spears demonstrated with their eyebrow-raising lip-lock on the MTV Video Music Awards.
Even ballplayers are getting into the act: During the World Series, Florida Marlins catcher Ivan Rodriguez gave pitcher Ugueth Urbina a peck on the cheek after a win. (Tell me something: Whatever happened to a slap on the butt and an ``Attaboy''?)
Celebrities are kissing more often, and doing it as a statement,'' says Michael Christian, author of ``The Art of Kissing.''
In other words, a kiss is no longer just a kiss.
Now it's something that could keep a battalion of shrinks busy for months. A few words about this Michael Christian, before we go any further. Christian, 50, is like the Jane Goodall of kissing. He was an English teacher at Boston College in 1991 when he wrote ``The Art of Kissing'' under the pen name William Cane. Soon, he began lecturing about kissing on the college circuit, complete with live demonstrations by student volunteers to giggling audiences.
As to how exactly he became interested in the subject, Christian points to a rather awkward make-out session that took place when he was a young man.
I was kissing this girl and she told me to keep my eyes closed,'' Christian was saying on the phone from his New Jersey office. ``Well, I didn't believe her. But you sort of have to do what they tell you to do.''
When it was over, Christian says, he went to the library to find a book on kissing etiquette.
Some would say you're already in trouble if you're going to a book to find out about kissing. But at the library, says Christian, ``I found out there was virtually nothing written on kissing.'' So he plunged into researching the topic and the result, some years later, was ``The Art of Kissing.'' Posted on: 2003-12-01 11:22
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