Love and Lust: October 2020

Saturday, October 31, 2020

why do dogs have eyebrows?

Some weeks ago, our middle son, who turns five in March, asked me why people had eyebrows. I told him I thought it was so they would be less likely to get stuff in their eyes, but that we should look it up online to be sure.

So we did that and learned that there are two schools of thought about eyebrow evolution in humans: that they evolved to keep debris, sweat, and water out of the eyes or that they evolved as a communication device.

Yesterday, while playing with the dog, he stopped and asked me "why do dogs have eyebrows?" I admitted I was stumped.

It clearly wasn't for communication purposes. So that left keeping the eyes clean, but as my son said, dogs already have a lot of hair to do that. Hence, they really seem superfluous.

The universe is full of unanswerable mysteries.

Friday, October 30, 2020

is david hockney overrated?

I was looking at a magazine offline yesterday that had a picture of a David Hockney painting. That reminded me of how I've always felt that he was somewhat overrated.

You can see an example of his work below (enlargement). It sold last year in New York for more than $2 million American.

Pardon me for sounding like a philistine, but the painting looks like something done by a clever, careful child who was ten or twelve years old. It has the rudeness of something done by someone without training or polished skill.

If it was done by a child, then it shows promise of talent. If it was done by an adult, then it shows a limit of talent.

I guess I expect art to impress me somehow. I can't say that happens with a Hockney painting for me. But at least they're colorful. I could think of worse things to look at on the wall.

Thursday, October 29, 2020

stolen valor

The New Yorker magazine is currently featuring a very interesting article about so-called "stolen valor," when people, primarily men, claim that they have had a distinguished military career when they actually didn't, and in some cases they aren't even veterans at all.

Why do they do this, particularly given the Internet makes it relatively easy to expose frauds? One theory is it's a form of factitious disorder, a way for ordinary men to feel extraordinary.

Given that, once exposed, a fake hero is usually subject to public shame and contempt, is that the wrong societal response? Should the public instead treat them with pity, like they might with someone who is mentally ill?

Of course, people don't just pretend to have distinguished military careers. There are those who say they have educational degrees and distinctions that they don't.

The latter category, however, arguably isn't done for an ordinary person to feel extraordinary. Instead, it's done primarily as an outright fraud to better themselves financially.

Those people, one might argue, are the ones more deserving of public shame and contempt. Yet they seem to come in for less contempt than the fake military heroes, for whatever reason.

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

coronavirus brain impairment

A new British study reveals that people recovering from Covid-19 may experience a ten-year aging of the brain.

Add this to recent studies showing permanent heart and pulmonary damage for a significant percentage of recovering Covid patients.

I have the sense that most of the population believes that if you sicken but don't die from coronavirus, you'll recover 100 percent. The reality is that infection and sickness may take years off your life even if you do recover.

For me, that's my greatest fear: not so much dying but the idea of a lengthy illness for months followed by a diminished health on a permanent basis and a markedly shorter lifespan. The total serious harm may not be known for decades.

Fortunately, Covid infection rates here in Australia are nothing like they are in the United States. The US has a total per capita infection rate slightly under 3 percent whereas in Australia, the per capita infection rate is slightly under one tenth of one percent.

I worry, though, about friends and family back in the US. It just seems to be getting worse and worse, with no end in sight, and now a third surge is beginning.

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

detachable penis envy

I had a very strange dream last night. I dreamt I somehow grew a penis but it wasn't in place of my pussy. I still had all my own sex organs.

The penis was attached to the right front of my hip. It also was able to detach itself at times and slither away and then slither back and reattach itself. Where it went when it took little trips I have no idea.

It also was oddly shaped, much like a sea cucumber. I remember wondering in the dream if it would try to impregnate me, but it never tried to wriggle into my cookie. It was either polite or chaste.

Lord only knows why I had such a bizarre dream. I didn't have a weird late-night snack and wasn't reading or thinking about sea cucumbers.

Sometimes I think we don't have a specific reason for certain dreams. If so, then this would have to be one of those.

Monday, October 26, 2020

coitous habits of yesteryear

I read offline yesterday that in Britain in 1940, married couples typically had more sex in the first two years of marriage than they did in all the remaining years of their marriage.

Doing some Googling and quick math, I learned that circa 1940, marriages lasted on average forty years before one or the other spouse died; divorce and separation rates were still quite low.

So that means they bonked more in the first two years than they did in the remaining thirty-eight years. If they did it once a day those first two years, that means they did it an average of eighteen times a year during the rest of their marriage.

Now pregnancy several or even many times over blocked out some of the time. And they also didn't suddenly go from daily shagging to eighteen times a year in one month.

But that means the more they did it in the years after the second year of marriage, the less they did it further on. Arguably some couples just stopped doing it outright at a certain point, perhaps when they had enough or too many children.

We've been married more than ten years and still do it nearly every day. I guess we wouldn't have made a typical 1940s couple.

Sunday, October 25, 2020

biography of a cock tease

Back in August, I wrote on this blog about my positive reactions to Martin Amis's most recent novel The Zone of Interest. I noted there I wanted to read some more of his work.

Last night I finished his novel London Fields, described by some as his best book. I have to say I wasn't blown away.

With one exception, I found the characters really unlikeable and not in a compelling way, on contrast to those in Zone, which had really awful but compelling people.

One of the major characters in London Fields is a cock tease who really is an obnoxious snob and cruelly manipulative of men. We're told from the beginning that the book will be about her murder, but given she's so unlikeable, it's very difficult to find pity for her.

Some of the writing in the book is really quite brilliant, and I can see why people are taken by it. But the book is too long and frequently repetitive so it ends up feeling like a rough draft in parts. I'm wondering how assertive the editor was, given Amis is quite a famous author.

I didn't hate the book, but I didn't absolutely love it, either. Nevertheless, I will read some more Amis to see what I think.

Saturday, October 24, 2020

fiction pet peeve

There are literally thousands of given names, plus all sorts of diminutive names and nicknames like Spike and Tiger and so on.

So why do some novelists make the careless blunder of creating two or more characters with very similar names?

I read a novel not too long ago where two male characters had very similar names: Jack and Jake. It was not an affectation because it wasn't that kind of book. Keeping the two straight was a chore.

They're characters you're painting on an infinite palate. Be more creative. Give one a common name but the other a unique nickname. That gives the latter something interesting you can tuck into the backstory and you won't confuse your readers in the process.

In real life, you can use mnemonic devices to keep people's names straight. But with fiction, that's often not possible.

Friday, October 23, 2020

objectum sexuality

I happened to read something offline yesterday about objectum sexuality, also known as object sexuality or objectophilia. In simple terms, this is a syndrome affecting people who are sexually attracted to and fall in love with inanimate objects, often large ones like cars, trains, bridges, buildings, and more.

Arguably the best known person with objectum sexuality is Erika Eiffel, who famously married the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Previous to that, she had a twenty-year love for the Berlin Wall.

This kind of thing is what makes me glad I'm not a shrink. I would never know whether to believe someone who claimed to be in love with a bridge. Serious or are you trying to pull my leg?

The very short clip seen below focuses on a man whose objectum sexuality is linked to motor vehicles. And a free full-length documentary is available online focusing on several people with objectum sexuality of different sorts.

Thursday, October 22, 2020

men's fingernail polish

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal ran a lifestyle feature about how fingernail polish is a rising trend among young men.

Maybe some men like it, but when I was single, I would not see it as an attractive feature in any man I dated. I'm not much of a fan of it on most women, either, because I think they overdo it.

One of the photos included in the feature with a man wearing fingernail polish can be seen below (enlargement). Presumably that's some sort of men's ensemble by designer Marc Jacobs.

When I was single, I would definitely not be interested in any man wearing that. Then again, I don't think any man wearing that would be much interested in me, either.

Do men smooth their skirts like women when they sit down, too?

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

jeffrey's phone sex problem

During a New Yorker magazine videoconference meeting over the weekend, several other staff members observed the venerated legal writer Jeffrey Toobin with his pants off and masturbating. He apparently had two calls going at once, the magazine meeting and one involving phone sex, and got mixed up about who was seeing what.

The magazine has suspended Toobin pending an investigation. He has also taken a leave of absence from his regular on-screen legal commentary work for the CNN network.

Toobin is the author of nine books on legal topics and has written for the magazine for twenty-five years. I've written pieces several times on this blog in the past about his writings.

This is indeed unfortunate and I would not be surprised if this doesn't do permanent damage to his reputation. I would also not be at all surprised if the magazine terminates him.

It's unfortunate that he may have ruined his career and reputation over something so stupidly careless. Whacking off in a phone sex session is perfectly all right, but it should be kept completely separate from ones professional and public life.

To have done both at the same time was profoundly idiotic. As a regular consumer of his writing, I feel angry because he's let down his readership with such a moronic stunt. We readers will probably see less of his writing in the future — or none at all.

Why is it that some men in the public eye have such a difficult time behaving themselves?

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

bear attack

A group of bears mauled a worker to death at a Shanghai wildlife park over the weekend. The linked article notes that a tourist was bitten by a bear at the same drive-through park when he rolled down his window to feed it.

I am reminded of a time when I was about eight years old and my grandfather took my brother and I on a road trip to Smokey Mountains National Park, which straddles North Carolina and Tennessee. Black bears are very commonly seen there and we saw several come up right to the road while driving through the park.

That was amazing to see wild animals so close. Equally amazing was the behavior of some people when they saw them. Like the guy bitten in Shanghai, people rolled down their windows to give them snacks and some people even got out of their cars to photograph the bears unobstructed.

Of course, there were signs everywhere about staying in your car and not rolling down your windows if you spotted a bear but people ignored those.

Big bears are not like dogs. They are not pets. They are not tame. Adult bears can weigh hundreds of pounds and are far stronger than any humans.

I never fail to be amazed at some people's fearless stupidity.

Monday, October 19, 2020

the $120,000 banana

Last December, an "artist" duct-taped a ripe banana from the supermarket to the wall and sold the "artwork" for $120,000 American. And then he taped another banana to the wall and sold that for the same price.

And then he did it a third time, but the price was raised to $150,000 American. Two people seriously considered buying it.

The banana obviously would not last, so buyers would be required to restock new bananas regularly as well as duct tape and continually refresh the "art."

Call me a philistine, but that is not art and it does not make him an artist. It makes him a huckster. Had he painted a realistic-looking painting of a banana taped to the wall, then that would be art.

To be considered art, I would argue, requires a talent not found in most people. But nearly anyone who isn't paralyzed, including children of nearly all ages, could tape a banana to a wall.

The real test of this "art," I would argue, is how it will fare in a severe recession. Last December, the American economy was fairly strong. Now, it's mired in a severe recession that only shows signs of worsening. Let's see how much that banana on the wall sells for now.

Better yet, I'll make you a deal. You give me $25,000, I'll fly to your city at my own expense, and I'll duct tape a pineapple to your wall. Fruit flies included for no extra charge. Talk about a bargain.

Sunday, October 18, 2020

old world, new world, newest world?

Originally, there was nothing but the Old World — Europe, Asia, and Africa. But then the Americas were discovered, North and South, and they became the New World.

But then Australia was discovered, the last of the six continents occupied by humans. Yet that is always lumped together with the Old World.

How could something newer than the New World be Old World?

And then there's Antarctica, the newest and final continent to be discovered. That is neither Old or New World.

Hence, my modest proposal. Old World shall hereafter be used to describe Eurasia and Africa. New World will be North and South America.

And Newest World will be Australia and Antarctica.

If I was Empress of the World, I would so order.

Saturday, October 17, 2020

fabulous nonsense

I was reading something offline that mentioned the Voynich Manuscript, a highly mysterious book written and illustrated in the early fifteenth century. The text, written in a cryptic script and language, has never been successfully decoded, notwithstanding many experts have tried.

I remember when I first heard about the Voynich Manuscript. My immediate impression at that time, which I still tend to believe, was that it's nothing but gibberish, the product of a highly artistic but troubled mind. Turns out I was not alone in that idea, as some experts who spent a lot of time studying the thing posited the same idea.

The manuscript reminds me of the output from the Chicago-based Henry Darger, a sometime janitor, sometime mental patient, who created, among other things, a surreal illustrated 15,145-page, single-spaced manuscript called In the Realms of the Unreal that was not discovered until after his death in the 1970s. He also created another work that exceeds 10,000 single-spaced illustrated pages plus a "short" work of 4,672 pages.

The Voynich Manuscript today is considered priceless, worth in the tens of millions of dollars. And Darger's work, too, is highly desirable, with a single piece selling for close to a million dollars. His many-volume manuscripts are worth tens of millions, too.

There's something telling about the intersection of big money art and mental illness. Who is the mad one — the artist or the collector? Or both? And what about the people who go to see these in museums?

A partial page from the Voynich Manuscript (enlargement) is seen below.

Friday, October 16, 2020

checking obituaries

Around the time of my most recent birthday, my favorite uncle teased me about my turning thirty-five and said I'd soon be starting to check obituaries.

This is an increasingly common practice among people as they age. Seeing reports of people who lived long lives is reassuring, while seeing the same in people who lived fairly short lives is depressing.

More by accident than by design, I have been looking at obituaries more in the past few months. Some of this is curiousity to see if they died of Covid19. But some of it is age-related, too.

Take, for instance, an obituary that was prominently featured in the New York Times yesterday: a famous opera soprano died at the relatively young age of 44.

Yikes. She was in the same age range as my older siblings and less than ten years older than me. Nevertheless, she had a very accomplished life that was sadly cut short by cancer.

I need to stop reading obituaries. It's depressing.

I've always presumed I'll live into my nineties simply because a lot of my more recent ancestors did. But there's no certainty in that.

Thursday, October 15, 2020

podcast recommendation

I regularly listen to a podcast that's one of my top favorites, and I can't belive I've never mentioned it here before.

It's the History Extra podcast and they release new episodes several times a week. They cover literally everything from prehistoric times all the way up to the late twentieth century.

The program almost always is in the form of an interview, often with an author or expert on a topic. The show focuses on lesser known incidents in history plus a lot of social history, about what life was like for ordinary people during various eras and events.

The show is free and they have a very deep archive, also free, with thousands of past episodes that goes back to the year 2007. I highly, highly recommend. It's both very fun and educational.

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

fiction flaw

I read a lot of thriller, espionage, and mystery novels — any fiction that has a strong ticking clock and escalating jeopardy.

I've noticed that the best writers in those genres have one thing in common: they never let the reader get too far ahead of the characters in the book. We might know some things before the characters do, but we never get the whole picture.

Otherwise, the story is less interesting if we know the trap well in advance and just watch the characters walk into it or watch while they figure it all out.

Less skilled writers who still end up being published often make this mistake. I'm reading a novel right now by a writer who isn't well known but nonetheless is clever and original. Yet he is using this same flawed structure.

He shows us something well in advance, then we see several different groups of characters stumble about, wracking their brains, until they finally make the same discovery. So while this is all happening, the ticking clock has stopped and the jeopardy is left on the back burner.

Essentially, the best writers lay out a story almost filmically. In a film or TV program, when X happens, we rarely see scenes with various characters still clueless and trying to figure out X.

Instead, they keep pressing forward, making the same discovery at almost the same moment we do. Or, we just cut to their moment of revelation. No time is wasted as they stumble about.

I wonder if the best writers have figured this out? Or is writing just all instinctive for them?

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

twisted but good advice

Pre-flight videos and instructions on commercial airliners are ubiquitous and easily forgotten. A tourism writer and consultant has put together a funny, dark, somewhat twisted video that offers much better advice.

He calls it "The Honest Pre-flight Safety Demonstration Video That Airlines Are Afraid to Show You." Since uploading it four months ago, it has had 4.5 million views, an impressive number.

I've always tried to sit close to the wing because those spots are more stable. Turns out they're also the safest.

Monday, October 12, 2020

happy columbus day

Today is Columbus Day, which is celebrated under a variety of names in much of the New World. It passes by without much notice in the Old World.

Columbus Day always seemed like something of a pointless holiday to me. There are no particular family traditions attached to it like Thanksgiving or July 4. What is one supposed to do on Columbus Day if there are no parades nearby? Discover a continent?

Of course, Columbus wasn't the first from the Old World to reach the New World. Leif Eriksson did that nearly five centuries before Columbus. But the Spaniards, who funded Columbus's voyage, had a much better publicity machine than the Viking Eriksson.

Sunday, October 11, 2020

hoverglide backpack

I have no real use for this; nevertheless, the HoverGlide Backpack looks very cool. I found a three-minute video online that explains how it works.

I can see how this would be terrific for soldiers, hikers, trekkers, the disabled, the elderly, children, as well as adults who don't want to carry brutally heavy packs.

It's almost hypnotizing watching the thing float without moving up and down. The only problem I think is the name: "hoverglide backpack" is a mouthful. Why not just call it a HoverPack?

Saturday, October 10, 2020

priestly porn

A Louisiana Catholic priest and two dominatrices were arrested last week after all three were observed making an amateur porn movie on the altar inside his church. At the time of the arrest, police confiscated sex toys and cameras allegedly used in the production.

What, they couldn't check into a motel? One wonders if the priest and his playmates intended to sell their cinematic masterpiece online. And what was going through his head before he dropped his pants — it never crossed his mind about how it could go so horribly wrong?

I couldn't help but wondering if the Catholic Church allowed priests to marry if this would have happened or would marriage give Father Pornstud a more conventional form of sexual release. Catholicism didn't always require celibacy so they could hardly claim it had divine origins.

This incident will probably be a professional boost to the one women who already is a porn performer. Future career prospects for the priest, however, will likely be more limited. He could probably get a book deal out of all this if he was so inclined.

Friday, October 9, 2020

LED light bulbs are amazing

About a year ago, we were running low on our light bulb supply. I could not find the lower watt bulbs I usually bought, so I bought a package of LED light bulbs.

These are shaped just like traditional incandescent bulbs, but instead of having a filament inside, they have a small LED light. I quite honestly didn't pay attention to how much less wattage they used.

Time came to buy more a few months ago and I finally realized how little power LEDs use: a LED bulb that emits the equivalent of a traditional incandescent 60-watt bulb only actually uses a little more than 10 percent of the wattage. The ratio for 75-watt equivalents and 100-watt equivalents is about the same.

Which means a LED bulb pays for itself in savings more than three times its price in just one year if you use one an average of three hours a day. And the bulbs last an average of twelve years!

I can buy a package of three 60-watt LEDs for $4 Australian, which works out to be about 96 cents apiece American. Needless to say, it's more than cost effective to replace every incandescent bulb now still in operation that gets regular use, rather than to wait until the old ones burn out.

I love saving money. Our September electric bill was the lowest it has ever been. As Ben Franklin said, a penny saved is a penny earned.

Thursday, October 8, 2020

banned books week

Last week was "Banned Books Week" in the United States. One of the themes of this year's observance was a focus on the ten most frequently banned books in America; you can see them in the photo below (enlargement).

I can understand why some parents not might want younger children reading some of these books. But to insist they be removed from libraries so no one could read them is criminal.

While much of book banning goes on in school libraries, there is utterly no reason why teenage readers should be barred from having a chance to read these books. A sixteen- or seventeen-year-old shouldn't be allowed to read Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 or Animal Farm or Lord of the Flies is ludicrous.

What to read should be a decision made by parents and their children, not some community busybody who doesn't have anything better than to organize a book ban. This is 2020, not 1920 you peabrains.

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

covergirl cheesecake

The actress Elle Fanning is on the cover of October's Vanity Fair. She's 22 but looks about 15.

And therein lies the problem. As you can see from the enlargement below or the entire cover, she's wearing a sheer see-through dress with only minimal covering over it.

You don't see any nipple in the cover shot, but if you saw her wearing this in person, you definitely would. And I think that's a little bit weird on a 22-year-old woman who looks 15.

It's not illegal or immoral or even wrong. It's just a little creepy in a Pretty Girl sort of way.

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

mnemonic devices

At some point way back, my then-new husband remarked that he had a hard time remembering people's names. I've always had that problem too, but I overcame it with mnemonic devices.

Trying to remember common first names can be tricky — is that guy Bill or Bob or Ben? And then there's Doug — or is it Dan or Dave?

A mnemonic device will help you.

I knew a Bob who was a mouth breather and his tongue protruded slightly. How to remember his name? That was easy: he looked like he needed a bib. Bob/bib — a simple mnemonic device and I never forget his name after that.

We used to have a very nice neighbor, and my husband could never remember if her name was Dora or Dorothy. It was the former. She had a rather flat nose, like she had repeatedly walked into a door. Another simple mnemonic device was born.

Sometimes you can find something that rhymes with a person's name. We also know a man whose surname is McCracken. How to remember that, because it's close to names like McGregor and McGracken? It took me a half minute and I thought one up: Saltine as in cracker as in crack as in McCracken.

I once read an interview where Katie Couric said she had a hard time remembering complicated names, like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former President of Iran. So she used mnemonic devices. "I'm a dinner jacket" sounded something like Ahmadinejad, and after that, she never forgot.

I wonder way back, before he became famous, if people remembered George Stephanopoulos because his name sounded like "stuffing envelopes"? Or Placido Domingo because his name sounded like "Patsy the Flamingo"?

Of course, mnemonic devices work in other ways, too, like to help you remember how to spell common words.

Monday, October 5, 2020

digital shaming

The penultimate issue of the New Yorker looks at virtual public shaming of potentially controversial people via social media.

The article focuses primarily on those who inadvertently may have exposed others to Covid-19 and their digital shaming. In their defense, the people profiled were nearly all early spreaders of the disease before much was known and some were wrongly accused of being virus positive but still shamed.

Two of the shamed are sisters and "social media influencers." That means they use their social media presence, particularly on Instagram, to promote various products to followers for pay.

Herein lies my biggest beef with companies like Facebook — you have to use your real name. That makes it easy for anyone in the world to find you, unless you have both a very common given name and a very common surname. Some of these people would not have been personally attacked it they only went by online handles, like many bloggers and tweeters can.

People who are public figures in any way should create two social media profiles, one public, one just for family and friends, before there's any chance they could be a target of online public shaming. That way, if a person is ever caught up in a controversy, he or she can simply leave a statement that they'll be offline and ignore however bazillion nasty things that are posted about them. And their personal profile and private life, hopefully, remain untouched.

Sunday, October 4, 2020

I'm sure I'm wrong, but...

I'm not an architect. I'm not a structural engineer. I know all the people who designed and tested and built the building pictured below (enlargement) know infinitely more than I do about building things, because I know next to nothing about that.

But still...

IMHO the building looks rickety, like one flutter on the Richter Scale might bring the whole thing down, or at least the part on the right. The business holding up the cantilevered part looks like the legs on an ironing board. And anyone who's ever ironed knows sometimes legs like that can suddenly give out.

I might go into that building for an appointment. But I would never, ever live or work there.

Saturday, October 3, 2020

tit talk

The adorable picture below is cropped from a cute meme. The text reads: "October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Get those puppies checked!" Good advice.

I'm very impressed the photographer managed to get all five dogs to sit still and to not try and pop the balloons. Just getting one dog to do that could be an ordeal. And I love how someone made necklaces for the doggies to hold their boobs on. Such good puppers!

Friday, October 2, 2020

civics pet peeve

I regularly see this error in both the media and in books. I've also heard it on podcasts and broadcast media. Talking about President X or Y, the copy will state something like "the President appointed Supreme Court Justice ABC" or "the President appointed QRS as Secretary of Whatever."

No, the President didn't appoint anyone. He nominates people. Then the Senate gives thumbs up or thumbs down. While usually it's thumbs up, sometimes it's thumbs down.

Presidents Washington, Madison, Tyler, Polk, Grant, Cleveland, Hoover, Nixon, and Reagan all had Supreme Court nominees rejected by the Senate, for instance. Quite a few others were withdrawn or lapsed.

Yes, a President can appoint some people, like a National Security Advisor. That's because those are administrative positions, not court or federal agency positions.

Thursday, October 1, 2020

sex cult priestess sent to prison

I've been following the bizarre Nxivm sex cult scandal since it broke in the news more than two years ago with the arrest of its founder and central figure Keith Raniere and his inner circle of wealthy women who were both his victims and fellow victimizers.

Nxivm was on its surface a multi-level self-help organization that peddled motivational seminars and courses. Beneath that front, it was a secret sex cult where women were extorted into the organization against their will and then groomed to bring in more victims. Many of the women were actually branded with Raniere's initials.

Yesterday, the first of the defendants in the case, Clare Bronfman, an heir to the multi-billion-dollar Seagram liquor fortune, was sentenced to nearly seven years in federal prison. She was one of Raniere's earliest recruits and became a major source of financing, giving him as much as $150 million, as well as serving in a leadership role in the motivational front.

Bronfman was and still is one of Raniere's fiercest defenders and has used her own money to pay his legal expenses as well as litigation to silence his critics, notably those who had left the cult.

As the New York Times noted, some of the victims who spoke out publicly against the cult "said Bronfman sued them relentlessly, drove them into bankruptcy and even persuaded local prosecutors to initiate criminal charges against them."

Notwithstanding that the cult's leaders are all headed to prison, including Raniere, who has also been found guilty, some fifty to sixty people, mostly women, are still in his clutches and dance regularly in groups outside the prison where he's being held awaiting sentencing.

I quite honestly don't understand why dozens of women are so worshipful of Raniere. He's sixty and nothing to look at. He must be hung like a moose or have incredible sexual techniques or something to drive women so crazy.

The world is full of gullible people.

Pictured below (enlargement) is the mark branded on one of the cult's victims who has since escaped its clutches. It's a combination of Raniere's initials and that of Allison Mack, the television actress and another senior cult acolyte, who has pleaded guilty and currently awaits sentencing.