I get a well-deserved smack in the head from Bill’s Comments over my response to Ally’s post on what women want.

Bill is absolutely right; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When someone is at ease wth themselves and is having a good time, their overall attractiveness quotient is more than the sum of the physical parts.

I can also see that, once love has sunk its tendrils into you, physical attraction will become even more divorced from the exterior reality. I was referring to the initial steps in dating, which for most of us, come prior falling in love.

For an atrocious example, consider a married couple. The man is seriously wounded in a IED attack while serving his country in Iraq. His wife, one hopes, would still find him attractive even though he might have some pretty heinous scars. Flipping the scales, a man who loved his wife will still be attracted to her falling breast cancer.

On a less heroic or tragic note, as pointed out by the Maximum Leader’s children, I’m no longer quite the svelte guy I was back in 1993. One hopes that Mrs. Smallholder finds my admittedly bulk-enhanced form mildly pleasing.

RANDOM COMMENT: The best ever thumbnail sketch of the Maximum Leader, his Foreign Minister, and the Minister of Agriculture: “You know, Mike, you and your friends look like a bunch of football players gone to seed.” Heh.