My sister Ann who lives in Connecticut had e-mailed me about her
daughter Nicole who was to spend a semester away from Colgate Univ to
visit Florence as part of her liberal arts degree.  Most fortuitously
for me, Ann mentioned that Nicole would also be in the ancient city of
Sienna at some point in time.  You see, I am fascinated by the city, and
you can see exerpts of the e-mail exchanges that followed.

==========================================================================
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 17:10:17 +0000 (GMT)
From: Norman Y Foo 
To: Ann Flowers  
Subject: Sienna

Annie

Here are two tidbits you can send to Nicole about Sienna.  I swear I did
not make them up!

The most famous daughter of Sienna is St Catherine.  She lived in the
Middle Ages, and was a nun in a convent hospital.  She was extremely
pious, but constantly felt unworthy as the truly pious were wont to feel.
To prove her superior piety, when she nursed the sick, she would squeeze
their pus into a cup for later use.  During prayer, to show God that she
loved his creatures, including even the most disgustingly sick, she would
DRINK THE PUS she had collected.  The Pope canonised her -- what else
could the fellow do?  Even a cynic like me thinks she richly deserved it.
Moral -- there are easier ways to become a saint.

More recently, around 1997, a young man and his girlfriend got a bit tired
of the routine sex they were enduring.  He thought up a wonderful scheme
to spice up their activity.  He rented a Batman costume, tied his
girfriend to a four-poster bed, climbed onto the top of the wardrobe at
the end of the bed, and then jumped onto her.  Unfortunately, he missed,
and landed on the floor, breaking his legs.  Unable as he was to untie his
girlfriend, they both had to yell for help.  Their saviors were treated to
the most romantic incident in Sienna for years, and it made Reuters, which
is how I got to read it.

Norman

========================================================================

Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 23:01:05 +0000 (GMT)
From: Norman Y Foo 
To: "Flowers, Ann (Bev & Des MID)"  
Subject:  I will sue!! 

Annie:

> I bet you made them up!

This is libel!  I will sue!  There are loads of Yankee lawyers (called
"Ambulance Chasers" -- guess why?) who will do it for me, no win no fee.
Hee, hee!

OK, the reference for the St Catherine story is the recent book "The
Anatomy of Disgust" by William Miller, a prof in my Alma Mater the U of M.
Borrow it from your library!  It's a great read.  Some stories from it are
simply NSF funded reports, like the degree to which person YY is prepared
to drink from a glass of milkshake into which person XX has spat, as a
function of the relationship of XX to YY.  Something like 85% will do it
if XX = YY.  Then it goes down from there as XX becomes YY's spouse,
child, uncle, college friend, a stranger.  I love it!  Reading it filled
me with envy that I could not be so original as to propose a line of
research as interesting and disgusting as this, and BE PAID FOR IT, and
also WRITE SCHOLARLY PAPERS ON IT!  Poor Miller.  His wife is apparently
so embarrassed by his line of research that she pesters him to return to
his earlier work on Nordic Mythology.  Me, I say to him, RIGHT ON,
BROTHER! This wife of yours does not recognize true genius!  Hee, hee!

Norman