[Brandye]

Sorry, Sarah, I'll get there. dlb, I was appalled to learn that the American publisher of Harry Potter insisted on translating many common terms. It was gratifying that so many parents and school officials (at least who did not think Harry the anti-christ) objected to that. English is the lengua franca of the world and we need a true international English. The Dutch and the Scandinavians do that best. The colloquialisms will always live on but the richness of all forms of English is enhanced by everyone's vernacular.

People see me as a UK lass, at least until they hear the brogue, and were amazed at what I could not understand when I arrived at University. Of course my home was in the most desolate and backwards part of the UK. From summers, and a couple school years, with my German grandparents, I was more fluent in German than in English English! My sister (Univ of Glasgow) and brother (St Andrews) had similar difficulties, though less pronounced.

OK, Sarah, my sister to the far South, my answer: We all, men and women, have difficulty separating our fantasy selves from ourselves known to others. This is especially true with sexual fantasy because our sexuality was the last of our major personality traits we were able to act upon and its'formation is so dependent upon outside (and sometimes unknown) forces - religion, schooling, parental hangups, mass media. As individuals, we had to sort all this out and figure out who our sexual selves are. Then, we experimented and those early groping, regrettably violent for some, experiments started to form our behaviour. I think men's sense of self is more wrapped up in sex than women's. Male hangups on penis size are really anxiety about how women will view them and feel about them. Our female hangups on breast size are about our own bodies and, more often, how other women see us. Men never figure out that when we "dress-up" it is more to impress other women than to impress men. But, in the process, we are both trying to meet our fantasy ideal rather than face reality. Few men are the bedroom studs they wish they were and few women approach Christie Brinkley (age appropriate for me) in our public presentation. But, by god, I TRY!!

Last point to dlb: We Scots think the English are absolutely daft to be sitting in the rain recording locomotive numbers and will never understand Train Spotting as a hobby. At least bird watching ..... I think.