Lileks today remarks on an amusing Scene From A Mall:

Gnat wanted to go to the Victoria’s Secret store to look at the pink polka-dotted dog statutes. Once inside she wanted to look at everything else. She runs over to a rack of bras, pulls one down, puts it up to her chest and says in a fake voice “look at me, I’m all grown up.”

It was quite amusing to me, since the entire point of Victoria’s Secret is SEHHCHS and the natural end result of SEHHCHS is little kids running around Victoria’s Secret mocking the lingerie. But little kids at VS are still a buzzkill, especially for the lummox who’s holding up a thong at eye level and mentally filling the empty space with his wife. And Gnat’ a buzzkill for the thin young fillies who walk their purchases to the register with a metronome sashay. If Victoria’s Secret had a McDonald’s-like tote board – over 3,423,459 children produced as a result of the unions inspired by our scant wisps of fabric – the chain would collapse in a year.

Of course, this is all in perfect accord with the wisdom of Vernard Eller's The Sex Manual For Puritans, a fine book which I managed to acquire in hardback, with dust jacket! Anyway, it's a good illustration of the compounding nature of sexual investment; the chain-store might collapse, like the junk bonds they are, but the gold standard pays dividends. Lileks is worth taking time to read for fun, but Eller is worth reading for fun and profit!