Celestial Reviews 136 - Nov 20, 1996

Note:  I experienced problems this week with my AOL mailer.  If you 
have been futilely waiting to hear my reply to your kind words, it may 
be because AOL made me lose some mail in order to “Reset my 
FlashSession.”  If that’s a problem, you may want to resend your e-mail 
to me.

Second Note: When I write my reviews I generally have fun, and I get 
the impression that readers enjoy reading these reviews.  I have two 
problems: (1) I have to find the tendency to give too many high 
ratings.  This is a serious problem.  Stories have gotten better since 
I have started reviewing (or at least I am reading better stories), and 
it’s pointless to give them all perfect ratings.  And so I try to crack 
down on even the best writers once in a while.  (2)  I really don’t 
want to offend the people who write these stories - especially the 
authors who are so kind as to send me copies of their stories for 
review.  I would like to urge those readers who get miffed or upset 
because I give them a “low” rating to recall that I am faced with the 
problem cited in (1) above.  Keep in mind that I have rated Deirdre 
(whose stories I dearly love) as low as a 5, and some of my comments 
about her certainly seem to be critical.  Last issue I even jumped on 
Ann Douglas (whose work I really and truly dearly love) for writing 
from an improper perspective and for pandering to racial prejudices.
	When I make negative comments, my assumption is that the authors 
may profit from them and that my ideas may stimulate useful thoughts 
among my readers.  I am even willing to admit that I may be wrong 
sometimes, and I enjoy reactions from my readers.  Please keep in mind 
that these reviews have an entertainment and (I hope) literary value 
that goes beyond the simple positive or negative evaluation of a story.  
Having said that, I submit the following reviews.

- Celeste

      “Biker Weekend” by J. Boswell (gang rape of slutty wife)
            10, 9, 8
      “The Box” by Dulcinea (sex fantasy) 10, 8, 8
      “Sandy” by Ann Douglas (romance & bdsm) 9.5, 10, 10
      “Stake Out” by Michael Christian (outdoor sex) 10, 9, 9
      “Elly” by Friar Dave (attitude adjustment) 9.5, 9, 9
      “The Ongoing Adventures of Gorgeous Gracie” by Mary 
            Anne  Mohanraj (sex with the sexy English teacher) 
            10, 10, 10
      “Shower Surprise” by MD James (college sex) 10, 8, 8
      “Virgin (On the Ridiculous)” by Jordan Shelbourne (farce &
            romance) 10, 10, 10
      “Jehovah Witness” by Unknown Author (rape & religious
            rapture) 6, 6, 6
      “Interpreter” by Mark (sexual innuendo) 10, 10, 10
      “Greek to Me” by Karis (anal sex) 10, 9, 9
      “Return to Fantasy Island” by Daniel Nikolic (sitcom bdsm)
            10, 8, 8

    * “Neighbor" by Deirdre (bondage & spanking) 10, 8, 7
    * “Neighbor2" by Deirdre (I'm not sure) 10, 8, 8
    * “Neighbor3" by Deirdre (whipping) 10, 8, 7
    * “Niece" by Deirdre (ff sex) 10, 9, 9
    * “Nurse" by Deirdre (sex with the doctor) 10, 7, 5
    * “Older" by deirdre (spanking) 10, 10, 10
    * “Other" by Deirdre (voyeurism & seduction) 10, 10, 10
    * “Over" by Deirdre (Sex slavery) 10, 9, 8
    * “Park" by Deirdre (Outdoor sex) 10, 8, 7
    * “Partners" by Deirdre (D&s) 10, 8, 8
    * “Party" by Deirdre (sex slavery & bondage) 10, 5, 5
    * “Pat" by Deirdre (sex slavery & bondage) 10, 9, 9
    * “Patient" by Deirdre (dominance) 10, 8, 7
    * “Photo" by Deirdre (photographic voyeurism) 10, 10, 10
    * “Plan" by Deirdre (bondage) 9, 8, 6
    * “Pool" by Deirdre (voyeurism) 10, 8, 6
    * “Practice" by Deirdre (dominance) 10, 8, 7
    * “Preparation" by Deirdre (anal sex) 10, 10, 10
    * “Program" by Deirdre (spouse watching) 10, 10, 10


* Repost of a previous review (because the story has recently
    been reposted).

“Biker Weekend” by J. Boswell.  The man and his wife (Amanda) are 
kidnapped by bikers and their babes, and these people gang-rape the 
wife for the entire weekend.  The woman, of course, loves it; and - 
except for having to sit in his own cum and urine because he is chained 
to a workbench for the entire weekend - the guy likes it too.  {I’m not 
sure what happened to his fecal matter.  Maybe they let him go to the 
bathroom to defecate; but sometimes guys get too nervous to initiate 
intinction when someone is watching.  I’ve never thought of that as a 
problem with a Boswell character before.}  This is a well-written 
example of the slutty wife genre of erotic literature.

A few questions might arise in the mind of the insightful reader.  
First, is it really likely that a woman would LIKE to be gang-banged 
for an entire weekend by dirty, rowdy bikers?  Common sense would 
suggest that the answer would be no; but remember: this lady is married 
to a junior high math teacher.  I think that explains a lot.

Second, why would they gang-bang her just for the weekend?  This is 
indeed a foolish question.  Obviously, the bikers have to get back to 
their jobs during the work week.  From the brief descriptions in the 
story, they sound pretty much like lawyers, doctors, and teachers to 
me.  I would have said school administrators, but nearly all of the 
bikers ejaculated during heterosexual contact at least twice during a 
single weekend; and so that tidbit rules out any school administrator I 
have ever known.  Other than that, my reasoning is fairly 
straightforward.  Some of the bikers were adept at intravenous 
injections, which is prima facie evidence of the medical profession; 
and wherever there are doctors, there are sure to be lawyers.  In 
addition, the “weekend” lasted from Friday to Thursday - which again 
suggests doctors, lawyers, and teachers.

Finally, would a woman that had been viciously gang-raped by smelly 
bikers really be likely to leave her husband and join the motorcycle 
gang?  Well, normally not; but then Patty Hearst did join the SLM and 
rob banks (when I was a very little girl, of course).  And besides, you 
have to look at the alternatives this lady faced: Amanda was an 
elementary school teacher married to a junior high math teacher.  Under 
those circumstances, her career choice is more understandable.

Ratings for “Biker Weekend”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

“The Box” by Dulcinea (dulcinea97@aol.com).  My all-time favorite 
episode of the old Dick Van Dyke Show is the one in which a mysterious 
package arrives in the mail, addressed to Rob.  Laura can’t resist 
opening it, and an inflatable boat pops out and self-inflates - making 
it impossible for Laura to conceal from Rob the fact that she had pried 
into his mail.  Well, this story bears no resemblance at all to that 
episode.  In the present story the package is addressed to the wife; 
and it contains sexy clothing.  She opens the package and tries the 
clothing on and speculates about her husband’s reaction.

Ratings for “The Box”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

“Sandy” by Ann Douglas (annd55@nyc.pipeline.com).  Last week I said 
that readers “enjoy Ann’s stories because her characters act the way we 
think we would act (or would like to act) in similar situations.”  
Actually, I have to refine that statement to make it applicable to the 
present story.  I have never followed a hooker home or made love to one 
in a train station, nor would I like to.  On the other hand, I CAN 
understand how a woman could act that way; and so I’ll still give Ann 
credit for writing realistic stories about normal people. 

The plot begins with Sandy becoming attached to the hooker (Jasmine), 
as described in the preceding paragraph.  Things escalate when Sandy’s 
clod of a boyfriend rudely breaks up with her and she needs 
companionship.  You can probably guess where this is going - or at 
least you think you can.  Read the story and find out. 

One of the reasons I like Ann’s stories is because they are generally 
free of racial and ethnic stereotyping.  For example, in the present 
story Jasmine is Hispanic, and there is no suggestion that she is in 
any way inferior to Sandy - in spite of the fact that Jasmine is the 
prostitute and Sandy (who I presume is white anglo-American) is the 
executive.  So it was with some surprise that I read that Jamal 
(Jasmine’s black boyfriend - not the stereotypical pimp) had “the 
largest cock Sandy had ever seen.”  I guess I should keep in mind that 
statements like this are meant to be complimentary to the owner of the 
cock; but the notion of Black men having “monster cocks” is simply a 
myth.  People who promote this stereotype may (inadvertently) be 
advancing a notion that treats a large group of people as being in some 
way more “animalistic” than “normal” people.  

I have never directly examined the penis sizes of a large sample of 
Black men; but my brother-in-law has.  That’s because he is a black 
man.  After one of my previous reviews in which I ranted on this topic, 
I managed to get him into a conversation.  He’s super-religious and 
would never understand how I could read these stories or write these 
reviews, and so I told him about the stereotype that I had “heard on 
Geraldo.”  He got genuinely upset and started quoting valid medical 
research to me that stated that there is no significant difference in 
organ size between average members of the white and black races.  I am 
pretty sure he’s right.  When he calmed down, he said he has verified 
the published facts by direct but discreet observation in locker rooms 
and in showers at the gym.  It’s his opinion that “insecure” white 
people try to set up the stereotype of the Black male as a stud in 
order to scare white women or to dehumanize Blacks in general. I see 
his point.

In Ann’s defense, if she wanted to have somebody have a monster cock, I 
guess that could be a Black man as well as a White man.  So I won’t put 
her on my Bad List.  Nor will I tell my brother-in-law about her.

Having been a tad negative, let me become more positive.  I think Ann 
does an excellent job of presenting bdsm activities in this story in a 
way that makes them seem enjoyable to outsiders.  I don’t have the same 
fantasy that Sandy has - maybe my husband or I WILL get that fantasy 
someday - but the domination activities seemed both hot and interesting 
to me.  I came away with the impression that this was a normal person 
enjoying something that was a little different from what I myself 
enjoy.  I do NOT get that impression from all bdsm stories.

Finally, this story contains an example of a minor mistake about which 
I think author’s should be more careful.  The entire story is told from 
Sandy’s point of view.  Then suddenly we find these sentences: “Jasmine 
felt her orgasm about to burst. She could tell that is wasn't going to 
be a record breaker, but then again she hadn't expected it to be.”  
There’s no way Sandy could have known what Jasmine’s feelings were, and 
it would have been better to stick with Sandy’s point of view.  The 
author gets back to the proper perspective almost immediately: “Sandy 
soon could feel Jasmine's body shudder as her legs pressed tighter 
against her face. While she wasn't a gusher as Sandy sometimes was, 
there was enough of an eruption for Sandy to feel proud of her 
achievement.”  It IS OK to take the viewpoint of the omniscient author 
- to write as if the author knows the feelings and actions of 
absolutely everybody in the story.  However, in this case Ann clearly 
intended to write from Sandy’s point of view, and it would have been 
easily possible to do so; all she had to do was describe what Sandy saw 
or felt Jasmine doing, instead of shifting to the inside of Jasmine’s 
head.  The same problem occurs a few other times in this story.

Ratings for “Sandy”
Athena (technical quality): 9.5
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

“Stake Out” by Michael Christian.  Some guys who have been long-time 
friends take their wives camping in Algonquin Park in Ontario.  One day 
they play a game where each of the wives is taken to a secluded spot in 
a game of hostage.  She is blindfolded and tied to a stake.  The wife 
who relates this story is pleasantly surprised when her husband returns 
and starts to fondle her.  Just prior to entry, the blindfolded woman 
realizes that it’s not her husband after all!

Ratings for “Stake Out”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

 “Elly” by Friar Dave.  This author is good at hot, sexy romance.  In 
this story the initial flirtation and first lovemaking are especially 
sexy.  Then things take a serious turn.  Elly is beautiful - her tits 
are her nicest feature; but she has a severe emotional problem: she 
thinks she is a slut because she is multiorgasmic.  Our narrator gives 
her the Quick Cure, and Elly happily realizes that being a slut as she 
has defined it can be OK as long as she keeps it in perspective.  This 
is not Friar Dave’s best story, but it’s still very good!  The sexual 
descriptions are excellent, but the plot lacks complete integration.

A final comment.  The narrator says, “I explained to her that if you 
read for an hour a day, you read a couple of books a week. In thirty 
years, that's around three thousand books.”  There’s something wrong 
here.  That reasoning might apply to the kind of “books” you can buy 
from greeting card displays, but I seriously doubt that serious readers 
other than Evelyn Wood can read two good books in seven hours.  On a 
related note, however, I just realized that at the rate I’m going, in 
30 years I will have read and reviewed 28,000 stories for this 
newsgroup.  Of course, by that time either my sex drive will have 
declined or I’ll retire from teaching, and so I’ll have the time.  And 
maybe I’ll be able to read two books a week.

Ratings for “Elly”
Athena (technical quality): 9.5
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

“The Ongoing Adventures of Gorgeous Gracie” by Mary Anne Mohanraj 
(mohanraj@mills.edu).  I feel a strong affinity with the protagonist of 
this story.  Grace is a beautiful, dedicated English teacher.  She is 
so beautiful that she has to go to great lengths to prevent her 
physical charms from interfering with her life’s goal of imparting 
skills in the use of the English language to her college students.  One 
of her concerns is that she is ill fain {as Shakespeare might say} to 
become romantically involved with a person less intelligent than 
herself.  Pete is a football jock - a veritable Herculean Adonis, but 
doubtlessly a dumb jock.  He has missed his class assignment, using the 
excuse that he had been hit by a car and cracked several ribs while 
helping a little old lady across the street on his way to class and had 
to delay his rendition and explanation of the assigned Macbeth passage 
for 24 hours.  Grace suspects that this contrived explanation is merely 
a lame excuse for Pete to meet with her in private and to look at her 
boobs or to get into her pants.  When his presentation is impeccable, 
Grace is possessed by a wild desire to get into HIS pants.  And then 
there’s the surprise ending!
 
Ratings for “Gorgeous Gracie”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

“Shower Surprise” by MD James (na617268@anon.penet.fi).  The guy is 
taking a shower in the college dorm, when another guy drops his 
girlfriend off and says he has to hide her there for a while.  The girl 
peeks into the guy’s shower.  Later she arrives at his room (right next 
door) and says that she feels guilty: since she saw him naked, it’s 
only fair that he also see her naked.  But then they realize that since 
she had only had a peek and he had a full view, it really wouldn’t be 
fair until she had a full view too.  {These are obviously ethics 
students.}  Then, since it would be a shame to waste two full views....

Ratings for “Shower Surprise”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

 “Virgin (On the Ridiculous)” by Jordan Shelbourne (jordan@u36.com).  
Larry and Tara are roommates.  They have a chaste relationship; no sex 
- they just live together.  Tara has a boyfriend named Cliff who 
doesn’t want to deflower a virgin.  He says it’s too important a 
decision to make in the heat of passion, and he doesn’t want to hurt 
Tara.  So Tara concludes that if Larry would make love to her just 
once, then she wouldn’t be a virgin anymore; and then Cliff will be 
willing to boink her.  As the title says, this is verging on the 
ridiculous; but it’s quite enjoyable.

I won’t tell you more about this delightful story.  You should read it 
yourself.  It’s like a really good episode of “Three’s Company” (if 
such an oxymoron is possible) - except that this time “Two’s Company.”

Although literary critics would possibly classify this as farce, it 
contains gems of wisdom, like this one: “I hate waiting to dry my hands 
under those blowers, and you know, it's ten times worse if you're 
holding up a drunk who's drying his hands.”  The story is a wonderful 
combination of sweet, sexy, and hilarious.

Ratings for “Virgin (On the Ridiculous)”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

“Jehovah Witness” by Unknown Author.  I don’t want to offend the 
author, but these people are called Jehovah’s Witnesses.  In addition, 
they almost always travel in twos and are usually noteworthy for their 
scrupulous, moral probity.  In addition, JWs don’t give a flying fuck 
about Saint Margerite (sic) who was martyred by the Celts of Britain. 
So we have to approach this story with a grain of salt.

The story takes place in Australia, where Lauren (a JW missionary - but 
that’s redundant, because they are all missionaries) comes across a 
small group of aboriginal philosophers who are discussing the 
relationship between tit size and pussy tightness.  The men rape her, 
of course; but since the playful pagans help her overcome the 
repressive restraint so typical of religious zealots, she eventually 
comes <g> to enjoy their hedonistic ritual.  In fact, in the midst of 
the exercise she “flies towards Nirvana” - an indication, perhaps, that 
she had been a Buddhist nun in a previous life.

The ratings I gave this story are way too generous, but I just couldn’t 
resist the temptation to give this story three sixes.  {Since 
scriptural exegesis is not a prerequisite for reading these reviews, I 
guess I should point out that 666 is the “number” of the antichrist.”  
I know that because a Jehovah’s Witness told me so!}

Since I made you read this review, I offer the following as an apology:

Q:	How many Jehovah’s Witnesses does it take to change a light bulb?
A:	102. Two (as I said, they always strike in pairs) to change it and 100 
to convince everyone else to change light bulbs too.
A:	Two (see above), and thirty sinners to see the light.

OR

Q. What do you get when you cross a devil-worshipper with a Jehovah's 
Witness? 
A. Someone who goes from door to door and tells people to go to hell.

OR MAYBE

Q: What do you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Hell's Angel 
Biker? 
A: Someone who comes to your door on Sunday and tells YOU to fuck off.

Ratings for “Jehovah Witness”
Athena (technical quality): 6
Venus (plot & character): 6
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6

“Interpreter” by Mark (MarkB@aboy.demon.co.uk).  The man is sitting at 
a boring meeting of the European Commission, listening to a boring 
interpreter translate a boring speech to him. Then there’s a pause in 
the action, and the voice of the boring interpreter is replaced by the 
sexy voice of a mysterious and mellifluous woman who starts working 
sexual innuendoes into the translation.  The man realizes that he’s the 
only person getting the English feed, and so some hot one-on-one action 
seems to be in order.  This is really creative stuff!

Ratings for “Interpreter”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

“Greek to Me” by Karis.  This is a vivid description of hot, friendly, 
and spontaneous anal sex.  No story; just an anal quickie.  A very 
nice, anal quickie.

Ratings for “Greek to Me”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

“Return to Fantasy Island” by Daniel Nikolic 
(gdnikoli@descartes.uwaterloo.ca).  “De plane, de plane!” shouts 
Tattoo, and this week’s group of beautiful social rejects deplane one 
at a time in anticipation of their opportunity to fulfill their secret 
fantasies in the island kingdom of Mr. Roarke, whose name sounds 
strangely like the sound a flatulent fat man would make when he cuts 
one loose in the bath tub.  As you may have suspected, Roarke has a 
dark side; and the fantasies that are fulfilled in this episode are not 
of the wholesome variety that we encounter in the normal weekly episode 
of this Love Boat Wannabee.

Ratings for “Return to Fantasy Island”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

* “Neighbor" by Deirdre.  Instead of "Neighbor" this story should be 
entitled "Well," because about half the paragraphs begin with that 
word.  Actually, Deirdre often alters her style; and this is one of her 
weaker styles.  The story focuses on a man and woman who quarrel and 
ask a neighbor to adjudicate.  She agrees, provided the couple will 
agree to accept her punishment.  If you ever find yourself in a Deirdre 
story, never NEVER accept this condition.  The woman decrees that both 
of them have been acting like babies (which is true) and that they both 
deserve a good spanking.  As you can imagine, it is only a short step 
to sex slavery.

I've read a lot of these spanking stories, and I still don't understand 
them.  As I see it, spanking - even when it is severe and inflicts 
serious pain - is supposed to have a mystical, magical power that turns 
the recipient on sexually.  And if the person doing the spanking is 
minimally clever, the recipient will become that person's permanent sex 
slave.  This just defies logic to me.  The person doing the spanking 
(in this case, the neighbor) is a Benefactor - for the good of the 
others she forgoes spankings herself and instead beats the shit out of 
other people so that they can be happy.

Did Abe Lincoln do a serious disservice when he freed the slaves?  
History tells us that chattel slaves in America were sort of upset 
about their condition.  Shouldn't they have been thankful for the 
orgasms they were undoubtedly getting from the beatings they received?

The crux of the matter is this.  If somebody brutally beat my naked ass 
with a whip and if I would have a choice of either giving that person a 
resounding orgasm in return or blowing his brains out with a shotgun, I 
would choose the latter.  I think most women would - OK, so we might 
call the cops instead; but we'd expect the asshole to be punished, not 
rewarded.  Yet in all these stories the recipient of the beating 
chooses the former course of action.

On a lighter note, an important question that I have is this: Should I 
be getting an orgasm whenever I read a Henry James novel or short 
story?  To me they are as painful as a severe beating; but I usually 
get either drowsy or frustrated when I try to read one of his stories.

I don't think Deirdre is recommending that we all find ourselves a 
similar Benefactor.  I think she has written a relatively good bondage 
and spanking story.

Ratings for "Neighbor "
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7

* “Neighbor2" by Deirdre.  Brenda is the sexy neighbor.  Lauren is her 
sexy daughter.  One day the Guy who tells the story happens to look at 
Brenda as she drives away and Lauren insightfully suggests that the Guy 
might like to fuck Brenda.  She promises to make all the arrangements.  
He forgets about the conversation, but one day Lauren invites him to a 
motel.  When the Guy arrives, Lauren is seated outside a motel room and 
explains that she has told Brenda that a rich guy (other than Our Guy) 
would like to fuck her blindfolded and in handcuffs.  Brenda, who would 
presumably not have sex with Our Guy if she were simply asked to do so, 
has agreed to this plan of action.  The Guy enters the room, and 
everything is as Lauren described.

Now at this point, stop and think.  What are the chances that Our Guy 
is going to enter the motel room, fuck Brenda, and then happily go on 
with his life?

If you guessed that something kinky was going to happen, you were 
right.  The camcorder that I forgot to tell you about would have been a 
good clue.  Anyway, all this kinky stuff improves the Guy's and his 
wife's sex life - and, as they say, no harm no foul!  This was a 
strange story!

Ratings for "Neighbor2"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

* “Neighbor3" by Deirdre.  "I had this vision of discovering an amazing 
thing about my neighbors."  Thus spake Deirdre in her prologue.  Now I 
want you to understand that I have the greatest respect for Deirdre.  
However, I also have a vague fear that she may be MY neighbor.  And I 
want to stress that I don't really think that Deirdre is a pervert.  
After all, if we look at Alfred Hitchcock, Sherwood Anderson, and Edgar 
Alan Poe, at least one of them was pretty much a sane, stable member of 
society.  Nevertheless, when I read this prologue, I couldn't help 
anticipating that Deirdre was going to discover something a little more 
shocking than that her neighbors were aliens who used their basement to 
sell Tupperware to Jehovah's Witnesses.

Actually, I was a bit disappointed.  What these people do, they do in 
the privacy of their backyard, surrounded by a big, high fence.  Why do 
you think people have those fences, and what do you think we call them 
privacy fences?  I've seen kinkier neighbors in over half of Deirdre's 
stories.  I think this one would have benefited from some aliens or 
some Tupperware or even some Jehovah's Witnesses.  Nevertheless, this 
was an excellent review, and I still respect Deirdre.

Ratings for "Neighbor3"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7

* “Niece" by Deirdre.  "Doesn't it affect you to see someone like 
that?... Don't you ever think of having sex with her?... Good, I'll ask 
her!" It's conversations like this between niece and aunt that make 
aunts yearn for the good ole days when discussions of sex with 
adolescents was taboo!  Nevertheless, Deirdre is back in form here - 
interesting twists and surprises in the plot!  I was left mildly 
disappointed at the ending.  I was expecting a few more surprises.  
Deirdre or somebody oughta write "Niece2" or "Neighbor4" or "Affect" - 
any of which, of course, would be this story with a different ending.

Ratings for "Niece "
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

* “Nurse" by Deirdre.  A nurse who is new to her job realizes halfway 
through her first day of work that the doctor seems to have only female 
patients and that they all seem to be exhausted when they leave his 
office.  So, what's the story about?  If you are a new reader to a.s.s. 
you might surmise that in your dirty mind you have already figured out 
the plot: the doctor is boinking the patients.  But this is a Deirdre 
story.  It can't be as simple as that.  Well, actually, there's a 
little more to it than that, but not much.  This is not an awful story, 
it's just not as creative as most of Deirdre's work.

Ratings for "Nurse "
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 7
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5

* “Older" by deirdre. Weird!

Ratings for "Older "
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* “Other" by Deirdre.  Where does Deirdre get her ideas for these 
stories?  This one is kind of hard to summarize.  The nextdoor neighbor 
wants the woman to have sex with him, but she resists, out of a 
misguided feeling that fidelity to her husband is important.  His 
theory is that the woman must surely be suffering by not having sex 
with him, and certainly her husband would not want her to suffer like 
that; but the woman resists the temptation.  So one day she comes home 
and finds her husband tied up, blindfolded, and masturbating.  The 
neighbor leads her into the room, confuses the man about who is jacking 
him off, and then manages to fuck the wife while the man fantasizes 
about what is really happening in front of his blindfolded eyes.  
There!  That's not so unusual, is it?

Ratings for "Other "
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* “Over" by Deirdre.  When I was halfway through this story, I paused 
and realized that unless I had known that it had been posted on 
alt.sex.stories and had been written by Deirdre, I would have had no 
way to know that it was about sex.  So far it could have been a story 
in a magazine at my dentist's office: an artist has been flown to New 
York by Beatrice Moreau, a wealthy woman who has admired the artist's 
work and wanted to meet her.  To be honest, if I were in my dentist's 
office, I would at this point have set the story aside and started 
reading the New Yorker or that stupid photography magazine that all 
dentists have in their office.  But this story was by Deirdre, so I 
assumed that the unwary artist was going to become a sex slave of the 
rich woman and would enjoy every perverse moment of her new vocation.  
Her life as an artist would be "Over" - hence the title.

After my pause, I smirked as a servant wearing nothing more than a 
diaphanous gown (and perhaps a subtle smile) removed the artist's empty 
glass.  I was on the right track!  But I'll let you read this story to 
find out for yourself what happens.  Let me just point out that if a 
beautiful French woman offers to pay you royally to pursue your 
profession and bestows upon you a beautiful sex slave or two for you to 
use as your whims dictate, you might want to look the gift horse in the 
mouth before it's all over.

Ratings for "Over "
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

* “Park" by Deirdre.  Two people stop to take a look at the scenery and 
the girl unexpectedly gives the guy a blow job.  This isn't really much 
of a story, but I thought it was very sexy.

Ratings for "Park "
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7

* “Partners" by Deirdre.  It has been a long time since I tried to 
predict a Deirdre plot from its title alone.  As you may recall, I 
stopped making predictions because I was so successful - getting one 
right out of the last fourteen that I attempted.  Partners could be 
about law partners - probably lesbians, one of whom dominates and beats 
the other while that person enjoys it and begs for more.  Or they could 
be simply sex Partners - banging away like minks in heat.  Or they 
could be Partners in a common endeavor of some sort - like working 
together to overcome world hunger, build a better mousetrap, or fuck 
the brains out of someone else.  

After reading the story, I can report that one of my guesses was 
reasonably close.  The overall premise is that a man discovers that a 
woman is a lesbian and she tells him that she's not turned off to men - 
there are just certain things that happen during sex with men that turn 
her off; and if she can call all the shots she'll let the man have sex 
with her.  Actually, this is something I've often wondered about: why 
wouldn't a girl who likes to have another girl fondle her pussy, suck 
her clit, and ram a dildo up her ass enjoy the exchanging the same 
favors with a nice guy; and if the guy likes doing these things, what's 
the problem?  In the world of Deirdre, at least, there is no problem.

Ratings for "Partners"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

* “Party" by Deirdre.  A girl with no social life and few social skills 
is taken to a party by her roommate, who gets her to agree to bondage 
games in exchange for mild sexual favors.  The descriptions are 
interesting, but the story doesn't really get off the ground.  Maybe I 
missed something.

Ratings for "Party"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5

* “Pat" by Deirdre.  I'm on a roll now.  I have gotten one of Deirdre's 
plots partially right in a row.  So I am going to read just the first 
paragraph of this story, and then I'll tell you the whole plot.  The 
narrator has returned home from college and finds that Mom has become 
quite diffident, while sister Cheryl now exudes unusual confidence.  
Piece of cake!  Cheryl has obviously used mind control strategies to 
turn Mom into her sex slave, probably under the supervision of an as-
yet-unintroduced dominatrix named Pat.  Slight modification: drop Pat 
the Dominatrix; in the second paragraph Cheryl PATS mom on the ass, 
amply justifying the title and allowing me to apply Occam's razor to 
eliminate the superfluous dominatrix.

After reading the story, I can tell you that I was so close that I'm 
going to count this as two in a row. I think the dominatrix is actually 
Myra's mother, about whom I could have known nothing in the first 
paragraph.  This is a weird story.

Ratings for "Pat"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

* “Patient" by Deirdre.  How do some people exercise mind control so 
easily?  Here we have a veteran nurse examining a very sexy woman who 
happens to be wearing nothing but a smile.  After the examination the 
woman says to the novice nurse, "Be at my house tomorrow evening at 
7:30."  Of course, the nurse follows instructions, and the story ends 
with her wearing a skimpy little dress getting ready to take a 
whipping.  How do some people exercise mind control so easily?

Ratings for "Patient"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7

* “Photo" by Deirdre.  In her disclaimer before this story Deirdre says 
that she herself "discovered she was bisexual" during her senior year 
of high school: she was watching a movie in which a female character 
took off some of her clothes in an obvious sexual situation and she 
found herself getting turned on.  She adds that the closest she ever 
actually came to an actual sexual experience with a female was when she 
and one of her friends had watched a movie with a bisexual scene and 
decided to try a kiss.  That led to some fondling, but it stopped far 
short of orgasm or even full frontal nudity.  Deirdre says she will 
always be monogamous with her heterosexual husband, but these 
experiences lead her to believe that she "is" bisexual.

I have all the respect in the world for Deirdre, but I simply have to 
disagree with her disclaimer.  If the word "bisexual" means anything, 
it should *exclude* someone through its definition.  It has been my 
observation that the female world can conveniently be divided into two 
groups: those who admit to being turned on by other sexy women and 
those who lie about it and deny that they are turned on in this way.  
Women who deny they are turned on by other sexy women have invariably 
had something happen to make them repress their feeling of attraction.  
I'm not saying that anyone is sick or even that this repression is 
especially desirable or undesirable; I don't even believe that society 
would be all that much better if more women actively lusted after their 
female coworkers or patted their teenage daughters on the ass.  I'm 
simply saying that unless something impinges on a person's existence 
(such as unpleasant personal experiences or societal taboos) any normal 
woman would be turned on to see two sexy supermodels grind their bodies 
together.  There are plenty of good reasons not to go around looking 
for opportunities to witness such activities and even better reasons 
not to participate; but I don't see anything to be gained by suggesting 
that women who feel this kind of interest and attraction are the ones 
who are unusual.

The same thing can be said about men.  I think they also have a natural 
tendency to be turned on by sexually exciting men as well as by hot 
women - except to the extent that they have repressed this tendency.  
Men have a stronger tendency to repress this than women - because there 
is a greater stigma attached to this attraction, probably because 
throughout history winning warriors have had a tradition of buttfucking 
the losers.  But I don't think a person should say that he "is" gay or 
bisexual simply because he thinks another guy is hot.

I don't mean the preceding paragraphs to be derogatory toward 
straights, gays, or bis.  All I am saying is that these FEELINGS are 
perfectly natural for almost everybody and that it is counterproductive 
to say that you "are" bisexual just because you enjoy images or 
isolated experiences that involve being turned on by sexy experiences 
with both sexes.  Based on what she tells us in the disclaimer, all 
that Deirdre IS is "normal."

I make this a major point because I think it is especially relevant to 
this newsgroup.  The stories posted here give us the opportunity to 
experience in a vicarious manner many activities that we cannot 
(sometimes SHOULD not) experience in real life.  I am not referring 
simply to rape and other socially problematic behaviors, but also to 
perfectly sane and sensible behaviors - like making love to a person of 
the same gender as myself when I know full well that I am going to 
devote myself for the rest of my life to a monogamous relationship with 
a person of the male persuasion.  I think keeping these insights in the 
back of our minds can enable us to grow through our reading - even 
while we enjoy the stories.  Sometimes I think a good dirty story may 
be a better growth experience reading Beowulf or even taking a whole 
course in geometry.

Back to the story itself. A mother visits her college daughter and goes 
for a swim while the child goes to cheerleading practice.  The 
daughter's roommate and some friends come into the room and find the 
mother naked after a shower.  I don't want to ruin the story for you by 
disclosing the entire plot, but let me suggest that if you ever find 
yourself in this position and someone in the group of young ladies 
suggests taking just one little photograph, you should think over the 
possible consequences before saying yes.  And also remember that modern 
technology makes it extremely easy to make copies of Polaroid pictures.

Ratings for "Photo"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* “Plan" by Deirdre.  Here we have a really shy, plain woman who 
suspects that others are into what she calls "kinky sex," and she longs 
to be like them.  She eventually works herself up to reading books and 
watching videos that contain the kind of sex she thinks about.  You'll 
have to read the story to see how she eventually gets what she wants.  
There's an awful lot of build-up to a very short climax in this story.  
Not that that's bad - I just thought you might want to be warned.

Ratings for "Plan"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6

* “Pool" by Deirdre.  A woman is able to look from her attic into the 
backyard of her sexy neighbor, where she observes nudity and various 
sexual activities.  Finally, she can stand it no longer and goes over 
to join in the festivities herself.  This is a longer than normal story 
for Deirdre, but not that much more actually happens.  I think this 
story should have been a lot shorter.  

Ratings for "Pool"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6

* “Practice" by Deirdre.  This is a story about people with "problems."  
Specifically, it starts with a man who has a problem of feeling 
uncomfortable when asked to undress in front of a nurse who happens to 
be his nextdoor neighbor.  The neighbor is willing to work overtime to 
give him the practice he needs to overcome this problem.  Soon they 
progress to other problems that require KY lubricant and even duct tape 
to overcome.

Ratings for "Practice"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7

* “Preparation" by Deirdre.  The man wants his wife to take it up the 
ass.  For a long time she refuses, but then one day she agrees - on one 
condition: she wants him first to experience exactly what she will 
experience, so that he will understand what he is asking of her.  A 
dildo will not do; if he wants to stick his penis up her ass, he should 
be willing to take a live one up his first.  This reasoning is so 
simple and obvious that it's difficult to understand why the man would 
even have second thoughts; but he does.  Not only does the wife make 
the suggestion, but she also teases him with her cute little ass until 
he simply has to take the offer seriously.  After all - just a few 
minutes of discomfort for a lifetime of pleasure; and with proper 
lubrication it wouldn't hurt much at all.  Deirdre sets up this premise 
nicely and carries it off very well.

Ratings for "Preparation"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* “Program" by Deirdre.  After the couple spends an evening with the 
wife's best friend, the wife tells the husband that she'd like him to 
seduce the friend and fuck her in the ass.  She even gives him detailed 
instructions on how to seduce her and accomplish this task.  And 
there's more.  This is grotesque stuff, but very realistic - sort of 
like one of those recurring dreams I have that reside in that limbo 
between good dreams and nightmares.

As many readers of these reviews already know, there is reason to 
believe that Deirdre is actually the reincarnation of Sherwood 
Anderson, the American short story writer who gained fame by writing 
about the peculiarities of the hapless citizens of Clyde, Ohio.  My own 
recent research has cast new light on this matter.  It seems that 
Sherwood Anderson himself may have been the reincarnation of Lord 
Chesterfield, who oddly enough may have been born in Clyde, England, 
near Sherwood Forest, and whose real father's real name was possibly 
Andrew.  Of particular relevance to this review is one of Lord 
Chesterfield's famous statement about sexual activity: "The pleasure is 
momentary, the position is ridiculous, and the expense is damnable."  
Deirdre herself couldn't encapsulate her stories with greater pith and 
wisdom.  This is getting spooky.

Anyway, this is a very good story.

Ratings for " Program "
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10