Thank You

Thank you to everyone who helped to make Rome such a great success. A fuller report will be posted later in the week.

Thanks especially to our hosts, particularly for agreeing to move the date of the event at such short notice. I think that everyone agrees that the setting was spectacular. it is very difficult to think of a better site for an authentic Roman orgy, well one that would not be filled with tourists anyway.

Several people have asked if they could buy various pieces of the set. in particular people seem to like the couches. The good news here is that the couches were made in my workshop, since we needed quite a few I planned to use jigs from the start. So we can make as many as people want, particularly if people promise to lend them for our next event. The less there is to store the better - I still live in hope of emptying the squash court and having a game there some day...

We do need the costumes back, we have promised to lend them to a school for their sixth form production of Julius Ceasar.

Boing Boing: Amazon.com sells sub-$0.99 sex toys now

Boing Boing: Amazon.com sells sub-$0.99 sex toys now

Is that what they call penetration pricing?

Sodom and Gomorrah told in Lego

Rejoice ye, for the Web has brought you the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah told in Lego. And most of the rest of the book.

Philosophy in the Bedroom

So you have probably been wondering what we were doing building a pillory last week. The answer is that some good friends that have helped us out in the past had asked to make use of the hall for a 'party' at the weekend. When they described the nature of the party I offered to build a few props for them ACS style (i.e. completely over the top).

We did not fully complete the pillory but we had it fully functional and assembled. I had to make a couple of spare head boards as Helen was busy carving the final ones. There is more carving to be done on the frame but it looks fine in white wood. I ran the edges through the router table with a roundover bit and sanded them down to avoid splinters etc.

At the end of the weekend my guests presented me with a fine antique of one of their favourite pieces of work, Philosophy in the Bedroom by the Marquis de Sade. This prompted me to find an English translation on the Web.

As always with de Sade there is more than a little wishful thinking on his part. The basic plot is that three libertines plot the seduction of the pious fifteen year old daughter of a libertine friend. But there never really is any seduction. The girl arrives, listens to a quick lecture on the evils of religion says 'how clever and true your words are' and then begs to be allowed to do whatever the libertines ask of her.

Given the reputation the work has I am somewhat disappointed. It fails as pornography and it fails as philosophy. de Sade has no intention of having any of his characters seriously challenge his views. On the other hand in the years before Stopes and co I suspect that more than a few young people got their sex education from the play. Thats the moral majority for you, supress all the balanced sex ed and the kids have nobody to find out from except de Sade.

Updown Court

It is with great pride and satisfaction that we bring you a broken link.

Or at least the link was broken earlier today when I was trying to visit it. So what is so great about a broken link? Well the site is meant to be selling the worlds most expensive private residence, updown court built at a cost of $60 million, the developer is asking $70 million and can't even run a Web site.

This place has five swimming pools (why?) a heated drive (what is the point don't they have ground staff?) and looks like it was designed by a Barrett Homes architect in his spare time. The BBC has an article with a photo.

The place is being sold as being designed for the billionaire set rather than mere millionaires. The developer recons that there are 600 known billionaires and 600 unknown ones. I think he is going to find that billionaires are much less interested in conspicuous consumption than he imagines, anonymous billionaires probably want to remain anonymous. Anyone who buys the place is going to be known the minute they throw their first party, and if you don't throw parties there is no real point in a 22 bedroom house.

People who do have $70 million to spend on a house are most likely to want to have it designed to their own specifications. The house was sold to Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2001 but he has since become king and is unlikely to be very interested in buying the place back again in the current political climate. It is hard to think of many other billionaires that are as wedded to conspicuous consumption who are likely want a principal residence of that size in London.

Ultimately the place will end up as a not very convenient hotel.