Chapter XI? (4 questions)

[thedaffodils]

I have sometimes wondered what would happen if the good reverends of this Earth got their way and lust -- evil, sinful lust -- vanished overnight. I fear motels and hotels would close, florists and jewelers would seek Chapter XI, restaurants would shutter, celebrity magazines would fold, divorce lawyers would have to defend the innocent, and, in general, the economy would crash. Something like this is going to happen now that Hillary Clinton is out of the presidential race.

Hi! The quoted paragraph are an excerpt from a columnist's article in Washington Post. I come across some questions. Would you please help me out? Thanks.

Q1: Why does the columnist say "motels and hotels would close" and "restaurants" would shutter? Aren't they lust?

Q2: What does " got their way" mean?

Q3: What does " Chapter XI" refer to? Why would florists and jewelers seek it?

Q4: Are celebrity mags lust too?

[Barb_D]

Hi daffodils,
First, lust=exteme sexual desire, right? Secondly, the author is being a bit comical. Don't take anything literallyl

Q1: Why does the columnist say "motels and hotels would close" and "restaurants" would shutter? Aren't they lust?
People who want to have sex will often use hotels or motels for the sexual interludes - especially if they are married to other people. If you want someone to have sex with you, you may have to take that person out to dinner first, to "wine and dine" her, before she will allow you have fulfill your lustful desires.

No lust=no desire for sex=no need for motel rooms=no need for wining and dinning=no need for restaurants.

Q2: What does " got their way" mean?
If you get the thing you are seeking/hoping for, you get your way. I wanted Mexican, Jim wanted Chinese - I got my way - we had tacos for dinner.

Q3: What does " Chapter XI" refer to? Why would florists and jewelers seek it?
It's a type of bankruptcy protection. If no one is buying flowers or jewels (to seduce the women with whom they want to have sex), they would go out of business. Bankruptcy helps protect them financially.

Q4: Are celebrity mags lust too?
A good portion of the magazines are about who is dating whom. If no one wanted to have sex, how interesting would the magazines be? If no one wanted to look all sexy, would their dressses be hot and sexy and worth showing on the magazines?

[thedaffodils]

Hi Barb_D,

Thank you very much for your answers. I have guessed what the columnist alluded to about "motels and hotels". But I remembered a Canadian friend once told me that he lodged in a motel on his way home so I was not sure.

[BobK]

Hi! The quoted paragraph are an excerpt from a columnist's article in Washington Post. I come across some questions. Would you please help me out? Thanks.

Q1: Why does the columnist say "motels and hotels would close" and "restaurants" would shutter? Aren't they lust?
No they're not. The writer's saying they depend on it for business. 'Shutter' is an Am E verb formed from the noun; in Br English we would say 'put up their shutters''. (Similarly, US athletes introduced the new verb 'to medal' - which has now been picked up by many speakers in the UK. But when I first heard it, I was rather confused by the idea of someone - Michael Johnson, I think - 'meddling in Athens'.

Q2: What does " got their way" mean?
'Had what they wanted/Received whatever they wished for.' Interestingly - but probably irrelevantly - a villain ravishing an innocent maiden - in a Victorian melodrama - is said to be 'having his evil way with her'. This idiom may (but needn't) have been in the back of the writer's mind.

Q3: What does " Chapter XI" refer to? Why would florists and jewelers seek it?
It refers to the US bankruptcy laws. Florists and jewellers [old habits die hard, so you'll have to forgive the speLing. )

Q4: Are celebrity mags lust too?
No, but they depend on it too.

b

[thedaffodils]

Hi Bobk,

Thank you for your illustrations. You are helpful.

[BobK]

Hi Bobk,

Thank you for your illustrations. You are helpful.

Pleasure, as always

(It was particularly pleasing the Barb and I both answered your question quite fully - although, unsurprisingly, she typed faster - but our answers [though agreeing] covered so much different ground.)

b

[thedaffodils]

Pleasure, as always

(It was particularly pleasing the Barb and I both answered your question quite fully - although, unsurprisingly, she typed faster - but our answers [though agreeing] covered so much different ground.)

b

[Barb_D]

A complementary approach, Bob!

[thedaffodils]

Barb_D & BobK:

I wonder whether my questons and your answers in the thread would be kind of sensitive to you Westerners generally?

After I posted this thread, I got a piece of private message (PM) from an American forum member. S/he said my subject of the thread would be a little sensitive so s/he decided to answer my questions via PM. And in the PM, s/he felt very embarrassed to answer my questions .

I understood the US is a multi-cultured country with immigrants from all over the world. An opinion of a person's might be individual. So I want to know what the mainstreams of you countries would think about it.

And recently, I have been watching American soap opera -Desperate Housewives; yesterday, I watched British sitcom-Couplings. I am very confused by the relationship of sex in the TV programmes both in the US and the UK. I wonder whether it is appropriate to post them out and ask? Could you please suggest?

Many thanks!

PS:

Couplings introduction from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coupling_(UK_TV_series)

Desperate Housewives introduction from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperate_Housewives

[Anglika]

Some people are more sensitive than others

As to the way in which sex is presented in TV series, I would suggest that British comedy series tend to be less subtle about it that American.

However, the two series you cite are very different. "Desperate Housewives" is set in middle-class, middle-aged, affluent suburbia, and has many subtle themes running through it; "Couplings" is set in a central urban [London] location with a central theme of young unmarried people getting together.