by Conor Friedersdorf
A great pleasure of The Daily Dish is interacting with as thoughtful and diverse an audience as I've found in the blogosphere. You've my belated gratitude for the advice offered prior to a road trip I took across The South, when I drew liberally on suggestions shared in this space to guide my travels. Those e-mails also prompted many of you to remark on how enjoyable it is to ponder the thoughts and life experiences of fellow Dish readers.
In that spirit, I'd like to begin the week by offering another prompt: Tell us the story of your first kiss.
It's a query that springs from a dozen curiosities. Are the stories from older readers going to differ substantially from younger readers, or is this sort of thing timeless? Do men and women remember the experience differently? Did anyone wind up married to their first kiss? What's the culture surrounding first kisses in other countries? What's the funniest story in this community of readers? How well do people remember their first kiss?
Give context. Reflect on larger meanings. Take liberties with the question, and explore angles I didn't mention. I'll share a number of reader responses over the next several days. Email conor.friedersdorf@gmail.com with "first kiss" in the subject line. (Always feel free to use that email address for any correspondence directed to me. Twitter addicts can also reach me via the handle @conor64).
Finally, if you're new here, I'm a California based writer, a newly minted senior editor here at The Daily Dish, erstwhile blogger for The Atlantic's special reports on cities and ideas, a columnist at The Daily Beast and Forbes, and proprietor of WhatAmericaLooksLike.com -- it's a Web site inspired by that trip around the South where I solicit submissions that show what the USA looks like outside the few places we see in the mass media. I'm also at work on other freelance projects and a biography of Milton Shedd, a co-founder of Sea World, World War II hero, and marine conservationist. My political beliefs are mostly grounded in conservative and libertarian philosophy, though I am allied to neither a political party nor an ideological movement.
I'm eager for your thoughts, your concurrences, and especially your dissents.