Happy Saturday to you my bestest on line pals !!

In today's Issue

A poignant poem from today's guest
Lynda McCraight
Love
Help and Advice From Anne Tandek

Today's Guest Lynda McCraight

Love’s Irony

I googled your name,

Reached across the years,

Typed you into my laptop

And blinked away the tears.

Time had changed you.

You’d a lot less hair,

But the look that I remember,

In your eyes, was still there.

Still tall and upright

(More of you than before),

That set smile still masking

Things you could not ignore.

I read some of the press reports.

You were deputy, Head of the Sixth,

And another said Headmaster

Of some school, out in the sticks.

All of your pupils’ achievements,

And the tribute to your wife,

Hung like photos drying -

A document of your life.

So why did I give the ring back?

Why call off the engagement?

I guess I was just fearful of

The success of that arrangement.

When your parents split,

And later one dies,

It’s hard to take

A chance on ties

So I rejected you

And all that went before.

Alas, in hurting you,

I hurt myself much more.

Afterwards, we went

In very different ways,

And with others spent

All our nights and days.

Look at us now: a widower

With grown-up girls,

And me an ageing spinster.

How strangely life unfurls!

You, who filled your life with work,

Now fill it with committees.

And I’m still acting on the stage

And penning little ditties.

After you, came several more.

The outcome was the same.

Since you, I’ve just grown older

Plaguing myself with blame.

But there’s a thing I need to tell

By way of recompense.

One of those men rejected me.

Does that make it all make sense?

Facts About Love

Source Lifehack

Both males and females must have adequate testosterone for sexual attraction.

Testosterone creates desire as well as aggressive behavior, which may push you to pursue the person who is creating this desire.

We can sense and are attracted to a person with a different immune system.

This finding came about during a study conducted by Claude Wedekind of the University of Switzerland. He had women test subjects smell unwashed T-shirts of men. Women consistently preferred the smell of the man’s shirt whose immune system was different than their own. Apparently the same findings were discovered in rodents.

Falling in love is as addicting as cocaine or nicotine.

Dopamine, a chemical that is released during the initial attraction stage of the relationship is also activated when using cocaine and nicotine. It gives you that rush of pleasure and happiness that makes those drugs so addicting. It also enhances the release of testosterone, which as stated above is essential for attraction.

Love can literally make you crazy.

Something you may or may not know about love is that it can lead to serious infatuation. The same levels of serotonin that bring about the infatuation are found in those with obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is an anxiety disorder. This is probably why you cannot seem to think of anyone else when you have fallen in love.

Love needs to be “blind” for survival.

It does not seem to matter what others say to a new lover—he or she is always perfect in our eyes. This blindness is critical for us to move forward in our relationship and is usually required to move onto the “attachment stage” as scientists call it so that they can stay in love long enough to have and raise children; in other words, to populate the earth.

Your nerve cells work better during the first year of love.

A protein in our bodies called Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) that is important for the functions of certain sympathetic and sensory nerve cells seems to thrive during the first year of being in love. Basically our senses are heightened and our fight or flight response system is more active during young love.

Romantic love and the love between a mother and child share a similar chemical connection.

The hormone oxytocin is released during child birth and when a child nurses as well as during orgasm. Oxytocin is thought to help long-term bonding.

8. When you take away one of the key “bonding” hormones, the attachment will disappear.

A study was done on prairie voles, a rodent that forms a long-term mating pair, where the hormone vasopressin was suppressed. These pore voles lost their interest in their mate immediately and did not even protect one another from new mates.

We are attracted to those who look and/or smell similar to one of our parents.

As creepy as this sounds, a partner who looks similar to one of our parents is found to be comforting. If you are a female and your father wore certain cologne, it is a familiar and comforting scent. 

We also tend to fall in love with someone who looks like ourselves.

Talk about narcissistic, right? Aside from facial features, hair colour and eye colour, we also tend to be attracted to those with the same lung volumes, ear lobe lengths and metabolic rates.

Today's Advice From Anne Tandek

Hello, I'm an award winning recognised expert in the field of advice. I have, in past advised stars of screen and television. I was the first one to warn George of The Jungle, to 'watch out for that tree'.

I am always discreet and never disclose anyone's contact details when they write to me.

Today, I've had a letter from a lovely gent from Liverpool. Here is his letter...

Alrite Der Anne,

I can't afford a swish foreign holiday like me mates but don't want to look the odd one out in the beer garden.

Can you help, La....

Sidney Harbourbridge

Well Sid,

Yes I can of course help. Simply get your self down to your local DIY centre and buy some middle density sand paper. A good rub all round will give you that all over sun blessed look, so natural in the Liverpool Area. For an extra tip, rub in aftershave for the authentic burn.

Finish With a Song

To go with the theme of Lynda's poem, this is Sinead O'Connor With a Prince penned song

Nothing Compares To You, released in 1989.