Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 5, 1993 TAG: 9309100364
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Joel Achenbach
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: We think there should be no time zones, since time zones always make us think really hard about whether it is possible for two events, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast, to happen simultaneously. We also worry about crossing the International Date Line - it's not that we're afraid of losing a day, we're just afraid that we'll rupture the space-time continuum and end all life in the universe.
Time zones were invented to help railroads make their schedules back in the 1800s. That explains (feebly) why time zones are managed by the U.S. Department of Transportation. In 1966 the federal government passed the Uniform Time Act, which, as far as we can tell, ensured that time would not be uniform. (By the way, while we're thinking of it, why isn't the term ``standard deviation'' an oxymoron?)
The act allows political jurisdictions to petition the government to alter the time zone boundaries. This happens continuously. That's why the lines zig and zag - someone is always complaining. People want to be on the same time as the nearest big city, or the place where their kids go to school. So there is constant adjustment, almost on a house-by-house basis. In general the lines follow longitudinal lines and political boundaries, but there are places where they go haywire.
There are 11 counties in America that have two time zones.
``It's not completely impossible that you could have somebody who is on one time and their neighbor is on another time,'' says Bob Ashby, a DOT lawyer.
(We know married couples who have this problem, too.)
\ Q: Why are some people oversexed? And why are there so many people now being treated for sex addiction?o
A: It's hard to grasp, but there are actually people out there who feel compelled to engage in sex three, four, five, or even six times a year. And sometimes they drag a partner into their sick little game. Monsters!
The fact is, the Why staff is under the distinct impression that most people would not rank at the top of their list of complaints about daily life, ``Partner Wants Sex Too Often.'' Nevertheless, there seem to be a lot of people out there who suddenly have discovered that they are sex addicts. A new organization called Sex Addicts Anonymous has 500 chapters around the world. Members of such groups go through a 12-step program, as in Alcoholics Anonymous, that does not ``cure'' the problem but puts them ``in recovery.''
We spoke to one member, ``Douglas,'' at the SAA headquarters in Minneapolis, who said that before he got help he suffered from preoccupation with sexual thoughts, demanded sex frequently from his girlfriends, cheated on them, and even exposed himself in public. Now, while recovering, he said, ``I've got strict parameters around being sexual with people I am dating. It is no longer OK for me to date a woman and have sex with her until I've been dating at least six months.''
When he stopped ``acting out'' his sexual cravings, he said, he went through withdrawal. He couldn't sleep at night. He was irritable. It is clear to him that he ``used sex as a drug.''
What do sex experts say? They say it's bunk.
``We don't buy it,'' says Elizabeth Allgeier, editor of the Journal of Sex Research.
``There's an industry out there promoting [the idea of] sexual addiction,'' says Michael Perry, a sex therapist in Encino, Calif. ``I think it's motivated by profit and also a moralistic stance.''
But aren't some people sort of disgustingly oversexed?
``Someone who is oversexed, or someone who is a nymphomaniac, is just someone who is having more sex than you are,'' Perry says.
They say some people may be sexually compulsive - in the same way that some people feel compelled to wash their hands 100 times a day - but that's not the same thing as a physical addiction. Compulsive behavior is a psychological problem, not a neurochemical problem, like heroin addiction. In any case, most ``sex addicts,'' they say, are just normal people who feel guilty about what they're doing, or haven't been willing to take responsibility for the negative consequences of their actions.
``They just don't want to deal with the discomfort of saying no,'' says Marty Klein, a Palo Alto, Calif., sex therapist.
There are advantages to being a sex addict. Number one, nothing is your fault. You are a victim of a disease (possibly one created by an abusive parent - it is not required that the abuse be remembered, because it can be inferred by the existence, years later, of the addiction).
Says Klein, ``People are saying, `I couldn't help it, my addiction did it. I really didn't want to sleep with that woman, honey.'''
This is the contemporary, suburban, secular equivalent of ``The Devil made me do it!''
The Mailbag: Howard M. of Alexandria, Va:, points out that we were reckless to use such language as ``three-dimensional circle'' when describing what a sphere is: ``A circle rotated about a line tangent to it would form a doughnut and a circle moved through space on a line perpendicular to its center, or not perpendicular, would form a right circular cylinder or an elliptical cylinder.''
Dear Howard: You say ``elliptical cylinder,'' we say ``hot-dog-shaped.''
Washington Post Writers Group
by CNB