Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sdcsla.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcsla!hestenes From: hestenes@sdcsla.UUCP (Eric Hestenes) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: Are you involved with anyone? Message-ID: <1017@sdcsla.UUCP> Date: Thu, 31-Oct-85 14:52:13 EST Article-I.D.: sdcsla.1017 Posted: Thu Oct 31 14:52:13 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 3-Nov-85 15:03:54 EST References: <133@cornell.UUCP> <2576@brl-tgr.ARPA> Organization: U.C. San Diego, Cognitive Science Lab Lines: 26 > There's something that seems to have been ignored in this whole long > discussion of "nominally single" -- just because someone is currently > attached/involved/married or otherwise "taken" does NOT mean that this > person is "unavailable" -- it means that there will be various degrees > of difficulty in your forming a relationship with this person. > "Difficult" is not the same as "impossible". After all, married people i totally disagree. the problem with these situations, the element that makes a person "nominally" single is that you have to go through weird contractions in order to get them into the state where they are sort of "more single than they were before". We can naturally associate this with another activity, namely, breaking up married couples. Look, people fool around, the get married, the get divorced. Can you be "nominally married"? I think so. The "nominal" part of both situations is that your activity widely deviates from the activities of others in your "category". A "nominally single" person tends to hang out with 1 other 99.999% of the time, barring interference. A "nominally married" person, likewise, fools around more often than not. Now, it is not *impossible* to take over a relationship from a married person. Neither is it impossible to take over a relationship with a "nominally single" person. While the latter may be a tad more easy, that certainly doesn't make the person more available than if they were married. Not, they are nominally single until they become un-nominally single and give in to something new. You have to change the person before the become availible. eric