. . . considered a respectable line of work. And while some posters here may want to draw an historical line from geisha to hostess, that's a bit like seeing a continuum from fighter pilot to cab driver.

Furthermore, this article is about a decade out of date as hostess clubs have been on the decline since the late '90s when businesses stopped pretty much writing blank expense checks for this kind of "entertaining."

The NYT hasn't been a reliable source for information about Japan since the early 1990s when David Sanger was the bureau chief then followed by Nicholas Kristof. Both were, are complete tossers.

The Meiji Era was completely free and open from a sexual attitude standpoint. Erotic shunga and ukiyo-e were very common then. -- Parson Jim

Yes, the Japanese were more relaxed about sexuality than Americans and the British up until WWII. And while woodblock printing, the medium used for ukiyo-e in general and shunga was still produced and admired by traditionalists, it was almost a dead art by the end of the Meiji Restoration in 1912. In fact, by the turn of the century, prints were considered so "common" that they were literally being used as fish wrap.

You clearly have never partied with Japanese businessmen Some of them would put Keith Richards in the ground. -- NP NP

Most Japanese, like most north Asian, can't hold their liquor due to reduced levels of an enzyme that processes alcohol. My mother can drink most Japanese businessmen under the table.

This is a complicated debate and not settled by any single position

Overexposure to UV leads to, at the very least, damaged skin that begins to look bad not when you are old and wrinkly anyway, but as early as your late 30s depending on the person and her exposure. Lots of unprotected exposure, lots of leathery wrinkles.

I have an autoimmune condition that stays under control much better when I get some sun on my skin.

Some sun on your skin is different from spending your winter months laying in a tanning bed a couple times a week to maintain a fake bake tan. And since you don't detail your autoimmune condition (or where you live) there is no way to judge how common or serious it is compared to the number of relatively young people in the U.S. who die of malignant melanoma yearly (8,420 in 2008).

But Broadsheet is all about waging political war, so I can see that people who are waging political war against the Forces of Evil Fashion Narcissism are mandated to exclude the vitamin D issue from consideration. . . . -- Silenced

Needing to get some extra sun exposure to boost your vitamin D levels for medical reasons is not what this article is about, is it? It's about the stupidity of using tanning beds for cosmetic reason.

. . . stinkin' right wing "think" tank. Economics statistics reported by the Chinese are about as reliable as a $3.00 watch.

. . . seem to be under the impression that their computers are made in China (as in Mainland). At least that's what the sticker says on the CPU. They assemble laptops in Taiwan, but they also have PC manufacturing in India and Mexico as well.

Every PC on earth comes from the same 4 factories in Taiwan. Second, only the most sophisticated and expensive appliances require solid state electronics. -- NP NP

. . . flying and I will trust you implicitly. Any pilot who can discuss Husker Du just must be a reliable source of information. Your analysis is spot on - one without the other and it wouldn't have been the Clash, the Beatles or Husker Du!

. . . trashing Duran Duran makes Patrick even more reliable.

I'm a huge fan, and I was with you through the whole column, until the comment about Duran Duran at the end. Ripping on DD ain't cool, man.-- cestmoi123

Duran Duran were, are horrible.

When did is supposedly start?

. . . Adam Sandler has never been funny, either. He was one of the worst SNL cast members, ever.

We have six to nine months of stagnation before we see growth. Almost every quarter, GDP for the previous quarter is revised downward. Look back on the Bush administration statistics. Every quarter was revised. The winter holiday season will feature anything but cheer.

Also, as this crash has demonstrated, the US is deeply interlocked with all the world's economies. Just because we're seeing a few areas of improvement in our country does not mean we are shielded from negative developments abroad. -- Lightswitch

We have really made next to no effort in last 20 years to wean our economy off oil. Had we done this, not only would fluctuations in this commodity not have a significant impact on our economy (except for the price of plastics), but we would also be a doubly rich nation not having wasted hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign wars and propping up Israel and all the ME depots.

Time and again we read about how whatever we end up with in changed health care policy in this country will cost us more money than it does now (which is guaranteed if we don't get rid of the insurance companies and never move to single payer like the rest of the civilized world has), but no one makes a peep about the thing that is truly bleeding us white as a nation - defense spending. We could cut the military budget in half and still have the most lethal military in the world, AND we could have universal health care, first rate public education and mass transit. Until the military ceases to account for more than 50% of federal spending, we really have no reasonable hopes for a better future.

. . . I'm not really a Democrat, but I play one at election time.

. . . they'd put real teeth in the mileage requirements. Of course, if they'd done this, it would have disqualified about 3/4 of what Detroit produces. Not that it really matters since most of the Hondas and Toyotas purchased in NA are built in NA.