Generally speaking, I’m not an aficionado of religious services. About the only aspect I do appreciate is the segment where individual worshipers ask the entire congregation to send their thoughts and prayers to an ailing loved one. Thanks to one such shout out, my wife and I have experienced a week-long deluge of well wishes from friends and neighbors alike.

Bestseller or not, I customarily don’t read erotic fiction, and Fifty Shades of Grey is no exception. Yet even without perusing it I’ve heard plenty, due to the passionate reactions – both good and bad – it seems to have inspired. The controversy doesn’t concern the novel’s plot, as far as I can tell. Rather, people either adore or castigate the author due to her XXX sex scenes, replete with overtones of S&M, which women across the nation apparently have adopted as a how-to guide for reinvigorating their love lives. That’s certainly the focus of the current feedback offered by at least three people I know.