Thursday, April 27 | A Liberating Experience YESTERDAY EVENING I had a liberating experience with two young women. Both were born in Korea. One, named Kimy, I've known since the first day I lived in Brussels, when I promised her I would look at her natal chart. Everyone has been busy, but each of the past five times I've bumped into her she was more and more curious. Last night she showed up in the café/restaurant (arriving with a new friend) where I was finishing up some horoscope columns, and asked me if I could look at her chart -- on the spot. I said I needed about 45 minutes to wrap up and would come over. When I finished the Monday and Tuesday dailies, I moved tables and sat down with them. I ordered dinner and theirs arrived right away: they each got a not-so-small pizza that was the house specialty. Kimy introduced me to her new friend Moon, who she had just met that day and was excited about because you don't meet a lot of down home South Koreans roaming around (though I seem to have a knack for it). I looked up Kimy's chart, brushed off the question of how I knew the birth time when she did not (I had already rectified it the first time I saw the chart months ago), and while she was eating, asked the occasional question about this or that time in her life (following Chiron transits to see if and how her chart worked). But, as I sat there, I noticed myself slowly going insane. Like everyone else in quaint, polite and proper old Europe, they were eating their pizza with knives and forks. Sitting up straight and tall and very ladylike. Not getting anywhere, not having so much fun, not even noticing they were even doing anything special. Finally, I blurted out, Tourettes's Syndrome style, "Hey! Can I show you something?!" Um, okay. "Here, pick it up with your fingers." They did, hesitatingly, discreetly looking around the room to see if anyone was watching. "It's okay. Now, hold the mushy part up with your other hand. Exactly. Now, take a bite. A little bigger than you think you should. Great, now Bend Over so you don't get it all over your blouse. Just like my grandmother used to say. Bend Over." Aaaahhhhhhhh. What an incredible relief. Knives and forks abandoned. I felt so much better. This was obviously some kind of cultural immersion experience for them. Traditional Korean food, some of the best Asian there is, try it if you can, is served in many tiny little bowls which you eat with metal chopsticks (more sanitary), usually monogrammed if you're in someone's household. But this is how you eat pizza, for sure, absolutely no question about it. I explained that I'm Italian from Brooklyn, I know exactly what I'm talking about. As for part three in the Gender Series...here is Onward & Inward, five short essays. http://www.planetwaves.net/contents/world_returns3.html