Murray, I'm surprised that no one's pointed this out till now. but there are lots of women with "balls" out there... and around here!

Since "lacking balls" is, of course, a euphemism for lacking nerve, women can be as guilty of that as men. I suppose, though, that a man would feel more challenged by the accusation, and would feel the urge to defend his manhood. You probably wouldn't get as much of a rise (pun intended) out of a woman.

BTW, I'm female. My Mudcat nickname is NOT short for Sharon, Ariel! But I did embarrass myself recently by assuming that Ickle Dorritt was male, and consequently had to correct the lyrics to a parody I'd posted about her dog (Ickle has since changed her nickname). So, yeah, a gender clarification might be handy, but wouldn't it be less of an interruption to thread-flow if more of us simply submitted the information to the "Member Photos & Info" quick-link?

To GUEST, Lionel: If you think it's hard to be ambivalent about sex while living in Middlesex, try moving to Intercourse, PA!!!