"Kissing is the supreme achievement of the Western world."

I am not the biggest Tom Robbins fan since I picture him writing his books next to a thesaurus furiously sifting through the pages in search for antiquated/obsolete words that ultimately detract from his stories. Maybe his friendship with Terrence McKenna and Timothy Leary were too influential on his books for me to handle...? However, I do respect his original tales that are usually threaded with indelible quotes and ultimately make up for his bizarre lexicon. In this particular entry (given to me by a devout T.R. fan), Robbins writes about the necessity of kissing in a 1990 issue of Playboy. And it goes a little something like this:

"Beware the man who considers kissing nothing more than duty, a sop to the "weaker" sex, an annoyingly necessary component to foreplay. That man has penis plaque in his arteries and will collapse under the weight of intimacy. Send him off to the nearest golf course while those of us who are more evolved celebrate the unique graces of the kiss. No other flesh like lip flesh! no other meat like mouth meat! the musical clink of tooth against tooth! the wonderful curiosity of tongues!"

Two things: I need to use the phrase "penis plaque" more and oddly enough yesterday was national kissing day. I didn't know this until after I decided to write this post. I'm thinking I might have received telepathic messages from the high frequencies of yesterdays snogging.