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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Real Life Fidelity Inspectors on Fox News L.A.

If you thought "fidelity inspections" were only things that happened in books like The Fidelity Files, then you thought wrong.

Check out this Fox News L.A. story about real life "Love Decoys" that aired on April 29th:

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Life is Short...Have an Affair

This is the scandalous tag line in the new Ashley Madison Agency commercial that I just saw. I swear, this agency continues to baffle me. I can't decide if they're a disgrace or just fulfilling a need. An online dating site exclusively for married people? What will they think of next? Drive through divorce proceedings?

Would you like fries with your alimony payment, Mr. Smith?

And yes, I know I already blogged about this agency last month but I just saw this commercial for them on the History Channel and I had to share. Yes, you heard that right. The History Channel! No, I didn't accidentally mistake it for Spike TV. Apparently the marketing execs over at Ashley Madison think that this their target demographic. Who knew that History buffs were so prone to cheat on their spouses? All this time, I've been avoiding those types of guys who watch Nascar and The Man Show when I should be have been steering clear of the ones who watch Modern Marvels and specials about World War II.

Anyway, enough babbling. Here's the commercial, already. It's quite saucy. So watch at your own risk.

Friday, April 4, 2008

How Does Cheating Translate?

What's in a name? That which we call "infidelity" by any other name would still smell as sour.

Or would it?

Shakespeare may have been onto something about roses, but when it comes to matters of extramarital sex, I don't think the same philosophy applies.

We are all aware of the negative connotation that American society puts on words like "infidelity", "unfaithfulness" and "cheating". The verb "to cheat" implies some sort of breaking of the rules and therefore conjures up images of moral impropriety. Cheating on a test? Bad. Cheating on your wife? Bad. Cheating at solitaire? Well, that's just sad.

But let's take a look at what other countries are calling sex outside the marriage. According to Pamela Druckerman, author of a book called Lust in Translation, the name a society gives to the act also tends to define how that society views the act itself. For example, the term that Nigerians use for infidelity literally translates to "social networking". Hmm...is that like MySpace? Or Facebook? Well, I have over 100 friends on that MySpace and Facebook. So what does that make me? Actually, don't answer that.

Or in Finland, the act of sex with someone other than your promised partner translates to "parallel relationships". I kind of like that one. It's like Parallel Universes. Or dimensions. "So I have a husband in this dimension, a lover in another dimension and I'm secretly seeing someone named Captain Kirk in a dimension that I don't even want to talk about."

And Druckerman also states that the French, who have in the past been infamous for their inability to be monogamous, have coined the expression, "simultaneous multi-partnerships". Well, you would think that a society that prides themselves on fine wines, great food and beautiful lovers would find a more scintillating term than "simultaneous multi-partnerships". Will we also be signing a business merger agreement with this extramarital
affair?

So apparently, while we're equating infidelity to having an ace up your sleeve at a poker game or selling someone a used car with an odometer that's been cracked open, the rest of the world doesn't all see it that way. Are we being too harsh in our labeling? Too judgmental in our words? Or are we just staying true to our puritan roots?

After all, we did escape Europe and their laissez-faire views of the world for a reason. And I certainly don't remember seeing any red letter 'A's sewn onto clothing the last time I was in Paris. Although I guess that would explain why I got a strange look from that French accountant after I told him I was thinking of setting up a Sole Proprietorship.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

'Tis the Season of Taxes and Cheating Spouses

April 15th looms in the air. And accountants and IRS agents alike are all burning the midnight oil. But according to a recent article by Infidelity Expert, Ruth Houston, author of Is He Cheating on You?: 829 Telltale Signs, this is a time when suspicious women should also be doing a little tax investigation of their own. Because tax season is also apparently the time of year when cheating husbands are brought out into the open.

Because let's face it, he may be able to hide all those suspicious looking receipts from you, but he can't hide them from Uncle Sam.

The article suggests that wives suspicious of infidelity can use their joint filing status as an opportunity to follow a possible paper trail leading to evidence of an affair. Houston sources one woman who found evidence of jewelry purchases, lingerie, roses and hotel rentals in the upper west side of Manhattan (wait a minute, was this David Paterson's wife?) And since her own neck, wrists, vases and groin area were all disappointingly bare, she assumed that these gifts were purchased for another woman. Or just the evidence of a really inappropriate mother/son relationship.

Infidelity Expert Houston also recommends that you check out Line 7 of your 1040 Form. Because this is where a potentially cheating husband is supposed to report all of his overtime payments at work. With a quick mental calculation, you can easily figure out whether or not his supposed "working late" was really "working late" and therefore recorded on his tax forms as overtime payments or just "working someone else".

Ruth Houston offers these and several more tips in her recently published article which can be found at: http://hometown.aol.com/cheatingsigns/page72.html

So suspicious women everywhere, put down his cell phone bill and start getting out your calculators. And as for the cheating men that have been successfully hiding their affairs, all I can say is, beware because Cheater Buster, Uncle Sam is on the case.

And you thought the threat of an audit was the scariest thing about filing a tax return...

Blog Description

Jessica Brody, author of the forthcoming novel, The Fidelity Files, explores the thorny topic of infidelity in modern-day society