[sinclairfan]

From the archives, May 8, 1870

Dear TABSK--My name is Annabelle, and I live on the finest street in the finest city in the world (Fifth Avenue, New York, New York); but more importantly, I want my 19- and 18-year old daughters, Sally and Molly, to live there when they marry.  As such, they will need to make a good impression on the eligible (sadly, limited amount of) bachelors of New York's finest families during the June thru September season in Saratoga.  My daughters have become excessively friendly, in my view, with a couple of friends who will shortly become rivals for the time, and eventually the hand, of these gentleman.  How do I gird the minds for the mental and physical catfights dictated by this Darwinian contest?

Dear Annabelle--You are quite perceptive that the contrast between the bucolic Saratoga setting and the bitter social jungle pit contest your daughters are about to face could not be more stark.  It will test their young minds .... and bodies ..... but the course of their future lives rides on the outcome.  It's high stakes, pun intended.  Get busy preparing them.  Good luck.  TABSK

[sinclairfan]

Dear TABSK--My name is Carla, a reader for longer than I care to admit.  I appreciated the "blast from the past" to Old New York and the summer season in Saratoga.  Back when I was a teenager (and spreading my wild oats in frequent catfights), I had a crazy old spinster great-aunt whose "filter" had stopped working in her brain, and would regale me with catfight stories from her youth and adulthood.  She was old enough to have participated in Saratoga and Newport seasons during the tail end of the Gilded Age.  She lost a catfight skirmish to a rival for a gentleman's hand, but got her revenge by becoming the man's lover after he married the other bitch, AND then won the war by defeating the wife in not-one-but-two vicious, private catfights in their mid-thirties.  I don't know for sure if she was embellishing, but damn did she go into detail about going after her rival's lady-parts.  TABSK, those Victorian women could hold their own in the hellcat department against any generation.  Let's keep their stories alive!  Carla

Dear Carla--Good stuff.  Sleep with a woman's man, then kick her ass.  Some pleasures are classic and timeless, aren't they?  Thanks for sharing!  TABSK

[bloodshot]

Um, why is this in the celebrity section...?

[AaronL]

Um, why is this in the celebrity section...?

Even better, why is it in the fight stories section? Just like every other thread by this poster, there's literally zero fighting and only occasional references to what may have happened in the fight.