specific virtues: more love among the Lebanese

Spring is in the air in Lebanon, and my heart is filled with anticipation at the sartorial joys of the season. During the warm weather months, I dress almost exclusively in skirts. I love their clean lines and the way they hang – and, of course, the way they swish-swish-swish when I walk.

Here, I also love wearing skirts because they remind me of yet another treasured date conversation.

Little Diamond, my date said to me, looking very serious, you know, I like [names of our two mutual friends] very much, but I am different from them when it comes to women. They are skirt-chasers. Do you know what this means?

Yes of course, I began to reply, its a well-known English expression.

No no, he interjected. Let me explain.

Men like [our mutual friends] are skirt chasers. This means that when they see a woman in a short skirt, they chase after her and want to make love to her.

Interesting, I thought. I had no idea that our friends had such Pavlovian responses.

I, on the other hand, my date continued, am not a skirt-chaser. This means that I can see a woman in a short skirt and have no reaction.

Ahhhh haaa, I said, nodding as if what he had said made perfect sense.

Inside my head, of course, I was dying laughing, and wondering:

What happens when our friends and other skirt-chasers encounter a woman in a longer skirt?

What about trousers? Is there another category for men affected by the tight black trousers found in abundance here?

And

What on earth made him so proud of possessing a virtue of such limited application?