Kissing

In Hollywood, puckering up has a protocol all its own. Every year, when awards season rolls around, you see it happen: People who barely know each other pucker right and left, risking nose collisions and exposing awkward height differentials in pursuit of the celebrity smooch. "The air kiss is like the Hollywood secret handshake," says Janice Min, editor of the paparazzi-driven Us Weekly. When it comes to the derivation of this intimation of intimacy, scholars are puzzled.

That was a good story on kissing, but it was one-sided! ["Loose Lips May Sink (Relation) Ships," Jan. 5.] I am a senior citizen, 66 years old, single and male and have had two experiences with the opposite sex in 2005 that compare to your story of women kissing men. First woman I met in 2005 was the Washing Machine: scared the heck out of me. Couldn't figure what she was trying to do ... she was 63. The second woman I met on a cruise in December....

The new Saudi king has ordered citizens not to kiss his hand, saying the traditional gesture of respect is degrading and violates Islam. "Kissing hands is alien to our values and morals, and is not accepted by free and noble souls," Abdullah told a delegation from Baha, in southwest Saudi Arabia, which came to the royal palace to offer congratulations on his accession. "It also leads to bowing, which is a violation of God's law. The faithful bow to no one but God."

Who says science is just beakers and physics equations? It also has a hopelessly romantic side, which might explain why a German researcher has been sneaking around international airports and beaches, tracking human kissing habits. The results of his study were published Thursday in the journal Nature, sandwiched between equally salacious articles on sediment runoff in Australia and the use of plant hormones to promote "root growth by modulating gibberellin response."

The world's greatest smoocher is in town. But Alfred A.E. Wolfram can kiss off any hope of setting a new record on this visit. That's because the fear of SARS is nothing to sniff at. Wolfram has held a lip-lock on the title of "World's Greatest Kisser" since the day he bussed 11,030 people at a festival near his home in North St. Paul, Minn., to win a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Ah, spring, when a young man's fancy turns to -- watching young women kiss each other. Lucky for him, he doesn't have far to turn, at least on-screen. Has it really only been six years since "Ellen" caused such an uproar? These days, kisses between girls can be found on the reality shows "Meet the Folks," "Big Brother 3," "DisMissed" and "The Real World," among many others. Women in "Fastlane" and "Friends" have done the deed, with heavy network promotion.

You've thought about it, fantasized and flirted. You've touched, maybe held hands, felt the warmth of an embrace. You've leaned in awkwardly near, your faces so close you could breathe each other in. And then it happens. A moment frozen in memory. The sweet softness of lips meeting for the first time. It's the first kiss . . . and there's nothing like it. I live for first kisses. In film as in life, a first kiss can be magic.

A Michigan couple won a contest Thursday to establish a record for the world's longest kiss, outlasting eight other couples by locking lips for 29 hours without a break. Roberta and Mark Griswold's closest competition dropped out 22 minutes before the winners gave it a rest. The runners-up, Chike Lamar Carter and Menthia Clark of New Orleans, finally gave in to nature's call to the bathroom.

The kiss wasn't captured on film, immortalized in bronze or celebrated in song. It didn't inspire poetry or longing sighs in darkened movie theaters. In fact, as kisses go, it didn't amount to much. Just a 6-year-old boy giving a classmate a peck on the cheek at an elementary school in Lexington, N.C. Still, it was enough to land Johnathan Prevette in hot water and make him the most notorious pint-sized kisser since Georgie Porgie.

A 6-year-old Lexington, N.C., boy who was punished two weeks ago for kissing a girl on the cheek got an apology from his school superintendent. Accused of "unwelcome touching," first-grader Johnathan Prevette had been separated from his class and not allowed to participate in an ice cream party. Johnathan said the girl asked him to kiss her.