In the age of hooking up and friends with benefits, it’s really refreshing to learn about a young couple so committed to abstinence that they didn’t even kiss on the mouth before their wedding day.
Claudaniel Fabien and Melody LaLuz told the Chicago Tribune that they'd decided to hold off on locking lips so as to be an example to their students. They both teach abstinence in the Windy City. According to the Tribune, "To avoid temptation while dating, they made sure they were never alone with each other in a house. When they watched movies on the couch, they snuggled sitting straight up, never lying down."
Humph. Sounds a tad strange, particularly that bit about needing a chaperone. Why couldn't two seemingly responsible adults not trust themselves to stay within their own self-imposed boundaries? And why couldn't they kiss on the lips? Sex may be one thing, but smooches aren't necessarily chastity busters. Besides, you can tell a whole lot about a person from the way he kisses, such as whether or not you even have chemistry.
So, while I applaud their discipline, this is one couple it would be interesting to check back in with in a year or two to see how things are progressing - or not.
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LIKE THE TITLE character in "Precious," the new Lee Daniels' film, this 14-year-old Philadelphia girl had been raped by a relative and infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
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Jenice Armstrong: First lady Michelle Obama' has white cousins? Oh, my gosh! Can you believe it? Well, yeah. Just about every black American I know has white relatives.
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Jenice Armstrong: It was kind of like being at a Tupperware party but instead of the focus being on plastic containers, the conversation centered on sex.
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FIRST LADY Michelle Obama graces the cover of the December issue of Glamour. What's even more interesting is that in the accompanying article, she gives dating advice. Given that all the single women I know who are searching for their own version of Barack Obama, her advice is worth paying attention to.
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Can't we all just get along? Not if one of us is from Philly and the other's from New York, with the Phils and Yankees squaring off tonight. Jenice Armstrong talks about how her house has been divided, and Stu Bykofsky, a Philly institution who grew up in the Bronx, has practically become a house divided against itself. Do you have New York friends, or a Yankees fan at home?
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THE LAST thing Sheila Armstrong remembers about the attack was the sight of her lover hoisting a vacuum over her.
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AFRICAN-AMERICAN women aren't the only ones who obsess about their hair. Here's what we heard from you.
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A MOREHOUSE MAN in a dress? Come again? When people think of a Morehouse man, the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., filmmaker Spike Lee and other luminaries come to mind.
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Jenice Armstrong: Renowned genealogical sleuth Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak (yes, that's really her name) mostly has been able to exist just under the radar. That has changed.
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Armstrong: The subject of black women's hair is a tangle of issues relating to America's racial history, women's self-esteem, and mainstream acceptance.
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Were the protesters at yesterday's demonstration at B. Bernice Young Elementary School really there because of 'the children'?
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