In places like the beachfront biker bar or The Topper, my late wife and I used to say
It ain’t the food; it’s the floorshow.
Sometimes we meant the staff, sometimes the patrons, very occasionally both. Which was always an extra speshul treat. 
I had that once at a Taco Bell.
I would not voluntarily watch that show again.
I don’t know what the fuck Shalmanese is on about with his pretentious prose, but honestly, no, the enjoyment of food at its finest really is more than just the substances that make up taste and texture.
It really does include ambience and one’s personal mental state, to which the ambience of one’s surroundings is a significant contributor. That’s why good restaurants go to such great lengths to provide beautiful decor, pleasant servers, subdued lighting,soft music and other touches.
On the opposite extreme, have you heard the expression “the food turned to ashes in his mouth”, referring to someone enjoying a meal who suddenly received some really bad news? I think we’ve all experienced this sort of thing to one extent or another. Appetite vanishes like breath off a butter knife.
So, yes, there are a great many emotional factors beyond just taste that enter into the human enjoyment of food, unless you’ve just been rescued from the wilderness after surviving on wood bark and beetles for a couple of weeks.
But I still have no idea WTF Shalmanese is on about. It seems to be some sort of psychobabble that has nothing to do with this.
I see nate got his ass handed to him by the mod [Aspenglow] in the dating a porn actress thread [RIP]. Such a thread was doomed to devolve in such a way no matter what, alas.
See, this disappoints me. The Dope was a place for no holds barred discussion of any and all topics under the sun; I’ve also been here long enough that I thought I could sincerely vent, and process, my feelings. Certainly, some posters upheld the best traditions of the Dope, but I really don’t get why the topic was so out of bounds for the place that once famously discussed pan fried semen.
Disagree. TBC, I mostly stayed out of that thread, because I felt it was (even if true) bait for some of our worst impulses as people and posters.
And each time I checked back it was more full of comments that really should be in the Pit, by which I mean thinly or not so thinly veiled insults.
Despite multiple mod efforts to keep it functioning. Heck, I fully expected it to be closed with an offer to move it to the Pit days ago.
Guy’s been a jackass for years. I hope he gets banned so he has more free time for tonguing Elon Musk’s prostate.
I’ll just overlook that we’re discussing moderation outside ATMB and answer your concerns.
I did not close the thread because of its subject content. I closed it because it was getting so many flags, and because the discussion was not appropriate in some respects for MPSIMS. You created many of those yourself by sharing too much information about the woman who is the object of your attentions.
Please be mindful of the forum you’re posting in. And if you wish to offer further criticism of moderation, please do that in ATMB.
Every word of it.
Yes, it’s a crazy story. I once told her that meeting her has caused me to doubt my atheism.
So god sent you a porn star? Yeah, that’s the way to get religion…
I’m not (I specifically didn’t quote the part of the preceding comment that discussed moderation). I’m referring to the posters who flagged it. The Dope used to be able to handle their shit. Not anymore.
I’m fine with it being closed. The story is over. We’re dating.
People were free to call me out in this forum if they had an issue with me. As I said, I’m just disappointed in how some posters reacted.
Ok. Thanks for the clarification.
ETA:
No, not if they thought you were violating forum rules. They did the right thing by flagging your post(s) for moderator attention.
The sexual experience and the religious experience have a lot in common. Just listen to Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah
So, it goes like this:
I get divorced. I’m lonely and depressed and long to meet somebody wonderful to date.
Then my mom dies
She never visits me after she dies. No dreams, no visions, bupkis.
But, a very attractive young woman named Alexandra, with the most luscious lips, shows up at my local bank, and is aggressively flirting with me as she explains that she’s just filling in.
After a few weeks of me feeling too self conscious to make a move, poof she’s gone.
Months go by, and then this gorgeous model named Julia appears at the gym and, for a few months, I see her a few times a week. She smiles at me, and works out near me, and I later find her on Instagram where I discover she was single and pining for a man to make his move. But the best I can do is stammer out a few lame things, and now poof she no longer shows up at my gym.
So, then, this former porn star walks into my life…
At this point, I’m staring to feel that maybe mom put in a good word.
If you’re that gullible, I think it’s best for all to get rid of you from the Atheist’s Club™
I’m an atheist too, but I believe we can be God’s gifts to each other. Just need to be careful how we unwrap the presence
I thought, as I read every word of yours in the thread, (I discounted some other posters, some were ok) you are being a bit too cavalier.
Yeah, the candy is sweet right now. But you gotta know this is gonna go sour. IMO.
I fail to understand how your Mom got into the conversation. That’s creepy. Just sayin’.
You went too far. There’s a line you crossed. The telling of her stage name was like saying “Hey, guys…look at what I got. Neener, neener!” Teenage boy, enough?
Just a very uncomfortable thread.
Sorry it didn’t work out for you.
In a metaphorical sense? Yeah, I believe that too, I believe in and have encountered love in my life, still do every day. But it’s not from Heaven, but a pure human experience. And the last thing my mother, who’s very religious, would beg the Lord for after entering Heaven would be “Please send my boy a porn star”…
(she’d rather beg “Please send my boy a cleaning lady”) 
Methinks someone might have his priorities regarding what makes a potential mate “wonderful” slightly skewed.