The people who would be on the first two lists if you weren’t so ashamed.
I have 3 lists, too:
- Actual intercourse
- Oral sex only
- “Making Out,” i.e., “naughty bits” were touched/fondled, but not oral sex or intercourse ever took place.
If I include all 3 lists, it’s 15
List 1 - 13
List 2 - 1
List 3 - 1
List 1 is much larger because 9 times out of 10, List 3 or 2 led to List 1.
Those two are lists of men. The other is a list of women.
I have a disturbing need to categorize things. And people. I could break it down further, but that idea worries even me
36! 
People you’ve dated but not “done anything” with? There are a few on that list for me.
36!? 36 factorial? Google says that’s 3.72x10[sup]41[/sup].
:eek:
OK, I know, I’m a big old math geek. 
Try not to suck any dick on your way across the message board!
I’d tell the truth if I answered at all. I lied once when the number was 0 and I wanted it to be otherwise, but I felt foolish and immature for doing so. I mean, I was foolish an immature, but I didn’t usually feel like it.
Don’t you mean:
– What’s the third list? :o
I’d tell, I guess, since my number is fairly low - but I’d never ask.
Instead, I’d be more apt to ask about their last std test.
I don’t care how many partners a lover has had in the past, I just want to know they are safe when we start sleeping together.
I’m amazed that most people can even answer the question. I have no idea. I guess it is the hundreds and not the thousands. I’d just assume most people lie.
(a) I’d consider it kinda tasteless to bring up until the relationship was at a very advanced stage. And even then…
(b) I’m not proud to say it, but it’s true, my first thought would be “uh-oh – Is it a Trick Question? A test? Is she looking for a true answer or a “right” answer?”
(BTW, haven’t faced that question this century)
© I would never demand, and conversely will not volunteer, specific statistical tables. I’ll fight hard to keep it generic and nonspecific, out of respect to all parties. (Nobody needs to feel s/he is being compared.) Specifics will be provided on a strict need-to-know basis, said need having to be adequately explained.
(d) That said, I am aware that even for people within my generational range, every person will have such a widely different notion of what is a little or a lot. By the time it’s proper to make this inquiry, I should hope the person has gotten to know my personality well enough to say “Well, yes, that is in character for JRD”.
I’m a terrible liar. I would be honest. My number is neither too low nor too high. (Somewhere between 5 and 10, I don’t keep count.)
I keep the lists more for my own benefit. I would never answer the query right off with, “Which list do you want?” since that is more likely to be greeted with 
than anything else. Nor would I ask someone to break their experiences down in such a fashion, unless the relationship was sufficiently advanced to make my curiosity at least a bit less weird, I knew the person was someone who would actually answer such a question, or both. I have had lovers whose total numbers I did not know and did not care to know. As Rebekkah points out, their std status is far more relevant.