VOLTAIRE

speaking of sex (which we almost weren't) have you eve= heard this classic story about Voltaire?

He had a gay =riend who finally talked Voltaire into accompanying him one night to his f=vourite homosexual club—as you can imagine in France at that time =early 1700's) the club was out of control, everything went on—=en tied up in ropes hanging from the ceiling while being penetrated God kn=ws where and how often, and so on. So Voltaire indulges himself, trying se=eral things thoughout the night

his friend is ela=ed—now he has someone of value to go back with—so he promp=ly asks Voltaire about next Friday

"No"= Voltaire replies "Once a philosopher, twice a pervert"

i think i know exactly what Voltaire meant =br> BTW i googled him just to check that he was indeed Fre=ch and to get his date of birth and death and i was fascinated by what i l=arned from the only link i looked at

https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-should-know-about-voltaire

you probably know that he made a fortune to support =imself for life when he and a mathematician friend noticed that the French=lottery was constructed with an unfortunate error from their standpoint =80 it was designed to give out more money than it took in (you can trust=the French to get such an elementary thing wrong)

"The government shelled out massive p=izes for the contest each month, but an error in calculation meant that th= payouts were larger than the value of all the tickets in circulation. Wit= this in mind, Voltaire, La Condamine and a syndicate of other gamblers we=e able to repeatedly corner the market and rake in massive winnings. The s=heme left Voltaire with a windfall of nearly half a million francs, settin= him up for life and allowing him to devote himself solely to his literary=career."

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hard to get value of a 1730 French franc in today's dollars =ut an 1800 frank would be worth slightly more than $3 US today so Voltaire=set himself up with a fortune worth at minimum 1.5 million US and probably=well over 2 million—i think i could have scraped by with that and =n the process told both UCSC and Rutgers to kiss my ass

he also spent 11 months in prison at age 22 for writing scandalous v=rses about the Regent

"V=ltaire boasted that his cell gave him some quiet time to think....He=later endured another short stint in the Bastille in April 1726, when he w=s arrested for planning to duel an aristocrat that had insulted and beaten=him. To escape further jail time, he voluntarily exiled himself to England= where he remained for nearly three years."

incredible organism!