When In Rome …

What’s with those Italians? Only two months ago Italy’s highest court overruled the rape conviction of a 45-year-old driving instructor - the justices said the 18-year-old student must have consented to sex since she was wearing tight jeans. It’s impossible to take off a tight pair of pants “without the cooperation of the person wearing them,” said the judges in their ruling.

Now, Italy’s highest court has ruled that making love in a car is an “obscene act” that is punishable by up to three years in prison. You can, however, get steamy if your car’s windows are “covered” so passers-by cannot see inside, the court ruled. (From the Philadelphia Inquirer)

* Their point is? Just as baby boomers are moving into the mid-years in huge numbers, along comes this news flash from the editors of Mirabella magazine, who clearly don’t want us to go gracefully into mid-life: “No matter what size a woman’s rear-end is, as long as it’s perky, it’s the right size. Gravity does take its toll: The bottom starts to flatten and droop and extra weight and cellulite appear.”

Well, thanks for pointing this out. We thought women’s magazines might have gotten beyond flogging us over lost youth and help us find a way to fund our 401K plan or something important. Since we haven’t seen this problem addressed in men’s magazines, we’re guessing either gravity doesn’t affect them, or men truly are busy with issues that matter. (From April Mirabella)

* Domestic violence 101: In Charleston, S.C., the police department takes domestic violence very seriously.

“Very few women in Charleston die as a result of physical abuse - because we have a program that focuses on public arrests,” says Reuben Greenbert, the chief of police in Charleston.

“The first time a man commits an act of physical abuse, we respond aggressively. Instead of arresting him at home, we arrest him in public - even at his workplace. We had a doctor here who had beaten his wife. So we went into his waiting room and, with all his patients watching, told him he was under arrest for wife beating.” (From May Fast Company)

* Fighting, yes; silent treatment, no: Anger is not the most destructive emotion to a marriage, says Seattle researcher John Gottman. During his work at the Family Research Laboratory at the University of Washington, Gottman found both happy and miserable couples fight. The real threats to marital happiness are criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling. (From April 19 Newsweek)

* Heading for cyberspace: Of all U.S. Net users, 46 percent got online for the first time last year, and of those, 52 percent were women. (From May Wired)