In a particularly wonderful moment the phenomenon of sitting and the human ass all of the sudden became profoundly strange to me, this at a meeting of our English Department. This has no bearing on the Tunxis English Department; it was merely coincidence, since most of us were seated. Sure we have chairs. But why do we have asses? Are they for sitting?

I can imagine a human condition in which people never sit and therefore do not envision chairs? In such a case, what is the ass good for? I mention this to my good friend and colleague John Timmons and he reminded me of Bukowski in this regard, which of course got us thinking about this anatomical issue to even greater degrees of absurdity. If the ass were on the head, discos could have lower ceilings and people could leap to no effect but minor bruising.

The question yet persists. It’s either why do we have asses or why do we sit?