Well, as promised, you qualify as a friend for life! Especially as we seem to have a common interest in naval vocabulary, quite apart from our mutual enjoyment of French erotica.

Caroline Cherie played a very similar part in my early life, but I never knew that Jacques Laurent was the same author! Thank you for that. There are parallels there also.

I agree with you on the classification of the Bootsie story, which (not making any excuses) was an exercise in understanding what the artist had in mind when he drew the original picture. And you agreed that Bootsie had a naughty look about him!

Checkout is also an exercise, but of a different kind. It transports the occupants of the urban office into the land of fantasy and imagination. Are they real? Is my Amsterdam real? Decide for yourself.

I also agree with you that de Sade cannot turn people off bdsm. I see your point about which book they read first, but what really counts is what was already there that de Sade triggered. If nothing was there, it was pretty easy to be turned off!