Telecommunications and Sexual Relations ca. 1668

Bestselling science writer James Gleick, who visited last March (see a YouTube clip here), writes about state-of-the-art telecommunications in 1668 in the most recent entry on his blog "Around."

"Anyone interested in the relations between men and women (or any number of other topics) can get great pleasure from the day-by-day online version of The Diary of Samuel Pepys. It’s a soap opera. Especially at this moment (9 November 1668) and for the last few weeks (that is, 343 years ago).

If you’re not up to date, Sam’s wife caught him in flagrante with her 17-year-old maid, Deborah Willet. He wasn’t sure exactly how much she saw. At one point he confessed to the embracing but denied the kissing. Or the other way around." More.