Britons 'saving money with sex'

As the credit crunch bites, Britons may be turning to sex as a cheap way to pass the time, a charity says.

A YouGov survey of 2,000 adults found sex was the most popular free activity, ahead of window shopping and gossiping.

The Scots were most amorous with 43% choosing sex over other pastimes, compared with 35% in South England.

Aids charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, which published the survey, also welcomed recent figures showing an increase in condom sales.

Around one in 10 respondents to the survey, carried in November, said their favourite free activity was window shopping and 6% chose going to a museum as the cheapest way to pass the time.

But the sexes differed on their priorities, with women preferring to gossip with friends while men had sex firmly at the top of their list.

Firmly, even...

On a serious note, I think, based on purely personal experience, there appears to be a growing backlash to the "Bowling Alone" culture in America.  Suburbia will always be an anti-social hell on earth, but I do think we've reached a tipping point in the States where we've realized how cut off from one another we've become and are actively reaching out, coming up with new ways to create little communities.  Also, this is weird, but a lot of people have remarked on it: since the election, people in Chicago are just nicer to and more open with one another.  It's kind of neat.  That sense of existential isolation has seriously diminished.  Who knows how long it will last, though.

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.