I didn’t even know he was gay

More Intelligent Life has an article up about the sex diaries of John Maynard Keynes. The article is interesting, even if the author seems a little daft in some of his speculations.

“To buttress my theory that this second tabulated diary records anonymous sex (or attempts at anonymous sex), and not on-going sex with a stable partner, there is another, very puzzling number attached to each quarterly increment. First, Keynes adds up all the three categories of activities—”C” plus “A” plus “W”—and then he attaches a number that doesn’t seem to relate to any of them. These numbers range from 65 to 100. Doesn’t that sound to you like a grade?

Keynes was a young don, barely out of university, so my guess is that he’s grading himself on performance. Most of his grades (if that’s what they are) are in the 70s and 80s. That is, he attained pretty good sex but nothing to write home about. Only rarely does he award himself a grade of 95 or above (no grade-inflation here), but there is a 100 and there’s even one 104. That 104 either disproves my theory or indicates a quarter-term of quite spectacular A+ sex.”

I don’t know any guy who would ever rate the quality of their sex for a month as over 100. I mean, good sex is good sex, but day in day out for a month? And what are the four bonus points for? Extra credit?

As of right now, I think the diary remains pretty well coded.