Tari's Patch

Graduation season is upon us and social media has been full of advice for fresh young graduates - what to do, what not to do, what to expect. Or to be precise, what not to expect. Unkindly, there's even been reminders of the number of highly successful and rich men in the world who dropped out of college - Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg to mention three. Yes, wealth appears still to up there as an ambition, so I get to think about the game of chances. Billionaires seem to have become something of a role model but the odds of becoming one aren't that great. According to Forbes, there is one billionaire for every 5 million population of the world (one in 750,000 in America). Slightly better odds, granted, than putting money on the lottery. If you played the UK National Lottery, you have a one in 14 million chance of hitting the correct six numbers with a typical prize of £2m. In America, the odds of getting the first 5 numbers and the Power Ball is one in 120 million....

Recently I went to a concert at Edinburgh's Usher Hall where one of the soloists was an incredibly handsome and talented young Macedonian guitarist. I was introduced to him at the interval and told him enthusiastically how much I appreciated his playing. I also told him how gorgeous I thought he was. To be exact, I told him that I'd marry him and leave my husband (this was clearly banter, and my husband was standing beside me at the time). He took it warmly and charmingly and responded with matching repartee. So here's the question. Had I been a 61 year old man and he a gorgeous young female artist, would I be accused of sexism, of being patronising? Is it okay for a 61 year old woman to say these things because I believe my guitarist to be perfectly safe from any power play from me? Because I believe there is zero chance that anything I might say to him would be received with any real or threatening sexual connotation? Social norms of course change all the time, as we...