It all comes down to brothels

Notice how, once you start working on a specific topic or issue, you suddenly notice how often said topic or issue pops up in day-to-day reading or conversations?

Take, for instance, brothels, the space I'm examining in the first chapter of the diss (it's time to get with the lingo).

Not long ago Karine sent me a link to this story about how British Justice Ministry is thinking about replacing the word "prostitute" in the country's criminal statues because it has become stigmatized. It also seeks to define the crime of prostitution, numerically. This story offers a more understanding take.

And then today, out of nowhere, I read this plot summary of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale (the book, not the movie):

[Bond is] charged with a smaller, simpler, but just as improbable task as the Bond of the movies: Defeat a French communist union leader by beating him at baccarat, thus forcing him to face the music with the Soviet intelligence agency SMERSH whose money he's squandered on a chain of brothels.

A chain of brothels? How decadent. And classy.