Well, folks, I've been gone the last two weeks on a honeymoon, only to reemerge last night at one of the first showings of Sex and the City, where there were surely more single women than I had ever seen at a theater in my two decades as a single man in Manhattan.

I'll spare you my review, and instead, let me take you on a catwalk through the past, with some of the stranger moments of the hit HBO sex comedy.

The new, velvet-bound 20-DVD Sex and the City collection captures all the downright bizarre moments, from the very first episode when Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw wonders if she and her impossibly hip and empowered gal pals can "have sex like men."

Yes, we've seen the joy of prosthetic nipples, the horror of that first gray pubic hair, and the mysteries (and apparent truths) of female ejaculation.

In case you're caught up on the show's shameless love affair with dress-to-impress consumption, Carrie has roughly $40,000 shoes in her closet, based on her lawyer friend Miranda's estimation (average cost multiplied times 200+ pair, stashed in various places, including her oven).

Carrie's shoe size is 7-and-a-half, and when she first moved to the city, she couldn't afford Vogue and her groceries, so she bought Vogue because it "nourished" her. Of course, now she writes for the glitzy mag, so it might actually explain how she pays for that shoe fetish.

Other tidbits :

She meets Mr. Big in the first episode. Her friends refer to the outfit she wears on that first date as "the naked dress," and when she finally cooks for him -- many, many episodes later -- she makes fondue.

Though Carrie's rebuffed when she tries to leave a toothbrush in her commitment-challenged beau's ritzy abode, the first personal item she successfully stashes there is a hair drier.

Along with Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha, New York City is rightfully considered one of the characters in the show, and seeing Parker's name in the opening credits over the World Trade Center (until the 12th episode of the 4th Season) just underscores that we've all changed quite a bit since they brought Cosmopolitans back into fashion.

Weird News Headlines

Underwear Underworld: Police Hunt for Robbers Wearing Thong Masks (Dumb Crime Du Jour);

Butt Bites: Georgia teen arrested for nipping Wal-Mart shoppers (Very Kinky);

Naked Aggression: Nude mom shoots herself in finger after arguing with son (Nude News);

Prickly Situation: New Zealand man fined for striking teen with hedgehog (Dumb Crime Du Jour) ;

Clean Sweep: Nude maid cleans out Tampa man's house of $40,000 in jewelry (Nude News);

Potty Blastoff: One toilet on International Space Station out of order (Potty Issues);

Pennies from Heaven: Indonesian businessman to drop thousands of dollars from airplane to promote book (Weird Asian News);

Land Shark: Sleepwalking man walks into stuffed shark, gets bitten (Man vs. Beast).

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