The science of kissing.

Post 455 - A passionate kiss burns 6.4 calories per minute. Scientific research now shows that puckering up affects more than half the motor-function area in the brain. According to a report featured on the Discovery Channel, "There are 500 kinds of kisses identified throughout history. For instance, there's the Swissbat kiss, where one person rolls their tongue counter-clockwise, while the other person moves their tongue clockwise." And so on .... Here are some other kinds of kisses that you may not be that familiar with - I found them in More Creative Dating by Doug Fields and Todd Temple:

- Peaches: As you say the word peaches, your lips come together for less than a second.

- Prunes: Here, the movement of the lips during the kiss roughly approximates that caused by saying prunes. This is longer than a peaches kiss.

- Alfalfa: Hold your tongue with your fingers and try to say alfalfa - bet you can't do it. You can't give an alfalfa kiss without using your tongue either.

- Glass; This kiss is most commonly used when you're separated by a pane of glass - such as when you're in a hurry and can't roll down the car window. If you're in the middle of a glass kiss and the other person pulls away, blow air into the window and make your cheeks swell.

- Noisy: A kiss that makes noise isn't that unusual, although it's sometimes considered rude.

- Thrown: Seen mostly in parades and silent movies. Can be painful if you don't loosen up your arm first. Bob Hope believed that people who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy.

- Blown: Similar to a thrown kiss but used at close range or to avoid interception.

- Hand: Another member of the thrown kiss family. After the kiss is placed on the hand, it's then applied to the other person's face. This has the advantage of being more accurate than a thrown or a blown kiss.

- Dark: Kissing in the dark can be a problem for people with a bad sense of direction. One way to deal with this is to hold the other person's nose in your fingers and then kiss just below the hand.

- Grandma Bunny: These are the kisses you get from older female relatives. Bunny refers to the soft white hair grandmothers have above their lips, which they often moisten before kissing.

Despite Victor Hugo’s comment that, “A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil,” it seems that to most people, a veiled kiss is better than no kiss at all. Life is short, so break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile.