Heh, and I also figured you might be up for my haemorrhoid discussion. This is a very practical consideration, and, you know, might well have played a part in Fritz’s tendency towards “...Naahhhh”? I mean, the mechanics of sex are complicated enough without a painful nether condition, and it sounds like Fritz’s condition was fairly acute...

how Heinrich’s height is relevant

This is me reading saucy innuendo into our smitten diarist’s use of “height” in “my heart feels the whole height of this pleasure” to convey the following: my tiny Prince might be tiny but he is extremely well endowed and furthermore I felt every inch of said endowment via bottoming for him. Ahem. But I will grant you that might be a bit of a stretch. Also wishful thinking!

physical bottoming and sexual bottoming are two different things

Indeed! Hence the topping from the bottom, and also the New York Times’ Hadrian reviewer’s descriptive and technically accurate use of the term “the dominant partner” to describe the sexual position depicted in the opera. (I’ll pause here for cahn and I to picture Hampson simulating the bottoming in question, and trying to keep our heads from exploding, hee.)