the xlog : x-rated weblog

“Dad, this is my boyfriend.” Some of the hardest words for a father to hear and a trigger for one of the biggest psychological gearshifts we will ever have to make.

No matter how many books we’ve read or theories we’ve spouted, I know of no father who doesn’t break out in a cold sweat at the mere thought of any boy so much as laying a finger on his cherished little girl, let alone indulging in something more intimate.

My friend Pete said one of the toughest moments of his life was smiling in a friendly, welcoming manner when introduced to his gorgeous 17-year-old daughter’s boyfriend, while his mind churned with horrific thoughts about exactly what this testosteronic teenager probably wanted to do with her given half a chance. Just as we resist the notion of our own parents having sex, so most of us struggle with the idea that our daughters might do the same thing.

We’re caught in a gender trap here. A son’s evolution to manhood is usually a source of pride, wonder and sage advice from us, but as our girls become women, we begin to battle demons that used to be kept at bay with strict rules and a dark silence. These days, we must confront our fears and our daughter’s needs, and find a way that leads to emotional security for both of us.

Read the rest on the New Zealand Star

Magazine and radio ads for Enzyte made the “male enhancement” pill sound like a sure thing.

The ads featured a glowing customer satisfaction survey, testimonials from happy Enzyte users, a promise of better sex within 30 days and a claim that a Harvard doctor developed the pill’s formula.

But a company executive who helped sell Enzyte says there was a catch:

None of it was true.

James Teegarden Jr., the former vice president of operations at Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, explained Tuesday in U.S. District Court how he and others at the company made up much of the content that appeared in Enzyte ads.

He said employees of the Forest Park company created fictitious doctors to endorse the pills, fabricated a customer-satisfaction survey and made up numbers to back up claims about Enzyte’s effectiveness.

“So all this is a fiction?” Judge S. Arthur Spiegel asked about some of the claims.

“That’s correct, your honor,” Teegarden said.

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"Dad, this is my boyfriend." Some of the hardest words for a father to hear and a trigger for one of the biggest psychological gearshifts we will ever have to make.

No matter how many books we’ve read or theories we’ve spouted, I know of no father who doesn’t break out in a cold sweat at the mere thought of any boy so much as laying a finger on his cherished little girl, let alone indulging in something more intimate.

My friend Pete said one of the toughest moments of his life was smiling in a friendly, welcoming manner when introduced to his gorgeous 17-year-old daughter’s boyfriend, while his mind churned with horrific thoughts about exactly what this testosteronic teenager probably wanted to do with her given half a chance. Just as we resist the notion of our own parents having sex, so most of us struggle with the idea that our daughters might do the same thing.

We’re caught in a gender trap here. A son’s evolution to manhood is usually a source of pride, wonder and sage advice from us, but as our girls become women, we begin to battle demons that used to be kept at bay with strict rules and a dark silence. These days, we must confront our fears and our daughter’s needs, and find a way that leads to emotional security for both of us.

Read the rest on the New Zealand Star

Here’s a suggestion for the people developing the Firefox web browser. That little orange fox curled up around the globe of the earth is a nice logo, really it is. But come on. If a company wants us to look at their logo on our browser, wouldn’t you rather they made us look at this one?

“If we taught driver’s ed the way we teach sex education,” says the professor, his voice assuming a deep, mocking tone, “we’d be saying things like, ‘Stay away from the car. Don’t stand next to the car.’ Yeah, right.”
So it’s a perfect time to teach sex these days if you’re on a college campus, says Robin Sawyer, a public health professor at the University of Maryland.

At 55, the former soccer striker from Yorkshire, England, has been lecturing students on the perils and payoffs of sex for 22 years. He teaches human sexuality to five sections a year; four of them have more than 200 students. This means about 16,000 students have heard him lecture on everything from crocodile dung (an early recipe for female contraception) to foot fetishes, with anatomy, childbirth, infections and lots of other practical details thrown in.

Students raised on a tell-all media diet are eager to talk about everything, have done a good bit of it, but don’t know very much. How strange: They have walked the walk, but they can’t talk the talk.

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Villagers in the small town of Cae Onan on the Welsh border with England have launched a petition to change the town’s name because it translates into “Masturbation Meadow”.

The Welsh word Cae means meadow but Onan has no meaning in Welsh other than the biblical figure killed by God for “spilling his seed” instead of impregnating his dead brother’s wife. Onanism is the Welsh word for masturbation.

Julia Newsham, who started the petition, told Associated Newspapers she believed council planners meant to call the village Cae Onnen which translates into Ash Meadow. “Anyone who knows Welsh and the Bible will put two and two together. There is a funny side but it is also embarrassing,” she said. The council said it had no plans to change the town’s name.

Carmen Electra was part of a mob scene in Montreal’s downtown club strip, where she was hosting a burlesque performance at the Opera Nightclub.

There, the two-time Playboy cover girl was jetted in to introduce the "Belluscious" act. And while she wasn’t actually going to be getting up to any sexual antics on stage herself, the crowd was eager to see if they could press the flesh with the former Mrs. Dennis Rodman.

"I’m just a girl from Cincinnati, Ohio, who had big dreams and managed to get here," she told the Globe, shortly before heading onstage. Born Tara Leigh Patrick (her stage name was supplied by none other than the artist currently known as Prince), Electra is also busy shilling her latest video, another entry in her hugely popular Aerobics Striptease series.

–click photo for larger version–

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