: : crazybrave has moved to <a href="http://crazybrave.net">http://crazybrave.net/</a>: On gentle dalliances

Monday, February 13, 2006

On gentle dalliances

The wrinklies were in town over the weekend, which means vast quantities of newspaper flooding the house. I'm more of an online newspaper reader these days, so it's very unusual for me to read the Monday Canberra Times. I'm glad I did, because I discovered bookcrossing. Trust me to find the one little article that was about an online community.

Bookcrossers leave books in public places (releasing them "into the wild") with a ID sticker which has a unique number. They ask for the book to be found, and read, and passed on, or not, as you wish. About a quarter of the released books are "captured" by people who leave journal entries at the site, and there are designated drop zones and of course some Serious Fans. They leave them in parks, and laundromats, on benches and in bookshops.

If you want to go hunting near you, have a look here .

I tried to find one released yesterday near my house, but there was only an empty wine bottle and a single sneaker. Sad, because I had great plans for the copy of "Thank God I'm An Atheist - The Religious Origins Of Expressions, Customs" by Rudolf Brasch which had been left outside the Dickson Baptist Church.

I filled up a carton of books a little while ago for a joint garage sale Duck and I are going to have, but I think we might have to set some of them free. Perhaps for Valentine's Day I will liberate "Guide to Sexual Success" by W F Robie, MD.

Masturbating will set you free

Hard to part with a book that prescribes masturbation as the cure for the world's evils, though, unless there's a particularly brilliant suggestion where I should leave it? I'll give you an idea of the tone to get you in the mood:

"We must either see to it that all normal people have sex manifestations in sleep, varying in frequency, perhaps as a rule from once a month to three times a week, or we must provide some other remedy for those who have none, or practially none, of these manifestations. I have no hesitancy whatever in naming autoeroticism as the only possible remedy consistent with morals, health, self-respect, and social betterment, for this latter class"

You see why I like him, huh? Only writer in the world more wedded to the comma than I am.

"From about the time of her marriage she had a feeling of curiosity and repulsion in regard to male genitals. She told her husband of this, and he was careful not to expose himself before her. If her husband or one of her boys or a male guest went to the bathroom to urinate, she had a feeling of disgust and a strong erotic feeling. At the age of seventeen, she awoke one night having violent sensations immediately culminating in an orgasm."

Can that man segue or what? This next is from the good doctor's sexual history survey for his patients:

"5. Did you, as a child, masturbate? If so, was the habit taught you or was it done of your own volition? If taught, under what circumstances? If not, what led to its beginning? Did threadworms, friction of clothing, sliding down bannisters, itching of prepuce, or any other irritation of glans penis or clitordis [fully sic], or any other ascribable cause other than instinct lead to it?"

Freaky! I totally started masturbating as a result of a threadworm infestation - but let's talk about you.

Finally, some serious advice:

"I have talked with but three married women out of several hundred, who did not delight in having their husbands gently hold their breasts and kiss or titillate their nipples. This is often a sufficient preliminary to intercourse if followed for ten or fifteen minutes, but the majority of wives also wish their husband's hands in gentle dalliance with their more private parts before intercourse."

Doctor knows best, right ladies?