Oh, Spring

Outside the window, the neighborhood kids are running again.  They’re about 12 years old, a boy and a girl and the girl’s little sister, about 8, and they’re racing around the court, up the street, along the alley, through a yard, and back onto the court, altogether maybe a full block, around and around.  They’re […]

TGIPF: Abstruse Goose on Not Envying the Penis

AG is citing a riposte to intelligent design’s argument that a watch implies an intelligent watchmaker. And yes, I know it’s not a Penis Friday.  As Cassie says, you can’t have penises every Friday; and a codicil would be, some penises come on Thursdays.  AG is also offering his own, more tasteful, riposte to Cassie’s […]

TGIPF: Let’s Talk about Sex, Baby!

Warning: This post isn’t so much about penises as it is about sex. Apologies to all you Thank God It’s Penis Friday purists out there.  Sex. It’s a difficult topic for grownups, but the conversation can be downright excruciating when a child is involved. (Don’t believe me? Watch this.) Perhaps because my parents were uncomfortable, […]

Improve Your Memory With Reverse Peristalsis

I’m not in the habit of feeling sorry for members of the British royal family. But last month, when the press reported that a pregnant Kate Middleton had been hospitalized with hyperemesis gravidarum, my stomach lurched in sympathy. Pregnancy-related hyperemesis is usually described as “severe morning sickness,” but that doesn’t capture the suffering it involves. […]

How creeps get away with it

  At a recent holiday party, I was talking to an older acquaintance when out of the blue, I felt him rub his junk on my hand. I was already on my way out. My husband was a few feet ahead of me, and I’d just grabbed the sauté pan that had contained my potluck dish. […]

Where the Boys Are (The men need to be, too)

The outline of the story is as familiar as it is tawdry: a group of high school boys turn sexual insecurity into a contest, and a contest into emotional brutality. Adults in their orbit express shock and outrage, and observers pretend that the migration of teen sleaze onto the Internet represents something new. But why […]

TGIPF Guest Post: Upstairs, Downstairs

This week on LWON’s occasional series Thank God It’s Penis Friday, we bring you wisdom from not one but two authors of newly released books about private parts. (Count your blessings, people.) Florence Williams is the author of BREASTS: A Natural and Unnatural History; Jesse Bering is the author of Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? And […]