An intelligent answer to a question about oral sex right after brushing your teeth by post by Doctor Kate over at Em & Lo's blog reminded me of one of the shortest, most poignant posts in the old usenet alt.sex boards from (golly!) back around 1992!

I can't find the original post by a very versatile and experimental young man nicknamed Richh but it went something very close to

Don't ask me how I know this but never put toothpaste on your ass. That is all.

And don't ask me how I know, especially after reading Richh's warning, but yeah, a little tingling from leftover mint from a partner’s tongue isn’t a problem on sensitive parts of the body. But what’s tingly in very small quantities can be “OMG where’s a fire extinguisher” in larger ones.

The kinds of high concentrations of peppermint, spearmint, or wintergreen oil, like eucalyptus oil and the essential oils you get in things like toothpaste, shaving cream, perfumes, and even some kinds of ointments are a very, very different matter on more, um, tender parts of the body!

Note: I am not sure how this compares with the much bandied about Altoids Blowjob Technique. (Oh, but just two seconds of Googling suggests you can do it but don't overdo it.)

Update: I never did find the toothpaste reference but I'm sorry to say I did find an obituary for Richh, Rich Halberstein, who died in 2002. He evidently got around by wheelchair, which makes his iconoclastic, exuberantly, kinetic creative writing all the more impressive. If he'd lived a little longer he'd have been a great blogger. It would have been an excellent medium for his responsive writing style.

Em & Lo are looking for new contributors to their popular Wise Guys section. I'm a participant and if you meet their understandably male-identifying criteria you might be too. Here's the scoop.

All we need is a few good men. A straight single guy, a straight married guy, and a gay single or married guy, to be precise. Must be communicative, concise, respectful of deadlines and not sexist. Bonus points for a great sense of humor and a penchant for correct grammar. We can pay you in crazy promotion for a blog, a book or a business (sorry, we’re short on cold hard cash these days). If you’re interested, send us a sample answer to the question below via our contact form (select “Question for the Wise Guys” in the pull down menu) — please keep your answer to one paragraph, no more than 250 words. And don’t forget to let us know your relationship status, sexual orientation, age, profession, the name you’d be writing under, what (if anything) you’d like promoted (please include links), and if you’d be happy for us to use your picture. By submitting a written answer to the below question, you agree to allow us to publish your answer on EMandLO.com for all eternity:

What’s the best way for a woman to ask a guy out?

Source: Em & Lo

Once again you submit your answer to their contact form, not in comments on this blog.

So while I was jet-lagging in Greece I ran across this cool post from Em & Lo

illus. of Paraguard IUD via Med.unc.edu

Move over, Pill! According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the IUD is a whole lot more effective — and safer than was traditionally thought. For a long time IUDs have been recommended only for women in long-term monogamous relationships who’d already had children — this was based on concerns that IUDs raised the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which, left untreated, can cause infertility. But according to ACOG, the evidence does not support these concerns — meaning, IUDs do not cause PID.

When you combine this news with what we already knew — the overwhelming effectiveness of a device that you insert once every five or ten years, as compared to a pill that you have to remember to take daily — it’s kind of a no-brainer. Or, at least, the IUD is definitely a contender. Currently it’s the redheaded stepchild of the birth control world — in 2008, IUDs, were the chosen method of 5.5% of women using contraceptives (and only 1.3% in 2002). But as more and more women find out that (a) IUDs are a lot safer than they’d been warned and (b) a lot more effective than the Pill or condoms, we’re guessing that will change.

Source: Em & Lo

And since I was jet lagged... and since the rest of my family traitorously were all sound asleep, I wrote the following... which I just discovered got Em & Lo's comment of the week award a day or two later.  Here's what I said then.  And since it was only a week or so ago it's still true. :-)

It’s been, what, 45 years since sales of the infamous Dalkon Shield IUD were suspended. And virtually everything we “know” about how bad IUDs are comes from… the Dalkon Shield. It’s also been roughly 40 years since the first copper-wrapped mini-IUD was introduced.

This is still not to say the IUD is perfect for everyone, but as you say it’s more perfect for more people than The Pill or other heavy-duty hormonal contraceptives like shots or Norplant.

If the ACOG has greenlighted it a lot of caregivers who’ve been reluctant to prescribe IUDs are more likely to get on board.

For what it’s worth, one of the biggest arguments against IUDs is that they don’t protect from STIs. But since hormonal contraceptives don’t either that’s always been a wash. But with IUDs you can use condoms for what they do best: minimize risk of STI transmission, while leaving the IUD to do what itdoes best: preventing pregnancy when there are condom slip-ups.

Finally, speaking of condoms, for people who could be “fluid bonded” but still rely on condoms for contraception, the up-front cost of an IUD might be relatively high but five to ten years worth of condoms aren’t exactly cheap either.

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I ought to add that whereas I've always thought that if I was a woman I'd use an IUD it's also the case that since I'm a man I got a vasectomy at age 21, a reversal around age 42, and a second (and final) vasectomy around age 45.  What the ACOG is saying is that you no longer have to think of yourself as a risk taker or a pioneer for seeing if it would work for you.

Photo by figleaf. Posted with a Creative Commons license.

Photo by figleaf. Posted with a Creative Commons license.

Sappho is from somewhere between these two points of land on the Aegean Sea at Skala Eresau on the island of Lesvos (older spelling Lesbos), Greece. Locals are hopeful the museum in town will open, but not till July. It's been closed for five years. Sappho was an extremely interesting poet and a major influence on ancient/Classic Greek culture. While we don't know very much about her at all, what we do know suggests her story's far more complex, and thus far more interesting than pretty much any of her major biographers have led people to believe. The town itself is adorable but no one spot was particularly memorable to look at. The drive there, however, is nothing short of awesome -- sort of like a combination of driving through the American Southwest and the Alps only with backdrops of a staggeringly blue Mediterranean sea. And the views from the beach are just awesome. If you ever get to Lesvos I don't know if I'd recommend staying in the town itself, but for historical reasons and for the sheer majesty of the landscape on the way it's one of the must-see places.