Surfin’ COW


It was cloudy with a chance of Thunderdome yesterday, but all things considered, you had a fairly good week, Crasstalkers. Hit the jump, and let’s have a look at who said what, when and why.
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Black History Month: Henrietta Lacks

I’m currently reading The Emperor of All Maladies. It’s a great book on the history of cancer and cancer treatments. Reading it is like sitting in the observation desk of a surgical theater while a new and especially tricky procedure is being conducted. You are witnessing one of the scariest moments of someone’s life and the most triumphant moment in another’s. Yet your attention is not on the sedated person, the one who will pay with their life should things not go as planned. Your attention is on the person in the scrubs, with the knife. Continue reading →

The 2012 Television Pilot Season: CBS Finds A Use for “Golden Boy” Ryan Phillippe

Yes, discarded drifter, Ryan Phillippe, may have found a home this fall on the network Ashton Kutcher seduced with his talent for slovenly beach bum antics and nonsensical hair-flopping. These are the other things he does on that show about two guys co-habitating and walking around in their bathrobes for half the episode, right? Seriously, every time I flip past Two and a Half Men, somebody’s always in a bathrobe. Is the whole show shot from the perspective of a lazy boy recliner, or outside a bathroom shower? No matter, I’ve yet to meet an actual person who watches that show. Maybe it’s a long commercial for terry cloth and not an actual television program. Continue reading →

Your Worst Fears about Airport Body Scanners Are True

Remember those millimeter wave full body scanners that everyone was up in arms about? Since the mass hysteria has died down, the machines have been rolled out to most of the nation’s large airports despite the fears of ogling and invasion of privacy. It turns out the doomsayers were right and that the TSA is made up primarily of teenage boys. Continue reading →

Can You Have an Orgasm While Giving Birth?


If you are like most people, you probably think of orgasms and births as very separate things. One should, ideally, precede the other, but they are not likely to occur simultaneously. People who believe in orgasmic birth call it the “best kept secret” about birth. Orgasmic birth is the idea that the woman can have a sensual birth experience and may even climax when the baby emerges. It’s a completely different approach to the pain management model that currently exists concerning birth. Continue reading →