ask-a-blogger

What's The Flap About Reduced Circumcision Rates?

Emily Gould · 06/19/07 01:10PM

Yesterday, news broke that the circumcision rate in the US was the lowest it's ever been, with some states' rates hovering below 50%. Experts attribute the drop to immigration, as well as changing attitudes about breastfeeding, the increase in natural births, and a growing antipathy towards inflicting pain on babies because of some 'covenant with God' bullshit. (Well, or just the first three.) We clearly feel strongly about not cutting skin off little infant wangs, and also we think uncut dicks are cuter, but we weren't sure how everyone else felt. So we asked a handful of sluts, a gay and a heterosexual Jew.

What's So Great About Cocaine Anyway?

Emily Gould · 06/11/07 02:21PM

Times reporter Melena Ryzik has spent the last five months interviewing young New Yorkers about how, in spite of the fact that drugs are widely known to be bad, "cocaine is a prominent part of a night out." Using evidence gleaned from Craigslist, blogs, and quotes from cokeheads, Melena does a good job of showing that coke is so hot right now, but the question remains: why is this the case? Don't get me wrong: I am not trying to be all D.A.R.E. on you, because there are some substances I support wholeheartedly. But I've never really gotten the appeal of a drug that limpens dicks, promotes nasty-tasting postnasal drip, and turns ordinary sick hangovers into scenes from some cliché drug movie. I decided to get to the bottom of the mystery of what the appeal of blow is, besides getting to say all those incredibly cool-sounding euphemisms like "skiing" and "Bolivian Marching Powder." So I asked a wide array of—okay, I asked some professional blog-types—what they see in cocaine.