The Language of Porn

How do porn magazines (and gay porn magazines in particular) manage to broadcast their contents without using taboo words like "fuck" or "cocksucker" or any actual images of penises, testicles, or anuses? Simple: by a liberal use of asterisks and a veritable thesaurus' worth of dirty synonyms, including "nail", "bang", "bone", "gang", and the ever-popular "rump-roasting", all of which are discussed at amusing length in this informative blog post about the linguistics and visual conventions of stroke literature. (And what does it say about us that we think this is the sexiest blog post we've come across anywhere this week, Brazilian fotolog boys included? Guess it really is time for a vacation.) You'll never look at a headline like "Marines Share Cummy Butthole" the same way again!

· "Language Log: Drawing The Line" (upenn.edu/~myl - thanks Joe)