Did you know Graham crackers were originally intended to suppress carnal urges? As in, wanting to play with yourself? What in the fuck?
It was originally conceived of as a health food as part of the Graham Diet, a regimen to suppress what he considered unhealthy carnal urges, the source of many maladies according to Graham. Reverend Graham would often lecture about the adverse effects of masturbation or "self-abuse" as he called it. One of his many theories was that one could curb their sexual appetite by eating bland foods. Another man who held this belief was Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of the corn flakes cereal. (Source)
So then naturally I had to check up on this Kelogg guy, and damn, was his line of thinking somewhat fucked up as well.
Kellogg, an advocate of sexual abstinence, devoted large amounts of his educational and medical work to discouraging sexual activity, on the basis of dangers both real - as in sexually transmissible diseases - and purported. He set out his views on such matters in one of his larger books, published in various editions around the turn of the century under the title Plain Facts about Sexual Life and later Plain Facts for Old and Young. Some of his work on diet was influenced by his belief that a plain and healthy diet, with only two meals a day, among other things, would reduce sexual feelings. Those experiencing temptation were to avoid stimulating food and drinks, and eat very little meat, if any. Kellogg also advocated hydrotherapy and stressed the importance of keeping the colon clean through yogurt enemas. (source)
Okay, so I understand his supposed higher goal based on averting the threat of STDs, but what lengths can one ethically go to prevent this? According to this site, which has the complete book of his online, he says:
[Kellogg]...despised masturbation, even resorting to operating on a 10-year-old girl to stop her habit (as you will read, he betrays his doubts about whether he should have done it or not). He epitomizes the anti-masturbation mania.
If there weren't enough, here's an excerpt from a page of the book (click to enlarge):
You can find Kellogg's book, Plain Facts for Old and Young: Embracing the Natural History and Hygiene of Organic Liferight here.
If we let pseudo-science, speculation and willful ignorance based on one's blind, so-called moral principles take precedence over sound science, ultimately this is a much greater harm than anything they aim to prevent.
So what have I been up to? Well, I went to New York for New Years Eve (by my lonesome) though I did meet an old friend up there and stayed at her place in Queens. The last time I went to New York was during the Spring of 2007 or so. I stayed in a hostel that time and I would likely do it again if I had to visit the city again but needed a place to stay. I paid about $21 dollars a night and stayed a few blocks away from Central Park. Not bad, right? The only downside is that there is a dormitory setup, with some rooms allowing co-ed sleeping arrangments which may mean you'll be sharing a room with complete strangers of either sex. However, you can book the room in advance and reserve a room for you and your friends so that everyone in your room will be someone you are familiar with. Some hostels may have a couple of suites that are totally private that might even have their own restrooms in them. On the other hand, my floor only had two restrooms. This may not be ideal for many people, including myself, considering I had some sort of a stomach virus that first trip.
This years trip to N.Y. was pretty laid-back, if one can say that about New York. Of course it was freezing and it snowed the day I arrived. The following morning I gazed out the window and walked about the streets by myself because I was so anxious to get out and explore. Of course my friend was probably thinking, "WTF, dude", but I knew I wouldn't sleep in. The sun was out that morning and the skies were clear, but I'll know better next time than to be mislead by the illusion of its warm welcome. It was 16 degrees that day but with the wind-chill factored in, it was about 3 degrees. I finally got Jen out of bed and we decided to go to Coney Island. She hadn't visited the Island since she moved there so we figured we'd both try something new. Yeah, bad idea. It was reminiscent of a wasteland, abandoned by tourists, maybe because its a beach and it probably attracts seasonal tourists.
It was still neat getting an authentic Coney Island dog at the original Nathan's. Oh, the nostalgia, right?
Alright, I hate to break some hearts here, but I'm not one to romanticize things if it's unwarranted. So here goes: The hotdog was mediocre at best, and nothing magical happened when I ate it. I guess being 'first' is good enough sometimes.
We stopped in a Dunkin Doughnuts and saw a couple of cops ordering some. Of course since we're both really immature we thought it was hilarious so we took pictures because I'm sure we'll never see that again. ;-/
We headed back after a while and Jen took a picture of something inside the subway station, but some dude that worked there thought she was taking pictures of him, so he accosted her. She assured him she wasn't and then he chilled out about. I'm not sure if that's policy, or if he's simply camera shy.
The ride from Queens to Coney Island was about 30-40+ minutes by subway. It was amazing the views of the city you can get from such a ride though. On the way back I got this picture (with my camera phone, sadly) of the Brooklyn Bridge juxtaposed with a jaded local fitting-in a nap.
Interestingly enough, there were some mariachis that came in and entertained us (or more specifically, entertained me) as I appeared to be the only one that wasn't a tourist.
Funny enough, I didn't get any pictures of what actually went down on New Years; I was too busy drawing it all in, but I did have a great time. We decided against going to see the ball drop, because I've heard from many people that it's not worth it. We just did our own thing and enjoyed New York like residents rather than tourists. I had a great time.
I arrived home from NY on January 2nd, and my birthday was the following day. My friend, Ali flew in and Dawn met me later. (They're both in this band called Black Kids, if you've even heard of them. They're actually more popular in Europe.) My sister invited us all to see an improv comedy show the night of my birthday. I haven't been to one ever before so it was a great idea. I still contend that most of what they say is somewhat scripted. There's no way that would work-out as it did, but I'm one of those annoying skeptics that ruins jokes and takes the fun out of shit, so who knows.
After that, I went to MJQ (a divey club here in Atlanta) and we all danced the night away. I even literally picked-up a girl and swung her around, as my neanderthal ancestors must've done when they saw something they liked. But anyway, I had a great New Years and a great birthday surrounded by amazing friends and fam. Downside is that I'm now 29 (thirty-eve!) I have a good feeling about 2009 though.&n bsp; I finally am going to be able to take a proper amount of time to see my little boy in Jacksonville. I'm so damn exited but it will be bitter-sweet. I need to get back into school here a.s.a.p. and keep myself busy, because I know I want to get going on my education but I could easily just as well return to Jacksonville if things here are not worth being away so long from my son. I'll try to keep you updated.
