Putting Men's Health First
Pretty Pig or Charming Chimp? “My opinion of this animal has much improved during the course of my research. Where once I thought of filth and greed, I now think of intelligence, affection, loyalty, and adaptability, with an added touch of joyous sensuality – qualities without which humans would not be humans.” … Continued
Dr Eugen Steinach (1861-1944) The first endocrinologist, known to his grateful colleagues as “Father Christmas” The 19th century self-made man affirmed himself in the dirt dark stink of the Industrial Revolution. Impoverished rural peasantry, seeking a portion of the new wealth, provided near-slave labour for his mills, forges, factories and mines. The massive profits from the … Continued
A Seed of Silphium, Ferula drudeana, Cyrenian coin, 6th century BC Messalina’s likenesses had been obliterated, defaced, destroyed by the diktat of the Roman Senate, damnatio memoriae: we will never know what she looked like. What we think we do know is that she must have been abominably attractive and most certainly oversexed, “hypersexual”. Because … Continued
“Messalina, the wife of Claudius Caesar, thinking the palm quite worthy of an empress, selected for the purpose of deciding the question, one of the most notorious of the women who followed the profession of a hired prostitute; the empress outdid her, after continuous intercourse, night and day, at the twenty-fifth embrace.” Pliny the Elder, … Continued
Jeune femme des Iles Sandwich dansant, 1822, Jacques Arago (1770 – 1855) Kuini Liliha, this 17 year old hula dancer, an ali’i, a noble woman of O’ahu Island, was depicted by Jacques Arago in 1819 dancing the sitting hula. Hula, of course, was also performed standing – one way or the other, the dance would … Continued
Lighting Up, Brigitte Bardot (1934 – ) “I gave my beauty and my youth to men. I am going to give my wisdom and experience, the best of me, to animals”, Brigitte Bardot, 1973. Eh bien, alors… *** On Friday 14 June 1940, closely ordered long columns of grey Nazi troops stomped cheerless down a … Continued
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, 1844-1900 As the savvy but occasionally sanctimonious butler Jeeves said of his nitwit master Bertie Wooster’s frightful ex-fiancée Florence – “It was her intention to start you almost immediately upon Nietzsche. You would not like Nietzsche, Sir. He is fundamentally unsound”. Carry on, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse, 1925 Between the … Continued
Nu Bleu : Souvenir de Biskra, Henri Matisse, 1907 Pierre and Ferdie were having a long and indulgent boys’ holiday, a pair of blasé boulevardiers escaping their tedious Paris stomping ground. In rather less restrictive Italy, they stumbled on a notorious friend: André had just returned from newly colonised Algeria. It was here, he told … Continued
Well, we think we have Wegovy as the manufacturer Novo Nordisk announced the release of this semaglutide product to the UK this morning, 4 September. As you probably know from the press, doctors have been forbidden to prescribe the previous semaglutide products, Ozempic and Rybelsus, for weight loss, but are able to do so … Continued
Auguste Rodin whimsically dismissed his latest effort with a casual Gallic shrug as “a sculpted knick-knack following the usual formula”. In 1889, when the public had first set eyes on the larger than life marble of the ill-fated Paola and Francesca of Dante’s Inferno, there was a critical furore – opinions raging from “totally … Continued