A.D. Peterkin

When I first heard the title of this book, The bald-headed hermit and the artichoke, before I ever knew what it was, it brought a smile to my face. When I saw the full title, The bald-headed hermit and the artichoke : an erotic thesaurus, I realized that it was not just my dirty mind, the title did have hidden meaning. Not well hidden but hidden. I was curious but not willing to spend money to satisfy my curiosity I had to wait several years to find the book on a book trading site. Honestly it was worth the wait.

Naughty language is, lets say colorful. Any heterosexual male knows how to draw attention to a thing of beauty, “Look at that (fill in singular noun) or look at those (anything that comes in pairs (except pants))” But there are entire vocabularies of naughtiness outside the realm on hetero males. They are in here.

The book and some reviews of it make claims of scholarship but the inclusion of a scattering of small poorly reproduced photos exposes that as a lie. The book is no more scholarly, or less entertaining than Charles Funk’s collection of old sayings, “A Hog on Ice and Other Curious Expressions”.

Of course if you are easily offended you should not bother with this book, it is also definitely not suitable for the workplace. However, if you need just the right word to express your disgust with a scatological turn of phrase or want to exactly express your admiration for an anatomical specimen then this is the book for you.… (més)