From Heather, at A Minha Vida, I learned of an interesting compilation of HIV-related slang (originally from PlusNews). As they observe, the euphemisms we choose to say the unsayable often tell us quite a bit about our own cultures. In Angola, for example, getting HIV is like “pisar na min” –stepping on a landmine. But [...]
A couple of recent comments on this blog have made me question the nature of the beast.
Jerome Martin of Act Up Paris takes me to task for not speaking to Act Up before commenting on a statement from colleagues at the Treatment Action Group that was critical of Act Up’s work. Jerome is quite [...]
Other people get spam e-mails offering them all night erections and a life free of depression. I get offered syphilis diagnostic kits and statistical analysis software. And now, viral art. The sculpture pictured above landed in my in-box from Bioetch — no, that’s not a typo. And I’m passing on to you the chance to [...]
I’ve had lots of fun in recent weeks pontificating in talks and interviews about sex, drugs and the AIDS biz, usually to people who know a lot more about all of the above than I do. (My favourites of recent weeks: sex worker radio XXBN and Sex Goddess radio Susie Bright, not pictured below). But [...]
Can I get away with posting this e-mail from restaurant reviewer Giles Coren to the Times on the grounds that it has a blow job in it? Or that its author is a wanker (of which more tomorrow)?
Read. Enjoy. Remember never to e-mail your colleagues when you’ve had a few. Even if they have done [...]
“What motivated you to write this book?” interviewers like to ask. And I give all the worthy, change-the-world type answers, though what I really wanted to do was to write a cracking good book about sex and drugs that would make people laugh and perhaps save some of their tax money. Of course if I [...]
Last week I posted the patented Wisdom of Whores Automatic Proposal Generator (TM) to help you all shake millions out of the Global Fund. But today I found a tool thats is genuinely useful from the ever-helpful Kaiser Family Foundation They’ve put together a fanatstic, really simple tool that allows you to generate charts of [...]
From June 8th to July 4th I’ll be in the US and Canada. I’ll be visiting New York, Toronto, Washington DC, San Francisco, LA, Seattle and Vancouver. My schedule is here. Or you can see my Google calendar. Please come along to agree, disagree, make me think, change my mind, or entrench me in my [...]
There’s another clutch of reviews of The Wisdom of Whores posted to the “What They’re Saying” page.
They include Rachel Holmes in The Times (she thinks I’m a nerd, in the best possible way), Michael Fitzpatrick in The Guardian (who seems vaguely disapproving), Stephanie Merritt in the Observer (who is seduced by the mysteries of epidemiology), [...]
It’s been a busy day on the airwaves. Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I managed to hit BBC World TV’s HardTalk interview and be on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week, both in one day.
On HardTalk, Stephen Sackur spent a lot of time quizzing me about my mafia connections. Comments have ranged from [...]
Recent Comments