My lips are sealed

If not for the fact that it appeared in the Magazine section, which is printed several days in advance of its weekly Sunday publication, the think piece on vaginas by New Yorker writer Daphne Merkin (!!!*) might be taken to be the result of too much New Year's Eve partying. How else to explain phrases like "Take my labia minora, for instance" and "As for the much vaunted hymen..."?

You have to wonder how many years she sat around and thought, "Hmm, some day I have got to write an essay on cunt hair... some day."

And then finally it comes to pass -- how? Why now? And those smacking sounds you heard on New Year's Day were probably Merkin's friends smiting their foreheads and saying, my god, she finally did it.

Best title of a blog entry on the article: Ward, You've Been Awfully Hard on the Beaver

Update: Read Christine's take on the matter

*This is a "namephreak" of the first order -- namephreak being Herb Caen's term for a name which is ironic given its holder's profession or reason for renown. Other classic examples include Cardinal Sin, the late archbishop of Manila, the inventors of cinema, the brothers Lumière, and South Africa's infamous white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche.