During the Cold War, the CIA essentially astroturfed the popularity of some arts and artists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_and_the_Cultural_Cold_War

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/12/louis-armstrong-and-the-spy-how-the-cia-used-him-as-a-trojan-horse-in-congo

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html

That is pretty much established fact. There are other arts and artists I don't know for certain about, but I think Superheroes in particular were one such project. This is based on Superheroes being a symbol of Individualism (vs collectivism) and the frequency of characters having radiation as a source of their powers.

One reason not spoken of frequently is that the USA effectively subsidizes single-payer systems. R&D in the field of medicine is incredibly expensive, time consuming and prone to failure, plus it requires some really intelligent people to do the R&D, people who are worth the fortune they're being paid.

To give a concrete example, let's say someone needs a pacemaker, new ones are being developed and improved constantly. The cost most single payer systems pay for that is lower than the R&D cost of the pacemaker. Americans pay a higher price so that the companies making/improving the pacemaker can continue to improve them.

This is one reason, it's not the only reason, nor is it a major reason, but R&D costs are a relevant factor.

The President's Analyst

Egg Cream

SurfShark is not good, I've had a lot of issues with IP Leaks from them.

Okay, hear me out because this is a bit strange. I'm thinking of writing about locations/method of sex that would be either impossible or at the very least a horrible idea (in the real world anyway.) For instance, sex while skydiving, as part of a trapeze act, or similarly absurd scenarios.

Would the sheer absurdity of the scenario serve as an immediate turn off or prevent you from getting interested/invested in the story, and/or would the implications of the act in real life serve as a deterrent?

Thanks.

Quote by Fantasyman2021

As far as money for a strip club they would let you buy paper bills ( their own) when you come in and charge it to your card. At the end of the night if you had any left you could turn them in for credit back to your card.

That's the conclusion I more or less came to. Essentially monopoly money. Then you could get creative with it wherein multiple strip clubs all use the same monopoly money, in case someone wants to go to multiple clubs in a night.

Added benefit for the house/strippers, if the customer gets drunk and forgets to return the extra bills, well, then the money is kept by the house.

Short version: Some people are predicting societies going cashless, exclusively digital/credit card system. This makes me wonder how strip clubs and other locations that rely on using lots of bills for tipping/"making it rain" will be impacted, and how they would transition.

Long version: A friend of mine was recently telling me about a trip abroad he took where he used no cash, exclusively digital currency, sort of like paying for everything through paypal, no cash or even credit cards, all done on phone. I've read a few people in newspapers (can't find links now unfortunately) predicting various countries going cashless, and a number of stores/restaurants near me don't accept cash at all now.

This made me wonder how strip clubs would function if you couldn't hand tips over. Best thought I have is a sort of monopoly money system that you buy at the start, like poker chips except you wouldn't want to throw poker chips at people.

Has anyone thought of this or have any ideas?

Quote by cydia

If it prevents just one instance of uninspiring, uninspired all-caps-repeat-letter-multiple-exclamation-points, it'll have been worth it, really 😐

It did actually, in this story: A Strange Holiday, A Stranger Romance

Check footnote 0 also to a certain extent footnote 1, mostly 0 though. Yeah, I did use zero-indexing footnotes in a porn story.

Sad to see it removed. I had a joke ending for a story I wanted to include.

Superman II: The Richard Donner cut

I'm also curious the thought on using all caps or elongated letters in titles, not just because I recently submitted a delightful story called "I Planned To Walk In On Them, But Not For Them To Keep Going. HELP!" which does the things Sprite was just complaining about.

And I couldn't resist the self-promotion.

Regarding onomatopoeic words, what's your take on capitalizing them to emphasize the sound outside of dialogue. A loud bang shook the ground beneath their feet vs a BANG shook the ground beneath their feet. From a stylistic perspective, the capitalization can emphasize suddenness and loudness of the sound, but it also seems kind of juvenile and silly. I'm in two minds of it.

Quote by RowanThorn

mini contest idea… who can tilt sprite the most!? Maybe we should wait on a few more mod rants to get a clearer idea how to push you over the sublime edge of madness?

Fur-tunately, I remember claw-some cat puns having cat-astrophic and purr-found effects on Sprite's e-meow-tions. If we're building a cat-abase on meowdness (come on Bard, that one was weak) cat puns probably won't send Sprite into a meowderous rampage, but pawsibly help.

Quote by sprite

fyi - i hate all of you

Is it therefore fur-tionate or cat-astrophic (come on Bard, you used those already) that probably everyone (including yours truly) on this site (or that you've encountered in general) thinks you're the best?

I like it in porn because the girl always seems to want/be turned on by the act, but in my own life, I'll finish wherever my partner wants me to within reason. It' supposed to be enjoyable for both of us.

Side note, I don't buy it's a shame/dominance thing. if that were the case, I think porn would portray it as such, as opposed to something the stars mutually enjoy.

Other side note, a studio put out a video where they ask porn stars about it. Link below

I figure I'll promote this. I wrote a competition entry about a killer walking in on people. I figured there'd be a lot of dark stories given the theme, so I wrote one that's more than a little silly.

I Planned To Walk In On Them, But Not For Them To Keep Going. HELP!

You'll laugh (probably,) you'll cry (not really,) and you'll probably have a good time.

Nevermind, figured it out.

Not sure if this is the correct place to put this, but somehow my story got submitted 3 times (probably because I reloaded the page while it was submitting, oops.) How can I cancel the duplicates?

Broadly speaking, does horror/comedy fit the theme? I've got something that starts off a bit horror/bloody before devolving into comedic weirdness, that I think fits the theme but I'm not sure about.

Nope.

What was the first book you remember reading for fun?

I'm currently working on a story where the first person protagonist is completely unfamiliar slang and sexual terms, not using terms like "dick" "pussy" "cum" "cowgirl" or "doggy" et cetera, and only using descriptive or technical terms. I am however concerned that this will make things feel mechanical and unerotic, which is partially what I'm going for, since my character is somewhat robotic and awkward, but simultaneously thinks this reduces eroticism and makes the story less geared towards this site.

Any feedback anyone has on this would be greatly appreciated.

Peanut butter twix, but the condition is I'd have to be able to conveniently find them. Otherwise maybe reeces.

Quote by dlcalguy

Dark Star. Sci-fi comedy by John Carpenter. His first movie.

That's a classic! Must see for any Carpenter fan.

It feels weird how many movies I've seen when they get posted on this.

Your Name Is Snake Anthony by MMW

Not sure if most of mine count, but here we go:

Titus Andronicus

The Clash

Elvis Costello

Pixies

Stooges

Clash, Costello and Stooges all appear in No Thanks! The 70s Punk Rebellion anthology, so I'm counting them. Pixies I'm on the fence on.

I have a bizarre distaste for opening with dialogue, the word "I" or a character's name. I get why it's done, but for whatever reason it bothers me. I get over it by the second sentence usually.

I guess in general I prefer a slower build than bombastic first sentence hook. Though this does require a certain degree of investment, and when there's tons of content vying for your attention, a strong start might be appealing.

I like the idea. I've been toying with a story that starts at one of those blind date shows, then diverges in 3 directions when the person picking who to date selects each of them, detailing what happens after the "chooser" picks their date.

Quote by krystalg


To me, I think this is hilarious because I'm just lampooning myself and subtracting at least 3-4 points off my IQ.

Yup, that got a good laugh out of me. For the rest I regularly indulge in self deprecating humor. Hell, in a competition entry for this very site I wrote:

Quote by TroublesomeBard from the story Emperor Thrinklebopple Takes An Empress, and They Have Sex, which you should totally go read.

“hit a moron with a stick” program, where specially designated individuals were allowed to hit people with sticks if that person was doing something incredibly stupid. This might include writing a piece of erotic fiction for a contest the author knows he will not win, staring a man named Wallace Thrinklebopple who declares himself emperor of the United States and then proceeds to make everything better. That is definitely a hit with stick idea.

I think there's only something wrong with it if it's not funny.

Quote by 1meanjean

Phantom of the Paradise. Early Brian De Palma movie from 1974.

That movie is startlingly influential, Daft Punk allegedly were inspired by that movie in many ways.