A blue-flowered earthenware phallus was the last thing archaeologists from the Museum of London expected to find in their otherwise innocent excavation of a tavern or coffee house.

The unusual hollow object, measuring a healthy six-and-a-half inches, leaves little to the imagination. Because it features a cup nestled above the testicles, archaeologists surmise that it once held liquid, most likely alcohol. The late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century vessel was probably imported from the Netherlands.--ELIZABETH J. HIMELFARB

http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/phalcup.html

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2001

Answers

And to think I always thought my grandma simply had unique salt and pepper shakers!! Carl, you've effectively destroyed my reverence for my grandmum! AAAAHHHH!!!

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2001

"Probably imported from the Netherlands"??? Ya see? It was probly left in that tavern by some Dutch sailor, fresh off a boat in the Thames. Hey--isn't Lilly a Dutch name?

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2001

Hey! That's mine!

[Now you know where the cocktail really originated, eh?]

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2001

When was the last time any of us got to use the phrase "y2k-compliant device"? [nostalgic sigh]

It's like a Martha Stewart version, isn't it?

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2001

A stroll through Unk's forum in search of more views on the gossip about the various forums produced this gem that may be relevant to our thread here.

It did, however, leave me feeling a bit morose about the decline of general knowledge, seeing as the author of the interview neglected to mention the possible relevance one of Iceland's claims to fame as having the site of the world's longest-running parliamentary meetingplace, the "Thingvellir." Then again, how many Americans think of another meaning of the word "congress?"

Etymologically yours,

Firemouse

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2001

If I remember correctly, Iceland is also the proud home of the only phallology museum in the world. I shall unzip some files and 'ave a look.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2001

Well, that didn't take long. Please let us have dignified discussion. Any degenerate posts will be considered the product of a flaccid mind and penalized. I mean, deleted.

Ananova :

Penis museum fills its last space

The world's only penis museum is hoping to fill its empty human section now that an 85 year-old man has volunteered to leave his sexual organs as a legacy.

The Icelandic Phallological Museum in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, houses specimens from most of the country's 40 mammal species and eight from other countries in its "foreign section." But no human exhibits - for now.

The 85 year-old Icelander Pall Arason has written a letter that formally bestows "my reproductive organs - penis et scrotum" to the museum. The papers have been legally witnessed.

According to museum director Sigurdur Hjartarson, Mr Arason has aksed for it to be removed while his body is still warm, allowing the museum the opportunity to exhibit it erect.

A 41-year-old German photographer Peter Christmann has also made a written offer, Time magazine reports.

Among the exhibits hanging on the museum's wall are a tanned bull's penis that was once used as a whip on the country's farms and a smoked horse's penis said to have been a favourite snack for a 1930s gourmet.

An anatomical drawing on the wall next to the metre-long blue whale's dried penis shows that it represents only around half of its full length.

The museum, whose gift shop sells skipping ropes with phallic handles and coat-racks with penis pegs, attracted 3,500 visitors last year.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2001

LOL Firemouse. That is a funny article.

But then, it is> a rather unusual hobby. I imagine that the museum will become a national treasure eventually.

I can see the family and the government now, dicking, er, I mean duking it out to save the museum.

Oh my, I must lie down, I feel a bit fagged.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2001