Sex? You can’t say that!

We just don’t know how to call a spade a spade.
When The Toast did a story about how Hollywood used euphemisms for people having sex in early movies, they headlined it:
Code Words For ‘Sexually Active’ In Classic Films
Theda BaraAre you talking about people actually having sex? They screw? My God, you can’t say that! If you insist on talking about it, at least call it “sexually active.”
OK, OK. So exactly what words or phrases did  Hollywood use for this never-to-be-named act?
How about:
A gal who knows how to use a revolving door
A man with a downtown name
An elevator friendship
and, my favorite
A trolley orchid
See ALL the euphemisms HERE
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I recently wrote about some of my favorite bookstores (HERE) but as far as I know, none of them has ever been featured in a book. However at Off the Shelf, Emma Volk has discovered:
11 Delightful Tales Set in Bookstores!
For example:
The Bookstore coverThe Bookstore: by Deborah Meyler
A young, pregnant woman finds a chance at salvation when she gets a job in a shabby Manhattan bookstore after her boyfriend dumps her.
The colorful and quirky people who call the bookstore home form an unlikely family. This witty debut is a stirring celebration of books and the people who sell, read, and love them.
 
 
See the other 10 books HERE
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I became a librarian because talking about books is one of the only things I like as much as reading them,” Amy McLay Paterson writes in a delightful essay at Vox entitled:
‘I read 164 books in 2015 and here’s what I learned’
She notes that “Reading is amazing; it shouldn’t be a chore, and when it became one, I stopped doing it.” And then reports that one of the things she learned was…
Harper Lee booksJoe Raedle/Getty Images
Go Set a Watchman was an infuriating, mediocre book, its main interest lying in its relation to To Kill a Mockingbird and the ethical question of whether it should have been published at all (it shouldn’t).

 
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I just did a quick back-of-the envelope calculation. Words published in 2015: three novels for a total of 260,000 words. Other published words — short stories, blogage, etc. — add at least another 10-20K to that. So let’s call it 285,000 words.
Words to be published in 2016, so far, two novels, 290,000. I BEAT LAST YEAR ALREADY without another WORD added. But there will be more, of course.
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THIS & THAT
StarTrek StampPost office to celebrate 50th Anniversary with Star Trek stamps
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Quote of the Day
Dog at computerAnd so endeth the first lesson.
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Alma Alexander       My books       Email me
 
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