Today I discovered that Wikipedia has an awesome page which lists “Unusual Articles” and consequently I have a whole bunch of new things to write about here.

Here are some good ones about penises:

1. A death erection is also called “angel lust” and occurs when a man dies and his corpse remains either vertical or face down.
2. This page has a variety of facts about penis size. (Find out if you have a “micropenis“)
3. I may have written about this before, but there is a folk hysteria which sometimes sets in called “penis panic” when a group begins worrying that their penises are shrinking or falling off.
4. Usually its associated with fears of witchcraft. In parts of Asia, this is called “koro” but that usually means that there is an irrational fear that the penis is retracting into the body.
5. There was also a case of hysteria involving “penis-melting robot combs” which occurred in the Sudan in 2003:
   It was reported by the Middle East Media Research Institute. Sudanese victims were made to believe by force of suggestion that their penises had melted away or disappeared altogether, by means of ordinary contact with the West Africans, such as the sharing of an electronic, or “robot”, comb, the shaking of hands, or the receiving of a verbal curse. The so-called “penis-melting” has been blamed on Zionists who are trying to wipe out the Sudanese people by making their men impotent and therefore unable to breed.

   The hysterical reports were spread throughout Sudan by means of cell phone text-messaging.

Oh, and this one isn’t totally about penises, but it does relate. There is an entry on there for “pornocracy” which has come to mean government by rule of prostitutes. Supposedly from 903 to 964, there was a phase of papal history called “The Rule of the Harlots” where certain corrupt women had gained influence over the popes. It’s more than probable they weren’t whores at all, but were just characterized that way by opponents. I’d have to look into it more though.

Also on that same page there is a list of the “most sexually active popes”. The best one has to be Pope Alexander VI who

kept many mistresses, and prostitutes were called to dance naked before the assembly, after which prizes were offered to those men who, in the opinion of the spectators, managed to copulate with the greatest number of prostitutes.

I wonder if he had a micropenis…