Bravo, Mr. Howell! I actually read Dr. Reuben's book when I was a teenager. It took a couple of years, but I eventually discovered on my own EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED TO KNOW ... As Ira Gershwin wrote, "It ain't necessarily so. De things dat yo' liable to read in de Bible, it ain't necessarily so."

Thanks for a vaulable blog!
Richard T. Jordan

I was very nearly traumatized after reading this book as a teenager, when I found it hidden in my grandpa's garage. That was 20 years ago, & it remains the only reference I've ever read to foot tapping in men's bathrooms. Indeed, you gotta wonder who his sources were, but then the 60s were another era...unless you're a closeted, homophobic senator.

Hi, Kevin!

Jenny's friend Susan here--I didn't know you were blogging for PW, but how glad I am that you are! You're right, this book is/was awful, an artifact of a more ignorant, bigoted time. Let it not rest in peace, but rot in hell (if you believe in the afterlife.....)

Not sure why this comes as a surprise to anyone -- after all, it did form the basis of a woody allen movie (and one of his "early, funny ones" to boot!)

I'm just glad Rev. Haggerty went public with a cure for these poor people....

Booze cruise

people with short left indexed fingers date women,and people with short right indexed fingers date men.

ma and pa kettle were both gay off camera.signed short left index finger.

I found the book at a library sale and picked it up because it was from '69 and had to have some hilarious stuff. I highlighted the best passages (the 'S and M' one comes to mind) and my friends and I laughed our asses off at lunch.

The thought of people actually getting information from the book is pretty disturbing, made worse by the fact that while browsing through the rest of it, the good doctor seemed to be a logical, well-informed and good intentioned man.

Guess you can't fault a guy for the times he lived in.

people with short left index fingers date women.

i got this book from an ex...now my current guy is reading it...how do i explain to him that sticking bobby pins in a urethra is just plain ridiculous? this book should be burned

GrEaT-GrEat coMMeNtArY on A HoRrible BoOk.

That gay male saying in an interview that everytime a woman touches me I feel like throwing up an taking a shower,just made me laugh,because everytime a man touches me I feel like throwing up and taking a shower.Heterophopic,I guess you would call it.

Hmm, he forgot "Todd" and "Michael." Yes, Reuben's book was full of crap of course, but um, to say that the toe-tapping routine is a myth is also absurd. Not all guys engage in it of course but a lot of cruising goes on (it seems to come up fairly on "investigative reports" in small towns when there's nothing more newsworthy. Craig didn't have to read Reuben to know the technique; I'd wager that pretty much every gay man, when he read the Larry Craig story, knew exactly what was going on, and his talk about his "wide stance" just made it all that much more hilarious.

If that author is talking about 3 to 5 minutes is all it takes for sex,then he muust be talking about male sexuality.1 or 2 hours of sex in the lesbian world is alright by me.Lets hear it for the g-spot and multiple-orgasms!

This article is needlessly pessimistic and I hope the author of it reads my response. Being that this article was published in 2007 I wonder if the author has read the updated version of this book (copyright 1999). Perhaps the original version of this book (copyright 1969) has something to disagree with, but only because it was written 40 years ago. At the time the book may have been correct in every respect. Who knows as I have not read the original version. One thing I do know is the updated version is as respectful and objective as can be. I have read ever word of the updated version (claimed 95% new) and at no time does the author attempt too persecute any living being. This book is a valuable resource to any human being of any age, any person who seeks to live a healthy sexual existence. This book is full of complete objective thoughts and ideas and should not be censored in any respect. If here is anything that should be kept from impressionable minds it is the misinformation of this article.

Every agent, every publisher I have spoken to about OH MY GOD. HE'S BLACK has probably said underneath his breath without reading O.M.G.,H.B. "Why this has got to be the worst fucking book I have ever seen. I'm certainly not going to waste my fucking time on this piece of shit when I could be reading some vampire or witchcraft want to know.
SydrycalWorks

Kevin Howell is right - a terrible book. David Reuben had no excuse for writing that thoroughly inaccurate and contempt filled material, which was not based on any facts but simply on his own intensely ignorant homophobia.

I wonder what you guys really believe in. Sex was never made for same sex. Homosexuals and lesbians are fake. They want to assume an impossible position. Sometimes, the human race is worse than an animal. Common sense says we put the dick in the vaginal. I like the books pessimism of same sex sex.