This is True
Randy Cassingham

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bullet  John Bobbit: Immortalized Through Verbification

I use the term "Bobbitized" in this week's edition.

I originally thought I might have coined the term -- text searches were next to impossible in 1994 -- but I later found out that it was too obvious and had previously been used by others.

The term refers, of course, to the oh-so-aptly-named John Bobbitt, whose wife Lorena cut off his penis on June 23, 1993, because, she said, he selfishly "wouldn't give her an orgasm."

Lesson learned: it's tough to coin a new word -- at least for the first time!

More on the Bobbitt case from Wikipedia (includes evidence photo); another reference in True.

Most Recent Comments

Posted by Janice in New Brunswick, Canada on January 22, 2007:

I've probably been a reader since early 1994, and I remember reading this story about the teacher and her student, and chuckling over your applying the term "Bobbetized" to it. It was just so right, the perfect comment because you're right: a man would have been "Bobbetized"! I hadn't heard the term before that (but immediately knew the reference and appreciated it for that.)

Your use of language is one of the things I really like about TRUE: you don't talk down to readers, dumbing down your writing so "everyone" can understand it. It works on a lot of different levels (similar to the old Warner Bros. cartoons), and I wanted you to know that some of us out here do get it!

Posted by Garret Kim on March 30, 2007:

For awhile, another word was making the rounds, eg. providing a monica, as they might say in White House terminology.

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With, one would presume, a very long "M"! -rc

Posted by Garret Kim, Texas on April 23, 2007:

Hmmm. Did you know that Monica is already 31 years old? It seems like just yesterday when she was crawling around the White House on her hands and knees.

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