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Friday, December 7, 2007

Balls Out

posted by on December 7 at 9:42 AM

The children’s book The Higher Power of Lucky, winner of the prestigious Newberry Prize, includes a scene in which one child utters the word “scrotum” to another child. The context:

The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

“Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”

The controversy:

The book has already been banned from school libraries in a handful of states in the South, the West and the Northeast, and librarians in other schools have indicated in the online debate that they may well follow suit. Indeed, the topic has dominated the discussion among librarians since the book was shipped to schools….

Reached at her home in Los Angeles, Ms. Patron said she was stunned by the objections. The story of the rattlesnake bite, she said, was based on a true incident involving a friend’s dog. And one of the themes of the book is that Lucky is preparing herself to be a grown-up, Ms. Patron said. Learning about language and body parts, then, is very important to her.

The word is just so delicious,” Ms. Patron said. “The sound of the word to Lucky is so evocative. It’s one of those words that’s so interesting because of the sound of the word.”

I don’t think running around describing the word scrotum as delicious is going to help Ms. Patron make her case here. But I’m not going to argue with her.

RSS icon Comments

1

Add that to the long, long list of books banned from school libraries for completely idiotic reasons. On the plus side, every summer Barnes & Noble puts up a special display of "banned books" for kids to buy.

Posted by Greg | December 7, 2007 9:53 AM
2

Seriously, unless those good Crackers down south are intent on perpetuating the idiotic notion that human beings are as smooth and featureless in their nether regions as Barbie and Ken (and the book of course isn't even referring to human anatomy in the first place), then they should just head over to the counter and order a nice, hot cup of "Shut The HELL Up".

(And just as an FYI, "balls out" does not refer to THOSE kinds of balls...)

Posted by COMTE | December 7, 2007 9:58 AM
3

CLITORIS!!!

Posted by Madge-YoursoakingINIT! | December 7, 2007 10:04 AM
4

That NYT story is from last February. I think it was even Slogged before.

Posted by Fnarf | December 7, 2007 10:11 AM
5

it's like

Moist

and

Panties.

visceral alone, even more so together,

Moist Panties.

EW.

Posted by Line Out Fan | December 7, 2007 10:12 AM
6

Fnarf is right, I remember something about this awhile back. Let's stay sorta current please.

Posted by Just Me | December 7, 2007 10:30 AM
7

Well, "scrotum" does sound rather like "scrumptious," so maybe that's where Patron's description came from.

Posted by Matthew | December 7, 2007 10:34 AM
8

I completely agree that scrotums are delicious.

Posted by SDA in SEA | December 7, 2007 10:36 AM
9

It also sounds a lot like "sputum," which actually IS the name for the green stuff you expectorate when you have a cold or flu. Maybe that word should be banned as well. Or even better - why not just ban ALL Latin words? Damned bunch of foreigners anyway. . . .

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | December 7, 2007 10:47 AM
10

I prefer the term, "nutsack." And yes, I find them to be delicious also.

Posted by Mike in MO | December 7, 2007 10:51 AM
11

You know, scrotum is an inherently funny word. Then again, so is "newberry". Oh, and http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeathByNewberyMedal?from=Main.DeathByNewberryMedal

^_^
-Woodbun

Posted by woodbun | December 7, 2007 11:53 AM
12

any word that ends in "UM" is dirty because it rhymes with scrotum.

factotum? funny.

ladies, my scrotum is part of my genitals. you should be able to touch it. what part of you don't men lick? if we could lick your ovaries we would.

Posted by max solomon | December 7, 2007 2:03 PM
13

I've always liked the word scrotum because it's one of the few words in the English language that sounds EXACTLY like what it describes. Like the first time I heard it as a kid and had it explained I looked down and was like, "Oh yeah. That makes sense."

Mr. Show had one of the funniest sketches ever which revolved around a Hemmingway-esque writer saying the word scrotum over and over and over. Genius.

Posted by BillyCorazon | December 7, 2007 2:15 PM
14

I'm still amazed that parents are up in arms about their kids learning the names of parts of THEIR OWN BODIES.

I mean, think about that for a minute. But not too long, or your brain will start to melt.

Posted by Orv | December 7, 2007 2:34 PM
15

But shouldn't it be "scrota"???

Yum... scrotalicious.

Posted by Irena | December 7, 2007 4:53 PM

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