I have thought about becoming a bodybuilder, but I’m getting mixed signals from my peers. The guys say I’ll catch more girls, but the girls say most guys they’ve dated who are into bodybuilding have very small penises. From observing many bodybuilders in pose trunks I’d say the girls seem to be right. Please help.
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If your concern is that having a godlike physique is going to shrink your privy member, S., let me assure you that my endowments are perfectly normal. It is true, however, that a lot of bodybuilders seem to be underdeveloped in this department. The problem isn’t bodybuilding per se, but rather the use by its more reckless practitioners of androgenic-anabolic steroids. Steroids help you bulk up, but have numerous side effects, among them “testicular atrophy,” as the medical books put it, plus reduced testosterone and lowered sperm count. One study of 20 bodybuilders on steroids found that 8 had testicular atrophy. I suppose testicular atrophy isn’t the same as penile atrophy, but it’s unlikely the women were in there measuring with a micrometer–and there’s no question that one way or another you wind up with less volume in the codpiece.
No mystery. A new editor, Will Shortz, has just taken over the NYT crossword, and how better to demonstrate his vast erudition than to mention me? As for the question of obscurity, you don’t want to make the clues too easy. Maybe he should have used “second president.”