[thechat] he ain't heavy, he's my hampsterdance.

[Judah McAuley]

Luther, Ron wrote:
> Hi Judah,
>
> Quite a few animals today still do.  They're called snakes.  The
> males have a 'hemipenis'.  [Make a fist.  Now extend your index and
> pointer fingers.  Now bend the pointer finger at the first joint so
> it is 90 degrees to your index finger.  It's kinda like that.]

I suppose that is like having a second penis.  I just always thought of
it as a hemipenis, a penis split in half (hemi being half rather than
double).

> Gee - How long have I been waiting for an opening to bring that
> little fact up?  ;-)
>
> Former Zoo Guy,

I'd love to work in a zoo.  My wife and have always talked about
becoming cute-baby-animal-ologists.  We still haven't come up with the
correct name for that profession though.

> RonL.
> (The females also have a structure we don't usually think of in plural
> terms. I've never heard it pronounced, so I'm guessing here, but I'd
> call it .... "clitorii". [Found in a science book on snakes I bought that
> was written by a collection of {somehow it figures} French scientists.])

Are you talking about the little prong thingies that extend out from the
cloaca (another great word)?

You should check out the book "How They Do It" by Robert A Wallace.
It's a compendium of the sexual reproduction mechanisms and habits of 47
species.  And its very funny.

And as a final trivia bit on this thread, there is a name for the
unfortunate condition of a human with two penises, its called diphallic
terata.  Maybe I'll make that an album name someday.

Judah