Calling All Secular Humanists

W.H. Auden once said great poets have a weakness for bad puns. Similarly, self-indulgent ezine editors have a weakness for bad inside jokes.

This is the story of one of them.

Allow me to explain. I recently decided to integrate a handful of ad parodies onto Bosworth in the hopes that I could add a few guilt free laughs to every page. (Plus it gave me yet another excuse to take an overly aggressive shot at the dairy lobby.) I produced a few ads but wanted something making fun of the "Chickcn Soup for the Soul" series. I settled on "Chicken Soup for the Secular Humanist's Socially Constructed Notion of Post-Identity Selfhood." [View it here] This parody allowed me to make fun of the book series and contemporary identity politics.

I'm a nerd. And it gets worse.

I needed a background image for the ad, so I settled on an old photo of my friend Ben Quick (a University of Arizona Graduate student) relaxing in a hot spring in New Mexico.

Oh, he's also naked in the photo.

Thinking that a gratuitous "dudestick shot" might hurt my readership (or greatly enhance it for all the wrong reasons) I decided to cover up my friend's wang with a pull quote, like you often see in ads for books. But what should it say?

Indulging my geekness yet again, I settled on a quotation. "This book turns me on," says Ben Quick of the University of Arizona.

I want to make it clear that did not even attempt to contact Ben or ask his approval before making this advertisement parody. Some might think me cruel, but, in all honestly, I just didn't want to spoil the joke.

So far, Ben hasn't reacted to the image. Maybe he hasn't seen it yet. Maybe he doesn't care. Or maybe that picture just does turn him on. I hope he doesn't mind. If he files a complaint, I'll set him up with a free copy of "Chicken Soup for the Secular Humanist's Socially Constructed Notion of Post-Identity Selfhood."