Flashbacks: Tantric sex explained, dinner with Julia Child, and a Phoenix writer goes free in Chile

MYTH BUSTING
15 years ago
October 22, 1993 | Cecil Adams, of the Straight Dope, answered a reader’s question.
Since you seem to know everything, just what is ‘tantric sex,’ anyway?
Tina S.
Montreal

“Cecil has been deeply studying this question, as is only fitting. His reference sources include many learned texts on Eastern religion plus, naturally, Cosmopolitan magazine...The New Age element has the idea that tantric sex is some ancient secret of the Orient that will give you the ultimate orgasm. But in fact all it is is prolonged intercourse...without ejaculation.

“There are many ways to accomplish this...I can do it thinking about the Chicago Cubs. But your classic adherent of tantric yoga, or nowadays your reader of supermarket magazines, may do it by practicing the ‘Set of Nines.’ Supposedly, the man enters his partner with nine shallow thrusts, then, after, a pause, eight shallow and one deep thrust, then seven shallow and two deep, and so on, until nirvana or total boredom is achieved.”

THE FORGOTTEN
20 years ago
October 21, 1988 | Kris Hundley asked why more lefties weren’t taking note of a case brought against a group of so-called ‘70s revolutionaries,  being dubbed “the Ohio 7,” who survived underground for 9 years before the government brought charges against them.
“...[W]hy aren’t liberals, lefties, and leftovers of the ‘60s flocking to the cause, packing Springfield’s federal courtroom with supporters? Why are the court’s benches empty save for paid personnel and a few press? Why did a demonstration in support of the Ohio 7 last May attract a mere 15 people, who paraded in front of the Hartford Detention Center as guards photographed and videotaped the entire proceedings?

“Blame it on lack of publicity, on aging activists’ busy schedules and evolving political agendas, maybe on fear of government scrutiny of those who become involved. But blame it most of all on the qualms today’s left has over the acts of violence charged against the Ohio 7, including the 1976 bombing of the Suffolk County Courthouse that maimed an innocent bystander. Blame it on the conviction reflected in one activist’s statement, ‘Time and time again, I’ve seen how violence begets violence.’ ”

LOVE AT FIRST PLIGHT
25 years ago
October 25, 1983 | Phoenix writer Fred Bayles dined with Julia Child.
“It soon became apparent that she was breaking every every table rule my mother had ever imposed. She fidgeted while she waited for her next course -- playing with her silverware and pushing her wine glass around in impatient circles. She looked expectantly at the door. I was certain she felt the same way I did about the delay factor in fine dining. I have no idea why people think it necessary to linger over each dish, then wait even longer before the next course is served. The world is filled with too many demands to waste precious hours sitting around the table, waiting. I want to be done with my dinner after a decent interval of about 15 minutes and then get on with my life. I could tell Julia and I were soul mates when it came to waiting for food.”

THANKS GUYS
35 years ago
October 23, 1973 | Connie Paige reported that detained Phoenix correspondent Paul Hoeffel had been released by the Chilean government.
“Paul Hoeffel, Latin American correspondent for the Phoenix, was released Saturday, October 13, from the National Stadium in Santiago where he had been detained for a week by the month-old Chilean military government. Hoeffel was one of thousands of alleged leftist sympathizers, both Chilean and foreign, arrested and imprisoned after a right-wing coup on September 11 ousted Marxist President Salvador Allende Gossens.

“Hoeffel may have gained his freedom in part because of the intervention of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who conferred privately with a highly-place Chilean official in Washington on October 12. Also instrumental in hastening his release were American Embassy officials in Santiago.”