Phillip Toledano is coming out with a new book in July about phone-sex operators. 

So much of commerce now is blind: online shopping, tech-support in Bangalore. We hope there is a person at the other end of the transaction, but it could be a machine; often the machine doesn’t seem very well programmed. The phone-sex industry, though, thrives on being faceless and intensely personal at the same time. Phillip Toledano’s new book Phone Sex (July 2008, Twin Palms) takes us into the boudoirs of nearly 30 phone-sex operators so we see their faces and also hear their stories—each operator gives his or her take on the business.

The Morning News posted a few portraits from the book as well as an interview with Toledano on their website.  Be sure to read the captions underneath each portrait.  My favorite caption?

“Gary was watching a ‘World’s Strongest Women’ show and saw a woman pick up a motorcycle.
‘Oh I could do that,’ I offered.
‘Could you?’ he responded, breathless.
‘Yes. How much do you weigh?’
‘160.’
‘Oh. I could bench-press two of you.’
‘Oh my god… I’d like to see you lift up my girlfriend’s car.’
‘What kind of car does she have?’
‘A Mazda Miata.’
‘Oh yes, I could pick up a Miata. In fact, I would love to.’
‘Really?!?!??! Oh my god! What if my girlfriend was inside?’
‘I would just pick it up, lift it to my shoulder level, and then hoist it up over my head, with your girlfriend inside. I’d slowly turn around in a circle with it held up in the air, with your girlfriend screaming in the front seat.’”

A part of me may miss getting paid for this when I move on.

Link [via]

Maria Carolina is a Chilean prostitute who has auctioned 27 hours of sex to raise money for the country's largest charity, which focuses on poor, disabled children.

"I've already auctioned off the 27 hours of love," Maria Carolina told Reuters on Wednesday, saying she had raised about $4,000. "One of my clients already paid. It seemed like a good deed to him."

Speaking about Maria Carolina's unusual donation, campaign organizer Mario Kreutzberger said he would not encourage "immoral" activities, but said he would accept her pledge.

"Everyone can do what they want, but if someone tells me that they'll do something immoral ... I'm not going to encourage it," Kreutzberger, who as "Don Francisco" hosts the long-running "Sabado Gigante" program on the U.S. Spanish-language Univision network, told local media.

But Maria Carolina, who advertises her services on the Internet, defended her money-raising scheme.

"There are people who are going to be donating money that's a lot more questionable than mine," she said. "The only thing I did was publicize it."

Link.

Jason over at meshly writes:

CNN just broke the news of this groundbreaking study. Shattering all previous assumptions, science has proven conclusively that men seek attractive mates.

"Men's choices did not reflect their stated preferences, the researchers concluded. Instead, men appeared to base their decisions mostly on the women's physical attractiveness.

The men also appeared to be much less choosy. Men tended to select nearly every woman above a certain minimum attractiveness threshold, Todd said.

...The scientists said women were aware of the importance of their own attractiveness to men, and adjusted their expectations to select the more desirable guys."

Link.

A German bus driver threatened to throw a woman off of his bus because he was so distracted by her sexy bod.

"Suddenly he stopped the bus," the woman named Debora C. told Bild newspaper. "He opened the door and shouted at me 'Your cleavage is distracting me every time I look into my mirror and I can't concentrate on the traffic. If you don't sit somewhere else, I'm going to have to throw you off the bus.'"

The woman did move to another seat but felt humiliated by the bus driver.

Several noise complaints were made by neighbors and roommates of a girl that seemed to be in distress. The girl's roommates were speculating that the girl had either broken her leg and was being beaten by her boyfriend who was also in the bedroom. Roommates banged on the door for several minutes, but there was no response.

The first officer on the scene, Frank Zipelli, reported, "I could hear those two all the way from the parking lot." According to Zipelli, "It sounded as if they were bludgeoning a cow. There would be a low moan, like a ‘moo,’ and then a ‘bang’ and a higher-pitched ‘moo.’ It was like ‘MOO…BANG…MOOO!’"

After no response, authorities finally entered the room and what did they find?

The officials found John Miller and girlfriend Katherine Chavez, transfer students from the Sacramento Academy for the Deaf, interlocked in a "deafening tangle of sheets and frantically signing hands."

In proper campus cop form, Zipelli had some stern words of warning for the two students.

"This can’t go on every night," Zipelli told the couple. "I like eavesdropping on hot loud sex as much as any other RSO, but if these noise complaints keep coming in, I’m going to have to cite you."

Very funny