A call-out on our June cover was the basis for a gossip item in Ben Widdicombe’s Gatecrasher column in yesterday’s New York Daily News. The cover line in question? DAPHNE MERKIN ON JOHN THOMAS. Merkin, a fantastic writer with an enviable list of credits, had contributed an essay inside the magazine, Penises I Have Known. Now, as students of history (and sex) know, a merkin is a pubic wig. (Here’s a good definition.). John Thomas is an English euphemism for penis, popularized by Monty Python. There is a point in Merkin’s piece when she addresses euphemisms for the penis, including names such as Mr. Johnson. How delighted I was when contemplating cover lines to realize that I could put two seemingly innocuous names together with such a naughty, slightly hidden meaning. The wordplay also accomplished a trifecta, as John Thomas happens to be the editor of Playboy.com.
On Monday we were given the heads up that Widdicombe had heard about the line—but with a twist: Apparently some people (I’m guessing former staffers) interpreted the line as a knock by me on John, which it was not. (Of course, I did have John in mind when I wrote the line; if he hadn’t worked here I may not have thought of the cover line; I’m not that clever). Even so, our advance word placed it in the context of a feud, which is easily dismissed—but as printed, the piece was much uglier than anticipated, claiming I had a poor opinion of John and had banned him from Playboy’s pages. Well, that’s patently false. Since I’ve become editorial director, John (who has impressive bylines from other publications) has published several pieces in the magazine, including a feature on conjugal visitation in the American penal system for the Forum section and a Q&A with Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. In addition, he’s graciously contributed many other ideas that haven’t been bylined, such as a photo-driven feature on effigy burning throughout the world (along with more typical pictorial concepts that have grown from online projects into magazine spreads).
This gossip comes at a time when Playboy magazine and Playboy.com and their respective staffs are more cohesive and interlinked than ever, and will only grow closer. In fact, it’s hard to imagine John and I having a more productive relationship than we do now.
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Comments on this entry:
Merkin, and indeed the real thing, seem to be out of fashion at Playboy nowadays, but the magazine's readers will no doubt remember the term from its appearance on the March 1969 cover:
http://cyber.playboy.com/members/magazine/covers/1969/03/
and surely everyone remembers the character of the US President played by Peter Sellers in "Dr. Strangelove", namely "President Merkin Muffley" (!), so the intended meaning of the blurb on the June cover should have been clear to everyone. As for "John Thomas", if the explicit reference to that PEI employee spawned rumors of an intramural rift, then perhaps it could have been avoided by using another appropriate name or combination of names such as "Dick Johnson", which would have offended only, well, the significant number of readers actually named Richard Johnson.
As for John Thomas himself,
John (who has impressive bylines from other publications) has published several pieces in the magazine, including a feature on conjugal visitation in the American penal system
So to speak.
No one's buying it. Nice try, Chrissy.
More merkin trivia: The beautiful nude actress who walks out of a Gauguin print during the LSD-trip sequence in the 2001 movie Harvard Man had to wear a merkin for the shooting. My source is the DVD commentary.