You didn’t want to have an orgasm in Victorian times. — It’s always maddening when famous scientists are so brilliant in some areas and utter dumbasses in others. Charles Darwin is such a man. He managed to draw astute conclusions about the beak shapes of finches and the sexual dimorphism of peafowls, but he completely bungled women’s sexuality. …

So why does it not feel that way? — Historians study past violence through paper and ink, but anthropologists study violence through the very marrow of its victims. And bones rarely lie. The bones of truth in this tale are 15 skeletons found in the 5000-year-old mass grave at Koszyce, southern Poland. Each was killed by a blow to…

Here’s how to find it again. — There’s a saying that you should never trust a writer unless their narrator is a ghost. A ghost is too dead to lie. I am the ghost in this story. I was not a ghost when I met him. I had all the accouterments of a living and breathing human…

In case you want to relive your childhood Ouija board trauma — I never wanted to meet Mary. Sure, I had heard about her. We all heard about her. My teenage friends called her “Bloody Mary,” “Mary Worth,” or “The Witch Mary.” She passed through mirrors on mischievous nights when girlish giggles and flickering red candles tempted her out of the darkness. …

In 1990, a Sheela-na-gig worth 7 million dollars was stolen from the Augustinian abbey at Kiltinan. Now, Irish residents want her back. — In 1840, Thomas O’Conor called them the “grossest idea of immorality and licentiousness.” He wasn’t referring to pornographic art. He was describing those wanton, vulva-flashing stone sculptures known as Sheela-na-gigs. (Pronounced Sheila Nah Gig) Sheela-na-gigs (above) adorn many twelfth and thirteenth-century Romanesque churches, mainly in Ireland. They typically portray older…

New research finds female chimpanzees go through menopause and…keep on living. The science community is still recovering from the shock. — Her tussled gray hair stands at odd angles over patchy bald spots, and her teeth, once ivory pillars, are now worn down to brown stumps. Her wizened brow and hollowed eyes are etched with years of wisdom. …

From 1480 to 1913, queens were 27% more likely to wage war than kings. Why is female violence so misunderstood? — On Christmas morning, 1492, the residents of Forlì, Italy, awoke to an invading army of 15,000 strong led by the murderous Cesare Borgia. Months earlier, Cesare's dad Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI), had decreed his family the rightful rulers of Romagna. The noble Italian families were ordered to turn all…

Is a sugar pill the secret to fabulous sex? — When you hear the word placebo, you probably don’t think of pleasure, but the Latin root of placebo is “I shall please.” We can partly thank the fourteenth-century author and troublemaker Geoffrey Chaucer for popularizing the word. In The Merchant’s Tale, one of his characters is “Placebo” — a butt-kissing…

Writers should remember the shoeshine boy before they jump on this trend. — In 1929, Joseph Kennedy Sr. (father of JFK) was strolling along Wall Street, past the ringing trading bells and rumbling Model T Fords, when he stopped at a shoeshine stand. As the shoeshine boy buffed and polished Kennedy's oxfords, the young lad gossiped about the hottest stocks. Kennedy, one brow…