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Acorn's Newsletter has been published every year since 1988.
Back numbers are available to members if you download and print out the Adobe Acrobat* PDF Order Form. Complete the details and forward with your remittance to The Acorn Society at the address on the form.

Below we reprint the contents list and a sample article from each edition.

Acorn No.1 2000

Editorial Steve
Skiathos VW
Piercing Sensitivity VW
The Guide Wm
Browned Off Anthony
Lubrication Anon
Mind Over Matter
Reply To AB Dan
Revision Anon
Australian Holiday M
Reply To RH Ronald
Restoration Anon
America Re-visited Ian
Stan & Eddie CB
Alternative To Circumcision RFW
Anthony Strikes Again Anthony
Circumcision - My Story Steve

Browned Off Having studied the topic of circumcision ever since I discovered myself a preputial amputee, my presumed ‘mastery’ received a setback when I was asked to explain a distinct brown ring on an American nudist’s circumcision. Recalling decades of study I could not find the cause for such a phenomenon. From shower room sightings at school where the circumcision rate was a heady 45%, and at work, baths, changing rooms and the beach where Plastibelled neatness was an occasional occurrence, not one brown ring was present on any of those hundreds of circumcisions seen.

It took much reading before I meanderingly came across two mentions of a brown ring!

1) A Sacramento man recalled as a young boy noticing a brown ring around his penis whilst bathing. Asking his mother what it was, he was toldÉ “That’s where you were circumcisedÉto keep it clean.”

2) A tightly circumcised 40 year old from Missouri admitted to having a 3/8in wide brown ring around his penis.

Was this a phenomenon of the land of scars and stripes never encountered in Britain’s ever decreasing minority of circumcised males?

The reason was simply an instrumental one. It resulted from the skin crushing of the Gomco clamp, the most often used circumcision clamp in the U.S.A., remaining unchanged since it’s introduction in 1935. Though Aaron Goldstein’s Gomco clamp remained across the Atlantic, the disposable Hollister Plastibell, first used in 1965, has gained favourable acceptance in Britain, and never produces the wide brownish stripe, and only very rarely slight discolouration after healing.

Yes, the brown stripe has become a strange distinguishing feature of many American post 1935 circumcisions, even ritual ones on Liberal and Reform Jewish babies where the mohel uses a Gomco clamp. Though the cut edge is exceptionally neat, even near invisible, the wide brown band visually separates the denuded glans from the natural remaining shaft. The ring, hardly one of confidence outside America, will, like vaccination marks, widen with growth up to a possible 1/2" in width.

In comparison, the Plastibelled penis is of relatively uniform hue after healing and consolidation of tissues with growth. With a recent sighting, the scar was barely visible and well incorporated into the infant’s shaft tissue slightly below the glans.

For years I have taken ‘browned off’ as highly synonymatical of ‘cheesed off’. In the smegmaphobic U.S.A. it is clearly possible to have one without the other!!

Anthony

Acorn No.2 2000

Third Time Lucky? SJ
Growing Up With An Acroposthion ID
More Questions ID
Demanding Cut Dan
Psychology Of Circumcision RFW
Answer To Anon RFW
A Suggestion Anon
Replies To Dan, Anon & RFW Tony
Impatiums Glandulifera IW
Anthony’s Snippets AnthonyAcorn Issue 4/99 CB
Circumcision Hailed As A Way To Curb AIDS
Partial Cut DPR
A Great Cut At 44 denn45b

Replies To Dan, Anon & R.F.W. Prominent Glans Rim: How fortunate for Dan to have a father who was circumcised himself, wanted the same for his son, and was evidently supportive when Dan obtained his first circumcision at age 16 and the revision seven years later which gave him the result of which he is so proud.

Dan has achieved the prominent glans rim that he wanted, after his revision circumcision radically tightened his shaft skin and removed the roll of skin that bunched behind and rolled over his glans, so that he now has a relatively narrow and tight shaft and a well protruding helmet which is very prominent looking. Indeed, Dan tells us that when at rest, instead of hanging vertically, his cock juts out a little because of the tension in the shaft skin. This is just the ‘skinned back and ready for action’ look which I think is so admirable in a well-cut cock. There is at least one such penis to be seen in the swimming pool changing rooms at my local Leisure Centre.

But, as with faces etc., the structure of the penis does vary with individuals, and even the tightest circumcision does not always produce the result which Dan achieved. I was circumcised at 14, and was very pleased to have the bare glans which I so much wanted and which allowed me to join the roundheads, among whom were the school-friends I most admired. I still have a sense of pride and achievement when I remember being able to show it off for the first time. That, too, was a loose cut which was tightened when I was 21. The shaft skin is tense when I am erect, and well clear of my glans rim when flaccid, except in extremes of temperature (cool in the pool, hot in the sauna), when the shaft shrinks to a minimum and a wrinkle of skin covers the glans rim.

But whether flaccid or erect, the thickest part of my penis is the shaft about halfway along, and not the helmet. I have wondered whether there is some way to tighten the circumference of the shaft skin, so as to make the glans rim look more prominent. I have concluded, however, that the cigar-shaped shaft I have is the one I will live with.

Revision: Anon writes to ask about a revision. Circumcision is always done on a flaccid penis, and the main difficulty is to judge how much slack to allow for erection. A medic faces the risk of a charge of unprofessional conduct or even ‘abuse’ if he stimulates the patient to an erection. Yet this is really the only way to ensure that the right amount of foreskin is measured up and marked off for removal, and it has to be done before injecting the anaesthetic, which may cause some swelling and will almost certainly bring an erection to an end. For these reasons, a really tight circumcision is usually only achieved in one of two ways. Either the boy is circumcised before puberty, so that when the penis grows it takes up the slack in the shaft skin. Or a first circumcision is followed by a revision, when the proportion of skin to be removed to achieve the desired tightness is relatively small. Having seen the results achieved by Dr Sifman, I would happily recommend him for both sympathy and effectiveness. Alternatively, a request to VQ, c/o Acorn (together with two loose 1st-class stamps) will also bring a list of circumcisers, although without specific recommendations.

An alternative to circumcision: RFW tells us about the man he met with three small gold rings placed to keep glans bare and his foreskin tethered to the base of his penis. This is, indeed, a reversible alternative to circumcision, especially if sufficiently strong ball-closure rings are used. It would be well worth a try by any adult or teenager interested in feeling what it is like to have a fully exposed glans. But I take issue with RFW’s suggestion to try it with an infant, since the foreskin may not be fully retractable in the first 3-4 years, and its bunched-up presence would be difficult to keep clean while the boy was still in nappies.

Tony Acorn

Acorn No.3 2000

The Sights Of Europe DA
Status
A Landmark Paper On The Foreskin T Lane
Reply To ‘Circumcision HailedAs A Way to Curb AIDS’ DA
Day Surgery Bill
A Tight Pullover FS
A Well Cut Cock JS
Byfleet Clinic Closure CP
Another Prince Albert KGN
Thoughts On Acorn RBW
Childhood Wish Fulfilled CB
In Answer To Revision (1/2000) R
Re ‘Replies To Dan, Anon And RFW’ In 2/2000 CB

Thoughts On Acorn Congratulations on taking over the mantle of Editor from the excellent David, though you may wonder at the moment if you’ve not been given a poisoned chalice! David told me of the problems being faced which was not just lack of suitable copy but a haemorrhaging membership.

In this respect I do think that if we want to expand the appeal of Acorn, we need to make it acceptable to a wider audience. For example in the last issue just received, all the letters bar one very brief one, were from pro-circumcision members. Consequently people like me who are not pro-circumcision will wonder if there’s any point in continuing as members if our letters are not going to get published and our point of view is disregarded.

This is fine if it is the intention of the club to re-write the rules (which give equal emphasis to the foreskin as well as circumcision) but it is rather sad for people like me ­ I shall always be grateful to Acorn for giving me the opportunity to express my life-long anguish and distress at being circumcised without the option. By unloading your pro-foreskin members you will virtually restrict your membership to gay men who have had themselves circumcised as adults and who get their jollies from talking about it. This is necessarily a tiny crosssection of the population and as a result, membership will never increase.

If on the other hand you do want to appeal to a wider audience, you need to get away from the endless diet of revisions, re-revisions, DIY knife and fork jobs and so on and I suggest you take a leaf out of NORM-UK’s book who are going from strength to strength, with a rapidly growing membership, charitable status and a national figure as its President. It also has a very powerful and effective women’s section and a strong Jewish and Muslim membership.

So as well as re-instating pro-foreskin material, I suggest we expand to include women’s issues, with articles about female circumcision for example ­ or the function of both male and female genitals in general. At the same time the price needs to go up quite drastically to pay for production expenses ­ if you rely too much on volunteers you will inevitably be let down. If people think that what we are saying is worthwhile, they’ll be prepared to pay for it. That is certainly NORM-UK’s experience. But it must be worthwhile!

As a case in point I submitted a report on the BJU’s Circumcision Supplement (enclosed) to David some time ago which he said he would publish since it is a landmark publication totally relevant to our chosen subject. Although it will make uncomfortable reading for a lot of our membership, we should be made aware of these developments, like them or not. Do hope you can find room for it.

Best regards ­ and good luck.

RBW

Acorn No.4 2000

Editorial Steve
The October Meeting Douglas
Reply To: A Well Cut Cock PT
Cavalier Reasoning Anon
Response To Issue 3/2000 Vernon
Observations In China Tony
Sightings And Thoughts RFW
Piercing As Adornment Kees
Circumcision - My Story Steve
Penis Puppeteers JF
Foreskin Thoughts IO

Cavalier Reasoning First, some background: I am 56, 5ft 8in, weigh approx 150lbs; Cavalier cock 5in long when hard, approx 4.3in circumference, bends slightly upwards (an advantage, I think when fucking), angle when hard about 45 degrees; long overhang foreskin, which is very loose; if foreskin in full extended length, then it does not retract over helmet when hard ­ if lubricated, will slip back over most of helmet of its own accord. A sprinkle of hair on chest!

My interest in circumcision stems from schooldays when I was in the minority and wanted to be like all my roundhead friends; since then, I have had a few bouts of balanitis (am going through one now) and this also made me consider the cut. In 1984 I was advised by the doctor to have it done and stop messing about, but I was worried about the result, so persevered and the infection cleared up.

I joined Acorn in the late 80s to find out more about circumcision and have learned a lot ­ that it’s not just a matter of cutting off the foreskin. I have made contact with a few members circumcised as adults to find out their pre and post experiences ­ but not very successful; a couple were gay and so could not report on heterosexual sex before and after. What I also noticed was that the cuts were not very clean and stitch marks were left. I prefer the look of a tight cut, but I think this is more US style and most UK roundheads seem to have some skin bunched up behind the helmet.

So, l’ve decided to stay a cavalier, unless, of course, the balanitis can’t be cured ­ quite apart from the pain and hassle, the unknown sexual result, I’d go through hell being mocked by my mates at my sports club. (As one of our members was a few years ago, but I’ve never had the courage to ask him why he had the cut!)

Although I still think a circumcised cock looks better, I think that cavaliers have it better sexually ­ I’ve proved this to myself by wanking with the foreskin held back as far as possible, leaving the shaft skin taut and the helmet totally exposed ­ there is a definite reduction in sensation without the extra skin movement.

My reasons for keeping my foreskin rolled under itself to expose some of the helmet are ­ I have slight hypospadias so that my pee-hole is almost split in two and very tender. I always used to pee with the skin forwards, but then experimented with the roll-under ­ this helped to toughen the end and I now pee almost straight rather than in two differently angled streams! I notice my helmet skin has a slightly different texture where it’s been exposed. This also means that I can pee without pulling the complete foreskin back.

The other reason is appearance ­ I’m very aware of my small cock ­ not only length but more importantly, girth ­ it’s strange that when talking about cock size, it is only length that is referred to. With my foreskin fully forwards, tapering to a point, my cock looks so infantile and pathetic! At least with the skin rolled under it looks slightly thicker and stubbier and with a bit of helmet showing through, a little more aggressive! I also now find this most comfortable to wear ­ nice to feel the end of the helmet against one’s underwear and I find the fully extended foreskin OK for a while, but then uncomfortable and I’m always aware of this bit of extra skin hanging off the end of my cock! I always wank with the foreskin fully retracted and use lubrication over the bare knob.

When fucking, I find there are various different sensations to be had depending on the angle one goes in at-
• tip of helmet and frenulum area underside
• top of helmet
• base of cock
• these give very different orgasms.

I’ve also been experimenting with different lubricants, apart from the standard KY jelly
• Wet or Wet light (from sex shops)
• Liquid silk

I think both have some ingredient which slightly irritates the end of the pee-hole and causes a better orgasm (I think this is the origin of the Spanish Fly claims!)

I think I am probably obsessed with my cock! I don’t know if other guys are, but I have a sneaking suspicion that everyone is, but most are too shy to talk about it! There is no doubt that cocks are observed in showers and changing rooms (I find that I’ll notice someone the first time, but then, unless it is a particularly huge specimen, take no notice thereafter) ­ as I do a lot of sport, I’m always in and out of changing rooms and showers.

As I said in my article in Acorn, I’m sure many guys would like to discuss this subject more openly, but feel inhibited and that they would be regarded as gay if they did. I think also we all have that desire to exhibit our cocks and show the world what we have!