Viagra's 10th Birthday: A Proto-Post

OK, I was trying to write a post this afternoon about the 10th anniversary of Viagra and the whole "Viagra-for-women" controversy and how everyone is saying that popping a pill is no substitute for intimacy or choosing the right partner and yada yada yada and I was going to try to explain why I'm all for Pfizer in this case but time ran out on me so it's going to have to wait 'til later.

But I will say this now: halfway through writing I googled "viagra image" for a cute snapshot of some Viagra pills, and I came across this article in an online science magazine in which some Pfizer guy writes about "How I discovered Viagra." (I also came across the image above. Cute pill pic!)

And the pull-out quotation from the article is this: "I remember thinking that, even if it did work, who would want to take a drug on a Wednesday to get an erection on a Saturday?"

The answer, of course, is "everyone." I mean, I know the time lag has gotten shorter but wasn't the previous treatment like a needle in the penis or some shit like that? Obviously people would have put up with even a radically inferior product. Is it just 20-20 hindsight that makes this so obvious?

It makes me happy that the discovery of Viagra is associated with goofiness and accidents. Like after the discovery supposedly the inventor took it, before his conference presentation or whatever, and took down his pants, and walked around and showed his hard-on to everyone. "Look! It works! Check it out, Beavis!"

That. Is. Awesome. Can we have more crazy shit like this in academia? Please? I'm going out of my mind with boredom!