Orly? (revisited)

Unexpected phraseology in academic discourse:
A commenter at Righteous Insolence points out that the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'bukkake'.

This comes in response to people being mean about an insubstantial science-fair project by Platek, Burch and Gallup (2002), inexplicably published in what appears to be a real journal and recently in the news.* Criticisms include:

• the authors' apparent unawareness that many of the hormonal contents of semen can have no effect on mood (even if they enter the recipient's bloodstream) because of a little-known phenomenon called the 'blood-brain barrier';
• the curiously antiquated Symbolist / fin de siècle quality of the hypothesis that women need regular doses of male semen to maintain their proper cognitive function;²
• their casual assumption that the direction of causality runs from "having sex without a condom" to "improved mood", rather than vice versa, or from some third variable affecting both;
• their general uninterest in controlling potential third variables.

Miffed, the authors wrote to an Authoritative Website to defend their reputations. And to mention their semen testimonials.

UPDATE: Bonus Platek et al.:

There is growing evidence that human semen has the potential to produce profound effects on women.

Another RI commenter responds:

Yes. For instance, it can cause them to harbor a massive internal parasite for nine months, followed by another eighteen years of debt...

Update².
I could add several hundred words here, describing the particular strand of fin de siècle misogyny that viewed women as lacking in brain and spirit, making them sexually-insatiable vampires, compelled to suck seminal essence from men to compensate for their incompleteness. There was an explicit magical-thinking equation between semen and cerebral tissue: men could apparently expend one, or the other, but not both. Hence the popularity of the Salome motif in art, drama and music (and Judith to a lesser extent, as a less-familiar emasculator decapitator of men). But that would involve the Explaining Voice.

Thank goodness we've moved on from all that vile bullshit now.

UPDATE³ for mikey in comments: Bonus decadent literature.
Consider this a sneak preview of the next "Gardening with AK" column.