By the spring of ’72, SCREW was a full-blown cultural weapon. While Nixon was bombing Hanoi and middle America was gluing their eyeballs to “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” Al Goldstein and crew were publishing erotic dissents with titles like “Self-Abuse: Shame or Sin?” and stuffing it between surreal erotica, gay liberation manifestos, and graphic cartoons that would give Charles Addams a stiffy.

This wasn’t just porn. This was holy filth.

🎨 The Cover:

Painted by Haruo, whose warped cartoon genius always looked like it crawled out of a fever dream in Times Square. A visual buffet of sleaze, social commentary, and subversive absurdity — the perfect tease for what lay inside.

✍️ The Raw, the Real, the Ridiculous:

“Screw You”
By Al Goldstein — Al kicks things off the only way he knew how: angry, obscene, and disgusted with the world. It’s a middle finger to prudes, the powerful, and anyone who thought SCREW should “tone it down.”

“Self-Abuse: Shame or Sin?”
By Dr. Harold Harrison Foote — An actual medical man weighing in on whether jerking off is a path to hell or a healthy pastime. Spoiler: SCREW readers already knew the answer and had the calluses to prove it.

“My Scene: Mouthful of Miracles”
By Jimmy Owens — A blowjob memoir, part gospel, part gutter. Owens could turn oral sex into poetry, then grind the poem into your face with a smirk.

“Sex Scene”
Edited by David Reitman — The social round-up you’ll never see in The Times: voyeurism, open marriages, the guy in Queens who only gets off to vacuum cleaners.

🌈 Bold, Blunt, and Brilliant:

“Homosexual Citizen: Look Homeward, Faggot”
By Jack Nichols — Long before rainbow capitalism and corporate pride floats, Jack Nichols was writing fearlessly in the pages of SCREW. This one’s a dagger wrapped in satire, swinging at society’s bullshit and gay shame in one fierce blow.

“Fuckbooks: For Gracious Snakes”
By Michael Perkins — Nobody reviewed porn lit like Perkins. This one dissected a crop of twisted fiction with all the grace of a butcher and the vocabulary of a beat poet.

🗽 NYC, Nuttiness, and Nerve:

“Naked City”
Edited by Anthony Gambino — Your weekly stroll through New York’s unzipped side. A low-budget Taxi Driver in print form.

“Watson’s Weirdness”
By Christopher Watson — Pure, chaotic brilliance. Watson wrote like he’d just huffed glue in the SCREW office closet, and you were lucky enough to read his ramblings before he vanished again.

“Dirty Diversions: All Dresden Up and No Place to Go”
By Al Goldstein — Yes, that title’s a pun. And yes, the column was a flamethrower aimed at the city, the culture, and whatever poor bastard ended up on Al’s shitlist that week.

“Shit List”
Also by Goldstein — The only recurring column in American journalism that regularly included both Henry Kissinger and the guy who sold Al a stale pretzel.

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SCREW #163 is a time capsule soaked in sarcasm, cum, and cold rage. It’s Goldstein’s America, printed in ink thick enough to stain your morals. Want to understand the raw nerve of early ‘70s smut culture? Start here

And don’t worry — I’ll be back next week with another filthy relic. Let’s build the altar higher. The filth demands it.

—P.