Penthouse Magazine without Guccione is like Playboy without Hefner . . . Guccione Gone . . . no, it isn’t . . . Guccione’s empire has fallen into disrepair but it still stands for so much more . . . freedom of speech, truth in journalism, and real honest sex, not manufactured . . . brings me back to my Human Sexuality course from university . . . we were asked to bring in an adult magazine (yes, porn was our homework) and to analyze the sexuality and issues brought up as well as the rest of the piece . . . one of my classmates, a nice but misinformed young lady, brought up Penthouse and proceeded to trash it as nothing but porn with no redeeming values at all . . . as the professor was sitting next to me, I immediately turned to him and asked if I could do a rebuttal on her presentation . . . well, it wasn’t debate class but he said I could . . . I brought up my copy of Penthouse (unlike many of my classmates at this Christian university, I didn’t have to go out and buy one special for the homework as I had been subscribing to Playboy since I was 14 – thanks for the subscription, Mom – and had been a regular reader of Penthouse for nearly as long – and I rebutted . . . I didn’t attack my classmate’s views, but focused on the positive elements in the magazine . . . the Veteran’s Assistance and Advocacy, the in-depth feature articles (average Joe and Jane may not be aware of it but Playboy and Penthouse set the mark on full disclosure and fact checking for journalism, they pay very well and attract some of the best writers), the literature, poetry, news, science fiction, fantasy, lifestyles tips on grooming and whatever, sensible advice regarding sexuality, freedom of expression . . . the works . . . after the class, the young lady who had trashed the magazine caught up with me and thanked me. Penthouse is good stuff. Let’s hope that the Post-Guccione world is even better.