I love the word ‘gobsmacked’, it has such a lovely feel to it and it perfectly captures the sense of incredulity you experience when you hear or read something so ridiculous that it’s hard to believe someone actually said or wrote it down.

So I was gobsmacked when I read an item in American Medical News saying that America’s urologists are pushing the idea that “March Madness” – the NCAA annual basketball tournament – is an ideal time for men to undergo a vasectomy.

Yes, you read that right. It’s “March Madness” so why not get a vasectomy!

I’m not quite clear on the logic of this. Maybe they think that so many men are spending hours each day watching basketball and drinking beer and generally being sloths that they probably aren’t going to have sex anyway so they might as well get clipped. The urologists say that many men think about getting a vasectomy, and even want to get one, but somehow never get around to it, so they say the NCAA tournament is the perfect time, because it gives them something to do while they are recuperating from the procedure.

Now this strikes me as the handiwork of some overly creative PR type. Someone trying to come up with a new marketing idea to promote the work of urologists and earn a cut of the business for themselves. And there’s definitely some research to suggest that sports fans, who are mostly men, might be open to that kind of approach. After all, a 2008 survey by the British Social Services Research Institute found that 70 percent of Spanish fans would rather watch soccer than have sex, so maybe there’s reason to think that American men are not that much different.

To sweeten the pot some urologists are even offering prize packages – what they call “survival kits – to patients. These include coupons for free pizza, a sports magazine and, best of all, frozen peas to alleviate pain after surgery.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around half a million American men get a vasectomy every year. Now if they all decided to wait for March to get snipped it’s unlikely the urologists would be able to cope, nor would pizza parlors be able to keep up with demand for free delivery, and no one would be able to find frozen peas at their local grocery store.

You notice that no one is suggesting women get hysterectomies or other surgical procedures during “March Madness”? The reason is simple, there’s a vas deferens between men and women!

Apparently the recession isn’t just resulting in cuts in the job market. According to a new survey the souring economy is also resulting in cuts in other areas.. men’s genitals!

I kid you not. According to an article in Healthday, doctors are reporting that since the recession began they have seen a sizable increase in the number of men getting vasectomies.

The article quotes a doc at New York’s Cornell Institute for Reproductive Medicine saying he has seen a 48 percent increase in the number of men coming in for vasectomy consultations in the past year.

The folks at Cleveland Clinic have seen similar swelling in volume, with the number of chaps getting the chop up by 75 percent.

So what is behind the uptick in dick docking? The doctors are speculating that with all the job losses some men have decided they don’t want to take any chances they might have more kids.

Or it may be that some are men who still have a job and want to take care of this issue, by ensuring they don’t have any more issue, while they still have health care coverage.

So while some people may say there is no difference between a downturn and a depression this shows there is in fact a vas deferens!

And speaking of which. Here’s another fascinating non-economic sign that could be a reflection of people’s feelings about the state of the economy, or their hopes about the economy, or just a reason for otherwise sober economists to stare at women.

It used to be thought that if  the hemlines of women’s skirts rose, that was a sign that the stock market too was on the rise.

The other night we were out walking and Shirley, taking into account that old maxim, observed that good times surely lay ahead if the length of skirts was any indication because half the gals we saw were wearing very short skirts indeed.

This so-called “hemline theory” reportedly has its roots in the 1920′s when economist George Taylor pointed out that when times are good some women raise their hemlines to show that they are wearing silk stockings. In bad times they lower their hemlines to hide the fact that they aren’t wearing any.

But apparently no one really cares these days if you are wearing silk stockings so the changes in fashion are really just that.. changes in fashion.. and not indications of stock market prognostications.

Still, you have to allow for the fact that this could be predictive of something. Or at least pretend it is because otherwise how are econ geeks ever going to have a chance to stare at cute gals in short skirts and pretend it is research.

But don’t despair, there is a theory that it wasn’t the silk stockings at all, but the general feeling of taking more risks.  Thus, a shorter skirt is risky!

Then again, you could always remind them of the words of that genius economist J. K. Galbraith who said “That the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable!!!