As of yet, nobody knows what prompted Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York and married father of three—now infamously known as "Client 9"—to dabble in a high-priced prostitution ring.

It may have been power, deviance, or a more quotidian mid-life crisis that meant he was willing to put both family and political future on the line. But the screaming headlines do beg another question: What drives men to pay for sex in the first place? One titillating theory suggests that it may boil down to blowjobs.

A 2001 study by Martin A. Monto, published in the Journal of Sex Research, indicates that "the desire for fellatio is an important reason clients seek female prostitutes." Monto's study gathered questionnaires from men arrested while trying to hire hookers; according to the pervy perps, fellatio was the most common practice they "had ever experienced" with a prostitute—a whopping 81% had received a blowjob as compared to 55% who had had sex.

Of course, you can list many reasons guys might prefer to get their jollies with a call girl. In fact, a series of studies Monto performed cited the following as common causes:

1) They're attracted to the illicit or risky nature of the encounter.
2) They want to have greater control over their sexual experiences.
3) They have difficulty becoming involved in conventional relationships.
4) They want to avoid the responsibilities or emotional attachments of a conventional relationship.

But in the end he concluded that one of the main reasons clients pursue encounters with prostitutes is that they're interested in sexual practices they don’t have access to, either because they don’t have a steady partner, or she's not willing to go there.

And there are even stats to back that up. While I'm not sure our tax money is best used to substantiate that men are more interested in getting head than women are in giving it, the National Health and Social Life Survey did turn up some interesting findings on going down: While 45% of men found receiving oral sex very appealing, only 17% of women found doing the honors equally so.

Call it the eggs benedict effect—or as the old wink-wink, just-between-guys joke goes: "What do blowjobs and eggs benedict have in common?"

The answer, ladies? "You can't get them at home."

We politely beg to differ. Herewith, your recipe for Eggs Benedict.