The Agenda:

Testing the Premise: Are Gays a Threat to Our Children?

What the "Dutch Study" Really Says About Gay Couples

Federal Hate Crime Statistics: Why The Numbers Don't Add Up

Refuting Christianity Today

  Favorites:

Still Life At Sunset

Anderson Cooper and Scooter

Wandering, Wondering

The Aperture of Memory

Easter's Birthday

The First Time I Cussed

  Photo Essays:

The Anasazi Ruins of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Monsoons of 2004

Miracle Mile

Now Showing / Reflection on Hayden, Arizona

Please Stand By
Tuesday, June 21, 2005

I’m looking out the bedroom window at the lightning from a very unusual June thunderstorm. Our weather has been very weird lately. It never rains this early in the summer in Tucson, but here it is – an isolated thundercloud sending bolts of lightning across a late evening sky.

Maybe it’s the heat. It hit 110 degrees yesterday, and almost matched it again today. Maybe it’s the aftermath of a week spent with the good company of out-of-town guests, sharing the sights of northern Arizona. Maybe it’s boredom with my job. Maybe it’s the fact that I have so much I want to do that competes for time (and energy) with the many things I have to do.

Whatever it is, lethargy has become something of an unwelcome houseguest lately. Just in case you were wondering.

When I was little, I remember watching a half-hour program called Gentle Ben, about a boy and his pet bear who lived in the Florida Everglades. In those days, television was still a complicated affair, and “technical difficulties” were rather frequent. One Sunday evening as I was watching Gentle Ben, the sound went out, and a caption appeared at the bottom of the screen saying the problem was not in our set. The entire program was broadcast without sound, and I was forced to guess at what was going on. It was very frustrating. It even silenced part of the Ed Sullivan Show, leaving Topo Gigio with nothing to say.

I’ve had nothing to say lately as well. It seems as though I’ve lost the soundtrack to my life, and I’m just guessing at what is going to happen next. There are no words bouncing around my head to give dialogue to the things around me.

I’m an optimist, which means that I know this will pass, although I don’t know when. Meanwhile, I’m just sitting here watching the jugglers as they spin their dinner plates on top of long wobbly poles. Even though the pace may look a little slower when you can’t hear the orchestra playing that frantic music, I'm still left wondering: how do they do it?

◄ May 2005
► July 2005

Prada Shoo Fly
Wednesday, June 8, 2005

So now I read that when scientist altered just one lone gene (the fru gene) in male fruit flies, these fruity fruit flies go frufru. They don’t perform the usual courtship behaviors in the presence of female flies. Instead, these fey flies chase after other male fruit flies, displaying a behavior that is strikingly similar to that deployed by the Venture Inn’s patrons at closing time.

Here’s the movie (20.1 MB, broadband recommended). Don’t worry, it’s safe for work.

Furthermore, it turns out that when the female fruit flies’ fru genes are altered, they become decidedly more sporty than their unimproved counterparts. Here’s the hot sizzlin’ lesbo action to prove it (13.4 MB, broadband recommended).

Now already some are exclaiming aha! – this clearly shows that homosexuality is genetic. But others will point out that human sexuality is far too complex to be explained so tidily by a single gene, and that there are a whole host of tangled factors that come into play. I’m inclined to agree. We’re not fruit flies, and we humans are much more than just our genes. Our instincts, inspirations, aspirations and emotions come from a unique combination of physical sources and personal experiences, and I don’t think we will ever be able to separate and identify all of the enmeshed factors which make up our constitutions. We are clearly more complex than the humble drosophila melanogaster.

But come to think of it, I can’t vouch for everyone at the Venture Inn.