Monday 23 February 2004

Pic of the day: Ecchi (indecent) abilities ... that would presumably be like the GURPS sexual skills. Don't ask how I learned of that, I can't remember, probably back when I searched the Net for all things related to the Generic Universal Role Playing System. Not because I'm a ...

Dirty old man?

I am beginning to sympathize with the hrossa, the otter-like sentient furries of Malacandra. One of the things I most vividly remember from reading Out of the Silent Planet a couple decades ago (as a teen, I believe) was these critters and their conviction that reproduction was only a passing phase in life. A nice thing, sure, but something you outgrew just like you had outgrown childhood.

It is not so with us, at least not with us men. For women this seems to vary considerably. I hear that not a few of them entirely discards their sexuality once they reach menopause, and find all thought of carnal union either ridiculous or disgusting. This can happen even though they are still lawfully married, often to the discomfort of their husband. With some other women is is not so, though I have not talked with any of those about the matter.

To the best of my knowledge, the reproductive drive of the human male does never entirely leave him, although it does relax its grip gradually over time. The man's reaction to this lessening varies a lot, or so I have heard. Most are not amused, I understand. Personally I find it more comfortable than the frenzied heat of my younger years. But as a human myself, I have to admit that it does stick with me to some extent even at this advanced age. Surely at the age of 45 there is no biological reason to maintain the ability to propagate one's genes. How would I have the strength of body and mind to instruct my young sons and daughters fifteen and twenty years from now? Provided I'm even alive – not nearly all men are by then.

***

None of these deep truths kept my mind from jumping to the entirely wrong conclusion on this beautiful winter day as I walked down the main shopping street and heard a young woman talk. I had already seen her and noticed in passing that she was a quite shapely specimen of womankind, although rather young by my standards, probably only 20 or so. I barely believed my own ears when I heard her say (not to me obviously) that she and the other girl with her were meaning to "take these trousers off".

Before I had time to go bodily into shock, however, I realized that the trousers in question were those hanging on a rack just outside the shop where the two of them worked, and they were talking about removing them from said rack, not taking off their own trousers. Well, of course, what was I thinking? In the middle of the winter, and all.

Also, despite years of reading various English-language literature, today was the first time I found out (thanks to Scientific American) that "Great Tits" are actually migratory birds. Somehow I suspect that amateur ornithologists searching for their favorite bird on the Net will take some time to find the articles that particularly interest them. Then again, this may just be my dirty old imagination speaking.

Yeah, one of those days.