perfidy

Could be, based on an article in today's Philadelphia Daily News, entitled "STUDLY DO-WRONGS" (subtitled "Some horses are standing dud").

The question du jour seems to revolve around the mating proclivities of the winner of the 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

Now, since I sincerely, deeply, aggressively, and completely don't care about others' sexual proclivities, not even if the "other" in question is a supposedly well-known evangelist I've never heard of, it was initially looking difficult for me to give this story more than a passing glance.

The author enlightens about the mating habits of certain equine special interest groups, like so:

Curiously, War Emblem has been less than a star in the breeding shed. In fact, he has been a colossal dud. Shipped off to stand stud at Shadai Stallion Station in Japan, he has impregnated only a handful of the hundreds of mares who have been led to him. The problem has less to do with fertility than with libido, which is to say War Emblem has been decidedly disinterested in the fair sex. Given that homosexuality is not uncommon in the animal kingdom, some have wondered if War Emblem had an eye for the boys. That very question was asked by Outsports.com: "Is War Emblem Gay?"

Well, I don't know about you, but in the highly unlikely event I have some future question about the world of gay sports, outsports.com would now be my "go to" source. As an added plus, it's clear that they're not limited to serving the needs of the two-legged, as they clearly cover matters related to quadripeds, too. So I've learned something. In addition, I've learned that even in horses, it's apparently common to deem one sex "fairer" than the other. Noted.

Any good article has a hook, of course, and I found mine in this bit:

The bottom line is that horses are not unlike human beings when it comes to sexual behavior, which is to say that it is varied, capricious and given to an array of unforeseen obstacles. In light of the big money involved, it can be an utterly exasperating undertaking, especially if you happen to discover that instead of the second coming of Northern Dancer, the horse you have standing at stud shows up one day wearing an ascot and humming show tunes.

After seeing that line, I read the rest of the article, and even though it reached its zenith at the show tunes jab, I found it an interesting use of those couple of minutes of my life that I'll never see again. Irreverance, it seems, remains the preferred hook to get and keep my attention.

[wik] Speaking of both irreverence and gay evangelicals I've never heard of, this bit from Ace of Spades, entitled "Biggest Story Of The Century: Some Guy You Never Heard Of Is A Homo"