From the ‘Who’s-Writing-What?’ file, The New York Times (March 8) tells us a story: Imagine a gay, very popular Don Rickles/Groucho Marx-type comedian who—one day while eating junk food—gets off his couch (which is in Germany) and starts walking on a medieval pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. German comedian Hape Kereling walked 400 miles and wrote a book about it. He is not heavily religious but is apparently a charming traveling companion. Hundreds of people have started out on the same trek, which is called the Way of St. James. Kereling did not regard his pilgrimage as a ‘ … quest that would hold lessons for others’ but it did become spiritual. He was asked by a publisher to put the diary of the trip into print. He did, it’s a hit and ‘I’m Off for a Bit, Then’ will be published in this country next year. This is pretty good for a gay guy who was best known before for dressing up as Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and, coming just a tish short, of walking into a state dinner with the German president.
From the ‘Retro-1950-Vampire-Comix’ file, we hear, via The New York Times (Mar. 5), that in the first chapter of season eight of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic series, Buffy thinks about crossing to the other side—not the teeth-in-the-neck side but the LESBIAN side. Buffy considers a woman-on-woman relationship. While in bed. With that woman. Unlike Willow, Buffy’s spell-casting friend who came out and stayed out in the fourth season, this is not (yet) a permanent change in the Buffster, according to the executive producer of the comic, Joss Whedon. But he adds that Willow stayed out because fans demanded it. Maybe old Xena fans will start petitioning the strip.
Discover Magazine (April), in 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Mating, such as ‘Homosexual behavior is found in at least 1,500 species of mammal, fish, reptile, bird and even invertebrates’; ‘When a male goose courts another male goose, a female sometimes slips in and mates with both males. Later, the male partners share paternal duties’; ‘Some seagulls practice lesbian mating, although the eggs that result from their liasons are sterile’ (perhaps they should take goose lessons) ; and male fruit flies that get drunk chase all other flies, including males: ‘Eventually the revelry turns into a dysfunctional orgy with a chain of males chasing each other.’ The same issue of the magazine looks at abolishing war among primates (including us). The article, ‘War: What Is It Good For?,’ mentions bonobos, a subspecies of chimp that, unlike regular chimps, that engages in ‘little hunting, no male dominance and enormous amounts of sex.’ The promiscuity seems to reduce violence both within the troop and between troops. Unmentioned, but available in many other sources, is the fact that that promiscuity contains plenty of same-gender sex. Maybe the ’60s saying ‘Make Love, Not War’ should be changed to ‘Make Love Instead of War.’