The Many Faces of Eve

That was the Super Bowl, wasn't it? I just want to be sure because that would mean the Bears were supposed to be a Super Bowl caliber team, wouldn't it? Maybe they should make football more like figure skating and have some kind of compulsory round before they get to the final competition. You know, just to make sure that the teams can perform the basic functions like passing the ball to the right team and, oh, I don't know, maybe handling the snap from center. It might have saved that Grossman guy a lot of embarrassment.

Not that it was his fault. The Colt's offensive line pretty much pushed the Bears defensive line around the entire night. The real suprise was that the score wasn't more one-sided than it was. Either way it didn't make any difference to me. This should have been the Chargers year, and I'm mighty disappointed that they fell out of contention so early in the playoffs. Yeah, I know. Next year, next year...Out with the Colts, and in with the Bolts!

Anyways, that was the news down in Florida. Around here there were a couple of big stories you might not have heard about, the first one being that I've been sick (again) for the past few days. Yes, that's right. This is the third time I've come down with the bug since last summer, and I don't know why that is, but I'm sure it must have something to do with global warming. Whatever the cause, I don't want to be sick no more.

The other big story concerns the Mayor of San Francisco and a certain dalliance with the wife of one of his best friends. Now this isn't a gossip blog and I'm not going to go into the details, but it is interesting to see the reaction it got around town.

One of the local news stations sent a reporter to do some "man-on-the-street" interviews, and you couldn't have found a more clear-cut divide between males and females on the issue. To the men, a guy who sleeps with his best friend's wife is basically a scumbag, or on a scale of high to low would rate somewhere around subterranean. The men all felt the guy had some serious character issues and showed a real lack of ethical or moral substance. In other words, not the kind of guy you'd trust with your sister.

On the other hand, the woman interviewed didn't see the affair as that big a deal. They didn't think it showed any kind of character flaw or moral lapse in the Mayor, and a few even found the whole thing kind of sexy. None felt it changed their opinion of the Mayor one way or the other.

Which raises the question "is moral right and wrong really just a question of whose ox is being gored?" In other words, women might not see anything wrong with a married woman having an affair with a single man, but would they feel the same if the situation were reversed? Would they be so sanguine if this were a case of a married man having an affair with a single woman? Say, a married President having and affair with an unmarried intern?

You know, thinking back on the whole Monicagate thing, it doesn't seem to me that women, in general, were all that upset with the President. I don't remember any protests in the street or anything like that. In fact, I seem to remember just the opposite. I seem to remember certain women's groups actually rallying to the President's defense during his impeachment hearings (I'd fact check that but I don't feel like it right now. I think that's what happened though. Didn't it?)

So what does this mean? Does this mean that fidelity means more to men than it does to women? Do women actually find philandering husbands kind of sexy (as long as he's not "her" philandering husband)? I don't know, but it does bring to mind an old movie I saw once. I'm sorry I can't remember the name or who was in it, but there was this one scene where a young woman is torn between two men and comes to an older woman for advice. She tells the older woman that the one is responsible and steady, but a bit of a bore, while the other is an irresponsible ne'er-do-well, but devishly fun. She can't decide which one she should marry so she asks the older woman what she would do. The older woman replies "It's very simple, my dear. Marry the responsible one, and keep the other for a lover."

So, maybe from the female perspective, a married woman taking the Mayor for a lover was just doing what any woman would do. Geez, that's a depressing thought...

Well, Happy Valentine's Day all you husbands out there.