Smooth-billed Ani and perverts.

The Story:

In 1964 or so, my colleague Fred spotted a nesting colony of a recent arrival to the area called the Smooth-billed Ani. A small flock was building a nest in a large date palm on Ponce De Leon Blvd. near the University of Miami. Fred was the preparator for the Zoology department and a good field man. Tireless, long legs and a great attitude.

Anyway, we took his old VW van and parked near the palm tree. Within half an hour we documented several Anis and were watching behavior when a Coral Gables police cruiser glided up behind us, parked, and out walked a large policeman. Slowly and carefully he approached us. (We were dressed in field clothes - grubby- and looked rough.) He wanted to know who we were (please produce ID) and what we were doing. It took him some time to wrap around the idea that we were watching a very unusual bird colony. He finally got to the binoculars and agreed the he had never seen this kind of bird.

The real story:

Across South Dixie Highway was an apartment building. Living there was a very observant woman that reported two perverts with binoculars looking into her apartment (the line of sight was behind and slightly to the right of the palm tree.) Now this building was quite far away, and how she spotted us in the van is a mystery , but she did. Coral Gable's finest cleared us completely and advised that the next time we were birdwatching in the neighborhood, we let them know.

All in a days work for a birdwatcher.

Fred and I had other capers that may surface in later essays.

Photo: - www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/PHOTO/LARGE/bna_B...

Ephebophilia: What the hell is that?

There are only a few basic strong drives in humans: reproduction, eating and surviving are the top three. Let’s see. Hmmm. What if you deny a typical human the achievement of one of these drives? They eventually will do anything to satisfy the drive. People kill when face with a killer. People do almost anything to get food: kill, steal, sell themselves, sell their possessions or their children, lie, cheat. You get the picture. Desperation.
What about reproduction? Well, we call it, ummm, errrr, SEX.
So. We take thousands of normal young males (Wait. Could pedophiles, pederasts, hebephiles and ephebophiles actually be attracted to the life of a priest because of the sanctuary they find?), feed them, secure them from most physical threats and deny them sex. Even with themselves. OMG!!! Spilling your seed outside a woman is a SIN. Just ask Onan. (Ooops, sorry. You can’t because God killed him for doing that.) The result? Some of them go off the deep end and get it where they can. Remember, though, it is considered a shameful sin in the Church. Some go to the weakest they can find. Children.
Why the hell is anyone surprised? I’m not.
But wait. There is more. After discovering decades of abuse of children and teens, the mother church covers it up and reassigns the offenders to other parishes where they continue to abuse. The cover up goes all the way to the Vatican. Surprised? I’m not. The Church has a long history of abusing power at the expense of human suffering. Time for a revolution. The peasants are revolting.
And the Pope says: “Ja, sie sind. “

Image: www.mintmuseum.org/.../coverup_72.jpg