I was watching the news at four on four this afternoon, and they had a little story about Mayor Menino unloosing the swans in the Public Garden. They showed them waddling out of their cages, and into the water.

As a sort of postscript, the newscaster said something to the effect of, last year it was discovered that Romeo and Juilet were both females, but authorities decided not to separate them. I thought she was going to say “…to rename them,” actually. But it points out how utterly ridiculous people are, doesn’t it? I mean, why on earth would you separate them? What’s the point?

Sometimes I marvel at how Victorian we still are in our pretensions, even when we live in an unabashedly liberal-permissive society. Other times I’m sure we’re backsliding into Medievalism. I suppose we should be grateful our gay swans weren’t plucked and thrown in the pot at a public boiling. Or sent to gay recovery.

At any rate, the overheated interest in the sexuality of swans is a sign of the times. I mean, it’s adolescent on all sides, isn’t it?