Sad Sex

A few reflections on this week's Hackie story, "Let's Play Yahtzee" . . .

The Hackie oeuvre (could I get anymore pretentious?) seems to cover the waterfront - from farce to poignancy, politics to humor. A reader might reasonably assume that I make a conscious effort to mix it up; if a couple of columns in a row have been dramatic, I might then go for a story with comic overtones.

In practice, however, this is not how it works. I don't choose the stories; the stories choose me. Week in and week out, I'm out there pushing the hack. Every so often, a fare passes through my taxi that, for some reason, moves me. I jot down some notes, and at some later point, a column appears in Seven Days. The tenor of the story is dictated by what happened in the cab. In other words, I take what the streets give me.

Every so often, perhaps less than a couple times a year, something transpires that feels - well, to revert to my baby-boomer slang - heavy. The incident portrayed in this week's column certainly qualifies as such. So be it.

I wondered, as I wrote the story, whether it would be received or understood differently by men and women. Because here's the thing:  if a random guy makes unsolicited sexual advances, a woman's attitude is, "F..k-off!" But, reverse the scenario, and guys tend to gladly accept anonymous random sex, particularly if the offerer is attractive.

So, as the story reaches its denouement, I thought, "Jeez, a certain percentage of male readers will be thinking, What are you nuts, Jernigan?! Why didn't you just go for it? A gift horse in the mouth, and all that.

Maybe I'm way off, but this is what came up for me as I reflected on this story.