Australians and Lesbians, Together at Last.

That Steve Irwin was pretty awesome. There you have a guy with just no fear whatsoever, who also just happens to be completely, exuberantly, perhaps pathologically fascinated with Nature's Creatures. How great is it to just have all that energy, and blow it all out learning everything you can about stuff you love, and passing that stuff on to anyone within bellowing distance? This guy should have been an early-Nineteenth Century imperial naturalist or some such. Of course in the early nineteenth century his family had probably just got "transported," as the saying goes. That said, I think we all could have seen "Steve Irwin Dies in Freak Accident Involving Being Too Close To A Wild Animal" coming a mile away. Guy took "awright, now, nevah, evah dew this, kids, onaccountah Oi am a Troined Profeshnah" to a whole new level. I would argue that putting the poor guy in a position to get stabbed by a fish was perhaps cruel. Sure, he's an expert on dangerous reptiles. And he's expanded that to dealing with stuff like lions, because really "jumping on you and then biting you" is in basically the same vein as "rushing at you and then biting you." Sending him underwater where he can't jump out of the way of an onrushing beastie is not exactly playing to his strengths.

Don't get me wrong, here. I don't mean to be all "dude had it coming." How can you not love this guy? I mean, unless you're of the "leaving nature to its own devices and not just poking, prodding and generally manhandling any beast, critter or varmint that comes within reach, or indeed within range of a goodly dive-roll" school of ecology. And really, who is?

Man, am I writing myself into a corner here. Best to switch topics. You're probably wondering how this all ties in with lesbians. Which is because you read the headline, or just have a dirty mind. Anyway! Here I draw a parallel with that other terrible-blond-hairdo'd TV host, one Ms. Ellen DeGeneres. This woman's primary claim to fame is that she declared herself to be openly gay back when that was still kinda-sorta not okay, instead of fabulously hip like it is now. And now she has a kinda-sorta popular TV talk show along the lines of Oprah or Phil Donahue or Larry King or whoever. But what makes Ellen really great is the same thing that made Steve really great: unbridled enthusiasm. She's not afraid to make a rampaging fool of herself, and indeed that is often apparently her goal in life. She just has this delightful self-effacing "aw, I'm not so great" attitude. I like her style. Here's hoping nothing unpleasant and stingray-related happens to her.

So yeah, those are my vaguely-related, potentially offensive pop-cult thoughts for the day.