A woman was talking about wine on the radio the other morning, and said the following: "Just because you like a wine a lot doesn't mean it's good. Don't confuse the two. But we like lots of things that are not quantitatively GOOD -- that doesn't mean you shouldn't like them, and that's what makes us human."

That's so completely exactly how I feel about Showtime's Queer as Folk series, it's uncanny. See, the show is bad. Badly written especially, although the actors sometimes rise above their terrible material. It also toes this sketchy line between soft gay porn and a crappy soap opera, falling intermittently between the two sides. And I love it. I may have to move sometime in the near future and the "oh no, I won't have Showtime any more! I only have it now because of our weird cable set-up -- no one normal gets Showtime!" thought crossed my mind not so incredibly long after the "oh no, I'm going to have to move all my junk and uproot my whole life!" thought. If I were moving into my own place, which may or may not happen, I would seriously consider buying some exorbitant cable package to watch a 45-minute show once a week. Frightening, truly.

One might think this is very unusual, a straight white 20-something female having a teensy weensy obsession with a (bad) show about extremely sexually active gay men. But last weekend, when I was renting a video of last season's episodes (hey, I had to get caught up), a very adorable and effeminate video store clerk engaged me in the following conversation:

Him, gushing: I love this show! Do you love this show?
Me, looking embarrassed: I do love this show.
He then proceeds to *pull out a copy of The Advocate from under the counter, already turned to an article on Queer as Folk.* Yah.
Him: Look! There's a whole article here on the demographics -- 1.8 million of the show's 2.5 million viewers are straight white 20-something females!
Me: Huh, I guess I'm not that special, then.
Him, winking: Honey, you're absolutely special! Now who's your favorite character?

...and we proceed to have a 10-minute-long conversation on the merits of each of the characters, their various acting abilities and, uh, other stuff. Shut up. I told him about the unremitting joy of Queer as Folk recaps. And then he gave me another wink, called me "his special customer" and sent me out the door with the video free of charge, right in front of his manager. Too bad I don't inspire that kind of behavior in straight men, hm?