In honor of the International Day of the Female Orgasm - ¡A gritar, mujeres! (SCREAM, women!)

On a very slow news day . . .

Mérida, Yucatán --
I don't make up news. I report it.

Nor do I steal, cut and paste, like thousands of other blogs, websites and news services do every day (A reader and MGRR trade candid thoughts on a free press, independent journalism and who's NOT paying the tab). If I don't have something to say of my own, I don't write. And I never appropriate what someone else has already written in English.

Some days are news-slow, with little of significance to report. Today I could have written on a hurricane blowing ashore in southern Quintana Roo state, or a couple of dozen executions around the nation, or the latest political ballyhoo (most of it courtesy of PRD, which, like those unwanted advertising circulars on the front door, just keeps landing on front pages all over the country). That pesky AMLO simply refuses to follow meticulously choreographed directions and perform an Exit, Stage Left (no pun intended).

But none of those recurring topics motivated me. So in default of more serious material, I'll report on the Orgasm. Actually, what could possibly be more important in the grand scheme of things? Where would we all be without them?

Mexico's Milenio network today noted that Aug. 8 is International Day of the Female Orgasm, allegedly first celebrated in a Brazilian town six years ago (yeah, it's the first I've heard of it, too).

The prestigious network went on to report that half - fully HALF - of all Mexican women admit they've never experienced one. The shame of it all, and in a country whose reputation (and braggadocio) for machismo reaches the cultural stratosphere. Perhaps Mexican men lack techniques better known to their often maligned gringo brothers north of the border . . . special techniques.

One of the primary reasons for the day's observance, say the organizers, is so that men everywhere can cause (perhaps "provoke" is a better word) such a physiological response in their partners. Like Make Someone Smile Day, or Say a Kind Word to a Stranger Day, or 20 Minutes of Aerobics Day.

I've got my windows open this evening in my north-central Mérida neighborhood, on the odd chance that somebody in the area might be getting his homework done. I'll post updates as I'm monitoring the news wires. MGRR never sleeps - so readers can.

March 8 - On International Women's Day, Mexico confronts endemic domestic violence

Note: The image above is the iconic American Gothic (1930), by U.S. painter Grant Wood, extolling the virtue of hard labor over pleasure. Once upon a time the frequency of one's orgasms was not a proper subject of ladies' parlor chat, gentlemen's poker games, newspaper reports or the big screen. We've traveled very far from our roots, it would seem.

"I'll have what she's having"