> Of COURSE, the best response to the original bit of barnyard humor was to
> ignor it but the vigorous DEFENSE of material that was not only crude but
> outside the perameters of the list subject...
 
Parameters, actually.
 
Perhaps many are missing the fact that a *key* component of the little
story we all enjoyed so much that we can't stop talking about it is...
BEES!  I thought about this at the time of the original post and concluded
that, indeed, bees were *essential* to the tale.  It would be hard to tell
the story any other way.  Of course the calf was essential too, but this
was definitely a bee story, and possibly one repeated in bee circles
along with such lore as "I eat my peas with honey...".
 
Was it a fable?  Well, My dictionary defines fable as "a short story not
based on fact, often with animals as characters, that conveys a moral..."
 By that definition, without some stretching, our little tale may or
may not "quite" qualify, but it comes close enough to almost make the cut.
 It definitely makes it under "tales".
 
Now, many of us decided it was actually a joke rather than a puzzling
fable.  It was sufficiently subtle that the innocent among us are still
wondering why the fuss.
 
That little post, though, seems though to have functioned as an ink blot
test for the list members:  the farmers among us got a chuckle, the naive
got to puzzle, the editors got to editorialize, and the prudes got to get
worked up about their own personal vision of what the situation described
in the tale implied to them.  People who have never posted to this list
suddenly had something to say.
 
All in all it was very exciting and satisfying for many, judging by the
widespread response.  It was ar more exciting, for example, than the bee
nutrition discussions which have been carried on by the efforts of a only
handful of us, yet may hit at the central problem in our industry and
explain PMS.  Maybe it was the most successful post of the year thus far.
 
Anyhow, back to the original question: was such a story appropriate for a
group that discusses bees?   I have to conclude that it was very
legitimate, assuming bee fables and folklore are also fair game for our
list.
 
FWIW It has been tradition on the net to ROT13 anything that might offend
or be in questionable taste and to title the article with a warning so as
to protect the innocent from being accidentally defiled.  (It is assumed
the innocent wish to stay that way and know enough not to look). Inasmuch
as the piece in question was not so presented, I can only conclude that
the original poster was not aware of the meanings that some would read
into it and placed it here because it has bees as a part of its central
theme and felt that it should come to the attention of bee lovers.
 
Fair enough.
 
Allen