Agriculture

A neighbor was late for his tour of the farm. And he seemed like such a responsible fellow! We had arranged the meeting a month earlier. Doodle’s formula was in bottles and all my various equipment for a demonstration of chores was prepared. Twenty minutes later, the phone rang and he apologetically explained. The reason? He had snagged a last-minute appointment in Brooklyn to get the monkeypox vaccine. He assumed I would be understanding, and I most certainly was. Most of the gay men I know are desperate for these shots. Friends are refreshing their phone screens dozens of times on end trying to score a scarce vaccination slot. People who wouldn't be caught dead in Staten Island consider crossing the Narrows for an appointment. One friend told me he had had just two sexual encounters in the entire past year — both with the same ex-boyfriend (“And he’s crazy safe!” he assured me). Yet this friend was still considering attesting to multiple or anonymous sexual partners in the past two weeks to get the jab