On May 3^rd my article here dealt with the dearth of contestants for leather contests, especially after the recent Southern California Sir and boy contest, when we had only two boy contestants and no Sir, from all the cities in Southern California! The same thing happened last year. It appears that the nation as a whole is suffering from the same problem. Last weekend in San Francisco they only had one contestant for the boy title and none for the Sir title. Then, unfortunately, the lone boy contestant was rushed to hospital with appendicitis a couple of days before the contest. So the producer, former Mr. Northern CA Drummer Rod Wood, (a fine man whom I completely respect) was left with no contestants at all.  He did what any reputable producer would do, he consulted with his judges. All of them knew and approved of the sole contestant and they agreed that the title should be just bestowed upon him once he was released from hospital. Accordingly the judges were then dismissed and the contest was cancelled, it being past the deadline for applications anyway.

 Then at the very last minute, and way past the deadline, two people said (but not to the producer) that they wanted to compete. Even though it was so late, Rod, hearing of this, tried to contact this would-be Sir and boy to "discuss" it with the thought of maybe appointing the Sir (since the judges had already okayed the boy).  He never heard from them; they did not show up at the non-contest site and now they are complaining that the contest was "fixed" and that the producer only wanted the one boy to be the winner. When will some people in our community grow up?

 All this brings us to the question, should we really be continuing with some of these contests when there is clearly no interest in entering them? I have seen reports from all over the country of contests when there is only one contestant, who wins automatically, it seems, whether he or she is suitable or not. Maybe we should just let these titles expire. I’d be interested to know what you, the leather community, think. Here in Palm Springs, Dale Breunig, International Sir 2002 is already planning and advertising his 2007 Southern California Sir and boy contest. Let’s all at least support that and try to get people to compete and make a go of it, Dale works very hard for the community. Then, when the time comes, if once again there are only one or two contestants from the entire Southern half of California, maybe we should all sit down and discuss whether the time has come to retire those titles.

 COMING UP

This coming weekend is a busy one. On Friday, the 21st, Mr. West Coast Rubber Alan Stroik, and WCR founders Loren and Alex will be back for Round Three of their entertaining Bustin' Boys Balls challenge series. This time, I believe, it is a Boy vs. Daddy bout and I hear that Craig Jones, president of Palm Springs Leather Order of the Desert is considering taking up the challenge, although Craig demurred a little at the PSLOD meeting.