Hermaphrodites

Sometimes, when we're young, we are introduced to words that we are unfamiliar with and someone clarifies them in a memorable way.

When I was younger, my parents watched X-Files. A lot of X-Files. The theme song was essentially my lullaby. One episode that I walked in on late one night had a terrifying worm-person in it. From what I remember (I could look this up but it's more fun this way), the worm-person couldn't reproduce sexually but rather by multiplying itself.

Having just learned what sex was...more or less...I deduced that this worm-person wouldn't be able to make little worm-children and that would be unfortunate for it. So I stepped in to help this worm-person have sex the only way I knew that sex worked, "Well, is it a boy or a girl?" My dad replied, "It's both. It's a hermaphrodite."

And then the camera panned into a sewer drain and we suddenly saw the elusive creature and I was granted an image that will forever be stuck in my head when I think of the word "hermaphrodite":
















Thanks dad.