Douglas Whaley

I was born with a testosterone deficiency, but I didn't find this out until I was in my second year of law school at the University of Texas (the spring of 1967). There's quite a story here, one I have rarely told, but it occurred to me that writing about it might help others in the same predicament figure out what's going on and seek the needed aid. Testosterone is a steroid hormone that's the primary cause of the changes in the male body occurring at puberty, turning boys into adult males/ It typically happens from age 10 upward through the teens. When I hit this period, nothing changed. My voice didn't get lower, I grew only peach fuzz on my face, my muscle mass didn't increase, nor did I develop acne, go crazy over sexual possibilities, etc. My upward growth was normal, reaching just under 5' 10" by age 19 (alas, due to age, I've since shrunken some). My reaction to all this was to ignore and hide the problem, even from myself. Whaleys are

Atheist: Let me start by asking if there's really such a thing as a hell where sinners writhe in eternal damnation? God: (Laughs) Oh, my heavens, no! Pastor Rob Bell had that right when he pointed out that no fair deity would send Gandhi to hell just because he wasn't a Christian. What sort of creator would condemn human beings to eternal torment because they belonged to the wrong faith or made some misstep? Who on earth hasn't done something that in, the eyes of one religion or another, would have them flaming forever? The idea of hell is something earthlings thought up all by themselves. They think it helps keep people in line. Atheist: Do you pay a lot of attention to what is going on in human civilization? God: Hmm. Well, only from time to time. Sometimes I do amuse myself by watching the complicated mess down there, but then centuries will pass and I don't visit at all. What humans do can be fascinating, but it also can be downright boring or too sad to

Dummy Robert and LeNore Whaley I've mentioned before that after my father, Robert Whaley, retired from the Air Force in1968, he enrolled in the University of Texas Law School (from which I had just graduated), which meant that he and my mother, LeNore, moved to Austin, Texas, renting an apartment there. I was having so much fun with my parakeet Fred (who I acquired that same year when I moved to Chicago to begin practicing law) that I decided to buy a parakeet for them as a housewarming gift. On a visit back to Austin I scouted around and located a breeder just outside the city. A visit to his house was astounding. This old man loved birds, and had them in large cages outside his home, but he also allowed flocks of parakeets to fly loose from room to room inside where he lived, which resulted in a blizzard of colorful birds and their mess, as well as being hard on the ears. He and I had to go outside to talk. I asked if there was any particular very young bird who seemed t

Turning 50, which I did in September of 1993, is always a shock, but since such big birthdays are going to happen, I decided the choice was between crying in my beer or throwing a party.  And no —not just any party would do.  Control freak I have to confess I am, I planned a very structured festivity and then set back to see what would happen. I decided on an evening of entertainment where, ahead of time, friends could decide things with no direction or help from me.  I would ask my friends to perform songs, skits, or read poetry that they didn't know at all.  And by this I meant everyone at the party was to perform.  Most people could do this by just singing the opening number as a chorus, but others would be assigned more specific challenges.  50 year-old Doug would be just a member of the audience, seeing it all for the first time.  It all worked beautifully. Ted and Wayne as the Wise Men I'm a Gilbert and Sullivan aficionado  (see below for "A Fanat