JUST OFF THE 10 FREEWAY IN PHOENIX - Dick's Cabaret ...

So does that headline sound like the beginning of cheap novel? I am sitting here thinking it does and mostly laughing to myself even if the eventually ending maybe sad.

Just off the 10 Freeway in Phoenix, Arizona between the weekday motels, U-haul's rentals and dusty, empty lots is East Illini Street. There is absolutely nothing on that street for an out-of-town tourist. Trucks, daytime work traffic and the average Phoenix guy on a 9-to-5 transportation job is all you'll find there ... with one exception, one soon-to-be, nationally known exception: street number 3432.

You see, it's what happens after dark, down that dead-end street, that's about to make the headlines. Like a "superman character" during the day, number 3432 is a single story, ubiquitous, light-green building with an empty, gated parking lot. But at night when the truckers leave, the gate opens and Dick's Cabaret comes alive!

Yes, none other than the world famous, Dick's Cabaret!

Well, "Darn it," you say, "I've never hear of it." Well, until twenty minutes ago, neither had I.

Good, old Dick's Cabaret was stuck in dusty, Phoenix anonymity until a former, male stripper named David Hernandez, who apparently did quite well stripping naked for the gentlemen, became one of the 20 finalists on American Idol - the highest rated show on American television.

But, oh David ... doesn't he know that a male strippers can't make the big time? I mean, can you imagine American Idol taking a winning David Hernandez "back home" to Phoenix? Back to his high school? Where thousands of screaming kids yell, "David, David, David"? Where Mayor Phil Gordon give him a key to the city? Will Police Chief Jack Harris managed the traffic when the city's "son" comes home?

I doubt it.

I doubt it, not because this whole situation isn't funny or because it will drive the Phoenix or Glendale (his home) city father's or the television people crazy or even that Mr. Hernandez maybe the season's scandal. I doubt it because Mr. Hernandez danced at a gay club and we know what that means! And God knows in our current political climate, a city or a high school or a state could not be seem as supportive of "that kind" of young person and his dreams or hopes.

I don't know if he is gay; I don't know nor do I care if he danced at Dick's; Hopefully the "Idol Machine" is not spitting out a PR piece. What I hope is that he is as talented as the rest of his companions. If he is, I may have to figure out how to vote for an American Idol.