Lobster claws, Thomas Roberts interview

As I flipped back and forth last night between the Thomas Roberts interview on CNN and a program about ectrodactyly syndrome on TLC, I thought, “Thomas is nice to look at but not nice enough to keep me away from contorted, boney hands and feet.” It was just fascinating.

What got me about the Roberts interview was that I began to wonder if people watching would somehow equate his sexuality with being abused by his Priest. As if being abused made him gay and therefore completely disregarding that homosexuality is something you’re born with … not something chosen or that “happens to you.” Because I could see people thinking that, especially with Roberts because he is so believably straight. I mean, how could someone like that be gay unless something traumatic had happened to him, right?

Beyond Roberts’ good looks and that priests abuse children (let me put my surprise face on), the interview wasn’t anything different than what the public already knows. Sh^t happens, and unfortunately it happened to Roberts.

I quickly flipped back over to TLC to see what unfortunate Joan Rivers’ look-a-like, Bree Walker, was up to. Her lobster claws certainly haven’t kept her from living a normal and fulfilling life. In fact, she became quite the successful news anchor despite it all and most recently appeared in the appropriately-themed HBO series Carnivale as the Scorpion Woman. Looking back at some of her accolades and when she first started out as an anchor, this woman was stunning. But like most aging “industry” women, she seems to have succumbed to awful plastic surgery. Rather too much plastic surgery. But despite the obvious pulls and tucks, she looks unusually great.

Ectrodactyly is probably best known by Grady Stiles, Jr. who - despite being wheelchair-bound as a result of his clawed hands and feet - shot and killed his daughter’s fiancé. Dubbed Lobster Boy, he has had a lasting impact on popular culture … most notably by this photograph.