[another cricket]

It came screaming thru the movie and I was just a kid then

My dear Explicator, I suspect that you were not a normal kid. It would explain much. :^)

The speculation that Joe and Marian did not engage in conjugal relations because Bob was the only living child is frankly a little weird. You have no idea if there were other siblings that died or were still born. Maybe Marian couldn't carry to term. Maybe Joe wore his jeans too tight. Maybe Bob was adopted. Maybe something went wrong after Bob was born and Marian couldn't conceive again. Maybe they practiced birth control. (Yes they did have it back then. If you are interested in how Freep mail me and I will tell you some of the more common methods) You don't know because Bob didn't say but that would not have been the kind of thing he would talk about in any case.

But to jump from them having only one living child at the time of the story to Joe and Marian having a celibate marriage is worthy of an Olympic gold medal.

a.cricket

[parsifal]

Shane would not have been the first Western with strong sexual undertones. Consider Oklahoma with the silouette ballets and what's his name who collected porno versus what his name the good cowboy.

Remember how Shane displaced Joe at the family table? What was that if not a subtle tipoff? Also remember how both Shane and Marian called 'em "flannel cakes". Would that not indicate the possibility that they came from the same place?parsy.