MISCONCEPTION

In the episodes of TEXAS currently airing on the AOL/PGP Classic Soaps Channel, Iris Cory is hiding a whopper of a secret. Seems that a youthful tryst with Alex Wheeler left her pregnant. Iris covered up the indiscretion (and her embarrassment at being unceremoniously dumped by Alex) by quickly marrying Elliot Carrington and letting him believe Dennis was his son.

As plots go, this one is a soap opera staple. Every show has at least one variation of it on the air.

My question is, how does these women pull it off?

Time-wise, I mean.

Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that they are so in touch with their bodies that they figure out they're pregnant within two weeks of conception. So that gives them nine months to meet another guy, charm him, seduce him, marry him, announce the honeymoon night pregnancy and then deliver the little (premature?) bundle of joy.

That's a pretty tight schedule.

The only way I figure so many have been able to get away with it for so long (despite the obvious -- all women on daytime are gorgeous, ergo a quick seduction isn't that much of a challenge) is due to the popular, public misconception that a pregnancy lasts nine months.

It doesn't. The average pregnancy is 40 weeks. Which (40 divided by 4) is actually ten months.

Meaning our heroine has an extra month in which to get all her lying and cover stories straight.

And this is daytime. We know how much can happen in one month!

So how will Alex, Dennis and Elliot react when they learn the secret Iris has been keeping for twenty-plus years? Tune into TEXAS today and find out!