It was one of those headlines that simply dared me to write a column. “Alabama cities lead list of porn-loving religious places, poll says” My first reaction was not to take the dare. As we say down in south Alabama, “some swamps don’t need draining,” even if the swamp is AL.com, the face of new journalism in our fair state. But something just didn’t seem right. What sorta poll would have pollsters calling up folks around the country asking them (1.) “are you religious,” and if they answered yes, following up with (2.) “do you love porn?” So I checked it out, and guess who did the polling? No one. There was no poll revealing that Alabama cities were high among the “porn-loving religious places.” The article beneath the headline was based on another article that was based on research undertaken by researchers working for PornHub.com, a pornography website, and published online by BuzzFeed.com. PornHub.com bills itself as the world’s biggest porn distributor, which I doubt because there is no Wikipedia entry for it, and we all know that if it isn’t on Wikipedia . . . . As for BuzzFeed.com, according to Wikipedia, it is “a website that combines a technology platform for detecting viral content with an editorial selection process to provide a snapshot of ‘the viral web in realtime.’” Huh? Well, the “viral content” Buzzfeed detected was a report compiled by researchers at PornHub.com. (Dear readers, do not go to PornHub.com to see what it is all about. You might be scarred for life or, worse yet, find yourself a statistic in a research report like the one that was the subject of the BuzzFeed article. You have been warned.) Now, I am not exactly sure how or why the folks at PornHub.com came up with the research project that led to the BuzzFeed.com article, but the decision might have been the result of a conversation among researchers employed by the porn site that went something like this: Porn researcher No. 1 to porn researcher No. 2: “You know what I did over the weekend?” (Look, surely porn researchers have lives outside the realm of porn research. So I imagine this sort of conversation was pretty common around the PornHub.com office.) Porn researcher No. 2 replies: “No, what?” (A reasonable response, given the options available to porn researchers.) Porn researcher No. 1: “I took a look at that recent Gallup poll, you know, the one that ranked cities by how religious their residents were.” Porn researcher No. 2: “So?” Porn researcher No. 1: “People in those religious cities are into porn.” Porn researcher No. 2 gets really interested and asks: “How do you know that?” Porn researcher No. 1: “Because they visit our site.” And with that revelation, the research that led to the article that led to the headline was set in motion. I am not sure whether their inquiry was an effort to search out and expand a market niche, or if it was a way for porn people to fire a zinger at anti-porn people who seem to cluster under the Gallup poll category “very religious.” Whatever the motive, this is what they discovered. Eight of the top 10 “very religious” cities where folks watch a lot of online porn are in the South. Yessir. The Bible Belt. Of the remaining two, one was in Michigan and the other was Provo, Utah, in the heart of Mormon country. Go figure. This raises a number of questions, not the least being whether cities that aren’t “very religious” watch even more online porn than cities with significant “very religious” populations. The porn researchers didn’t say. What they did say was this: Of all the “very religious” cities that watch a lot of porn, the one that leads the list is Huntsville-by-gum-Alabama. This set my mind reeling back to 2010, when the owner of a Huntsville adult-items store, “Pleasures” (“your one-stop romance shop”), challenged Alabama’s ban on sex toys, a ban passed by a Legislature that conveniently did not ban owning the items, just selling them. That allowed Alabamians, including legislators, one supposes, to go online and order — or just watch. Which folks down in Montgomery are doing, for according to PornHub and Buzzfeed, Montgomery came in second in the race to the top of the “very religious” cities where citizens visit the PornHub website. That leaves me with just one question: Do these Montgomery visits to the PornHub website coincide with the times when the Legislature is in session? Now that would be really interesting to know. Meanwhile, “Pleasures,” well aware of the needs and desires of Huntsville’s porn-watching citizenry, has expanded to five locations so it can better serve its customers. The free market marches on. Harvey H. (“Hardy”) Jackson is Eminent Scholar in History at Jacksonville State University and a columnist and editorial writer for The Star. Email: hjackson@jsu.edu.

ATLANTA — Chris Johnson homered for the first time in more than a month, Kris Medlen overcame a defensive blunder and the Atlanta Braves bounced back from a doubleheader sweep, beating the New York Mets 5-3 Wednesday night. Johnson hit a three-run homer in the fourth, his first time going deep since May 13. Jordan Schafer put the Braves ahead to stay with some gutsy baserunning in the fifth, scoring on a wild pitch that didn’t even roll off the dirt around home plate. Medlen (4-7) pitched seven-plus innings for his third win in four starts this month, even though he cost himself two unearned runs with an errant throw. Shawn Marcum (0-9) took another loss, becoming just the third pitcher in Mets history to start a season dropping nine straight decisions. The Braves scored first with two outs in the fourth. B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla hit back-to-back singles, and then Marcum left a 2-0 pitch over the plate to Johnson. He drove it into the left-field seats, slapping hands emphatically with first-base coach Terry Pendleton on his way around the bases. But Medlen gave the runs right back in the fifth. Marlon Byrd led off with a single and Lucas Duda was plunked, putting two runners aboard. Medlen got just what he wanted from John Buck — a one-hopper back to the mound. But instead of going to second base for what likely would have been a routine double play, Medlen inexplicably threw to third looking to get a force on the lead runner. Johnson, obviously caught off guard, was late arriving at the bag and the throw was low anyway, skidding into foul territory while both Byrd and Duda came around to score. Kirk Nieuwenhuis followed with a bloop single just inside the right-field line to bring home the tying run. The Braves quickly reclaimed the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Schafer led off with a double and advanced on Andrelton Simmons’ sacrifice before Freddie Freeman walked. It looked as if Marcum might escape the jam when he struck out Justin Upton. But a pitch to Brian McCann bounced off Buck’s chest protector, rolling off to the catcher’s right. Schafer was nearly halfway down the line already — the Mets shifted their defense against McCann, leaving only third baseman David Wright on the left side of the infield — and the runner broke for home as soon as he saw the ball get away. Even though it rolled only to the edge of the grass and Buck made a quick flip to Marcum covering home, Schafer slid headfirst under the tag. B.J. Upton followed with an RBI double that gave the Braves a two-run cushion, finishing off Marcum. He surrendered six hits and walked four in 4 2-3 innings. Medlen pitched into the eighth, coming out after giving up a bloop single to pinch hitter Josh Satin leading off the inning. Luis Avilan got Mets newcomer Eric Young Jr. to hit into a double play, and Craig Kimbrel struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 20th save in 23 chances. Medlen gave up six hits and one earned run, struck out seven, and didn’t walk anyone. Marcum’s start is the worst for a Mets pitcher since Anthony Young lost his first 13 decisions in 1993 on the way to a 1-16 record. The only other pitcher in New York history to begin a season with as many as nine consecutive losses was Bob Miller, who started 0-12 in 1962 before winning his final decision with the woeful expansion Mets. NOTES: Young started in center field and led off for the Mets, less than 24 hours after being acquired from the Colorado Rockies. He singled on the second pitch of the game and finished 1 for 4. ... B.J. Upton had two hits and a walk. ... The Mets placed RHP Scott Atchison back on the disabled list after he injured his right groin while warming up for an appearance Tuesday night. He had just come off the DL for an ailing elbow, but didn’t even make an actual pitch before getting hurt again.