Scythes, whose credentials consist of a B. A., and a plumber's license, is a man with a passion for medicine and its history. His encyclopedic knowledge of the classic syphilis literature is breathtaking, and has earned him the respect of some of the disease's top authorities around the world, especially in Europe, where he has been repeatedly invited to lecture to hospital specialists on what he thinks syphilis is up to in the AIDS era.

His ideas have also turned up in several abstracts published at recent major AIDS and STD conferences, in places as far flung as Helsinki, Morocco and Singapore, places he flies to several times a year at his own expense.

His success overseas stands in distinct contrast to his profile among the AIDS community in Toronto, where he is ignored, owing in part to a stern and somewhat professorial air that puts off the average grassroots AIDS worker. Indeed, Scythes is not your usual brand of AIDS activist - he avoids the angry demonstrations and protests, preferring to concentrate on the scientific aspects of AIDS.

Scythes is mystified by the conspicuous absence of syphilis among the very people most at risk for it. The syphilis crowd consists of an odd mix of older, Eastern European experts who in many ways have kept the field alive, and know-it-all American specialists, confident in their ability to diagnose and treat this deadly disease with a single shot of penicillin.

Scythes, besides being a renovator and plumber, is an early member of The Body Politic collective, and also the bookseller-proprietor of Glad Day Books in Toronto, a frequent target of harassment from Canada Customs over its importation of erotic gay and lesbian material.