A little fun with silhouettes from 1997. Once our idea of a good time was to lie around in the sun literally for hours and see who could get the deepest tan. It’s a wonder we aren’t all dying of melanoma. Many of us are. When I think about why skin cancer is a scourge now more than, say, the 19th century when working outdoors was the norm, I’d have to guess it’s because most cultures until recently did not condone stripping virtually naked and doing nothing but lie around all day. With enough beer and the right company, it was fun!
I’ve gotten myself into something of a corner. I’ve been teasing you with promises to discuss what happened to Arlo’s boat. You would be within your rights to expect an elaborate and entertaining yarn. However, there isn’t one. What you see in the strip is what there is. Arlo’s boat just… disappeared! A boat is a lifestyle. Believe me, I know. A boat would have taken over the strip. That would have delighted a few hundred boat enthusiasts and bored everyone else to tears. Most readers, I think, hardly miss it; an active few won’t let me forget it. I view that storyline as a misstep on my part. Having said that, it always is possible with a little comic-strip hocus pocus that the boat might rise again. I have defended myself in the past by pointing out that a comic strip typically covers maybe five seconds of the protagonists’ day. Given that, it hasn’t been years since the boat’s appearance but mere days! Are you buying it? Anyway, I do think that one way or another the coast people will return more regularly. If the boat should reappear, expect several days of jokes about scraping, scrubbing, stench, stinging insects and misery.
108 responses to “Reason in the Sun”
All this about public nudity and folks you’d wish were more fully clothed brings up today’s “Ballard Street” by Jerry Van Amerongen” [sp.?] Peace,
Mark in TTown-
Most Americans are probably familiar with Guy Fawkes and not even know it- the masks worn by the Anonymous hackers and other protesters are those worn by Guy Fawkes revelers:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/04/world/europe/guy-fawkes-mask/
My first encounter with a European-style beach was in Aruba. The couple next to us were adorned in the slimmest of thongs and were probably over 60 years old and 50 pounds overweight. I quickly realized that American images about public nudity were not very realistic.
The English Gardens, a large park in Munich, has a c/o section. We were there in ’85 [I was there earlier, in ’52-’53, but did not get that far into the park]. There were lovely figures and others, but a notable lack of males from my age to a decade older. True likewise, clothed, everywhere in W. Germany. French parks notably had many top-free women. Peace,
My wife worked as a research nurse for one of the top melanoma doctors in one of the top cancer facilities in the country, M. D. Anderson in Houston. Her boss was adamant about never getting a tan, and whenever somebody came in with the slightest hint of a burn he would scold them mercilessly.
Unfortunately I spent most of my childhood in the 70s on Galveston beaches without a scrap of protection, and came home lobster-red more often than not (don’t even get me started about being trapped in a closed car with two chain-smoking parents). As I plod through my sixth decade, I’m starting to worry more and more about all these moles all over my body…
Hi, Peter B. Steiger. Welcome to The Village. I don’t remember seeing you here before. Re those moles, do get them checked really regularly by a good dermatologist, and take care of anything the doc shows concern about.
About which the doc shows concern. Let’s keep things really correct here, children….
Hey, Y’all. They’re up to 67 comments in Hair Today. Come on over.