Month: July 2023

When Does It Become Obscene?

Fashion

Surfing on a bellyboard along the waves of Teh Intarwebz, I was struck by something, and not for the first time.

Readers of this corner will of course be familiar with golf hottie Paige Spirinac, who possesses quite possibly one of the best female bodies around, as evidenced in these pics:

Now here’s the thing.  While young Paige’s derrière is by no means underrepresented, it’s not by any means over-large, e.g.

So why have huge buttocks become a thing?

Maybe the trend started with screechy pop star Jennifer Lopez:

… and was amplified [sic]  by the awful Kim Kardashian (who has never been slow to ride a trend, so to speak):

It seems, however, that this trend has no upper limit — and I speak not of all-over fatties like Lizzo, but of “Playboy models” like this one:

It’s been decades since I looked at a Playboy, but if this is the trend of their models, it will be decades more before I do it again, if ever.  Horrible.

Another example is “plus-size” model Ashley Graham, who despite having an exquisitely-beautiful face, has a backside that would fill a school bus:

Among African tribes, a large pair of buttocks is a feature of attractiveness, because it speaks not only of fertility but also of the owner thereof being well nourished (a source of pride for their husbands as providers).

But that’s in Africa.  We live in the West, and have a European standard of beauty.  And I speak not of ultra-skinnies and the like (that being more a creation of homosexual fashion designers), but of women who have proportional statistics.

Here’s actress Sasha Alexander, for instance, who has what I would consider a decent set of proportions:

Note:  no inflated breasts, nor a bulbous backside.  Another example?  Sure, why not?  Here’s the rather Mumsy-looking Laura Hamilton, who in in her forties and has two kids:

Let me say in summary that I’m not asking for women to strive for some impossible ideal of beauty:  anything but.

What I’m asking for is proportion, and not grotesqueries.

And yes, I’m familiar with the contradiction of all the above, considering that  pneumatic sexagenarian Carol Vorderman often appears on my back porch:

…as does the equally-balloony Kelly Brook:

What can I say?  I’m a sucker for a pretty face.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Marlin 983S (.22 WMR)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Fresh from my diatribe against Marlin Rifles comes this customized and scoped example of their stainless-barreled Model 983, as seen at Collectors:

Aesthetically speaking, I don’t see the need for the heavy rubber recoil pad (on a rifle chambered in .22 Magnum?), but other than that, it’s very nice — and the recoil pad is removable.

I bet that’s a one-hole shooter, all day and every day of the week.  Yeah, it’s a lot of money for a Marlin, but that’s just another reason to hate them for stopping production:  they’ve driven up the prices through scarcity.

Of course, if you forego the customization, Marlin 983 rifles typically run for less than half the above, if you can find one.

All that said, I prefer my earlier Model 882 SV:

…which really is a one-hole shooter, as anyone who’s shot it will attest.

When All Else Fails

Africa

…when your backs are to the wall, and when you have neither the money nor the expertise to fix an intractable problem, you can always call on the… Chinese?

South Africa’s newly minted electricity minister followed up a trip to China last week with pronouncements that the Communist Party will provide a solution for the socialist country’s collapsing power grid, which has needed planned blackouts for much of the past year.

This will end up, in typical African fashion, with a lose-lose result — the Chinese will come to realize, as all colonial powers eventually do, that sinking money into Africa is just that:  throwing money into a pit, with no tangible reward.  And South Africa will end up the same as they are now, maybe worse, with a power system that still doesn’t work, only with a mountain of debt to the Chinese loansharks that they have no chance (or intention) of paying back.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of socialists, on both sides.