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Tuesday, July 4, 2023

4th of July 2023

4th of July

We celebrate this Independence Day with photos of U.S. flags.  The photo above claimed to be a diver at a swim meet at Berea College, Kentucky.  The flag has 48 stars, dating the photo to before 1959.

Update: alas, this photo has been Photoshopped, as viewer Bigbilly pointed out.  In the original photo from the LIFE photo archive, the diver is wearing trunks.  And the location was not Berea College, Kentucky, as claimed by the fake photo.  It was a swim meet at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  Oh, well.

 A politician is said to wrap himself in the flag when he claims patriotism as a justification for his actions.  Here's a guy wrapping himself in the flag ...

but he seems to have something other than politics on his mind.

Another guy wrapping himself in the flag.

This guy wrapped himself in the flag quite literally by wearing flag shorts.

And this guy was wearing flag shorts, too, but apparently they got in the way.

Sometimes we just see the flag in the background, like with these guys ...

and these guys.  I call this the Antaeus pose, after the story about Hercules lifting his wrestling opponent Antaeus off the ground in order to defeat him.

We end with these guys who have a flag in the background to remind us that what they're doing is all-American.

Happy Independence Day!

12 comments:

Xersex said...

happy Indipendence GAY!!!

Big Dude said...

Thank you, Larry, for an inspirational post. Like the one guy, I have something other than politics on my mind this morning...and that blowjob GIF is truly all-American!

Big Dude said...

Re: the first pic: Were swim/diving meets carried out naked? I mean, our swimming classes in high school were done naked, college, too. And NOBODY at the YMCA wore trunks. But those were all-male situations. Were swim meets all-male, or did they just let it hang even in mixed company?

whkattk said...

Happy 4th, Larry!

@ Big Dude - Yes, swim MEN'S meets used to be carried out in the nude, even in mixed audiences. Those were different times, for sure.

SickoRicko said...

Clever and fun post.

Bigbilly said...

I hate to tell you this, but the first photo is fake. The original came from the Life Magazine archives and this fake version shows up regularly on the internet, and has for years. I have the originals from this event, which show everyone in swimsuits, and will be happy to share them but I don't know how to attach photos here. I belong to a group that has done extensive research and we have found no credible evidence of nude swim meets with mixed audiences, except for a few with very young children, regardless of what the CFNM crowd likes to believe.

Gerald said...

That first picture brings up a controversy that has been going on for a while. This is a subject that I have great interest in. It is absolute fact that nude male swimming classes used to be common at the YMCA and at many schools. The REAL controversy is whether some of the meets that were pubic were also conducted while nude. What really started this was the fact that photoshopped pictures are legal. To the great ire of many, I am AGAINST the practice because of the great distortion of historical facts that are possible. This can work both ways, since it is also possible to put swimming trunks on what was a nude swimmer.

blog chris said...

hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Sean said...

@bigbilly , what group do you belong to that researches this?

Bigbilly said...

It is an informal group of us who don't like fake photos or fake newspaper articles being put out there as real. As Gerald said above, it is a distortion of historical facts. Besides, there are plenty of great photos and newspaper articles that are real.

We got together on the internet years ago when the "nude public swim meet" fake stories were going strong on the old discussion forums and we have refuted all known claims about that subject, with the exceptions noted in my previous message above.

Let me make it clear, there were plenty of nude swim classes, and even some nude swim meets, just NOT with females present. There are plenty of photos in the various state, city, and school/college archives showing all that. There are also plenty of legitimate newspaper articles in the various archives about men and/or boys swimming nude in rivers, lakes, and the ocean, in public, but it always caused trouble. I have thousands of photos and articles, some of them are hilarious.

I just thought of two exceptions involving public outdoor swimming contests that I forgot all about. I'll send the photos to the blogger in case he wants to use them.

Uncle Vic said...

I wish people would stop with the GODDAMNED PHOTOSHOP.................

Sean said...

Thanks @bigbilly - interesting subject. Would love to see your group’s collection of real photos.