Easter 2024

 Easter

Today is Easter, a major Christian holiday centered around the worship of a mythical bunny.

The Easter bunny comes in the night and leaves baskets of goodies for children ...

unless he gets chased off by the police.

The bunny is very fond of chocolate.

But you never know what might be inside the Easter basket goodies until you unwrap them.

For adults, the Easter bunny has a different significance.  The bunny is a fertility symbol ...

which means the proper way to observe this holiday is to fuck like bunnies.  It's all very religious.

Happy Easter to all of you!

The Naked Farmer - Part 25

 New South Wales

We continue our series of photos posted by the Naked Farmer, Ben Brooksby, a young Australian farmer who takes and posts photos of naked Australian farmers on social media sites. The naked photos are to get people's attention, and his message is to encourage people with mental health issues like suicidal thoughts to talk about it with someone and not to hide it away. Ben himself had suffered from panic attacks in school.

Farmers send Ben naked photos of themselves from all over Australia.  Today we're back in the state of New South Wales, abbreviated NSW.  Above is a classic shot of a farmer and his ute in Woolcara Station, NSW.

Here's a farmer kicking up his heels to celebrate something in Bethungra, NSW.

A farmer looking over his cows.

And what do cows give?  Milk

Another kind of milk – the Milky Way over New South Wales.

A farmer and his motorbike in Gowang, NSW.

Olive picking in the Snowy Mountains.

And this farmer is picking oranges.

Australia has suffered some severe droughts.  This photo was labeled "No rain since May," with the farmer running out naked in the rain in West Wyalong, NSW.

This happy farmer is playing in a puddle in Tenandra, NSW.

A guy and his mate are celebrating in the Murrumbidgee River.

It wouldn't be Australia without some beer.  We end with five mates in a pool.

Hiking - Part 48

Mecca Hills

Today's naked hike is another one in the Mecca Hills, southeast of Palm Springs, California.  These hikers are exploring a canyon off of Box Canyon Road, which leads into the hills.

They climb up a steep slope.  I don't think this is actually a trail.

From the top, we see a magnificent view of the Salton Sea, a very salty body of water that is California's largest lake.  It's actually below sea level.

And turning around, we see another magnificent view.  This is hiker Paul.

Or perhaps you prefer this view of Paul.

Coming back down, there are a few spots of green in this desert landscape.  Here, Paul is fingering a palo verde.

And hiker Ron has found another feature of interest to finger.  It looks like John doesn't mind.

The hike finally gets back to Box Canyon Road.  It looks like Paul is so comfortable au naturel that he's delaying as long as possible the time when he has to be unnatural, i.e. clothed.

Bodybuilders - Part 1

 Rick Wayne

Today I am launching a new series, Bodybuilders, featuring men who compete in bodybuilding contests, and who have also been photographed naked.

Bodybuilder Rick Wayne, above, was born as Learie Carasco on the island of St. Lucia in 1938.  In 1951 he emigrated to England.  He was spotted singing in a club by a record producer who renamed him Ricky Wayne (a combination of Ricky Nelson and John Wayne).  His records were not commercially successful, but he began entering bodybuilding contests in the 1960s. He won the Mr. World contest in 1967, above.

He also posed nude for French photographer Jean Ferrero in the 1960s.

I have so many nude photos of him by Ferrero that I narrowed them down to (mostly) those that include the shadow of a certain body part, which should appeal to a certain viewer.

Rick Wayne's bodybuilding contest titles include Mr. Europe (1964), Mr. Universe (1965, 1967, 1969) and Mr. World (1967, 1970).

He is also the author of several articles and books on bodybuilding.

In the 1980s he moved back to St. Lucia and founded a publishing company that produces the newspaper St. Lucia Star.

The St. Lucia Star is a hard-hitting paper that has angered both political parties on the island by exposing corrupt politicians.

That's because Rick Wayne's position is to be ... upright.

Estonian Photos - Part 14

Estonian Photos

Here's another group of photos from the Tartu Ülikooli museum of anthropology in Estonia.

For those who haven't seen my previous posts in this series, a few words of explanation.  The museum provides no information about the men, other than the photos came from the Institute of Anatomy.  In particular, it does not say who these men are, or when or why the photos were taken.

My best guess is that they are military recruits.  The very short haircuts suggest that these photos were taken during or shortly after the enlistment process.

The dark faces and hands of many of the men suggests that they are either deeply tanned from working outside like farmers, or they are dirty from working in a place like a coal mine. Estonia doesn't have any coal mines, but it has oil shale mines, which would make the workers just as dirty.

When were the photos taken?  My assumption has been between World War I and World War II, when Estonia was an independent country with its own military.  Before WWI, Estonia was part of the Russian Empire, and after WWII, Estonia was part of the Soviet Union until 1991.

Another clue is that these photographs were made on glass plates, not film.  Dry glass-plate photography started in 1871 and began to fall out of use in the 1920s.  I found some references to it in Estonia through the 1930s.

Although these appear to be military recruits, these may not not be military photos.  We know that the museum that currently has the photos got them from the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Tartu.  If these are military photos, why would they end up at the Institute of Anatomy?

A more likely possibility is that the photos were taken by academics.  Scientists at the Institute of Anatomy were doing studies to try to measure what they considered racial characteristics of the population by measuring the body, including phrenology (measuring the skull), ideas which are now discredited.

I think that the scientists at the Institute of Anatomy may have persuaded the military to let them take photographs of the naked new recruits for "research" purposes.  I have no written evidence to support this idea, but since the photos were at the Institute of Anatomy, and the photo subjects appear to be military recruits, it's now my best guess as to what happened.

One other clue to the time frame of these photos is that in a previous batch, one of the men is wearing a wristwatch.   Wristwatches were considered to be for ladies before World War I.  (Men used pocket watches.)  However, during the war, wristwatches proved very useful for soldiers and pilots.  After WWI, wristwatches came into fashion for men.  Although they were evidently rare in Estonia (only two men wore a wristwatch among the hundreds that were photographed), it suggests that these photos are post-World War I.

One other question that perennially arises from these photos is: why were the men photographed in pairs?  Was it to save film?

The answer is that these photos were made on glass plates, which were more expensive than film, so yes, it's likely that the men were photographed in pairs to save on glass plates.

So, bottom line: My best guess is that these photos were taken after World War I, the subjects are new or recent Army recruits, and the Estonian military allowed scientists from the Institute of Anatomy to take photos of the naked recruits for "research".

Boys and their Balls - Part 48

NZ Nude Blacks vs Spanish Conquistadores

In 2011, the rugby World Cup matches were held in New Zealand.  Each time a match was held in the stadium in the town of Dunedin, New Zealand, the local lads held a naked pre-game match of their own, featuring their team, the Nude Blacks (New Zealand's official team is called the All Blacks).

On Sept. 14, a match was scheduled in Dunedin between England and Argentina.  The naked pre-game match on Sept. 10, between the Nude Blacks and a visiting team, the Conquistadores from Barcelona, Spain, drew a crowd of 1500 and a contingent of international media.

The Nude Blacks always begin the game with a haka, a traditional Maori chant in which the Nude Blacks taunt and insult the other side, led by their team captain, Devon Latoa (center).

Click on any of these photos to see a larger version.

Sticking out your tongue is traditional in the haka.

The visiting Spanish team was a women's team, and their response to the haka seems to have been to taunt the Nude Blacks with a red cloth, like a matador with a bull.

And here's the bull that they were taunting.

The Conquistadores try to tackle Devon Latoa as he runs, but he scores a try (the rugby equivalent of a touchdown in football).

The rules that they had agreed on were that every time the Nude Blacks scored, the Conquistadores had to remove an article of clothing.  In other words, it was a game of strip rugby.  If the Conquistadores scored, the Nude Blacks did not have to strip because they were already naked.

The Conquistadores stripped off their shorts to reveal pink under-shorts.  Above, they are tackling the Nude Blacks bull.

Here the Nude Blacks are performing a line-out, which happens when the ball has gone into touch (i.e. out of bounds).  The ball is thrown back in, and each team is allowed to hoist one player in the air, the thrower's team trying to catch the ball, and the other team trying to block it.

After the Nude Blacks scored again, the Conquistadores stripped off their shirts to revel pink T-shirts underneath.  Here two Conquistadores tackle Devon Latoa.  

A Nude Black tackles a Conquistador.

The Nude Blacks huddle.  They are scoring points, but the Conquistadores are much better than expected.  They are scoring a lot of points, too.

Time out for a naked policeman to remove a clothed streaker.

After the Nude Blacks scored again, the Conquistadores removed their pink T-shirts to reveal swimsuit tops underneath.

A Nude Black gets hoisted aloft for another line-out.

There was actually one man on the Conquistadores team (the guy at right) along with 6 women.  Evidently he started out with less clothing than the women, because by the end of the match he wasn't wearing very much.

To the shock of the Nude Blacks, the Conquistadores won, 25 to 20.  It was the first time in the nine years that they been playing that the Nude Blacks had lost a game.

Above, the Conquistadores with the traditional Nude Blacks victory trophy inscribed on a toilet seat.