“I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” – James Baldwin

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy 250th Birthday America!!

Based on an overwhelming lack of requests, here are some Freedom Speedo and Jockstrap pics for your viewing displeasure. (And for anyone coming at me with flag or patriotism critiques, see January 6th and go molest someone else.)

See also this Freedom Speedo post.

And this Speedo post.

And this jockstrap post.

And enjoy America while it’s still here.

Listening to the light lapping of the water and squinting into the gloriously vicious burn of the sun, the young man I used to be stares into me from the past, straining to see exactly what I’ve become. He couldn’t see then what I see now, and maybe that’s for the best. It might have caused horror or consternation, or happiness and ease, and none of that would have been very helpful. If it was bad, he might have been scared off, if he had been glad he might not have tried as hard. Those tricks of time, those points of perspective… ever-shifting, like quicksilver and quicksand – and dangerous in all the ways.

Around the pool, trees that I planted as little saplings now tower twenty to thirty feet in the air. I held them in my arms as bare root babies, not even a foot tall at the time of their planting. Today they stretch high and wide above us, providing shade and umbrage (in the very old-fashioned sense of the term). Time measured in the trunks of trees, time measured in the crawl of branches, time measured in the unseen burrowing of roots – and time measured by the cruel fit of a Speedo.

A Friday smorgasbord as we head into (yet another) rainy weekend in beautiful and infuriating Albany, NY! This is Jonathan Bennett in his husband’s Speedo, which is really the main thrust of such a post, and we don’t need the whimsical links that will follow, but for those who want to look deeper, check out Jonathan’s original Dazzler of the Day crowning here, which features additional shirtless sportiness. 

Speaking shirtlessness, have you checked the Shirtless Male Celebrities category lately? 

Or, better yet, the Naked Male Celebrities category? 

Or just the Gratuitous Nudity category?

Whatever floats your boat, as we sail into the weekend…

A summer speedo shot from about twenty years ago brings back giddy memories, a slender version of myself, and sunny days of carefree lounging by the pool. The world feels so much different now, in ways good and awful, and while I never usually wish to go back, there are certain things I miss. That’s just another way of saying we were young once, and it’s ok to occasionally stroll down that lane of memory and revisit such happy moments. On an icy day like today, when the wind is so brutally whipping around the house, I found these old photos and was transported to a summer when the world felt entirely full of hope and pleasure. 

A brief list of summer links for escapist entertainment, per no one’s request:

Was this the true summer of the Speedo?

Was this the true summer of the penis?

Was this the true summer of the coquette?

Was this the summer of solace?

Was this the ultimate summer encapsulation?

Was this the summer anthem?

Was this a summer break?

Was this naked summer splendor?