(Not about language.)

Omitted from my last posting on more television hunks. the earlier history of Brian Krause (Leo in Charmed, 1998-2006). In his very early 20s, Krause did Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), in which he appeared as a cute blondish curly-haired twink (in preposterous demi-costumes).

On the movie:

Return to the Blue Lagoon is a 1991 American romance and adventure film starring Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause, produced and directed by William A. Graham.

The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. Their life together is blissful, but not without physical and emotional changes, as they grow to maturity and fall in love. (Wikipedia link)

Not a great moment in the history of the cinema,

Two shots, a shirtless torso shot and then Krause in costume:

(#1)

(#2)

At some point between Lagoon and Charmed, BK went to the gym and transformed himself from twink to the hunk you can see in #2 my previous posting.

It seems to be a Chuck and Beans morning (see here and here). Now an up-to-the-moment strip:

(#1)

The two stories: Miley Cyrus and twerking (coverage on this blog here), and the casting of the next Batman movie (which will bring us to Justin Timberlake and then to other actors).

On Timberlake (of wardrobe malfunction fame) and Batman, from Rolling Stone, in “Justin Timberlake Wants to Play the Riddler From ‘Batman’: ’If I’m gonna play crazy, I wanna play proper crazy’ “by Erin Coulehan 8/30/13:

Justin Timberlake gets enough adulation as a superstar that he’s ready to play a villain: the singer wants to show his maniacal side as the Riddler from the Batman franchise, Variety reports.

Timberlake said in a recent interview on New York radio station Fresh 102.7 that he would rather play a bad guy than take on a role like Batman’s sidekick Robin.

… Timberlake also expressed confidence that [Ben] Affleck is equal to the challenge of playing Batman in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel. “I think he’s an extreme talent, so he could surprise a lot of people,” Timberlake said.

Now onto the gratuitous shirtlessness (hey, it’s a holiday weekend here, and I can indulge myself):

(#2)

Timberlake (shown here in a cock tease shot, plus pits ‘n’ tits) has a nice, lean, but not overdeveloped body (what i think of as Hot Normal).

On the man:

Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American actor, businessman and singer-songwriter. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, he appeared on the television shows Star Search and The New Mickey Mouse Club as a child. In the late 1990s, Timberlake rose to prominence as the lead singer and youngest member of the boy band ‘N Sync (Wikipedia link)

Then he got hot.

While I was collecting shirtless Timberlake shots, I stumbled onto a Jason Priestley thread. On Priestley:

Jason Bradford Priestley (born August 28, 1969) is a Canadian-American actor and director. He is best known as the virtuous Brandon Walsh on the television series Beverly Hills, 90210 and for his current role starring as Richard “Fitz” Fitzpatrick in the show Call Me Fitz. (Wikipedia link)

That led me to Luke Perry:

Coy Luther “Luke” Perry III (born October 11, 1966) is an American actor. Perry starred as Dylan McKay on the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210, a role he played from 1990–1995, and then from 1998–2000. Much publicity was garnered over the fact that even though he was playing a sixteen-year-old when 90210 began, Perry was actually in his mid-twenties at the time. Perry returned to 90210 in 1998 (this time billed as a permanent “Special Guest Star”) and remained with the series until its conclusion in 2000. (Wikipedia link)

Bad-boy pistol-packing Perry:

(#3)

Good shirtless shots of Brandon Priestley are harder to come by, but I did luck on this silly Perry – Priestley pose:

(#4)

Both Hot Normals. Nice guys. Ok, with their pants at their feet.

(Not much about language.)

Catching up on old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer this morning, I noted that though I’ve posted about two of the hunky male characters (Angel and Spike), I neglected some of the others, most especially the central character Xander (played by Nicholas Brendon) and Buffy’s love interest for several seasons Riley (played by Marc Blucas). I didn’t find really stunning shirtless photos of them separately, but I did come across a manip (on the term, see here) of the two of them in carnal congress, Riley screwing Xander (viewable on AZBlogX, here).

Some previous postings on manips:

Wincest (Sam and Dean Winchester from Supernatural), Spangel (Spike/Angel): “Five television hunks” (link)

More Spangel: “Spike / Marsters” (link)

Leo/Cole, from Charmed: “Television hunks, separately and together” (link)

Now about Brendon, from Wikipedia:

Nicholas Brendon (born April 12, 1971, as Nicholas Brendon Schultz in Los Angeles, California), is an American actor best known for his character Xander Harris in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003).

Nicholas Brendon was born Nicholas Brendon Schultz on April 12, 1971 in Los Angeles, three minutes after his identical twin brother, Kelly Donovan.

As a youth, he aspired to become a professional baseball player, but he “lost the passion for it” at 20. Instead, he decided to pursue acting in an attempt to overcome his stuttering problem, which had first become apparent at age 7 or 8, and had made him so fearful of speaking or interacting with strangers that he did not begin dating until 21 or 22.

And on Blucas:

Marcus Paul “Marc” Blucas (born January 11, 1972) is an American actor, known for playing Riley Finn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Matthew Donnally on Necessary Roughness.

Blucas at first aspired to be a professional basketball player, but ended up in acting. He’s a big man, 6′ 2″, with broad shoulders. Brendon is a hunk but of more ordinary dimensions, and only 5′ 11″. (The differences in height and bulk are probably why the manip has Riley topping Xander. Well, also, Xander is a really sweet character, and Riley is a tough federal agent.)

In contrast to the men, Buffy (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, now Prinze) is tiny, 5′ 4″ tall on a small frame. The show makes a lot of Buffy’s power and strength, and in the scenes in which Buffy and Riley appear together (including some of love-making), the two act as equals, despite the physical disparity. Buffy rulz.

The cover of the August/September 2013 Instinct magazine, with (as usual) male eye candy:

(#1)

Given the sexy photo, I expected the Putignano piece to be about so-called “sex addiction”, but in fact it’s about drug addiction.

From the article:

Joe Putignano has lived a lot of life in his 30 some-odd years. A world-class gymnast with Olympic dreams, athletics all too soon took a backseat to drugs, alcohol, depression and eventual homelessness. Joe’s new book, Acrobaddict, out in September, is a compelling chronicle of his journey from young Boston kid in the gym to heroin addict on the streets of New York to performing at the Metropolitan Opera House. But this isn’t just some addict-gets-sober memoir. Acrobaddict delves into an athlete’s obsessive struggle for perfection, the relationship between self-doubt and self-harm and the unbelievable resilience of the human soul.

… “When I wondered if I was gay, this feeling of trauma would come over me,” he says. “The fact is, it was harder to admit I was gay than admit I was a drug addict.”

Note the portmanteau acrobaddict.

On sex addiction. from Wikipedia:

Sexual addiction (sometimes called sex addiction) is a conceptual model devised in order to provide a scientific explanation for sexual urges, behaviors, or thoughts that appear extreme in frequency or feel out of one’s control — in terms of being a literal addiction to sexual activity. This phenomenon is not newly described in the literature, but it has been described by many different terms: hypersexuality, erotomania, nymphomania, satyriasis, Don Juanism, Don Juanitaism, and, most recently, sexual addiction, compulsive sexual behaviour, and paraphilia-related disorders.

… Medical studies and related opinions vary among professional psychologists, sociologists, clinical sexologists and other specialists on sexual addiction as a medical physiological and psychological addiction, or representative of a psychological/psychiatric condition at all.

The issue is one of the categorization of behavior — whether certain behaviors and inclinations should be characterized as pathological, and if so, whether they should be classed with substance addictions.

Shirtless bonus. While I was on the Instinct site, I came across this arresting cock tease photo of Brazilian model Beto Malfacini:

(#2)

Abs city, plus a fantastic smile. On the Instinct site, some shower videos of Malfacini from the Brazilian reality tv show A Fazenda, including one in which he manages to scrub his crotch and butt thoroughly without exposing either. On the show:

A Fazenda (… English: The Farm) is the current Brazilian version of the The Farm reality television show based on the Swedish television series of the same name that was originally created in 2001 by Strix and produced in association with Sony Entertainment and Endemol.

The show is based on a group of celebrities living together twenty-four hours a day in a Farm (located in Itu, São Paulo), isolated from the outside world (primarily from mass media, such as newspapers, telephones, television and the internet) while having all their steps followed by cameras around-the-clock, with no privacy for three months.

Caught in passing in a posting of mine on AZBlogX about porn actor Boomer Banks (I am not making this name up), who’s notable (at least) for his very long and thick cock (illustrated in my posting), this item in his Rentboy ad (image #3 in the posting):

(1) I clean up well

conveying that Banks can make himself presentable as an engaging companion for social occasions as well as serving as a hot and sweaty sexual partner.

The idiom to clean up well/nicely is a “reflexive/middle-voice” verbal: (1) is roughly paraphrasable as “I clean myself up well” or “I can be cleaned up well/easily”. That is, the referent of the subject is the Patient (the affected participant) in the event, rather than the Agent. Compare the classic This book reads easily.

The classic figure who cleaned up well/nicely is Cinderella, appearing radiant for the ball (often at the top of a staircase). But it works for guys too.

Now, googling nets actor Charlie Hunnam, previously seen on this blog scruffilicious and shirtlesss here, but popping up in recent media news in connection with the movie of Fifty Shades of Grey. On babble.com, a Septermber 8th piece by SunnyChanel (aka Sunny Chanel). “50 Shades of Grey: Charlie Hunnam Cleans Up Well for Sons of Anarchy Red Carpet!”:

It was HUGE casting news when it was announced that Charlie Hunnam of Sons of Anarchy fame would be taking on one of the most talked about roles in the last couple of years. The 33-year-old actor will be playing Christian Grey in the film adaptation of EL James’ bestseller, Fifty Shades of Grey. Some had a hard time imagining the actor, who plays a biker on Sons of Anarchy, as a businessman (albeit a kinky one). But Charlie Hunnam is giving us a taste — he cleaned up very nicely at the season premiere red carpet for the new season of the popular FX show.

Three views of Hunnam. First, in the earthy Sons of Anarchy character, in an elaborately posed photo:

(#1)

Second, shirtless but shaven and unthreatening:

(#2)

And then suited up for the red carpet:

(#3)

Hunnam’s body is one of his great draws, so we can all hope Fifty Shades gets him shirtless a lot (while he’s still young and hot).

(Not about language, but about shirtless actors, mostly in underwear.)

An episode of Smallville that came by in reruns this morning featured hunky actor Alan Ritchson as Arthur Curry aka Aquaman, a superhero with an assortment of water-related superabilities. Later in the series comes Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow (played by Justin Hartley), yet another superhero. Superman (played by Tom Welling) along with Green Arrow and Aquaman:

(#1)

(All three men are tall: Hartley and Welling at 6′3″, Ritchson at 6′2″.)

On Ritchson, from Wikipedia:

Alan Ritchson (born November 28, 1984 [in Grand Forks ND]) is an American actor, singer, and fashion model. He is best known for his modeling career as well as his portrayals of the superhero Aquaman on The CW’s Smallville and Thad Castle on Spike TV’s Blue Mountain State.

… He began his modeling career in the Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue; he also modeled underwear for the men’s online underwear store internationaljock.com. In 2008, he was signed to L.A. agency Vision Model Management and appeared on N2N Bodywear. By early 2009, Ritchson made his final appearance in his modelling career for Abercrombie and Fitch.

Ritchson in his Aquaman costume:

(#2)

Then in his basic underwear model costume:

(#3)

Ritchson is smiling here; he smiles a lot, with spread lips. As in this ad for one of his latest ventures:

(#4)

Back to shirtless Ritchson, now in two cock tease shots:

(#5)

(#6)

The man revels in displaying his body.

On to Justin Hartley. Here he is as the Green Arrow:

(#7)

How phallic is that?

From Wikipedia:

Justin Scott Hartley (born January 29, 1977 [in Knoxville IL]) is an American actor, writer and director. He is known for roles in Passions, Smallville, and Emily Owens, M.D..

Hartley is slimmer than Ritchson and less abs-heavy and seems not to have done underwear modeling. But here he is in two charming shirtless shots:

(#8)

(#9)

(Not much about language.)

From Laura Staum Casasanto, a link to a site on “Cats that look like male models”. Pure silliness.

Not all the men can fairly be described as male models; some are just actors. Take Robert Downey Jr., in this pairing:

(#1)

Downey has a decent (lean) body, but not really a shirtless male-model body:

(#2)

Many of the cats appear with props, posed to match the photos of the men. Here’s actor Daniel Radcliffe and his cat counterpart:

(#3)

And here’s a shirtless (in fact, naked) Radcliffe, in Equus:

(#4)

Again, a nice body, but very lean for nude male model work.

Two more, with photos where I can’t identify the model. A shirtless Batman, emphatically with a male-model body (plus elaborate props for the cat):

(#5)

And then a clear fashion model, in costume (plus props for the cat):

(#6)

Plenty more on the site, including more shirtless hunks.

From recent postings on shirtlessness:

I didn’t find really stunning shirtless photos of them [Riley and Xander] separately, but I did come across a manip … of the two of them in carnal congress (link)

Shirtless photos of [Christopher] Reeve are surprisingly hard to come by. (link)

Tim [Lincecum] has a huge fan following, and others have scoured the net for shirtless photos of him (link)

Shirtless photos of X. Note that the photos aren’t shirtless, X is; the expression is roughly paraphrasable as photos of X shirtless or photos of a shirtless X. That is, the modifier shirtless appears in construction not with the N it belongs with semantically, but with a different N (in this case, the head N of the expression). This is the figure of speech known as the transferred epithet or hypallage, and we’re seen it before on Language Log and this blog.

(Many other head Ns would be possible in such examples: photographs, pictures, snapshots, images, drawings, etc.)

From “Extramarital toes” on Language Log 12/4/07:

The 1 December Economist entertained me by beginning a story (“Labour pains”, p. 17) on the latest British political scandal with a wonderful coordination containing a figurative surprise in the final conjunct:

As British political scandals go, this one is not particularly juicy.  No honours seem to have been sold, no politician’s Parisian hotel bills picked up, no extramarital toes sucked.

Well, no toes were sucked extramaritally; nevertheless, the reference to extramaritality is in an adjective modifying toes, rather than in an adverb modifying toes (were) sucked.  This is a figure of speech known as the transferred epithet or displaced epithet — or as hypallage

Then in “Mortal texting: framing, hypallage” on this blog on 11/8/09, the examples distracted driving and drunk driving. And in “Annals of hypallage” on this blog on 5/12/10, furrowed cast of mind, Erotic Arts and Crafts Fair, and erotic bake sale. In all these cases, the transferred epithet appears as an Adj modifying the head of the nominal — in a position of maximal prominence, emphasizing the content of the adjective. (In the shirtless cases, it’s the shirtlessness of the men that’s the point.)

Apparently similar to the shirtless cases are nude cases, for instance these from this blog:

Again, this is a cropped photo; the full nude photo [of Brian Krause] is #1 in my AZBlogX posting. (link)

Dieux du Stade … is the title of two books and several calendars and DVDs first published in 2001, featuring nude and semi-nude photographs of members of Stade Français, a Paris-based domestic French rugby team. (link)

Such cases are not as clear-cut as the shirtless cases, however. OED3 (Dec. 2003) treats two sets of uses of the Adj nude as involving just further senses of the Adj:

[1] Of a work of art, form of entertainment, etc.: involving or portraying one or more naked or scantily clad people; performed without clothing. Also of an actor or model: that performs or poses unclothed. [first cite 1869; examples: the nude drama, the full-length nude study of a nymph, a nude model who longs for true love, an impressive nude water ballet, those nude photos -- note this last one]

[2] Of an activity: carried out without clothes on. Also, of a beach or other place: reserved or designed for nudists. [first cite 1884; examples: nude bathing, a nude sun bath, nude beaches, a nude dash up Grass Street]

For the OED, these senses are simply non-predicating uses of the Adj nude, and that was the treatment I gave nude beach in a posting on non-predicating adjectives.

Now, hypallagic uses of Adjs are of course all non-predicating. But the OED‘s treatment of [1] and [2] has them as conventionalized senses of nude, not merely as creatively figurative. It is, however, possible to see the OED‘s treatment as correct for the current state of the language, but as having originated in figurative uses of the word. That would make this case similar to other sorts of figurative uses of words that have become conventionalized.

Metaphor, in particular. Metaphors occur creatively in everyday speech and writing. Eventually some become “frozen” (and the perception that they are, or were, metaphorical dissipates in time).

My suggestion, then, is that [1] and [2] are frozen hypallages, and that shirtless in examples like the ones at the beginning of this posting is probably still hypallagic for most people — but it might be edging towards conventionalization for some, especially people like me who talk and write about shirtlessness a lot.

(And then there’s shoeless and barefoot, in expressions like shoeless / barefoot photos and shoeless / barefoot photography. Fair number of ghits — and images — plus websites devoted to shoelessness, especially of celebrities. OED2 treats shoeless as simply ‘without shoes’, just as it treats shirtless as simply ‘without a shirt’, and it gives no hypallagic cites for either one; but then these entries haven’t been revised for a very long time.)

From Amanda Walker, this link to a piece from The Local: Switzerland’s News in English, on “In Pictures: Shock! Farmers in underpants are models!”. Ok, it combines Switzerland (one of my two ancestral lands), shirtlessness, and underwear — three topics of interest to me personally. I have my shallow days.

A controversy has erupted after an annual calendar featuring buff Swiss farmers was exposed for showing “pretty boy” models in their place. Have a look at these pictures from the 2014 Schweizer Bauernkalendar and judge for yourself. Should they have used 12 genuine farmers instead?

The cover:

(#1)

An item in the huge genre of Hunk Calendars — firemen, farmers, bodybuilders, male hustlers, what have you, in several languages and social contexts. Affording the pleasures of contemplating the male body. Some of them purport to present genuine members of the category in question, others (like the Boys Next Door) are obviously fantasy fodder using male models. The problem with Schweizer Bauernkalendar & Alpenboys is that it cuts across these lines (as you might have expected from Alpenboys).

Some of the photos can be seen as farmers (Bauern) plausibly on the job on the farm. But a number show implausibly buff and sleek guys in their underwear in happenstance farm settings. Like Mr. January and Mr. September:

(#2)

(#3)

Yeah, just like daily life on the farm.

(Not really about language, but just about popular culture on a Sunday morning.)

Re-runs of House have been going past me this morning. On the show, from Wikipedia:

House (also known as House, M.D.) is an American television medical drama that originally ran on the Fox network for eight seasons, from November 16, 2004 to May 21, 2012. The show’s main character is Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), a drug-addicted, unconventional, misanthropic medical genius who leads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital … in New Jersey.

The show is formulaic, tying medical drama (with the team running through a series of diagnoses in the face of baffling symptoms) into the seriocomic soap-operatic drama of the characters’ lives.

The star of the show:

James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE (born 11 June 1959), known as Hugh Laurie …, is an English actor, comedian, writer, musician, and director. He first became known as one half of the Fry and Laurie double act, along with his friend and comedy partner Stephen Fry, whom he joined in the cast of A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Blackadder, and Jeeves and Wooster from 1985 to 1999.

From 2004 to 2012, he played Dr. Gregory House, the protagonist of House, for which he received two Golden Globe awards, two Screen Actors Guild awards and six Emmy nominations. (Wikipedia link)

Laurie’s performance in House is remarkable because of his ability to speak amazingly good American English; not many actors can shift dialects so convincingly.

Then there’s House’s only real friend on the show:

Robert Sean Leonard (born Robert Lawrence Leonard; February 28, 1969) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Dr. James Wilson on the television series House, M.D. and Neil Perry in the 1989 movie Dead Poets Society. He regularly stars in Broadway and off-Broadway productions. (Wikipedia link)

Here are the characters Wilson (left) and House (right), wearing t-shirts with one of the show’s slogans:

(#1)

Next up:

Jesse Gordon Spencer (born 12 February 1979) is an Australian actor and musician. He is best known for playing Dr. Robert Chase on the American medical drama House, and Billy Kennedy on the Australian soap opera Neighbours. He currently stars as Lieutenant Matthew Casey on the American drama series Chicago Fire. (Wikipedia link)

Here’s a shirtless Spencer as an Australian surfer dude:

(#2)

And then:

Omar Hashim Epps (born July 20, 1973) is an American actor, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. His film roles include Major League II, Juice, Higher Learning, Scream 2, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love and Basketball. Epps’ television work includes the role of Dr. Dennis Gant on the US medical drama series ER, and, between 2004 and 2012, Dr. Eric Foreman on the Fox medical drama series House. (Wikipedia link)

(#3)

(Not about language, except insofar as the question of what constitutes genital nudity comes up.)

From Max Vasilatos, this impressive hunk, from male photographer Jonathan Black’s book Idols:

This image definitely skirts the limits, though it came through the U.S. mail as is. (The issue is not that it is evidently homoerotic, but that it shows a bit of the model’s penis root.)

… plus a kilt and an implied (sort of) apology:

(Hat tip to Paul Armstrong.)

It’s been a while since I posted images of shirtless men with astounding abs (and pecs, delts, traps, and biceps, but oh, those abs!), but this one comes with an offer that folds in (in if my kilt offends you)  a muted sort-of apology: ‘I’m sorry if my kilt offends you, but …’

The form

(1) I’m sorry if my X offends you

is somewhat more muted than the classic non-apology apology form

(2) I’m sorry that you are offended by my X

(both put the burden on the person who takes offense),

and the free-standing

(3) if my X offends you, …

(with no formal expression of sorrow) is still more muted than (1). But as it turns out, the form in (3) (or the longer form in (1)) is only very rarely apologetic; Kilt Boy’s bantering, seductive offer is unusually good-spirited, but most occurrences of these forms are at best deflections of the claim of offense, or quite commonly nakedly aggressive attacks on the addressee.

In the first ten pages of a Google search on “if my X offends you”, we find the following instances of X:

reply, atheism, flag, patriotism, comment, breastfeeding, opinion, humor, post, facebook, language, poppy, body, name, avatar, blog, sarcasm, speech, profile, presence, honesty, question, username, eating meat, spelling, black skin, page, shirt, laughter, confidence, grammar/spelling, ass, hair, story, style, art, ambition, faith, decision, belly, taste, freedom, testimony, passion

On rare occasions, these uses are in fact apologetic, as in this query submitted to Yahoo! Answers:

I’m sorry if my question offends you, but are any Dominican men circumsized?

I’m an American woman (age 28) and I heard that Dominican men are not circumsized, is this true?

Most men are circumsized in America so I was surprised to hear this

(Only a tiny percentage of Dominican men are in fact circumsized.)

More commonly we see deflection:

If my speech offends you, I don’t care, that is your problem.

If my website offends you, then don’t look at it.

And, very often, aggression or outright insult:

If my flag offends you, I will help you pack. [That is, get out of my country.]

If my humor offends you, fuck you.

If my post offends you blame your parents because they raised a pussy.

The last two are about as far from an actual apology as you can get.

It starts with today’s Doonesbury –

(#1)

and ends with shirtless lycanthrophy. In between: Roland Hedley, III, the apps Tinder and Grindr (with some shirtlessness), geosocial networking (aka geosocial), and professional lycanthrope Tyler Posey (appearing shirtless). A long strange trip.

Hedley. The Doonesbury features the character Roland Hedley. From Wikipedia:

Roland Burton Hedley, III is a fictional character in the comic strip Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau, inspired by the on-air style of the veteran US reporter Sam Donaldson.

… [At one point in the strip] he has developed an extraordinarily large ego, which remains his defining trait to this day. He is a total sensationalist, willing to stretch the truth and say anything that would further his career.

What a douchebag, on the job and in his social life (as seen above)! (More douchebag below.)

Tinder. In the third panel of #1, an insert declares the topic of the remainder of the cartoon: “Adventures in Tinder”.

From Wikipedia:

Tinder is a matchmaking mobile app. The application connects with users’ Facebook profiles to provide pictures and ages for other users to view. Using GPS technology, users can set a specific radius, and they will have the option to match with anyone that is within that distance.

On the Tinder site itself:

Tinder is how people meet. It’s like real life, but better.

Let’s face it: Tinder is designed for more-or-less instant sexual hookups, without further commitment, between men and women. Quickie fucks for heterosexuals.

There’s net discussion on what works well in Tinder. One piece of advice for men is to post photos with their dog or dogs; adorable dogs suggests adorable men.

But some guys go for more carnal things — like this shirtless university student (University of Rhode Island, presumably) showing off his model’s body:

(#2)

(Don’t know how many women go for this presentation, but it would certainly catch the eye of many gay men. Still, he could use a puppy.)

Grindr. Tinder is relatively new — its initial release was 9/15/12 — but it’s been flourishing. It seems to have been modeled on the immensely successful app Grindr:

Grindr [initial release 3/25/09] is a geosocial networking application geared towards gay, bisexual, and bi-curious men.(Wikipedia link)

Grindr has expanded its software to provide filters for a variety of male “types”, among them:

Bear, Clean-cut, Daddy, Discreet, Geek, Jock, Leather, Otter, Poz [HIV-positive], Rugged, Trans and Twink

From the Grindr site:

Find local gay, bi and curious guys for dating or friends for free on Grindr. Meet the men nearest you with GPS, location-based Grindr.

(Yeah, sure, “dating or friends”. Code for: let’s fuck now.)

The profiles can be unpleasant. In fact, several users have assembled galleries of “Grindr douchebags” or “douchebags of Grindr”, for instance:

(#3)

A classic “fags” vs. “real men” distinction: NO FAGS.

Geosocial networking and the noun geosocial. On the Grindr Wikipedia page, we see the technical term geosocial networking, which seems to be a portmanteau of geolocation [via GPS] and social networking — both originally technical terms themselves, though they’ve moved into more ordinary use.

From Wikipedia, in a heavily technical-register article:

Geosocial Networking is a type of social networking in which geographic services and capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging are used to enable additional social dynamics. User-submitted location data or geolocation techniques can allow social networks to connect and coordinate users with local people or events that match their interests.

Later in the article:

The evolution of geosocial can be traced back to …

A nouning by truncation of geosocial networking to geosocial, suggesting that the writer of the sentence was so comfortable in this domain that they could abbreviate the longer expression, expecting the reader to interpret it in context.

Tyler Posey. And here’s where I came across the Tyler Poser story. From E! Online on the 5th, “Tyler Posey Jokes That He Has a Grindr Account (That’s a Gay Hookup App FYI)” by Brett Malec:

Does Tyler Posey have a Grindr account?!

In a sneak-peek preview clip for the 22-year-old’s upcoming MTV special Being Tyler Posey, the Teen Wolf star’s friends try to teach him about the straight dating app Tinder. That’s when Posey confesses he knows all about Grindr, the gay hookup app equivalent of Tinder.

“You know what Tinder is?” one friend asks Posey.

“Tinder? No, what is that? Is it like Grindr for straight people?” Posey responds. “I know what Grindr is because I have an account.”

This is a put-on, of course. But it puts the actor in a good light, in that he’s so comfortable in his sexuality that he can joke about Grindr, without disavowals or hedges.

On the man, from Wikipedia:

Tyler Garcia Posey (Born October 18, 1991) is an American actor and musician. Posey is best known for his role as Scott McCall in MTV’s show Teen Wolf.

… In February 2002 [as a young boy], he appeared in the film Collateral Damage; in December of that year, he played Jennifer Lopez’s son in the romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan.

(He plays rhythm guitar and sings vocals for the band Lost in Kostko.)

Posey in lycanthropic guise:

(#4)

and shirtless, playing in the band:

(#5)

Definitely cute (and he has a very sweet smile), though not quite as model-hunky as his lycanthropic colleague Taylor Lautner of Twilight (discussed in “Lycanthropic shirtlessness”, here).

(The first of two postings with vanishingly little linguistic comment, but plenty of appreciation of male bodies, plus material on the projection of sexuality in photographs. Not technically X-rated, but certainly steamy, so you might want to use your judgment in viewing these postings.)

First, Nick Jonas paying homage (in Flaunt magazine) to the boy-band star and original Underwear God Marky Mark / Mark Wahlberg (hereafter, MM), in this photographic homage to MM’s famous Calvin Klein photos — crotch-grabbing, abs-displaying, flagrantly challenging, and homoerotic all at once.

(#1)

He’s pulled his jeans down just for us!

(Hat tip to Aric Olnes.)

The MM original can be viewed on this blog in the 12/25/12 posting “Oh, no, not a pony!”, which cites an 8/13/10 AZBlogX posting on “Pits ‘n’ Tits: five underwear models”, in which MM is #2; the jeans-to-ankles are not in the original.

On Nick Jonas, from Wikipedia:

Nicholas Jerry “Nick” Jonas (born September 16, 1992) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor and multi-instrumentalist, best known as one of the Jonas Brothers, a pop-rock band he formed with his brothers Kevin and Joe. The Jonas Brothers originally started as an attempted solo singing career for Nick, but the record producer liked the sound when his brothers sang backup for him. Nick previously starred in the Disney Channel original series Jonas L.A. as Nick Lucas, alongside his brothers. He also starred in the Disney Channel original movie Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. He formed the band Nick Jonas & The Administration, which released its first album in 2010.

To judge from #1, the cute curly-haired boy-band kid has definitely grown up (and without MM’s jail time). A less outrageous but still intensely steamy abs display from Flaunt:

(#2)

He has a big following with Teh Gayz, and (though straight) entusiastically returns the appreciation to this audience; he seems to be entirely comfortable, even celebratory, serving as an object of gay male desire. I’d like to see this as a positive development in gay-straight relations, with young people in the vanguard.

(The second item on male homosexuality, gay-straight relations, acting, and the male body — following “Homage to Marky / Mark”. Very little of linguistic interest. Steamy, but not X-rated, images.)

I start with this intense (but fully clothed) photo of actors Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (sent to me by Chris Ambidge), one of a considerable number of images of this bromantic couple:

(#1)

Whew! Who knew that belt loops could be so hot?

That’s Pine (the straight bro) on the left, Quinto (the gay bro) on the right.

From an E! Online story last year on Pine:

The sexy Star Trek star covers the June/July [2013] issue of Out magazine, in which he talks his on- and offscreen bromance with costar Zachary Quinto, the future of his Hollywood career and being proud of his pal for coming out.

(#2)

And on the Out magazine site on 5/16/13:

Zachary Quinto on the Epic Kirk-Spock Bromance: Since Zachary Quinto was seen on the cover of Out last October [2012], the actor/producer has starred in a critically acclaimed production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie — now Broadway-bound — slipped back into Spock’s pointy ears for the sequel to 2009’s hit Star Trek and produced, through his company Before the Door, three feature films, including All is Lost (starring Robert Redford), which will premiere this month at Cannes.

Just before he set off on a globe-trotting promotional tour for Star Trek: Into Darkness (in theaters May 17), we talked to Quinto about his surprise visit to Chris Pine’s cover shoot for Out‘s June issue [#2], his perspective on the epic Kirk-Spock bromance, and what his good buddy Pine cares about even more than being a good actor.

(#3)

Pine is comfortable taking gay roles, and for that matter, Quinto is comfortable taking straight roles.

Wikipedia on Pine:

Christopher Whitelaw “Chris” Pine (born August 26, 1980) is an American actor in films and television. He is best known for his role as James T. Kirk in the 2009 film Star Trek, and its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

And on Quinto:

Zachary John Quinto (born June 2, 1977) is an American actor and film producer. Quinto rose to prominence for his role as series antagonist Sylar in the science fiction drama Heroes from 2006 to 2010. He is also known for his portrayal of Spock in the 2009 reboot Star Trek and its 2013 sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness.

… Quinto publicly came out as gay in October 2011. He explained that, after the suicide of gay teenager Jamey Rodemeyer, he realized “that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality.”

Pine and Quinto are both in good shape, but (unlike Nick Jonas) not industrial-strength gym-fit. Pine is smooth-bodied, Quinto moderately furry. Shirtless photos, first of Pine, then of Quinto in character as Spock:

(#4)

(#5)

[Added later: as commenters on this blog, and Nick Fitch on Facebook, have pointed out, #5 is in fact the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy. For a shirtless Zach Quinto:

(#6) ]

Yes, more shirtless men (following on Nick Jonas and Chris Pine, Zach Quinto, and Leonard Nimoy), but now with a semantic point, about systems of categorization, in this case a pop scheme of somatotype (body-type) classification. After some glances at tv hunks on this blog, I look at the three starring men in the series NCIS: Los Angeles, who illustrate the three ideal types in this somatotype scheme: mesomorph, endomorph, and ectomorph.(Along the way we also get a female star: the stars are aligned into two contrasting pairs.)

The three-way scheme has a complex and tangled history, but survives now primarily in the advice literature for bodybuilders / musclemen.

On (mostly shirtless) television hunks on this blog:

8/20/13 “Five television hunks” [James Marsden, David Boreanaz, Shemar Moore, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles – in various shows, including Bones, Criminal Minds, and Supernatural] (link)

8/22/13 “Television hunks, separately and together” [David Boreanaz, James Marsters, Brian Krause, Julian McMahon, Dylan Walsh – in Buffy, Charmed, and Nip/Tuck] (link)

9/9/13 “Riley/Xander” [Buffy] (link)

10/3/13, “Alan Ritchson (and Justin Hartley)” [Smallville] (link)

10/27/13 “House men” [Hugh Laurie, Robert Leonard, Jesse Spencer, Shemar Moore] (link)

On NCIS: Los Angeles. From Wikipedia:

NCIS: Los Angeles (Naval Criminal Investigative Service: Los Angeles) is an American television series combining elements of the military drama and police procedural genres, which premiered on the CBS network on September 22, 2009.

… Chris O’Donnell plays the lead character, G. Callen, the Special Agent in Charge of [OSP, the Office of Special Projects], whose natural talent for undercover work is legendary. LL Cool J plays the role of Senior Field Agent Sam Hanna, a former Navy SEAL, who is fluent in Arabic and an expert on Middle Eastern culture. Daniela Ruah plays Junior Special Agent Kensi Blye… Eric Christian Olsen plays LAPD Detective Marty Deeks, [originally] the team’s liaison with the Los Angeles Police Department.

The pairings are (athletically muscular mesomorph) O’Donnell with (bulky, blocky endomorph) LL Cool J and (slender ectomorph) Olsen with the shorter and more compact, but definitely tough, Ruah (a female mesomorph). Linda Hunt plays the OSP’s operations manager Hetty Lange, a legendary former intelligence agent  — the part corresponding to Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the original NCIS (set in D.C.), but with a very different flavor; in general, the “family relationships” in the two series are strikingly different.

The four actors. O’Donnell, from Wikipedia:

Christopher Eugene “Chris” O’Donnell (born June 26, 1970) is an American actor. He played Dick Grayson/Robin in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, Charlie Simms in Scent of a Woman, Finn Dandridge in Grey’s Anatomy, Peter Garrett in Vertical Limit, and Jack McAuliffe in The Company.

O’Donnell as Robin:

(#1)

and shirtless, with Amazing Abs and his jeans down low:

(#2)

Then LL Cool J, from Wikipedia:

James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), better known as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and actor. He is known for pioneering hip-hop tracks such as “I Can’t Live Without My Radio”, “I’m Bad”, “The Boomin’ System”, “Rock The Bells”, and “Mama Said Knock You Out” as well as romantic ballads such as “I Need Love”, “Around the Way Girl”, and “Hey Lover”… He has also appeared in numerous films

Shirtless and challenging, in a massive-muscular kind of way:

(#3)

LL Cool J has a truly beautiful smile, which appears on NCIS fairly often:

(#4)

And then LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell together, with a phallic gun but shirted, in a poster for the show:

(#5)

On to Olsen, from Wikipedia:

Eric Christian Olsen (born May 31, 1977) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Detective Marty Deeks on the CBS television series NCIS: Los Angeles.

The slim Olsen, shirtless, in the tv series Community:

(#6)

And Ruah, from Wikipedia:

Daniela Sofia Korn Ruah (… born December 2, 1983) is a Portuguese American actress best known for playing NCIS Special Agent Kensi Blye in the CBS police procedural series NCIS: Los Angeles.

… Ruah announced in September 2013 that she was expecting her first child, a boy, with her then fiancé David Paul Olsen, the elder brother of and stunt double to Ruah’s NCIS: Los Angeles co-star Eric Christian Olsen. On December 30, 2013, Ruah gave birth to a son, River Isaac. In June 19, 2014, Ruah married her fiancé David Olsen in Portugal.

Ruah and Eric Olsen, together in a shot designed to minimize the height difference between them, but featuring Olsen’s signature wild blond(ish) hair:

(#7)

All three men are in good shape, but of three different body types.

Somatotype “theory”. Now to the technical, but decidedly weird, stuff. From Wikipedia on “Somatotype and constitutional psychology”:

Constitutional psychology is a now discredited theory, developed in the 1940s by American psychologist William Herbert Sheldon, associating body types with human temperament types. The foundation of these ideas originated with Francis Galton and eugenics. Sheldon and Earnest Hooton were seen as leaders of a school of thought, popular in anthropology at the time, which held that the size and shape of a person’s body indicated intelligence, moral worth and future achievement. Sheldon proposed that the human physique be classified according to the relative contribution of three fundamental elements, somatotypes, named after the three germ layers of embryonic development: the endoderm, (develops into the digestive tract), the mesoderm, (becomes muscle, heart and blood vessels), and the ectoderm (forms the skin and nervous system).

In his 1954 book, Atlas of Men, Sheldon categorised all possible body types according to a scale ranging from 1 to 7 for each of the three “somatotypes”, where the pure “endomorph” is 7–1–1, the pure “mesomorph” 1–7–1 and the pure “ectomorph” scores 1–1–7. [Scaling of the factors yields 7^3 = 343 types.] From type number, an individual’s mental characteristics could supposedly be predicted.

Sheldon’s “somatotypes” and their supposed associated physical and psychological traits can be characterized as follows:

• Ectomorphic: characterized as linear, thin, fragile, lightly muscled, flat chested and delicate; described as cerebrotonic inclined to desire isolation, solitude and concealment and being tense, anxious, restrained in posture and movement, introverted and secretive.
• Mesomorphic: characterized as hard, rugged, rectangular, athletically built with well developed muscles, thick skin and good posture; described as somatotonic inclined towards physical adventure and risk taking and being vigorous, courageous, direct and dominant.
•  Endomorphic: characterized as round and soft with under-developed muscles and having difficulty losing weight; described as viscerotonic enjoying food, people and affection having slow reactions and being disposed to complacency.

Sheldon’s work was heavily burdened by his racist, anti-Semitic and sexist views. There is evidence that different physiques carry cultural stereotypes. For example, one study found that endomorphs are likely to be perceived as slow, sloppy, and lazy. Mesomorphs, in contrast, are typically stereotyped as popular and hardworking, whereas ectomorphs are often viewed as intelligent but fearful and usually take part in long distance sports, such as marathon running. Stereotypes of mesomorphs are generally much more favorable than those of endomorphs. Stereotypes of ectomorphs are somewhat mixed. Sheldon’s ideas that body type was an indicator of temperament, moral character or potential while popular in an atmosphere accepting of the theories of eugenics were soon widely discredited. The [principal] criticism of Sheldon’s constitutional theory was that is was not a theory at all but one general assumption, continuity between structure and behavior, and a set of descriptive concepts to measure physique and behavior in a scaled manner.

There are precedents to Sheldon’s ideas: the humo(u)r theory of medicine and temperament (with four ideal types: choleric, bilious, phlegmatic, and sanguine) and the evergreen idea that character and personality can be read from physical characteristics, especially of the face (though here it could be that stereotypical beliefs about those associations in part guide the way people come to behave: they “live up to” their appearance).

But the connections between somatotypes and temperament/character are loony, and long discredited.

Sheldon’s three somatotypes had a fashion in pop psychology for some time, and continue now in the advice literature for bodybuilders and musclemen, for instance in this bodybuilding site for men:

What is your body type?: Learn how to train for your body type

(#8)

Three body types:

Ectomorph: Narrow hips and clavicles, Small joints (wrist/ ankles), Thin build, Stringy muscle bellies, Long limbs

Mesomorph: Wide clavicles, Narrow waist, Thinner joints, Long and round muscle bellies

Endomorph: Blocky, Thick rib cage, Wide/thicker joints, Hips as wide (or wider) than clavicles, Shorter limbs

The sites offer advice on training regimens and diet supplementation, one set of advice for each of the three body types.

Sheldon’s original typology, stripped of its association with character and temperament, included another innovation: a scaling of the three ideal types (noted above) to yield a new set of 343 types — a move that looks more in line with reality, but one that undercuts the possible value of a small set of clearly distinct types. I’ve discussed the consequences of the scaling move in a 2005 conference paper “Ideal types: peacocks, chameleons, and centaurs”, about the 3-category typology for types of gay men in Wayne Brekhus’s 2003 book “Peacocks, chameleons, centaurs: Gay suburbia and the grammar of social identity”; a detailed handout for the presentation is on-line here.

The paper begins with notes on systems of categorization, outlining requirements (from the literature on categorization) for a satisfactory typology, in particular Completeness (the typology should cover all the referents in the relevant domain), Exclusivity (the categories should be mutually exclusive), and Predictiveness (a number of properties should cluster together in each category, so that they tend to mutually implicate one another).

Brekhus’s original 3-term typology was intended to be a good system of categories, but then he replaced the three ideal types by three dimensions (labeled duration, density, and dominance, though the labels aren’t important here), with the three types characterized by their polar locations on these dimensions. This move has unfortunate consequences:

(a) there are mixed types, a great many of them: “Although as ideal types they are mutually exclusive, no one in the real world is located precisely at any one corner of the triangle. Thus, in the real world an individual can practice a combination of identity strategies.” (Brekhus, p. 223); hence, low Completeness and Exclusivity

(b) the dimensions are continua (p. 180), and the position of a man on these continua is not even constant over time or in different social contexts; hence, low Predictiveness

From my handout: we see here

a familiar progression, from a set of ideal types that might serve to establish a satisfactory classification, though the interpretation of the types as poles on underlying continua, to a system that is neither satisfactory as a classification nor constant over occasions but serves only to provide a feeling (however illusory) of understanding. Popular advice literature abounds in such attractive but unsatisfactory categorization schemes, usually involving ideal types. The case of Brekhus’s scheme shows that even categorizations intended as scientific can run aground in the same way, so long as the posited underlying continua have no content outside of the analysis itself.

So it is with Sheldonian somatotypes.

To help me through a sleepless night recently, I turned to an old favorite, the 1982 action/fantasy movie The Beastmaster. A very silly entertainment, starring Marc Singer and his fabulous physique (he’s in nothing but a loincloth for most of the movie) and big smile, plus a sizable cast of animals. One take, with Singer in fierce mode:

From the Wikipedia site:

The Beastmaster is a 1982 fantasy film directed by Don Coscarelli and starring Marc Singer, Tanya Roberts, John Amos and Rip Torn. The film was marketed with the tagline “Born with the courage of an eagle, the strength of a black tiger, and the power of a god.”

The story in detail (I wouldn’t ordinarily post so much plot description, but this is so wonderfully preposterous that I couldn’t resist):

The Beastmaster tells the story of Dar (Marc Singer), the royal son of a king named Zed (Rod Loomis) who was stolen from the womb of Zed’s queen (Vanna Bonta) by a witch under the command of vicious high-priest sorcerer Maax (Rip Torn). A poor villager saves Dar from being sacrificed and raises him as his own son, teaching Dar how to fight and witnessing the boy’s ability to telepathically communicate with animals.

Their happiness is destroyed when their village is attacked by the evil Jun horde, a race of fanatic beast-like warriors controlled by Maax. Dar, the only survivor of the attack, vows revenge and journeys to his father’s former kingdom to destroy Maax. On the way he befriends and teams up with an eagle, to whom he gives the name Sharak, a black tiger he names Ruh and a pair of thieving ferrets he calls Kodo and Podo; meets a slave-girl called Kiri (Tanya Roberts) and encounters an eerie half-bird, half-human race who totally ingest human prey, leaving only the bones. These bird men worship eagles, and when they see that Dar commands Sharak, they give him an amulet which will let him request their aid.

Zed is imprisoned in the central pyramid of the city, where Maax exercises total power and demands children to be sacrificed to his god. Dar and Sharak save the child of townsman Sacco from sacrifice. Dar learns that Kiri is Zed’s niece and that she is being prepared for sacrifice in a temple. On the way to rescue her, he teams up with Zed’s younger son Tal and his bodyguard Seth (John Amos). Together they save Kiri and return to the city to free Zed from the pyramid. Zed, who has been blinded, is mad for revenge; he rejects Dar as a “freak”, and orders an immediate attack on the city that fails utterly. Maax is about to sacrifice Kiri and Zed when Dar reappears and frees Kiri. He fatally wounds Maax, but Maax has enough strength left to kill Zed. Maax is about to kill Dar, when Kodo leaps onto Maax and they fall to their deaths in the sacrificial fire. The Jun horde attack the city, but are defeated after a long fight. The bird-men consume the last of the Juns. Dar sets off into the waste with Kiri, Ruh, Sharak and Podo (who has given birth to two baby ferrets) on the path to new adventures.

… The film spawned two sequels: Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991), and the made-for-television Beastmaster III: The Eye of Braxus (1996), followed by a syndicated television series.

And that’s just the high points. I haven’t mentioned the green luminescent slugs or the tar pit that surrounds the village (and eventually yields a kind of Götterdämmerung scene).

(Not a death notice, but an appreciation.)

An old Law & Order: Criminal Intent went by me this morning, with the tall (6′ 4″) and versatile actor Jeff Goldblum in the role of Detective Zach Nichols. And that brought me to a wonderful GE commercial starring Goldblum that I had somehow missed. Goldblum, shirtless, and with big hair.

The story, (“Jeff Goldblum & His Hair Star In Hilarious New GE Commercial From Tim & Eric” by Emily Thomas) from HuffPo on September 30th:

Jeff Goldblum’s been lighting up the big screen since his break-out role in the 1986 sci-fi thriller “The Fly,” so it’s no wonder why General Electric chose the actor to star in its hilarious new commercial as the ultimate fly guy. [Video with the HuffPo story.]

For GE’s new spot, released on Monday, Goldblum appears as the master of suave Terry Quattro, a “famous person” who can’t stop extolling the virtues of the company’s new LED lightbulb, Link.

“Question: What does it take to live a life of fame on the big screen, the small screen, even the silkscreen?” he asks, turning to show off a jacket featuring his own face. “The answer may surprise you: really good lighting.”

Adult Swim’s comedic duo Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim teamed up with advertising agency BBDO New York to direct the 2-minute long ad, which briefly features Goldblum playing piano in a hot tub while discussing the merits of good lighting.

(Goldblum is a serious and accomplished jazz pianist, by the way.)

A still from the ad:

(#1)

Goldblum, but fortunately not the piano, is indeed in the hot tub. The man is happy to mock himself, and incidentally to show off his beach body — which is quite nice, though not Versace-model, abs-of-death nice. Here’s a shirtless body-tease shot (with unexceptional hair) from earlier in his career:

(#2)

Wikipedia on Goldblum:

Jeffrey Lynn “Jeff” Goldblum (… born October 22, 1952) is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly [1986], Jurassic Park [1993] and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World [1997], and Independence Day [1996]. He starred as Detective Zach Nichols for the eighth and ninth seasons of the USA Network’s crime drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Other films: a great favorite of mine, Earth Girls Are Easy (1988) (with Geena Davis, at 6′ 0″ a very tall woman, but a good pairing with Goldblum; the two were married for three years); Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), and The Big Chill (1983).

Latest holiday postings, covering Advent, Hanukkah, and Christmas: an Advent Calendar for linguists; a Menorasaurus rex for Hanukkah; hunky mermen for the Christmas tree; and a Krampus sweater.

Previously on this channel:

“On to St. Nicholas and Xmas” of 11/22/14, and “Krampus 2 – 4″ of 11/28/14, on the anti-Santa Krampus

“Hanukkah play” of 12/7/14, with word play on Hanukkah, latke

“Who-liday specials” of 12/10/14, with Who-liday for holiday: Doctor Who, Dr. Seuss’s Whos of Whoville

And now…

The Linguist’s Advent Calendar, by “Veronica”, here. Annoyingly, Veronica provides no information whatsoever about herself, nor any about the images she posts for the 24 days of Christmas; some are recognizable as professional cartoonists’ work (at least one of which, a Savage Chickens cartoon, I have already posted on this blog), some are words-only cartoons framed like e-cards, some are words-only cartoons that are essentially captions attached to found images or to images created for the purpose, and some appear to be amateurish drawings created for the purpose. Three examples:

Day 11: Pronoun Christmas: You have to invite the relatives

(#1)

Day 10:

Why did schwa start buying its Christmas presents in June?

(#2)

It didn’t want to get stressed.

Day 9:

(#3)

On Advent, from Wikipedia:

Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term is an anglicized version of the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming”.

… Advent is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday. At least in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Moravian, Presbyterian and Methodist calendars, Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before December 25, which is the Sunday between November 27 and December 3 inclusive. Christians of these denominations observe the season through practices such as keeping an Advent calendar, lighting an Advent wreath, praying an Advent daily devotional, among other ways of preparing for Christmastide, such as setting up Christmas decorations.

And specifically on Advent calendars, again from Wikipedia:

An Advent calendar is a special calendar used to count or celebrate the days in anticipation of Christmas. Since the date of the first Sunday of Advent varies, falling between November 27 and December 3 inclusive, the Advent calendar usually compromises by beginning on December 1, although many include the previous few days that are part of the season. The Advent calendar was first used by German Lutherans in the 19th and 20th centuries but is now ubiquitous among adherents of many Christian denominations. Many Advent calendars take the form of a large rectangular card with “windows”, of which there are usually 24: one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Eve. The windows are opened starting with the first one. Often times, these windows have a Bible verse and prayer printed on them, which Christian families incorporate as part of their daily Advent devotions. Consecutive doors are opened every day leading up to Christmas. The calendar windows open to reveal an image, poem, a portion of a story (such as the story of the Nativity of Jesus) or a small gift, such as a toy or a chocolate item. Advent calendars range in theme, from sports to technology, often carrying Scripture verses.

An example, from this site, for 2012:

(#4)

The Menorasaurus rex. From Etsy:

(#5)

Hand-crafted Menorasaurus Rex made to order! Constructed from repurposed plastic toys and metal candle cups, these dinosaur menorahs are fully functional and reusable for Chanukah fun far into the future. Approximately 12″ long and 8″ tall. Gold.

Well, gold in color.

Menorasaurus is menorah + the element -saurus ‘dinosaur’.

On menorahs, from Wikipedia:

The Hanukkah menorah or chanukiah … is a nine-branched candelabrum lit during the eight-day holiday of Hanukkah… On each night of Hanukkah a new branch is lit. The ninth holder, called the shamash (“helper” or “servant”), is for a candle used to light all other candles and/or to be used as an extra light.

As for -saurus, I posted on 5/1/11 about various inventions using this element and then on 3/8/12 on the Trannysaurus. Plus, on 10/7/12, on the related creation Thesaurus rex. All of this (and the appearance of the creature in #5) points to the Tyrannosaurus rex as the source of these playful inventions.

Hunky mermen for the Christmas tree. From Matt Adams, this assortment of hunky-mermen Xmas tree ornaments:

(#6)

The source of these entertaining objects is the December Diamonds (“It’s All About the Bling!”) company, from its Mermen section (with 43 ornaments listed). Matt and his husband get these as presents from Justin’s mother (they have great families). Starting at 12:00: Santa’s Helper, Legal Briefs, Rum Runner, White Groom, Candy Cane, Camo, Tonic, Bling, Groom, and Butch. (Not actual diamonds, of course, but glittery bling, at $32.50 each.)

The Krampus sweater. Finally, from Ben Hamilton of Facebook, Ben modeling this splendid Krampus sweater (for those who have been naughty):

(#7)

(Not about language, but about acting.)

Caught twice in re-runs of Law & Order episodes recently, the engaging and versatile actor Bobby Cannavale, seen below looking steamy:

(#1)

From Wikipedia:

Robert “Bobby” Cannavale (… born May 3, 1970 [to a Cuban mother and a father of Italian descent]) is an American actor known for his leading role as Bobby Caffey in the first two seasons of the television series Third Watch. Cannavale also had a recurring role on the NBC comedy series Will & Grace as Officer Vincent “Vince” D’Angelo, Will Truman’s long-term boyfriend, and portrayed Gyp Rosetti during the third season of the HBO drama Boardwalk Empire, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2013.

This is a small sampling of Cannavale’s work in film, on television, and on the stage; he’s been tremendously hard-working, and in an extraordinary range of parts, from comic roles through romantic ones to very dark ones. He’s gotten a fair number of awards and nominations, including for the play The Motherfucker in the Hat, which has figured on this blog because of the problem its title presents for reports in the media. (Cannavale played the title character.)

Cannavale is a very physical actor, employing his face and body for both large effects and subtle ones. Always a pleasure to watch.

He’s comfortable playing gay roles (including the one in Will and Grace), so that it was natural for  Out magazine to get him to pose shirtless for the enjoyment of its gay male readers. Some serious shots, like this one:

(#2)

and several goofy shots as well. You will see that he’s a lean man, not a muscleguy.