That is why ogged linked to pictures of Wacholder's ass: to show the breadth of solidarity for freedom.

It's all about the bathing suits.

I thought it meant he was Jewish.

Who wears a crocheted bathing suit?

Fernando Gabeira, a writer and a prominent member of th Brazilian Congress representing the Green Party.

Wouldn't that chafe?

I read the article this morning, and it advanced the absolutely stunning claim that birds of a feather will flock together even on a public beach.

6: I'm sure if it were made with an appropriate soft yarn it would be fine. I don't know yarn from yoga but I'd imagine the yarn used to make socks would do nicely.

So a guy in long board shorts has the Party in his pants?

I thought Greens wore macrame bikinis. I guess I was stereotyping again.

Greens wear pesticide-free hemp bikinis, I think.

I thought fig leaves were traditional.

Stalin, of course, sunbathed nude, to show his disdain for luxuries like bathing-suits, and to intimidate his enemies. Gabeira's brief trunks are a concession to bourgeois narrow-mindedness, and a sign of the weakness of the modern left.

She look comfortable.

12: But so last season.

I've seen crochetted swimsuits, but only bikinis like the one DE links.

I just read an article on Brazilian swimwear; it appears that manufacturers there developed some special technique for crocheting swimsuits to make them "water safe" [i.e., won't stretch and fall off]. Leave it to the folks with "5,000 miles of coastline" to really, really work on bikini technology.

That's no fun.

14: Maybe I need to experience more high-tech yarn, but I'm still thinking that would yield either unpleasant itching or pleasant tingling, both of which would hasten the taking off of said item. Which is probably the point, in her case, and maybe in our Trotskyite's, but not quite the technological advance my local beaches need.

I think for a swimsuit, you'd want to crochet out of cotton thread rather than yarn, which shouldn't be either itchy or tingly.

The bikini in 14 is awesome, and I want one.

I'd settle if I could have legs like that. I think that means I'd need to buy my own airbrush.

It is a pretty bikini. But bikinis suck.

Although the soberer two-piece is a great swimsuit -- sports-bra type top and a reasonable bottom? Stays in place much better than a tank.

You say that like it's a good thing.

I'd think not cotton, which would stretch when wet. Microfiber?

Bikinis you could also use to polish mirrors.

Someone here has to knit (or crochet), right?

You'd want a stretchish yarn, like cotton; the trick would be that at the edges, where you don't want it to stretch too much (lest you lose the shape of the garment and therefore the containment of its contents), you'd want the stitch to be stretchy *enough* not to chafe when wet. Or maybe you'd use another yarn, like a nice cotton/spandex blend, or something.

Cala, bikinis don't suck! It's just that no one makes them properly.

I don't think cotton's a good choice. It's not stretchy as in springy and elastic, it's stretchy as in sags when wet. For any actual swimming I think you pretty definitely want a synthetic or synthetic/superwash wool blend. Sock yarn would be a fine choice. Ribbing around the edges, sure. You can also include a thin strand of elastic along with your yarn or string as you go, where desired, just holding them together and treating them as a single strand. Knit would be better than crochet, but that's not what's on offer in this scenario, so hey.

Also that citation really requires a picture. Ogged, go dig up a pic of Gabiera in his man hammock, there's a good fellow. Otherwise I shall be forced to conclude that you're sexist after all.

See, I knew someone here had to know more about the fabric arts than I of the unfinished outgrown toddler sweater.

Knit would be better than crochet

This bit may just reflect my relative ignorance of the possible wonders of crochet, so I rescind it.

I crochet some. The problem with crochet is that it makes lacy fabric, with holes in it, which is questionable for a swimsuit. But it's better for making complex 3d shapes than knitting, so six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Tits aren't terribly complex 3-D shapes, of course. Still, I'm sure it's handy to be able to capture the gentle undulations of the bikini line. I was thinking of the lacy fabric issue but then realized that I had no idea whether it was actually unsurmountable.

Cala, bikinis don't suck! It's just that no one makes them properly.

To my mind, that makes them suck. It's like bra shopping, but more depressing.

Crochetted bikinis are usually lined.

Tits aren't terribly complex 3-D shapes, of course.

Topologically equivalent to a sphere!

Crochetted bikinis are usually lined.

Ah! Duh. Crotchet away, swimwear manufacturers of the world!

Ah! Duh.

Ditto.

33: Well, a lot of folks are getting the big clue about at least selling the pieces separately.

One doesn't swim in one's crochetted bikini.

36: Kinda. I just can never find the size I want, and when I do, they seem to think that I want something ugly.

37: This suit was made for struttin'.

So how come men's swimwear has gotten bigger while women's has stayed about the same or gotten smaller?

I didn't buy a bikini back when I was pretty damned fit because I had all kinds of silly ideas about what sort of body one should have to wear a bikini. Now I have a very small and silly bikini and intend to acquire more! (I also have a very sensible adidas swimsuit for actual swimming. But I tend to splash, inhale water, and sink more than swim, I'm sorry to say.)

39.--I don't entirely know, DaveL, but I would like to take this opportunity to opine that board shorts look stupid when wet.

Das Boot wird zum Segeln gebaut, und das ist gerade, was es tut. Eines dieses Tages segelt das Boot ganz über dich.

I am befuddled by 41. Why? Doesn't it depend on how they're cut and if/how/where they cling?

I think board shorts look fine wet, as long as the material isn't too thin. Same with pretty much all bathing suits, though.

Cette bottes sont faîtes pour marcher....

I have a cover of that song in French. It's more fun in French.

There is no way for a man to look cool getting out of the ocean or a pool with the big cargo pockets on his swimsuit full of water.

I'll check with my wife on the knitwear bikini thing, as many of her knitting magazines feature such items, to my astonishment.

42 -- you mean "Eines diesen Tagens" right?

At the time of the bathing suit incident (1979), Gabeira, who had been a member of the armed resistance to the military dictatorship (he participated in the kidnapping of American ambassador Charles Elbrick in 1969) had just returned from exile and published a book. The incident was very influential at the time in that it implied a breakdown with the image of the traditional ultra-serious and super-disciplined marxist revolutionary. It marked the emergence of a more modern left in Brazilian politics The bathing suit was in fact, the bottom part of a woman bikini that he had borrowed from a cousin.

43, 44: It's like wearing wet parachutes about one's loins! People make fun of Mormon holy undergarments for a reason, you know! And, well, the other reason is because they're hysterically prudish.

Board shorts don't necessarily have big pockets, and when they do have pockets, they should also have drains.

Yeah, well, when you put it that way it does make me chuckle.

The bathing suit was in fact, the bottom part of a woman bikini

A womankini, if you will.

Ok, 48 is awesome. Thanks, Carlos!

47: My German's fleeing madly from the shards of my dissertation-shredded brain, but you'd say 'eines Tages' to mean 'some day' or 'one day', so I think ben's playing on that.

And wow, there went my ability to remember endings for second adjectives... look at it escape... but I'm pretty sure you'd want just an -en on "dies" there.

On the "women's bikinis are still tiny" and boardshort issue: actually, I think that in the last ten years the boardshorts + bikini top have become pretty standard beach fare. Also, thankfully, bikinis *have* changed; a lot more styles are cut more like they were in the 50s, higher on the hip and lower on the leg. Also you can now get bra tops that actually provide support, which I don't think you could in the 80s.

The nightmare of high school for me was the odd assumption that though women's bras came in all sorts of sizes, when it came to underwire swimsuits, we were all C cups.

It's still not great, though. If you have recommendations on bikini brands, B, I'd be happy to hear them from someone with a similar build. Pretty much everything ends up being a stretchy disappointment.

56: Absolutely.

Freya makes cup-sized bikini tops, though *I* think that the demi-cup styles tend to run small. Bravado and Fantasie and a couple other brands for the big-cup women also do swimwear. There's also a brand called "Storm in a D-Cup," which is an absolutely atrocious name.

Of course, the thing is you have to buy all this stuff online, and then send it back if it doesn't fit, which is annoying. There's a surf shop near here that carries a big size range, though, and when I get down there and do some shopping I'll try to remember to let you know what all I find that's new.

49: Hysterically prudish is something like what I was getting at initially. OTOH I think board shorts look pretty good if they're cut right, which often isn't true of something that hits at mid-thigh or thereabout for us thick-legged sorts. And I think the wet parachute thing depends on the fabric--I don't think mine really do that.

I'd be fine with actual swimsuits of the sort that the rest of the world wears, but I'm not going to do it all by myself.

I usually get bra-related things through figleaves, so I'm used to shipping stuff back. Is Fantasie good? They make a bandeau swimsuit that I have my eye on, but I don't have any of their bras (though I tried one on once and it was really pretty.)

Storm-in-A-D-Cup is atrocious. Like the boobs come with Valkyrie music or something.

I'd be fine with actual swimsuits of the sort that the rest of the world wears, but I'm not going to do it all by myself.

But then how will change begin? Must I make more fun?

But then how will change begin?

I never claimed to be a trendsetter. I'm not self-conscious about exposed skin, but I am about behaving inappropriately.

I don't know how Fantasie's swimsuits are, but their bras are good. I'd be surprised if their suits weren't good, too. Now I'm going to totally be humming Wagner all night, though, and I blame you.

DaveL, don't be a wuss. The rest of the world does it! Or, alternately, what about tighter-fitting wetsuit type bottoms?

(Though actually I'm fine w/ boardshorts, myself. Assuming that one does most of one's swimming in actual oceans or lakes. Somehow boardshorts in a swimming pool seem like overkill.)

I'm perfectly happy swimming in a proper suit--or naked, for that matter--in venues where that's the accepted attire. But around here, such things are proper attire only for athletic-type swimming, not for just splashing around in the water and sure as hell not for sitting on the beach. I don't do much athletic-type swimming, so I don't even own one any more. Board shorts work fine for what I go to the beach to do (mostly kayaking, with a little splashing around to cool down after).

It is weird that Americans are so much more prudish about beach attire than the rest of the world, even in generally liberal and body-conscious places like HI and CA. But that's the fucked-up world we live in.

Hey, *I* said I'm okay with board shorts.

It is kinda weird, but I think we're a way more image-conscious society, too. Plus, you know, skin cancer.

Yeah, I don't really mean to argue. It's just that I'd prefer a more relaxed dress code on the beach myself. When I think about it, the range of acceptable attire at the grocery store--or the opera!--is broader than at the beach. That's fucked up.

Tits are not topologically equivalent to a sphere. The whole human body is topologically equivalent to a sphere, though, in some cases, the equivalence is more obvious than others.

The whole human body is topologically equivalent to a sphere, though

A torus, surely?

Something even more complicated -- while the GI tract turns what would be a sphere into a torus, nostrils and ears add four more holes. I think we're topologically eqivalent to something like most of a six-pack holder.

The Darwinists say we're descended from monkeys, and the topologists that we're equivalent to six-pack holders? Modernity assails the Dignity of Man from all sides.

It is weird that Americans are so much more prudish about beach attire than the rest of the world, even in generally liberal and body-conscious places like HI and CA.

Word. I grew up in So. Cal, and would have welcomed a European style buffet of titties.

Good discussion of human topology here. We seem to be three-packs, not counting piercings.

Right -- looks like the ear canal doesn't count unless you have a punctured eardrum.

They also try to shoo away the freelance prostitutes, known in some parts of Brazil as "Cinderellas of the sand."

I"m not sure about the nickname (Rohter is probably dredging that up from the 70s), but the easiest way to pick out a prostitute on the beach in Rio is that they're the topless ones in front of the gringo hotels...

The article kind of elides the fact that while the various social classes in Brazil stick to their own parts of the beach, the lower classes get marginalized to the shittier parts of the beach.

Also, he avoids (or, more likely, it got edited out) the fact that Post 10 is the pothead post. You can hear whisling all down the beach to drop the joint when the police walk through.