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The 39 Dumbest Things You See on TV
I've watched a lot of tv, mostly sci-fi and sitcoms. The set was on all the time when I was a kid. In adulthood, it's like comfort food, warm, predictable, mildly amusing. But is it really necessary...
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High School Boxing Today: The Crosstown Smoker of Kalispell, Montana
Boxing used to be a really big deal. In the early days of the 20th century, immigrant boys growing up on the mean streets of the Bowery or South Philly dreamed of gaining fame and fortune with their...
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The Gay Rat Pack
Between 1960 and 1965, when all-American beefcake was giving way to suave, sophisticated, and cool, The Rat Pack ruled Las Vegas. They were five actors and singers, performing regularly at casinos...
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The Mysterious "North Atlanta High Boys' Swim Team" Photo
This photo was entitled "Good luck to the North Atlanta High Boys' Swim Team."I'm all for fluidity in gender, but I could swear that this boys' team consists of six girls, a baby, and a single...
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The Marx Brothers
I first saw the Marx Brothers at a Film Festival during the Summer of 1978 (along with Animal House, Grease, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show: it was a memorable summer). The anarchic comedians came...
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Boxing: Your Grandfather's Beefcake Sport
During the first half of the twentieth century, boxing was very popular, probably more popular than what would become the big name sports of baseball, basketball, and football.It makes sense during the...
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Not the Marrying Kind: Gay Burns and Allen
Television was introduced in 1949, just in time for the formative years of the first Boomers (the generation officially started in 1945). Radio performers scrambled to make the transition. Some made...
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10 Things You Should Know About Scandinavian Beefcake
Ten things you should know about Scandinavian beefcake1. Norwegian, Swedish, and Denmark are so closely related that if you learn one, you can make yourself understood reasonably well in the others.I...
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The Flintstones
During the early 1960s, a lot of cartoons were broadcast during prime time, for audiences of both kids and adults: Yogi Bear, Beany and Cecil, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Top Cat, The Alvin Show. The...
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The Beefcake Bust of Burk's Falls
I was interested in this photo of two boys jumping off a high dive into the Magnetewan River at Burk's Falls.Here's why. A very scary high dive.I figured there must be hundreds of other photos of guys...
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The Glenelg Hate Crime
On July 13, 2018, a grand jury indicted four teens in Glenelg, Maryland on seven counts of vandalism and hate crimes. In May they were identified on the security cam of Glenelg High School writing...
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Bojack Horseman: Anthropomorphic Angst and Queer Characters
In a world where humans and anthropomorphic animals interact, Bojack Horseman (voiced by Will Arnett) is a washed-up celebrity, the star of a 1980s TGIF sitcom, Horsin' Around, which people still...
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Searching for Beefcake in the 10 Worst Suburbs of Minneapolis
Minneapolis is my second-least favorite city in the United States (my first is Houston, for obvious reasons). It's cold, cramped, surprisingly run-down, and everything is frightfully expensive. $23...
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Boxing Beefcake at the World Series
Boxing may not be a popular sport in the United States, but it is in other countries. Every year since 2008, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) has sponsored the World Series of Boxing,...
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Shenendehowa Languages and Beefcake
When I saw this photo captioned "Shenendehowa wrestler ranked nationally," of course I had to find out what sort of town was named Shenendehowa. Related to Shenandoah, perhaps?It's not a town, it's a...
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Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors may be forever remembered as the taciturn, loving, and endlessly shirtless Lucas McCain, Johnny Crawford's dad on The Rifleman, but he had a long career before and after as a screen...
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Looking for Muscle on "The Dick Van Dyke Show"
The Dick Van Dyke Show won 15 Emmies during its five seasons (1961-1966), and is constantly praised today as one of the greatest TV shows of all time (TV Guide ranks it at #13). It came on before my...
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The Miracle of Adolescence at Clover High
The Clover High School Swim Team in Clover, South Carolina arranges its photos by class. I thought it would be interesting to look at them in order, to see how our bodies changes as we move through...
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Bix Beiderbecke: First Gay Jazz Musician
If you grew up in the Quad Cities, you couldn't help but hear about Davenport, Iowa native Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931). We listened to him in music class, and researched him in Mr. Manary's American...
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Frank Finds What We're All Looking For
Since 1996, readers of independent comics have been treated to the adventures of Jim Woodring's Frank, a bipedal "funny animal" who looks like he escaped from a 1930s Max Fleischer cartoon.Frank...
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