Romance for Real Women

Lately I’ve been fascinated by men with very dark hair and bright blue eyes. It’s a combination you see on French men a lot but rarely elsewhere.  Don’t get me wrong, a fabulous body trumps blue eyes almost every time. Still, tall, dark, gorgeous AND bright blue eyes…sigh.  Today’s hot guy looks French to me but, brace yourself, he’s British. Yep, that land not famed for tall, dark and handsome. Maybe a Frenchman dipped into this gene pool somewhere. Not that it matters in the least.

And, yes, he’s David Gandy, the guy in the posters at the department store men’s fragrance counter. Truly awesome life size.

Hmmmmmm. Wouldn’t mind getting set adrift with him.

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August in Texas…Hell with Humidity. This should be a great time of year for hot bod watching.  Alas, it just ain’t so. Nevertheless, in the interest of perpetuating the myth that Texas is one big ranch full of hunky cowboys–shirtless in August–here are this week’s hot guys.

And cowboys in the city….

With shoulders and abs like those, who needs to see a face?

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A few weeks back I intended to post Beiron Andersson and got distracted by Becks’ ad campaign for Armani…me and about every other woman in the world with a pulse and internet access. So today is Beiron day.

Back in the mid 1990’s Beiron Andersson arrived in the US from Sweden and got a gig doing Guess adverts. His photos became instant classics, so much so that when I first discovered him a couple of years ago I assumed he was still in his 20’s. I’ll admit felt a tiny bit guilty lusting after such a young guy, but he was sooooooo delicious I sucked up my shame and continued to appreciate. Then I discovered he is now 40ish and still totally lust-worthy. So today our hot guy is one of the all time hottest in his youthful glory.

And I also want to point out Armani used him in one of its bathing suit adverts. Gotta love Armani, at least its male models.

One Friday soon I’ll post some current pics. Hint: He’s still got it and may be even better.

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Well, ladies, hurricanes trump romance, even for real women. In fact, the most romantic gesture I expect from my partner is his willingness to help move the patio furniture, tape the windows and fill buckets of water.

Today, that’s what we’re doing. Shopping for tinned foods; filling our tanks; and, buying batteries. Then there is always the emergency run to the liquor store where my partner reports there are no lines. Those pails have to be filled, too.

Edouard is out in the Gulf of Mexico and moving toward us at eight miles an hour with wind speeds up to fifty miles an hour. Our gleeful local reporters are warning it could easily turn into a hurricane given the warm waters of the gulf. (Tropical storms turn into hurricanes at seventy four miles an hour.) Less gleeful local officials are activating emergency preparedness systems.

I’m activating my own emergency preparedness system. The children are with Miss Moonbeam, who has called repeatedly this morning with instructions, commentary and warnings. I’m filling the tubs, inventorying tinned food, and laying in additional supplies.

I’ve contacted my friends, warriors with whom I sat out the Rita threat a few years ago. (Rita, a Cat 3 hurricane, was coming directly at us, but veered off to the northwest at the last minute. We stayed up as long as we could, finally going to sleep in the early morning. We woke to an eerie quiet, but no hurricane. We naturally congratulated ourselves on our perspicacity in not evacuating to join the rest of the state on stopped highways. In reality, we’d all left our preparations too late to evacuate.)

My friends aren’t as concerned about Edouard. It’s “only” a tropical storm. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I’m off to inspect the pails.

As you know, I consider myself something of an expert in sexy lingerie. (If you’re remotely interested, the cause of my obsession with sexy lingerie is described in Lingerie: My Backstory. Quite naturally, I blame it on my Mother, Miss Moonbeam.)

So, how, I ask myself, did I miss this story about Shirley of Hollywood? I consider Shirley one of the finest suppliers of exotic lingerie and have bought Shirley of Hollywood lingerie for years.

It must have been the heat. The perspiration in my eyes. My temperature induced fugue state. Real women don’t do well in the heat. (Oh, perhaps some of you do. I don’t.)

Because I missed it…Shirley’s Celebration of 60 Years of Sexy.

The private company is owned by the Schlobohm family and apparently really started expanding back in the sixties when it became a major supplier of Frederick’s of Hollywood. In the seventies, the company led the way in developing the “split crotch panty,” certainly an innovation as important as the microwave in the opinion of this real woman. The eighties saw the rise of Madonna and her “lingerie as outerwear” style, for which if nothing else, we can thank Madonna. The company went with the times in the nineties with outrageous and dramatic corsetry. And, Shirley’s is still growing. As CEO Roy Schlobohm says “there’s nothing compared to a woman in lingerie.” Amen to that, Roy.

To celebrate its anniversary, the company has rolled out a commemorative collection of lingerie showcasing a retrospective of sultry looks from 1948 to the present. And, it’s gorgeous. Check it out at www.shirleyofhollywood.com. Of course, these are all special orders and a little rich for me. But I can look.

More affordable are the wonderful new products featured by my favorite on-line lingerie store, www.inhisdreams.com

The company is posting lots of new goodies and this morning, I noticed it’s having a sale on its lace low-rise boy leg panties which I love.

But, I digress. Shirley is also sponsoring a contest for its next “Sexy Stars of Shirley,” models who will grace the pages of Shirley’s catalogues and calendars. www.inhisdreams.com posts the rules and for a moment, just for a moment, I was tempted.

But I’m way too warm for the hot lights of Hollywood, not to mention way too old. Nevertheless, I will be following the results. So, if you’re interested, ladies, take a look. Go to inhisdreams and click on the Shirley icon.

It could be fun.

A few months ago a British tabloid ran a story about male body hair and a survey asking who likes it and who doesn’t. I have a huge stash of hot guy pics and it struck me that very few of them had body hair. I did my own informal survey and was surprised to find a significant generational gap among women in their attitudes toward male body hair and an even bigger gap in men. Older women (50+) pretty much see body hair as a given in their partners since most men 50+ have never even considered man-scaping. On the other hand, young women (20’s to mid 30’s) often said they insisted on at least basic man-scaping.

Personally, I understand why a regular guy wouldn’t want to wax his entire body regularly (although they sure like it that we get our painful bikini waxes), but let’s face it—if I wanted a bed full of hair, I’d let my black lab sleep with me. Furry shoulders and backs just aren’t sexy. A bit of chest hair…okay. (BTW, whisker stubble is VERY sexy. Go figure.) As for private areas, all I can say is at least trim, guys. It’s called grooming. The same he-man who would be disgusted if a pretty woman failed to shave or wax legs, armpits and bikini often expects us to be turned on by the thick pelt covering his entire body. Yuck!

But to be fair, not all body hair is equal. Here are two hot guys—one with and one without. So what’s the verdict?

 In a YSL fragrance ad a few years back, Tom Ford had a gorgeous young French athlete pose naked complete with natural body hair. BTW, ads only appeared in French mags and I’ve cropped the pic to make it PG.

And here’s Cristiano with absolutely no visible body hair whatsoever.

Hmmmm. I may need to do more research. Perhaps the debate will just have to continue.

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