“Naked dinner is sort of like public speaking: it takes a couple minutes to win over the crowd, except you’re the crowd.”

Nude dining in New York

Arianne Cohen’s highly entertaining account of her night at a private, all-nude New York dinner party.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-11/hold-the-dressing/

Rebekah Kendal comes up with some ideas about where to get naked in South Africa. The article itself is a little giggly, and she doesn’t even mention the magnificent Sandy Bay beach at Llandudno, Cape Town, but there are enough useful links ( one of which I couldn’t get to work!) to get you started if you happen to find yourself in that part of the world.

http://lifestyle.iafrica.com/content_feed/telkom/1242744.htm

According to “pubic hair researcher” Kosai Jumon you can tell a woman’s suitability as a spouse from the shape of her bush.
Jumon’s recently released book “Tamashi Yura Ageman (Rising Fortunes of the Soul)” categorizes womens’ pubic hair , which he calls “The Zone” into five types, each of which purportedly determines its owner’s sexual proclivities.
In an interview with reporter Asahi Geinoin in the recently defunct tabloid Mainichi WaiWai, Jumon explains “Women’s pubic hair is normally shaped like an inverted triangle, but some is oblong or elliptic-shaped.”
Apparently, a husband needs to keep a close eye on his wife if she has “elongated “pubic hair.
“It’s not rare for women with elongated pubic hair to be the types who fall in love at first site and soon become passionate. They’re not the types who’re happy shut up in the home. They may cause those around them to worry about them a little. But that devilish side to them is what makes them so attractive to men.”
But it’s not just the frisky types with elongated pubic hairstyles that need watching. Those with a “mountain delta” shaped bush, where the pattern of the mop “resembles the mouth of a river”, are said to be capable of “hyper-infidelity.”
Something for a husband to watch out for then–if he knew what “elongated” pubes or pubes resembling the mouth of a river looked like. Neither sound very complimentary to me and I think that if someone told me my nether regions resembled the mouth of a river I’d poke ‘em in the eye.
Naturally enough, Jumon’s highest praise is for the Japanese bush.
Jumon claims the average Japanese woman’s pubic hair is a standard-type, which is an inverted triangle where the base extends for 9 centimeters and it runs the same length from top to bottom, with the mean length of hairs being 7.5 centimeters.
“It shows endurance and indicates suitability for married life. They have everything they need for enduring such home-like activities as childbirth, child-raising and caring for their husband or parents. I don’t think it’s saying too much to say that it is these standard-type women who helped raise Japan to glory.”
“A perfect wife has a clearly defined endurance sub-zone and slight traits of a receptivity sub-zone. Put simply, this means she doesn’t care a great deal about things like ethics or morals. A woman with pubic hair like this would be able to bear a lot, but also have a sexual side that allowed for unbridled wantonness. In short, hair like this would indicate a good wife during the day who turns into a whore at night.”
Hmmm…how charming.
Quite how Jumon managed to get funded for such spurious research is beyond me, but let’s hope nobody buys his book. And in the meantime ladies, if you see a Japanese man on a nudist beach making notes about your crotch, explain to him that every woman resents being patronised - whatever the shape of her thatch.

Cap d

NFN Travel has organized a Mediterranean tour that begins in Nice, France and ends in Cap d’Agde, the Naked City with visits in between to Monte Carlo, Monaco. The tour will be hosted by the congenial Paul and Claudine who have many years experience hosting Mediterranean tours.

The dates are July 14 - 25, 2009  For Bookings or more information go to NFN Travel, click on the “home” tab and select the Cap d’Agde link

LAGOS AND Portimão câmaras have rejected applications from the Algarve Naturist Club (ANC) to create naturist areas in the Meia Praia and João d’Arens beaches.

Álvaro Campos, president of ANC, is protesting against the decisions. However, Lagos Câmara has agreed to the possible legalisation of Pinheiros beach for naturists. more…

So German nudists are upset by Polish peepers, who are outraged about German nudists!

And all because a fence separating the German and Polish sides of a Baltic beach has been removed to allow freedom of access to both communities.

And I thought nudism broke down barriers and brought people together!

The Naked Lunch. Nude dining in New York

According to a new article in Metro magazine, Nude Dining is the hottest New York Craze

If the thought of undressing for dinner turns you on; why not? Personally, given the choice between dining on lobster thermidor in a swish restaurant with my kit off, or grazing at McDonalds fully clothed, I’ll take the Big Mac and fries every time - and I don’t like hamburgers!

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve nothing against eating whilst naked. As a life-long nudist I’ve lunched in the buff at resorts and beaches from Palm Springs to Perth and thought nothing of it. But, on those occasions I was already naked, at a nudist venue, and it was altogether natural and appropriate, given the setting.

It is, of course a purely personal point of view, but dining out in an uptown restaurant is more than going for a meal - for me it’s an event. It means dressing to the nines, with my make up just so and an expensive slinky dress that makes me feel like a million dollars. It’s about elegance, and luxury. It’s about ambience

To arrive and dump my clothes into a plastic bag just wouldn’t do it for me.

Ah well, each to his own. At least the waiting staff remain clothed. It’s something to do with hygiene regulations, which is just as well because restaurant tables are about the same height as a man’s groin and I’ve attended enough nude barbeques to guess that the sight of a naked waiter’s - how shall I say this ­- equipment, dangling centimetres above the dish of the day would put you right off your food.

Anyway, I wish ‘em well. They obviously gain a lot of pleasure from their pastime - as well as a slap-up feed - and the restaurant gains revenue and some free publicity, so I suppose everyone wins. I personally still fail to see the point, but I’m prepared to be educated. If you think you can enlighten me I’d be more than happy to hear from you, and, just in case, I like my steak medium rare.

Kate Rew reveals her top 10 places to take off all your clothes and go skinny dipping in the UK – and invites suggestions for more.
10 top places to skinny dip

According to The Tampa Tribune, nudist residents at the upscale Caliente Nudist Resort are up in arms over a new marketing strategy to attract “swingers” to the resort.

Until its recent suspension by the American Association for Nude Recreation, Caliente had an excellent reputation as a family-friendly nudist resort, and residents are concerned that the progress made trying to convince others that nudism has nothing to do with sex will be now be fatally undermined by the new direction.

We’ve long campaigned for a distinction between sex and nudism and can indentify with their point of view.

On the other hand, we’ve also campaigned long and hard for the provision of top-class facilities for nudists, and to their credit, the Caliente management have been prepared to make the enormous financial commitment to provide and maintain just such a high-standard resource. However, simple economics require that such a commitment is matched by a generous level of spending by the guests and residents, and if this isn’t forthcoming the management are faced with the choice of looking elsewhere for revenue, ( and the “swinger” element tends to be younger and more free with their cash), or closing the resort down.

There are many who believe that the nudist way of life is incompatible with a self-indulgent lifestyle, and they may have a point. But the resort companies are not charities. They will only provide great facilities if we nudists are prepared to pay for them. So we must use them or lose them. The choice is ours.

The World’s Best Nude Beaches and Resorts

By Mike Charles, Judy Ditzler, and Nicky Hoffman-lee

The Naturist Society’s long-awaited sequel to the New York Times bestseller ‘The World Guide to Nude Beaches and Resorts’ is a satisfyingly substantial book which takes you on a whirlwind tour of the world’s best nudist spots.

Reviewing 1000 “beautiful places to get naked” in more than 50 countries ( I’ll take their word for it. I didn’t count), it feels more like a TV documentary than a book and certainly covers an immense amount of ground. Such an ambitious project could easily have been a disaster, but it has to be said that on the whole the production team have pulled it off pretty well.

Given the scope of the book and the limitations of the medium it is inevitable that some of the entries are almost brutally concise, but even so all the salient points are clearly set out, including a brief description and “Practical info”, which gives directions, additional information and contact details where appropriate. The authors have even allowed for the probability that some of the information will become out of date over time, promising to publish updates on their website as and when they become necessary.

This is a very handsome book, beautifully designed and with nearly every one of over 300 glossy pages enlivened by superb photos from the likes of Charlie Simonds and others. Ironically, it’s these very photos that provoke my only criticism of this otherwise splendid book.

We in the naturist movement are constantly banging on to anyone who is listening that you don’t need a flawless body to become a nudist, and that naturism can be enjoyed by everyone, whatever shape or size. And yet nearly all the photos in this book feature beautiful young people who look like they’ve just walked off a Playboy photo-shoot. Aren’t we in danger of, at best being hypocritical, and at worst, alienating potential newcomers who may have body-image doubts? Surely a liberal sprinkling of wrinklies and wobblies amongst the firm young bodies would be more truthful and accurate, and might encourage more first-timers? But then I suppose beautiful people sell more books.

Ah well. Perhaps I’m being a little curmudgeonly. It must be my age. Because that one caveat aside, this really is a very fine book indeed, and should be on every nudist’s bookshelf. The authors and production team deserve our thanks.

The World’s Best Nude Beaches and Resorts by Mike Charles, Judy Ditzler, and Nicky Hoffman-lee
ISBN-13: 978-0934106221 Available from Amazon