Well, technically it is a bikini . . .

. . . But come on grandma, live a little would ya?

Taylor Swift went out paddleboarding recently with the next dude to get break up songs written about him. Swifty got her couture on with a retro swimsuit that was just . . . well . .

Yeah, I know . . . she's doing the whole won't get any celebrity oops pics of me today...hah! thing. But seriously, I'm not digging the test pattern design and if she's so worried about accidental exposure, why not wear a wet suit. Covers everything up and still looks sexy. Cause she has a nice body on her, so I'm hoping she doesn't find that diaper thing attractive. And you know she's expecting to get pap'ed, because she's wearing lipstick.

Personally? I'm a less is more kind of guy when it comes to bikinis:

But I guess that's just me.

Red Sox back in first place

Boston beat Baltimore today 5-0 behind seven innings of shutout baseball by Jon Lester. Also David Ortiz went 4-4 with a two run homer to help out. Combined with the Rays 6-5 loss to the Yankees, the Red Sox are back atop the AL East by 1/2 game.

A make-up game is scheduled for Monday between the Rays and Sox that will have resurgent David Price facing Felix Doubront once again. Already Rays supporters are in full whine about the scheduling, claiming some sort of disadvantage. No one seems to be noticing that Boston has to travel cross country after that game for a series with Seattle starting Tuesday.

Have to tip my hat to the Rays though. They built up a nice head of steam facing a series of last place teams for the last couple of weeks of the first half and they're still on a solid roll. But they're not going to continue winning 18 of 20 for the rest of the season, so I'm still thinking a dogfight for the division crown and wild card.

I said at the beginning of the season that I thought that a half dozen games would separate first to last in the East this year, and with the exception of the surprisingly poor performing Jays, I still think that will be essentially the case.

With any luck, the Sox bats will solve Price and the boys will move back ahead by 1 1/2 games tomorrow.

Ryan Newman wins at Indy

Indiana native Ryan Newman won the Brickyard 400 today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was Newman's first win this year and moves him that much closer to making the Chase in upcoming weeks. Newman's team owner, Tony Stewart, finished fourth to give Stewart-Haas a nice performance for the day.

Also having a good performance day was Hendrick Motorsports as they fielded 6 cars in the top 10 finishers, if you count that Stewart and Newman are running Hendrick equipment. That's effin' dominant! Never like to exalt over someone's misfortune, but I wasn't disappointed when Jimmie Johnson's pit crew botched his final pit stop just as he was driving away towards another laugher of a victory. Apparently that's the only way to stop the Johnson/Knaus juggernaut these days.

Sort of a bittersweet thing for Newman as he's out of a ride for next year. His good friend and employer, Stewart, is dumping him to bring Stewart's other good friend, Kevin Harvick, and his Budweiser sponsor money on board.

It's part of the weirdness of NASCAR that athletes can know halfway through a year that they're out of work next year and still expected to perform at full throttle, so to speak. Props to Newman for doing just that. In fact, he's been the most consistent performer at SHR this year -- quietly working up to or into the top ten race after race.

I had hopes that Stewart would field a four car team next season when I first heard Harvick was coming over. In fact, I seem to remember reading various news accounts saying that was exactly what was going to occur. Guess not. Here's hoping someone gives Ryan a seat next season. I'm looking at you, former employer Roger Penske.

btw -- guess five people got one month's mortgage payment paid today by Quicken Loans promotion. Wonder how overloaded their server will be next week with people signing up? heh

Late night hotness

Yeah . . . I'm thinking the same thing too.

And we're back to a game and a half

The Sox evened up the series last night with a 6-2 win over the Rays. The victory puts the division lead back to 1 1/2 games in the AL East.

Slumping ace Jon Lester looked well rested as he went 6 1/3 innings giving up two runs on solo homers and striking out 8.

Not surprisingly, Rays manager Joe Maddon had to find something to whine about, 'cause the Rays never lose a game -- it's always taken away from them:
"We don't normally [strike out that much]," Maddon said. "It was kind of a generous strike zone, and sometimes when you get that, that's going to cause hitters to come outside of their normal strike zones, because we've done a pretty good job of not expanding."

*sigh*

Also not surprising, was that a Rays pitcher (in this case Hernandez) drilled a Boston player (Pedroia) when the game got close. Somehow, Sox manager Farrell refrained from doing what Maddon usually does in those situations -- claim it was intentional, claim to know the opposing team was embarrassed by what happened, imply that the pitcher was endangering his own players by daring to throw at one of his guys... blah, blah, blah.

Anywho, we've got Doubront on the mound tonight against former Cy Young winner David Price. Price has done well coming off his [airquote]triceps[/airquote] injury, feasting on last place teams. We'll see how he does tonight.

Vanessa Hudgens = suddenly slender

So the story goes that when Vanessa, Ashley and the others showed up in Florida to start filming Spring Breakers, director Harmony Korine was fairly disappointed. The gals had been working out and dieting to get into nice hardbodied shape for the flick, which would feature plenty of skin.

But Korine wanted his stars to be spilling some girl belly over the tops of their rolled down, unbuttoned shorts. So, on with the cheeseburger and milkshake diet to get the girls into the doughy shape Korine had envisioned. And by the time they got to the end of the shooting schedule, the actresses -- even uber slender Selena Gomez, were sporting plenty of soft belly and full behinds for the promo shots:

Especially Vanessa Hudgens who was so delighfully soft and cuddly looking that several snarky celeb bloggers began referring to her as Vanessa Pudgens:

But someone's been hittin' the gym lately, because over the weekend, Vanessa turned up on a yacht in Italy looking fit as can be:

Just goes to show what a young actress can accomplish, body-wise, if she puts her mind and a little effort into it. Plus, I'm loving those body chains . . . very sexy :-)

Expected, but still sucked

The Red Sox lost last night to the Rays 3-0 on Matt Moore's 2 hit shutout. The win puts the Rays only a 1/2 game out of a tie for first place in the AL East.

Lone bright spot for the Sox may be the performance of Brandon Workman, who gave up only two runs in his second outing at the big league level. His first appearance was against the powerful Athletics, whom he shut out for six innings.

In Workman, the Sox may have finally found a sixth pitcher to blend into the rotation to spell the other guys when needed that won't translate to a guaranteed loss such as when the so-called highly touted prospect Webster was called up and shelled repeatedly.

Sort of allowed myself to think the guys might have trouble with the dominating Moore last night, but I held out hope they could get to him. Oh well. Tonight has slumping Jon Lester going against the beatable Roberto "Fausto" Hernandez. This series isn't over by a long shot, and the Sox still have the chance to bury the Rays 3 1/2 games back with the gritty play they've been demonstrating all year.

Here's hoping . . .

So that's where Stacy Haiduk is these days

Never gave much thought to it, but you know how you see someone on television and they seem sort of interesting and you lose track of them and wonder . . . still around?

I remember thinking Stacy Haiduk from the old Superboy tv series was one of those interesting people. Those neat, light blue eyes and big 80s hair. Every once and a while, I'd think hmmm . . .

But she has been busy doing lots of television and movies and such and now:

Yep, she's rockin' her 45 year old naked body on HBO's True Blood. No I didn't watch the show, so I have no idea why she's in a motel room eating fried chicken naked with some creepy looking dude. But hats off to her for having the fearlessness to bare it all on a show full of so many hardbodied younger actors:

Very hot and very fit -- impressive :-)

Rule 5 Sunday -- Anri Sugihara

Yes, I know it's Saturday, but I just couldn't bring myself to rant about the President's stupid statement on the Stand Your Ground Law, or the Sox losing to the Jankees.

This week's Rule 5 posting is Japanese cutie Anri Sugihara. Don't know much about this chick except she's adorably cute and ridiculously top heavy. And she needs to work with a better photographer (hint, hint, and yes I do have experience in that area thankyouverymuch)

*click on the thumbnails for full-sized images*

Rule 5 Sunday suggested by this.

Hat tips:
Jake Finnegan
The Daley Gator
The Classic Liberal
Say Anything Blog
Proof Positive
GOODSTUFFs cyber world
Reaganite Republican

George Zimmerman = not guilty

Well at least me and my neighbors don't have to burn our houses down and firebomb our own cars now.

The loss of life here is sad, and I say that as a father myself. But perhaps the next time some young thug-in-training looks at this old bald guy walking down the street and thinks about throwing me a beating to post on YouTube, he'll think twice about what I have my hand on in my pocket.

Because, you know . . . CWP.

Update:
Mark Steyn b*tch slaps the Florida justice system here.
The Conservative Treehouse covers why Trayvon was buying Skittles and the disturbing drug use implications here.

I'm sure this will be a scintillating read

According to an article in the Tampa Bay (formerly St. Pete) Times, former governor Charlie Crist will be publishing his memoirs in the near future.

The book will supposedly cover Crist's political awakening as he changed party affiliation, first to Independent, thence to Democrat. The implication in the article was that it will be a sort of Charles Johnson-esque the party left me, I didn't leave the party sort of narrative.

The Times goes on to mention how Crist wouldn't say beans about someone even if he had a mouthful. But . . . he will offer his unexpurgated thoughts on various political names in the Republican party. Not uncoincidentally, the book will be written with the help of totally neutral author and commentator Ellis Henican. Anyone who's seen Henican on any of the political chat shows knows he's a combination of life-like talking points robot and full on cool aide drinking Obama supporter.

So in this atmosphere, just who will Crist dish on? Let's see --

Sarah Palin -- the former Alaska governor who took Crist's hoped for spot as McCain's running mate in the 2008 election and has since become a formidable force in the conservative movement.

Marco Rubio -- the up-and-coming conservative star (his recent fumble over immigration notwithstanding) who defeated Crist for a Senate seat in the 2010 election.

Jeb Bush -- the Republican governor who succeeded Crist and did such a good job for eight years that every one in the party sort of forgot about Ole' Orange by the time the 2008 primaries came around and . . . you know . . . Sarah.

With the Times' unabashed leftist political bias, I'm sure the book will get a glowing review. I'm curious to see who they have review the tome, as I expect the book's critique to have all the subtle approval as any of movie reviewer Steve Persall's glowingly enthusiastic two thumbs up way up! for the latest Michael Moore propaganda disguised as documentary film.

groan

I guess "Hot Donna" has simply given up

Back when That 70s Show first burst onto the scene, it was pretty much all Hot Donna 24-7. Big and red-haired, Laura Prepon was something interesting and new on television.

And besides, Jackie, as played by the then underaged Mila Kunis, was just annoying and she wore those god-awful late 70s dress clothes. yuck

But after the show went off the air, things changed dramatically. Mila grew up and got smoking hot and was doing all kinds of movies -- action, comedy, dramatic . . . she was everywhere.

And Hot Donna? Eh, not so much. A somewhat boring Maxim layout:

And a string of TV movies and series and voice overs. So now Laura's in her early 30s and maybe deciding she needs to get back on the public radar. How to do that? Get her Linda Blair on with some girls-in-prison action.

Yep, Laura's in the new straight-to-Netflix series Orange is the new Black. And it looks like it has the de rigueur nude lesbian shower action going on right out of the gate:

Desperate ploy or savvy artistic decision making? Who can say. One thing for sure, she's on every celeb blog this evening, so crazy like a fox perhaps :-)

Update:
It seems Laura flashed her stuff at least once before, in some movie titled Lay the Favorite. Don't know how that blockbuster slipped by me:

Paris Hilton in a bikini = acceptable

Pics of insanely wealthy heiress Paris Hilton enjoying some sun in a tiny bikini popped up online the other day:

Say what you want about this chick, but she's got just the right body for those little string bikinis.

nice

So, I got moderated . . .

If that's the word for it. Actually, my comment on a website was removed because I guess I was a bad boy or something.

I popped by this website to read a short interview with Sarah Palin about culture and rock & roll and stuff. It's a pretty decent interview, Sarah talks about her favorite bands from when she was a teen. And she correctly points out that conservatives have surrendered the culture war to liberals without firing a shot. And that we need to get busy making ourselves heard in all things cultural.

In the comments section of the article, some shreiking harpy posting under the name "lourdes green" was completely going off on Sarah and even her daughter Bristol. Pointing out that conservatives simply lack artistic ability as evidenced by Bristol whom she described as "dull" and lacking the talent and personality of Honey Boo Boo.

This troll made post after post bashing Sarah as crass and vulgar even talked about her dressing like a slut.

?!?!

When another commentor pushed back at this nonsense, the troll went into high gear with lengthy tirades about her being a professional flamenco dancer with homes in Spain (excuse me, a villa) and Miami. Oh, she's an artist and a poet and blah, blah, blah. Oh, and so is her daughter . . . unlike that damned Bristol! It went on and on like this. Eventually in all caps.

And that's when I made a single, innocent comment. I simply noted that if you're gonna troll, you really should tone down your over-the-top bio, because the more you self-aggrandize, the less likely people are going to believe anything you have to say.

Then I paraphrased that old comic where it says something like "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog."

Bingo! Comment erased. lourdes' all-cap comments are gone too, but not some of her more demeaning shots at Sarah. And going by today, I see she's filling up the comment section with one conservative bashing, idiotic comment after another. Oddly, those aren't being removed. ?!?!

So, apparently at acculturated its okay to troll, just not to point out that someone's a troll.

go figure

How 'bout that Jonny Gomes

The Red Sox beat the Padres on a walk-off homer by pinch-hitting Jonny Gomes last night 2-1 keeping the Sox in first place in the AL East.

It was Gomes' second walk-off homer in as many weeks (last came against his former team, the Rays) and his third pinch-hit homer of the year.

Gomes has been the ultimate team player this year -- not chirping bout being a part-time player, always ready to go when he's needed, and coming through in the clutch -- and that's exactly why new GM Ben Cherrington brought him to Boston. I was a bit skeptical after the first couple of Cherri's moves, since it seemed he was only trading with his former boss, now in Chicago.

But the rebuilding of this team has paid dividends as a team picked by every pundit to finish dead last this year, has been leading the division almost all season, and is showing no signs of falling off. And that is completely due to the new character of the players in the clubhouse. Players brought in by Cherrington.

Not sure how the year will play out -- a run in the playoffs would be beyond delicious, but Cherri ought to win some sort of award for what he's done in Boston.

---

And you know who else is exited about the Sox? Why it's the world's hottest english teacher® Olivia Sprauer seen here posing on the beach behind my mansion:

Okay, I made most of that up, but she's still hot . . . right?

So, Lana del Rey looks . . . different

The first time we came across songbird hopeful Lana del Rey she was awkwardly crooning some torch song or something. Guess she's moved on from that now, eh?

Actually, I guess this is just for some music video or something. And I have to give her props for pouring herself into that chola wanna-be outfit when she clearly doesn't have the body for it. I don't actually listen to her music, so I don't know if she's any good or not. Seems to me I remember her being some sort of Pia Zadora for this generation -- some chick having her career bankrolled by a wealthy . . . somebody, for some reason.

And I am getting a kick out of the ink:

Hopefully that's just airbrushed on.

Update:
And just for my little troll in the comments down there, here's the lovely songstress in a bikini showing off that supposedly highly lauded 60s era body:

Update:
And because this post gets an absurd amount of hits, here's Lana trying to be sexy in a sheer top . . . and failing: