The Sunday Newds

• Natural Nudist: Chicago Cubs' Ryan Theriot has a 4 year-old that prefers to be naked.

  Well, he’s into this thing now where, if he gets hot or if he gets wet, he takes all his clothes off. Everything. And he won’t put anything back on. The other day we were playing outside and his shirt got wet. I think he was just sweatin’. So he starts stripping. Next thing I know, he’s running around the backyard [totally] naked.

• Seattle Solstice Parade: The annual event once again featured nude bikers.

  "There were about four or five guys and a few girls standing around in our group. One guy said, 'OK,' and we all 'dropped trou,'" Gonzales said. "It was pretty scary at first, but you make friends really quickly when you're out there naked."

• Open House at Sky Farm: The New Jersey resort is holding the promotional event on Saturday, June 23.

  All it takes is that first step, naturally. "You'll find that even those who come here somewhat timid ... by the end of the day, they're enjoying it," Biondo said. "They're realizing there's no one who's any better, worse or any different than me and they just fit in."

• Topfree Payoff: A 27 year-old New York City artist has received a $29,000 settlement for being unlawfully arrested while taking a topfree stroll down the street.
• Beauty and the Beach: Society imposes impossible standards on how we look when we are fully clothed, and now the pressure is being ratcheted up for how we look when stripped down.

  I defy most women over 14 to so much as contemplate leaping half-naked on to the sand after 10 months under layers of clothes without lining up a series of appointments with the waxer, tanner and trainer. It takes weeks, sometimes months, to prepare for a successful, or at least not humiliating, beach appearance.

• Bare Trees: Photographer Jack Gescheidt is organizing another nude photo shoot in an effort to save 224 mature trees in Oakland.

  "This stuff really seems to strike something in a lot of people," said Gescheidt. "Environmentalists, artists, tree lovers, tree huggers and naturalists — they are an obvious group. "(The shoots) tend to attract people who are comfortable with their bodies," he said.

• Naturist Principle: A Canadian elementary school principal will be reinstated after a suspension following the accidental exposure of a nude photo taken of him at a naturist beach.
• The OH in OHIO: The restrictive stripper law recently enacted could be put on the ballot in November if enough signatures are collected. Attempts to legislate morality always lead to a slippery slope, apparently gay male dancers who show too much cheek are now subject to arrest.

  “If it’s done on any kind of a regular basis,” said J. Michael Murray, a Cleveland lawyer representing strip-club owners, “they are covered by this bill and would have to abide by all the restrictions, including the requirement that they close at midnight and the requirement that they may go to jail if there’s any innocent contact.”
  
  Few would consider a gay bar to be in the same category as a strip club, but depending on the amount of buttock hanging from the dancers’ skivvies, the bars could be in the same boat.
  
  Murray said the law is vague on the definition of semi-nude, and he “wouldn’t even hazard a guess” as to the legal gluteal threshold.

• Naked in Portland: A writer explores the world of public nakedness in the Oregon city.

  It doesn't take courage for me to take my clothes off in public anymore; I've done it so many times that I'm more comfortable naked than I am in a swimsuit. And here in Portland I'm in good company. Public nakedness is so common here that some people stripped down and ran across the Morrison Bridge on the last day of March before they realized that the advertised "Naked Fools Parade" was just an early April Fool's joke at their expense. Each fall, Lewis & Clark College administrators must debunk the persistent notion that the Southwest Portland campus is "clothing-optional," interrupting a handful of naked dance parties and in-the-buff dips in the school's outdoor pool. And between last weekend's World Naked Bike Ride and a 5K nude walk/run through Forest Park, all Portland would've needed to host a Nude Triathlon was a leg of skinny-dipping at Rooster Rock.

• Unplugged Redux: The controversial Pittsburgh video installation depicting a nude woman bathing with milk and honey in a forest has been permanently unplugged by Festival Director Elizabeth Reiss.

  She said she can't comment upon the content of the work because she hadn't seen it before it was unplugged by PPG but said she was told that it included full frontal female nudity.
  
  Citing the festival's commitment to its audiences, Reiss said, "Nudity doesn't belong in street-front windows. For several years now, Three Rivers has worked hard to put important good work in galleries and responsible pieces on streets." While Reiss said that she doesn't censor performance or gallery content, works on the street are "reflective of a more family-friendly value."

• Judy in Disgust: Seattle City Council candidate Judy Fenton is sure of only one issue: public nude art must be appropriate for children.

  Specifically, Fenton is concerned about the fountain at the base of the Olympic Sculpture Park that depicts a man and a boy standing naked facing each other. "We spend a lot of heartfelt time and effort teaching our children boundaries and guidelines, telling them if somebody touches us in ways that aren't appropriate what they should do," Fenton explains. "If somebody sees that statue, it will undo that and confuse them."

• Fanny Pack: An outdoors writer in Maine is offered a story on nude camping and is unsure of how to handle the situation.

  I’m a little concerned about the interview. Is it face to face? Would I be able to maintain eye contact? Would it be a clothing-optional interview; and, if so, which option should I choose? If I took photos for the article, would I be able to run them in the paper or online? This is a family publication.

• Family Friendly: A petition containing 10,000 signatures has been presented calling for the banning of topless sunbathing and skimpy bathing suits on Costa Blanca beaches.

Best of the Breast:

• Massachusetts is one of only four states without a law protecting breastfeeding mothers.
• Can the Nation survive public breastfeeding?
• Equality Bill in the UK gives mothers the right to breastfeed in public.
• Woman booted for breastfeeding sues Houston's restaurant.
• Denver woman harassed for breastfeeding at a water park.
• Breast implant website condemned.
• NBC is planning a series based upon a Colombian show called "Without Breasts There is No Paradise" about a woman who wants bigger breasts in order to escape poverty. "Ugly Betty" is a successful show based upon another Colombian original.

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked