Oh yeah, I forgot about the Summer = Memorial Day to Labor Day theory....

ON Memorial Day weekend, I often feel like, "It's a three-day weekend and sorta' the beginning of Summer - I should be outside doing something instead of sitting around in my apartment."

Origin of the Good Humor bar

From the Smithsonian's daily snapshot, a summery history of the Good Humor truck: "His first candy invention was the Jolly Boy Sucker, a lollipop on a stick. While working in his ice cream parlor, Burt created his own recipe for a smooth chocolate coating that would be compatible with ice cream. His daughter Ruth performed the first taste test. Although it tasted good, Ruth thought it was too messy to eat. To solve this problem, Burt took the advice of his son, Harry Jr., who suggested freezing wooden sticks used for the Jolly Boy Sucker into the ice cream as handles. He named his new creation the Good Humor bar, capitalizing on the belief that a person's "humor" or outlook on life was related to the humor of the palate. Burt immediately sent the patent to Washington, D.C. "

Now I want a Jolly Boy Sucker.

From feminist, atheist blogger Greta Christina:

Wealthy, Handsome, Strong, Packing Endless Hard-Ons: The Impossible Ideals Men Are Expected to Meet

The article in question is about the hellish, dangerous, illness-inducing routines that male fitness models regularly go through to forge their bodies into an attractive photograph of the masculine ideal. According to journalist Peta Bee in the Express UK (the article was originally published in the Sunday Times [London], but they put it behind a paywall), in order to make their bodies more photogenic and more in keeping with the masculine "fitness" ideal, top male fitness models routinely put themselves through an extreme regimen in the days and weeks before a photo shoot. Not a regimen of intense exercise and rigorously healthy diet, mind you... but a regimen that involves starvation, dehydration, excessive consumption of alcohol and sugar right before a shoot, and more.

OK, it makes sense the "fitness model" ideal is impossible.

Sexuality educator Dr. Charlie Glickman has written a great deal (and teaches workshops) about male gender expectations, and what he calls "the performance of masculinity." And a two-part series he recently wrote crystallized this idea for me. He was talking about the "box" of masculinity --- the ideas we have in American culture about what a "real man" is and does. You know: strong, competitive, dominant, wealthy, good at fixing machinery, lots of sexual partners enjoys sports, big dick that gets hard on demand. You know the drill.

And he pointed out that many of these ideas aren't just rigid or limiting. They actually conflict with each other. As Glickman put it, "Some of the items in the box are contradictory. You can't be a mechanic and a CEO. I've talked with men who are convinced they're not Real Men because they aren't rich and I've talked with men who are convinced they aren't Real Men because they don’t work with their hands."

I'm wondering how big a problem this is. But obviously I'm just not a real man and don't give a fuck. (OK, I'd like to lose my belly-fat, so I guess I do give a little fuck.)

Summer vacation for public school starts May 19 here. We don't count it as summer weather until it hits 90 degrees, but we do usually get there in May. We're actually nearly halfway through "summer break" right now - it's week 5 at the YMCA summer camp, of 10. And we start back to school August 8, but we are mostly guaranteed 90 degree weather until mid-September.

It does seem deeply wrong to me to have "back to school," with fall clothes in the catalogs, all corduroys and sweaters and plaid, when it's 95 degrees, but we are indeed already back to school.

strong, competitive, dominant, wealthy, good at fixing machinery, lots of sexual partners, enjoys sports, big dick that gets hard on demand.

There's very little there that I'd look for in a man, and more than one item that I'd find a turn-off (specifically: competitive, dominant, lots of sexual partners*).

 *Depending on how "lots" is defined.

Aims feel free to pick my mind.

I have an interview for a job tomorrow. Another parttime, but much closer to home and hopefully not so crazy. Fingers crossed.

Public schools aren't even out yet where I am. It was a particularly rough winter and so they are making up a LOT of missed time. But then they don't go back to school here until early September, so it all works out.

It doesn't feel too much like summer here, though!

Good luck, msbelle!

I get that there is an unreachable "ideal" for men, but what's pernicious (Pernicious!!) is how TV especially is full of men who don't meet that ideal, but are partnered with women who meet theirs, or at least are much closer than the men are.

Agree with Calli. Competant, helpful, listens, at ease.

I find now that I am not in school and working mostly through summers, I notice the beginning of them less. Our weather is usually so crap in May/June (and this year it's been colder and rainier than usual) that I spend a lot of time waiting for summer to happen. I guess it really doesn't feel like summer until the end of June, when kids are out of school and it's more likely to be warm.

It's so cold at work these days I am dressing for indoors. Long pants, warm shirts, cardigan, scarf. It's probably 16C in here. Brrrr.