One-Piece Wednesday: Renee Simonsen, 1987

Topless Tuesday: Mallory Snyder, 2006

Turning to the past this Tuesday.

Mallory was a sleek and pillow-lipped beauty, a two-year girl who hasn't been on this blog as often as she should have been.

This year's swimsuit issue isn't the complete trainwreck a lot of folks say it is. But it's still a bit of a letdown.

I honestly think part of the problem is the flaccid unveiling of it. There wasn't a sense of excitement leading up to it. I'm not sure if that's some sort of underbudgeting or understaffing problem or what. But it arrived with a whimper, all things told.

I'm also bummed that we lost the three models I considered to be tentpoles. Obviously, Barbara and Hailey and Lais had to stop appearing eventually. But all three of them at once? That sucks.

Not to mention the weirdness of the magazine being an uneasy straddle between the sexiness of a girlie magazine and the self-esteem-and-fashion extravaganza of a women's magazine. I don't think it's hitting either target very well. I don't know much about modeling or photography, but a lot of the photos seem uninspired somehow, even of the models I'm excited about.

Also, July? Come on.

There are some nice photos, but 2020 was less like Christmas for me than any previous year.

So here's more topless Mallory.

Underboob Monday: Kelsey Merritt, 2020

So Blogger has updated the interface so that every step of posting and editing this blog is a bit more difficult.

And if you're looking at this on an iPhone, for example, you might have noticed that the larger vertical photos (like this one, maybe?) that look fine on a desktop are stretched and squooshed on your phone.

If so, I apologize. Blogger let us choose the "classic" interface for a while, but that's not available anymore...

In any case, Kelsey looks pretty!

Craig’s List

Two more additions to Ashley Richardson’s web of influence were hiding in plain sight on my blog.

The photo I shared here, in my exposé on SI’s Kenya obsession, puts Charissa Craig with Carol Alt in 1982.

Carol posed with Kelly Emberg in 1983.

Kelly posed with Kathy Ireland in 1989.

Kathy posed with Rachel Hunter on the cover in 1994.

And of course Rachel ran on the beach with Ashley in 1990.

This gives Charissa an “Ashley Number” of 5. She’s the only model with that number of steps.

I also already posted this 1990 photo of Sabrina Barnett back in 2015, when Swim Daily posted its first (and only) entry in their “It Takes Two” series.

This photo with Rachel gives Sabrina an Ashley Number of 2.

These two girls, along with Frankie Rayder from 2005, bring the number of Ashley-connected models to 43.

Come, Mister Tally Man

Thumb-Hook Thursday: Olivia Brower, 2020

Olivia is as luscious and soft and voluptuous as last year...

But she's lost some of the cuteness. These photos from last year show an inviting adorableness that I miss.

One-Piece Wednesday: Robin Holzken, 2020

Robin has gifted us these beautiful, sleek, stretchy one-piece shots this year.

She also gives us a nice face shot.