What About Bob (And Nude Beaches)?

Today’s Inquirer sex column by Faye Flam is about whether humans have always worn clothing. (The other options are nudity, and fig leaves covering the naughty bits like in Adam and Eve drawings in children’s religion textbooks.)

The verdict? Yes, to protect themselves from the cold, and in warmer climates, to protect their reproductive parts so they could continue the bloodline. All in all, an interesting read, but the lead is simply baffling:

A reader named Bob called me a second time last week to urge me to visit a clothing-optional beach in New Jersey - at Sandy Hook. That’s almost in New York, so I took a shortcut and visited on the Web.

Ohh, a reader named Bob invited you to a nude beach for the second time! (And urged you, even.) You know, if a reader named, say, Roberta invited me to a clothing-optional beach, I certainly wouldn’t find a way to turn it into a column and would honestly find it a bit creepy.

After agreeing to go, of course.

Clothing optional may not be way of historical human [Inquirer]