Bikini Baristas: The Gray Line of Black Coffee

I am shocked, shocked that acts of titillation are going on at the bikini barista stands in Everett, Washington.

Lingerie espresso stands. Bikini baristas. Sexpresso.

Having pushed the gray line of acceptable public behavior a bit too far, five female baristas have been charged with prostitution by the Everett police. Accusations of nudity and acts which are at least titillating if not downright sexual come after a three month investigation. The Everett Herald article does not mention how many detectives volunteered to work this investigation.

I don't know how it is in your area, but around here the bikini barista stands are ubiquitous. Sex sells, especially the marginal sex, the sex that is just barely acceptable. It's why you're reading this article. Right now the 2nd and 3rd most popular articles on my blog are the Swedish Military Bra Crisis, and Attack of the Artfully Displayed 50 foot Women.

The issues started coming to a head last year in Bonney Lake, not far from Everett, where a protest was organized objecting to an espresso stand that changed over to a bikini format (news article with embedded video of cute baristas). According to the owner, the bikini format seemed to be more profitable.

Although there are some of you who are strongly against this, most of you aren't. It's too close to the social norm. After all, as the girls say, for the most part the bikinis are nothing you wouldn't see at the beach or at the Wild Waves water park (the picture on the left is from the Wild Waves site, by the way).

While the lewd behavior may be punishable under the same laws that apply to lewd homeless men in overcoats, I think it's going to be hard to make the prostitution charges stick. It's just too close to the gray line.

Maybe most enlightening is not the Herald article itself, but the comments it generated:

This article talks about the women being paid to flash or strip. Is that prostitution? If it is, if there was a charity event where men auctioned themselves to the highest bidder and the money goes to charity, and then men went on a date with the women who won the bid and they kissed, would that be illegal?

They didn't even sell sexual intercourse, just sexual behavior! Now they're being punished, being called prostitutes? This is why even though I don't support prostitution, I think it should be decriminalized.

I left the biz while it was still considered a fun, easy way to make a LOT of money, NOT something you need an "entertainers permit" (aka: stripper permit) to work at a mocha stand...but the whip cream licking, butt & boob grabbing for money IS basically prostitution.

I understand that they are enforcing the law, so for that reason I won't join in the feeding frenzy. I would like to see the bigger issue be addressed eventually the see the goverment step out of some of the "moral" issues and let people make some of thier own decisions.

Frankly, there are a lot more comments in support of the girls than against them. If you have a different opinion you should post and make your opinion heard. This is the internet age. Take advantage of your ability to voice your thoughts.

Me, I have no opinion. I'm just driving people to my blog with pictures of scantily clad women. Everyone else does it.

Sources:
Everett Herald
All Voices (photo)
King 5
Mahalo
Wild Waves

Here's Looking at You, Kid

Looking at her butt will never be the same now that it can look back.

William Jones, an Everett, Washington artist has created pants that not only stare back, but actually wink. The hand-painted creations "wink" by having the eyes positioned in the crease between the thigh and the butt-cheek. (See the viral video here.)

He has several different styles which you can see on his website. Each style is a different price. The pair of a tiger peering out of the jungle (pictured) will set you back $579.

Sources:

Everett Herald (via Obscure Store)

Winkers

Sentimental Journey B-17

by Lance Albertson for Sanity Preferred

I enjoy artifacts. I like going through Europe and touring the castles in the Loire valley, seeing meridian line at the Royal Observatory, or walking through the ruins of Pompeii. But there are artifacts outside of Europe, and yesterday I got see a bunch at the Flying Heritage Museum, at Paine Field in Everett, WA.

The main purpose of the trip was to see one of the last airworthy B-17s, the Sentimental Journey, a Flying Fortress maintained by the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. I did not get to fly in the plane, but did tour it on the ground. I was first introduced to black and white WWII footage by the World at War documentary series in the 70s and have been interested in what may have been the last romantic (and not coincidentally, first fully filmed) war. I still recall the images of the huge bombers filling the sky and aerial views of the bombs dropping down and creating their tiny mushroom clouds as they hit the ground.

The plane was out flying when we pulled into the parking lot, but landed about 10 minutes later and taxied to the viewing area. The first thing I noticed as it rolled past a 747 sitting on the tarmac was that the plane was not huge. It was remarkably not-huge, a fact driven home when I climbed on board. I am not a big guy, about 5' 9", extraordinarily average, but even for me, climbing up through the nose turret and up to the cockpit was a chore. The actor Jimmy Stewart piloted B-17s during WWII, and I just can't imagine dragging his 6' 3" frame through such a cramped space.

This version of the plane - I believe it was a B-17E - had six machine guns (top, belly, nose, tail, and one on each side). They were displayed with belts of 50 caliber rounds, thicker than my finger and much longer.

The bomb bay was a revelation. It is just an open space in the middle of the plane full of bombs - no surprise - but the catwalk that connects the front of the plane to the rear can't be more than six or eight inches across, about the span of my hand, not even wide enough to stand with your feet next to each other. I am afraid of heights, and I have this horrible image in my mind of a bomb that doesn't release, and some poor sap (probably me), having to go out on the catwalk, flak exploding all around, rounds from enemy fighters ripping through the airframe as I stand with a six inch plate of steel between me and a mile of empty space while I try to pry the bomb free. Zeesh. It's amazing I slept at all last night.

Very cool stuff.

Then we went into the Flying Heritage Museum itself. It's just a hangar and doesn't look like much from the outside, but inside is a great collection of mostly WWII aircraft. I'm not a particular aircraft buff, but it was neat to see these planes most of which are still in flying condition (there are demonstration flights every other weekend during the summer). If you like WWII era aircraft, this is a nice stop. We went during the week and, in spite of the B-17, the museum was quite empty, which meant we got Woody as our own private docent. He talked at length about the history of the models, how they were used in the war, and sometimes about the specific pilot who flew the plane. It was pretty cool and made the trip much more interesting than just watching the taped interviews and historical footage would have been.

There were a couple of surprises. First was the one of the planes flown by the "Night Witches" of the Soviet 588th Night Bomber Regiment. I didn't even know the story - women called into service as pilots who flew low altitude missions in obsolete biplanes in WWII at night with no lights dropping bombs (sometimes by hand) onto enemy positions. It serves as a reminder that there were heroic efforts by many on all sides during the war.

The second surprise - and this is just great for artifact lovers like me - was getting to see the X-Prize, the actual trophy awarded to Scaled Composites for the first commercial space flight in 2004. There was also a model of SpaceShipOne hanging from the rafters.

Again, very cool.

The last artifact I'll mention was also the first one I saw. I grew up as a big fan of the Guinness Book of World Records. The Guinness book is now associated with lots of bizarre records, but back in the day it was more down to earth. One of those record holders I believe dates back to my childhood. As we pulled off the freeway onto the surface streets going to the airport off to our right was a building, the Boeing Everett plant, where 747s are made. The building next to us was not just a building, it was, at 472 million cubic feet, the largest building in the world. I had never seen it before, and for an artifact hound like me, it was a nice start to what turned out to be a really fun afternoon.