Yeah, I’m phoning it in.  I requested a day off work during the one week at work where my boss is responsible for a quarterly presentation to the board and other seemingly important people.  I got the inevitable text around 20:30 while I was at the gym that I needed to log in and take care of a few things.  Said I’d be back home in an hour.  I didn’t say why—I am not doing that again.  About a year ago I sparred with a Russian guy the first time all the gyms closed.  I don’t recommend sparring with a Russian guy.  The lecture I got when she asked “how was your weekend?” isn’t something I wish to rehash as I happen to prefer being fully employed.

Oh, right—this is my review of Grand Canyon American Pilsner:

As mentioned earlier this week in the comments (H/T Chafed IIRC) Playboy is making history once again by tapping David Hasslehoff’s daughter for their first plus-size model for an issue in the German market.  Yes, I’m sure she has a name but I am going to go with David Hasselhoff’s daughter.  It is in this way, we can allow jokes about her eating hamburgers off the floor or how Germans feel about David Hasselhoff and still remain family friendly.

I don’t think this is really off the wall, and I might even go so far as to argue it was inevitable. Consider:

The idea that Americans are fat is so uncontroversial I am not even going to link it.  Multiple studies then circulated during the early 00s pointing out cultural differences in the view of beauty vs. obesity.

Maryanne Davidson of the Yale University School of Nursing and Kathleen Knafl of Oregon Health and Sciences University reviewed 20 papers published over 10 years on descriptions of the concept of obesity by health professionals, Black Americans, Latino Americans and Caucasian Americans. Davidson and Knafl found women in general base their ideal weight on cultural criteria.

“Black American study participants defined obesity in positive terms, relating it to attractiveness, sexual desirability, body image, strength or goodness, self esteem and social acceptability,” said Davidson. “They didn’t view obesity as cause for concern when it came to their health.”

Affinity for thicker females might even be stem from even more basic desire as this study published in Nature sought to replicate.  They noted previous studies identified a relationship between a “high adiposity” model being considered attractive to the rater being physically hungry.  They concluded:

The reason for the difference was possibly because in previous studies, levels of hunger were confounded by alcohol consumption.

Ouch.

Hasselhoff’s daughter…for um…context

Whatever the reason, call it multiculturalism, body positivity, wokism, things began shifting in recent years.  First it was Sports Illustrated having a plus size model (who wasn’t exactly fat).  They then put Ashley Graham on the cover.  Then Victoria’s Secret, who previously marketed their products with models that easily doubled as extras on Schindler’s List, got in on the game.

Honestly, I am pretty meh on the whole thing.  No, not because I’m a chubby-chaser, because there is nothing forcing me to like this.  After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if corpulence didn’t sell they wouldn’t market it.  Playboy didn’t die with Hugh Heffner, after all.  Like all other print media it died with the internet, where you can find naked pictures of adult women of any age, color, creed, or even prosthetic device.

Is this beer some hipster version of something that would otherwise be labeled as juice?  I don’t know, probably.  It is Czech?  No, its made in a railroad town in Northern Arizona.  But if you let it warm up to around 60 degrees you might be fooled anyways.  It is good for what it is:  Non-threatening yellow beer.  Grand Canyon American Pilsner: 3.0/5