I'm yet to receive my 2014/15 calendar from the Massey University veterinary students. Very disappointing. I received one the year before and it was quite captivating. Each year, the students produce a calendar where they effectively get their kit off and gallivant around various rural locales.
There's always some reasonable eye candy on display. And while I prefer the all-female months, Jamie Mackay has expressed his interest in some of the male poses, which he called, I think, "artistic". Each to their own. He's always been a bit more Pet Shop Boys to my Metallica.
Whatever side you bat for, it's clear that sex is still selling. In fact, it's selling like never before. Latest ACC figures show sex injuries have hit a six-year high. Some physiotherapists put it down to men, in particular, trying to copy the sexual exploits of characters such as that chap in 50 Shades of Grey. It is actually predicting rates of sex injuries will climb further this year.
So is popular culture becoming more explicit? You'd have to say it undoubtedly is. The lines between porn and music videos are becoming, um, blurred. (Sorry, couldn't help it). Sex is selling everything from jeans to cigarettes to soap and just about everything in between.
I saw a great TV ad the other day in which a topless sunbather stood up to throw a ball back to a group of men having a kick around, revealing her naked torso in the process. As she lay back down about a dozen balls quickly landed in her vicinity. Cheap and tacky, sure, but reasonably effective all the same.
Of course it's not always humour that advertisers rely on. There's been a minor kerfuffle about strip club Calendar Girls taking advantage of the 40,000-odd booze and testosterone-fuelled crowd at Eden Park on Saturday to watch the Cricket World Cup match between New Zealand and Australia. A plane towing a banner advertising Calendar Girls flew overhead and was found to be in breach of the World Cup's advertising "clean zone", despite the fact they didn't break the law at all. They received a warning, but it doesn't matter; job done.
Cue Bob McCoskrie and his merry band of Family First kill-joys who chipped in with their typically fatalistic nonsense about appropriate advertising, despite not one single complaint being laid whatsoever.
Still, there's evangelicalism lurking around every corner just waiting for an excuse to harass the rest of us. I shouldn't be surprised about this, but some do-gooders have decided to take the law into their own hands and dispense their own form of justice on foreign drivers. Keys have been snatched, threats have been issued and, in one documented case, some poor bugger got a smack in the chops. I don't doubt the driving was poor and there would have been a case to report it to authorities. But what we have here is a case of band-wagon jumping and mob rules.
As I said last week, I've personally had some frightening experiences on the road in recent times involving foreign motorists. But the problem is because it has gained some traction in the media recently and has become a talking point between neighbours, around the office and on social media, people are now taking things too far.
I may not agree with John Key trying to change the flag, but I certainly agree with the Prime Minister when he says people can't go around confiscating tourists' keys if they don't like their driving. He's exactly right; I may not like your driving necessarily, but it may still be legal. Should I feel entitled to take your keys or punch you in the face due to a difference of opinion?
But there's always some do-gooding, self-important letter-to-the-editor writer waiting to pounce on an issue to satisfy their grievance lust. Speaking of lust don't forget to send me a calendar, Massey vets.