13 Comments

I childishly giggled at the thought of the sweat dripping off the “tips of their everything”. Maybe it’s my upbringing in Germany, but I absolutely love being naked. It’s one of my favorite states of being. Good spas are pretty sparse where I live on the east coast in the US, but I love spending the day at the few good Korean spas in my area hopping from pool to pool, getting rigorously scrubbed down, and lounging in the saunas. I’m long overdue for a spa day, but reading this made me want to start a new personal tradition of spending the solstices in a spa.

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Years on I'm a bit better with the public nudity thing... But not that much better. Hope you get that solstice spa next time around!!!

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I am most impressed that you managed to grill pork over a white hot fire without ever having put your clothes back on. Very daring!

I used to use the sauna at the Jewish Community Center here in SF. Often, I would sit in my ever-growing circle of sweat, listening to ancient Russian men with missing eyes and limbs and pendulous gonads (WWII vets is my guess) yelling at each other and laughing and pouring water over the hot rocks and swatting each other with eucalyptus branches. No birch here, just invasive koala fodder.

I never thought I'd actually miss those encounters until I read this today.

Happy Midsummer!

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How very dare you, Procopio. Of course I put my clothes back on. Especially after my bacon frying incident of '08. Will have to clarify this if anyone is ever foolish enough to print these ramblings.

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I just kept waiting for the cold plunge to happen and began to worry when the meat grilling started. I'm very glad you're okay.

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absolutely loved this - can’t wait to read more of your adventures in Finland!

learning Finnish… omfg, I know their knowing smiles

sauna, the best communal experiences ever

maybe you can write some time about the wonders of muikku?

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Thanks Jack. Very kind of you.

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Maybe my favorite thing you've written so far :)

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This comment made my day. Thanks, Ben.

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This is great! “Cut them and they would bleed the mellow tones of Enya playing on repeat.” Ha!

Very glad to have found you via your viral promise never to write a post on how to succeed on Substack!

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Haha..very glad someone found their way here after my silly little promise, which I intend to keep. Thanks for reading, Wendy. Glad you enjoyed it.

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Hilarious xxx loved reading this

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You're very kind. Thanks, Nicola.

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