I've never liked the "hot girl" look. Somehow they always seem to look sluttish, boorish, and mindless, not to mention completely unnatural. I'd choose the delightful Honeysuckle Weeks over these harlots any day of the week! (No pun intended)

That's fine Andrew. I can be floored by the right sort of "awkward cute" look. I've seen many an aprodite go unnoticed, sporting horn rimmed glasses, and an off-kilter gait. The "awkward cute" look sometimes seems like a diaphanous veil, under which a man sensitive enough to peer through, finds a beauty he can hardly articulate. Believe me I know.

But sometimes a "hot girl" is still really hot. And sometimes "awkward cute" is still awkward. If Isla Fisher gave me the time of day tomorrow, it would be exactly like the pool scene in Anchorman - with me as Ron Burgandy.

What I mean to say, and having had a few glasses of wine I suddenly find myself more capable of saying, is that women can be outrageously beautiful without looking like pornstars (or models or floozie actresses or other such things).

Amen to that, Mr. Cusack. This is perhaps why I find the more traditional-style Indian actresses to be among the more attractive actresses out there. No, really. They are classically beautiful and (normally) modestly dressed, readily drawing attention without exuding raw sexuality. But, then, I follow a very old school and I attend a church where the women wear head-coverings, so it is not exactly surprising that I would take this view.

Oh, now it is on! I'm also of an old school and attend a church where the women cover their heads.

Yes, I can see that the above photos don't scream out "modesty." They are after all cheesecake- taken for the benefit of Esquire's "readers."

In defense of the Ms. Fisher, nothing about this photo, which seems to be a rather normal day for her. Screams floozey. (Where are her shoes?) http://hollywoodbackwash.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/Isla-Fisher-barefoot.jpg

Isla not your cup of tea? Fine. But give me a break.This is a posed photo - without anything particularly lewd about it. Of course if a girl walks around looking like a streetwalker or even like David Brook's "preppie prostitute" I'm immediately turned off. No one is arguing that.

The above photos are meant to put a man into the frame of mind that someday, if he is lucky, a woman like Isla may be crawling towards him from across his shag carpet. That's normal. Healthy. Innocent.
Switching from the computer metaphor to another:

There is a certain type of person who will talk about alcoholism when you are just sipping your whiskey innocently. For some reason is just bothers this person that there are so many drunks in the world and he can't react to seeing a drink any other way. In fact, if his whiskey sipping interlocuter is in danger of becoming blitzed - it might even help to annoy him. But most of the time it's just silly.

Our culture may be debased when it comes to sex. And Isla is certainly an intoxicating agent.But seriously, if I want a sip of whiskey - a legitimate pleasure - don't extol to me the virtues of lemonade on the premise that a few people abuse whiskey.

I may have expressed myself poorly here. I was not really trying to ridicule Ms. Fisher, her pictures or your use of them. As it happens, I like whiskey and I detest lemonade (I don't even like lemon in my tea), so I am more likely (if we wanted to extrapolate sweeping generalisations about innocent pleasures from this) to approve of the drinking man over the teetotaler anyway. Nonetheless, in this case, I agree with Mr. Cusack that it is possible for a woman to be stunning without even a hint of anything improper, and that it seems to be the case that she can actually be more attractive without having to resort to all of that. That was the main point. I don't think that means that anyone is throwing around charges of metaphorical alcoholism.

I shall conclude with the obvious question: Shag carpet?

Here here!

Everything has its time and place. There are times when a woman is meant to be in a sundress, there are times for her to be in jeans (not too often, we hope) and there are times for black lace and shag carpets.

The shag carpet is actually the most transgressive thing about this picture and the most suggestive.

We'll leave it there, then. I hope.

Mr Surfeited with Dainties writes as the thread title: "Apple of My Eye"

Apple as in singular? You must be kidding. I don't know about you, but I'm without doubt seeing two outstanding ones in the first photograph.

Running Vista on a MacBookPro? EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW.

(I give you 3 guesses which 'tribe' I belong to).

Welcome the club. I'm on a somewhat older iBook G4, but my replacement down the road will likely be a MacBook.