The No. 33 MTA bus had delivered our party of four to a stop two blocks from
Venice Beach, yards beyond where Navy Street meets the sand. As my
12-year-old son and his two younger siblings hit the boardwalk,
we stumbled upon a topless rights
protest. Even for Venice, this particular hullabaloo felt like a lot. I
let my kids watch just a bit of the thing, as I truly support this
women’s rights issue. Regardless, not wanting to talk about sex with my
children for the rest of the day — “Daddy, why are there 10 times more
men than women attending the booby rally?” — I got them in and out of
the scene pretty damn fast.

Within minutes, we were standing in
the waves, the boys submerged and then not and me slyly staring at
teenage girls in bikinis. You know, the normal way. As the waves attacked my ankles and I held Solecita
by the hand and gazed out into the Pacific, beyond the splashing people
and even past the surfers. A little lower than the plane-hauled ad for
that auto dealership. Somewhere in there. And I thought, there’s no
fucking way I’m going to be up for the late-starting
Men’s Basketball Olympics final. And that was fine; more than I wanted
LeBron, Kobe and company to  beat Spain for the gold medal I needed to
hear some sort of statement on Chinese human rights record.

As
that didn't seem to be in the offing, I thought I'd write about sex.
Back to the boobies, the basics. When i can't figure out what to write
about, I write about sex. This blog has always been about the visceral
aspects of physical  life. About feeling. People like sex. So, when stuck for things to write about, hot bodies are the thing.

People
will recall these Olympics for a variety of reasons. China's coming out
party generated tangible Michael Phelps memories and more elusive fantasies. Sex was everywhere, literally. In one of the most candid pieces of sports reporting that I've ever seen, Matthew Syed provides this passage:

I spoke to an Aussie table
tennis player this week to check out the village vibe and he launched into
the breathless patter common to any Olympic debutant: “It is unbelievable in
there; everyone is totally crazy once they are out of their competitions.
God knows what it is going to be like this weekend. It is like a world
within a world.”

God loves you loving your body. And I've loved doing this blog. Hopefully from reading the past year's worth of MOLI words you'll loving yourself a little more. For me, it's been a day at the beach with a Culver City Bus driving us home instead of MTA. Clean and easy fun.

Donnell Alexander is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Sports & Fitness. He posts Mondays and Thursdays.