The 2023 sexiest person of the year, somewhat obviously, is Taylor Swift, who is also the Time Person of the Year. I can’t argue with that too much, although I think it tells us something whether the person of the year comes from pop culture rather than than the serious worlds of, say, politics or science. At the moment, I think it tells us that we are burnt out on serious things and we want to stick our heads in the sand and ignore them.

Who would I pick, if I were going to pick someone from the serious world? That’s a tough one. I almost want to tip my hat to Jimmy Carter because we really need serious voices for peace in the world right now. But then again, Nobel Prize winners might not want to be greedy. I may have to keep thinking.

Meanwhile, it is mildly ironic that “People” magazine still names a sexiest “man”. I don’t really have a problem with this – People magazine doesn’t pretend to be about anything other than pop culture. And I still see men here and there every day despite the various endocrine disrupting compounds in our water and consumer products. This year’s sexist middle aged Caucasian actor I haven’t heard of is Patrick Dempsey. Congratulations, Patrick. I am sure you are awesome, it is just that I am not paying attention to your particular corner of pop culture. I note that you have a few gray hairs, so maybe my chances of being the sexiest man alive at some point in the future are not completely dead.