I should have known
I've spent the last three months chatting about this and that with you, and you've barely peeped. Do a piece on nude calendars, and the hit counter goes crazy. Should I thank you? :)

By way of an update, I received a very nice message from Helene Meurer at Salt Spring Market, regarding their calendar.

Thanks for mentioning the calendar in your blog. To answer your question, yes, the calendar is still available. We haven't published a 2002 version, but last year's model can be recycled for the year 2007 and beyond. Calendar purchases from a very supportive and appreciative global audience helped make it possible to buy back some of our island's precious lands from the logging company. We are currently in the process of transforming these lands into a National Park.

How's that for a good news story?

I think it's great news. I mean, loggers have to work too, but not everywhere. And with all the publicity the eco-terrorists like ELF get, it's nice to see someone taking back the land the old-fashioned way: Buying it.

So there's another reason why there are so many grass-roots "amateur" nude and near-nude calendars: They work.