September 3, 2006 | Funny Bits

Boredom leads to nudity

Some teenagers in the historic Vermont town of Brattleboro battled their boredom this summer by getting naked in public. Nudity isn't illegal in this liberal community of  13,000 people;  after all, the town slogan is "Where It Can ALL Happen!"

When the weather grew hot earlier this summer, a couple of dozen teens started holding hula hoop contests, riding bikes and parading past the shops wearing absolutely nothing. 

Nobody seemed to mind until one local (there's always a spoil sport), Theresa Toney, went before the town council in August to complain about naked young people hanging out in a parking lot. The town is now drafting a by-law which will ban public nakedness.

Some teens staged a nude sit-in when they heard the news.

"I don't see why it's such a big deal," said Alec McPherson, a recent high school graduate as he sat at a coffee shop table, leafing through a volume of artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Everyone's naked in this book."

"We have a nuclear power plant a few miles away and a ridiculous war in the Middle East, countries getting bombed," said Ian Bigelow, a 23-year-old who had gathered with some of his friends outside a bookstore. "So why's it such a big problem if we chose to get nude?"

If only Ms. Toney had been a little more patient:  cooler weather and the start of the school year will surely have the kids donning clothing, no law necessary.

• Nude teens raise eyebrows [Yahoo! News]