Today's Daddy: Joseph Fielding Smith Jr.

The younger, son of the elder. Both were presidents of the Church of Latter-Day Saints at some point. His dad is actually better-looking thanks to the Old Testament beard, but Jr. isn't bad either in a 1950s middle-school librarian kind of way.

I know very little about LDS...or any religion, really. In fact, my background note on LDS is the following: "This church has produced some of the hottest patriarchs in recorded history." You know, if you're into that kind of thing.

See, for example, Wilford Woodruff, who single-whiskeredly made the no-mustache beard acceptable in my fantasy life.

Or Heber Grant, whose beaky nose and hawkish gaze create an impression of stern avuncularity that warms my backside in anticipation.

Or there's David McKay, whose genial grin must be undergirded by a core of true steel. (I'm talking about his personality.)

It's a shame that the religion practiced polygamy when polyandry was obviously its calling.

Today's Daddy: Louis Gerhard de Geer

Pickings were slim today, but I'm fond of this one nonetheless. Louis Gerhard de Geer was, according to Wikipedia at least, the first prime minister of Sweden, and also a writer.

His son, Gerhard Louis (see what he did there?), was also prime minister for a while, and not bad looking himself:

I still prefer the father, though.

De Geer the Elder was apparently known for his modesty and wit. His explanation of why he was the first Prime Minister: the pool of Swedish elites was so small that it was hard to find someone who rose even to the level of mediocrity required by the job. Aww!

Secretary fantasy again (I have a lot of those). In this case, I like to imagine the Elder worn down by the cares of state, and needing a sympathetic young companion to ruffle his sideburns at the end of the day.

Today's Daddy: F. Sherwood Rowland

The Nobel Prizes are another great source of daddy material. A lot of distinguished, gray- or white-haired scientists in suits, august and accomplished, in somber photographs...daddy heaven.

This one is Frank Sherwood Rowland, who helped discover the role CFCs play in destroying ozone and won the Chemistry prize.

Professors and scientists tend to trigger my secretary fantasy - politicians, too. Strangely, business magnates don't, unless they're from the Gilded Age; contemporary businessmen usually activate my junior-marketing-coordinator fantasy. With a chemist, I like to imagine an after-hours lab accident that requires me to strip off my clothing and safety gear, then hop under the safety shower. Naturally said chemist, being a senior scientist and very responsible, would want to make sure I was thoroughly clean...

Today's Daddy: Pavel Prudnikau

Wikipedia is a great source of historical daddy pics if you're in the mood. Just take a look at who was born that day - or, if you're feeling macabre (or you're a necrophile), who died. Today's daily daddy is Pavel Prudnikau.

I could talk about how he's a Belarusan writer who spent time in a gulag. But you can read the Wikipedia article and I'm writing about sex. Mainly I'm thinking about his getting out of the gulag on his seventieth birthday, when Stalin is forcibly overthrown by American-style progressives (none of this happened historically), and decides to write his memoirs. He hires a young, impressionable secretary...a secretary he soon realizes he can't live without.

I don't understand the pattern on that shirt, but I think it's hot.