As I was tooling about the suburban wastes I was pleasantly surprised to hear NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday devoting nearly five minutes of coverage to the New York Burlesque Festival. A transcript of the story (complete with pictures, even though they are SFW) is here, along with a link to the audio in NPR’s pop-up player.

It would not have been that long ago that the sort of earnest middle-class professionals who listen to National Public Radio would sooner have died than even admit that burlesque is an art form. Now, the view that is not just an art form but a liberatory one can get a respectable journalistic airing among them. We have come a long way.

And also, we have an excuse to stick in a picture of Dita von Teese. She might not have been in the story, but she’s one of the arch-practitioners of burlesque today. And anyway, is there ever a bad time for a picture of her?

No, I didn’t think so either.