Like so many bastards sons of the sixties, I was raised without a persistent male role model. While I was blissfully unaware of the devastating effect this would have on my psyche (I own five colors of nail polish, and still carry liquid eyeliner around in my murse like it’s a survival tool), it’s clear to me now that in my own way I’ve been filling the Man Gap with fictional characters since the earliest age I can remember. Continue reading
Since today is Man Day it seems to be time to talk about the top ten manliest movies of all time. This is a hetero listicle. These movies are all just for real bros who want to hang out and watch other dudes be men while paying homage to hetero-manly-awesomeness. The broads just don’t understand why REAL MEN love these movies so much, so it’s time to explain. Continue reading
I wouldn’t consider myself a chauvinist but I admit that I was a tad disappointed when I first learned my wife and I were going to have a girl. Honestly, the prospect frightened me a little. I imagined a room decorated in pink, swathed in rainbows and flowers. Everything would be soft and perhaps frilly with bits of lace.
Even more worrying to my male brain was the prospect that I wouldn’t be able to do the things I’d hoped to do with a son. Games of catch would be replaced with tea parties, Hot Wheels with baby dolls and she’d rather watch My Little Pony over Transformers. Continue reading
It was magical the first time I saw you. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I still don’t know if perfection in such a form can exist. Sure, you were older than me, but who wasn’t when I was 14? That didn’t matter. I was excited. You were always ready to take me somewhere new. You were the epitome of beauty and sex. I will always remember my time with you fondly, with a twinge of remorse, and a longing for simpler times. Continue reading
When he was 18, his father dropped dead of a heart attack. On Olney Avenue in Philadelphia, the world no longer included school in South Bend. And in spite of a tight-knit Irish Catholic family, he took it on his slender shoulders.
My dad was a tinkerer. When we renovated the house down the shore, he told me about his grandfather’s hardware store, and pointed to the tools that had skipped a generation to him. It might have been around that time that he mentioned why his grandparents bought it. That house was, and remains, linked to his own dad. They bought it that summer for the family. Maybe as a celebration.
Tinkering and his logical mind brought him to engineering. He traded Notre Dame for the Main Line, and ended up with a Ph. D in physics. He also met the woman he’d fall for around that time. Continue reading
What makes a sport manly? Most of the sports considered “manly” are violent or injury-inducing, but not all. Here we take a look at some popular sports, ranked from 24, most polite and least manly, to number 1, mega super grunty manly mannish. Continue reading
Here’s another manly pursuit brought to you by the letter ‘W’, welding. I think trying to explain why welding is manly is a bit redundant. (Honestly though, some of the best welders I know are ladies). Welding refers to the fusing of more than one piece of anything (metal, wood, bone) by using heat and/or compression so that it joins into a single piece. Continue reading
What makes a sport manly? Most of the sports considered “manly” are violent or injury-inducing, but not all. Here we take a look at some popular sports, ranked from 24, most polite and least manly, to number 1, mega super grunty manly mannish. Continue reading