Manly Things

[aybojs]

Originally Posted by jay allen

If I didn't know better I would think you were insulting my beloved home state. If that is the case....you sir, are a dick. No more lobstah for you!

Nah, it was more a denouncement of boring American local color fiction than an attack on your state. Never been to Maine, but if I weren't so lazy about travel I'd have made at least one effort to drive up there for some lobster sampling before I leave the east coast after graduation. I have to imagine there's some interesting local cuisine there I'd like to try.

 

[faustian bargain]

Originally Posted by tiger02

Understatement.

and the appreciation of it.

 

[heartworm]

I don't find driving particularly masculine... The ones I can think of right now are:

- Building something or creating something, that works.

- Killing something, then eating it.

 

[johnapril]

Originally Posted by whoopee

O'Connor's writing is too deeply religious and sacramental for New England, though the grotesque, I'm sure, abounds behind closed doors. In a somewhat different vein, I think Raymond Carver may have done well.

No. Carver had to have the mailman footing it through Arcata, the suck of vacuuming upholstery in the anti-neighborhood, scattered with rental signs.

 

[johnapril]

Most tough men eat nails for breakfast. Chuck Norris does all of his grocery shopping at Home Depot.

 

[Nantucket Red]

Automotive (with a tip of the hat to Aaron):

-- Taking an old car afficionado for a ride in the 1914 Kissel Kar with a clutch that sticks and having him complement me on how smoothly I shifted the crashbox transmission.

-- Double-clutch downshifting same.

Comments from others:

-- Taking my new romantic interest -- an executive for an international investment banking firm -- out to dinner, paying for everything and hearing her tell me how feminine it makes her feel. Did I mention she's a beauty?

-- Noticing a group of good-looking women surreptitiously watching and talking about you.

-- Your lawyer friend commenting enviously about your mint vintage watch that represents an investment of less than $1000.

Manual labor:

-- Wearing a tool belt for work every day (damn, I miss that!).

-- Framing with a 28 oz. waffle-headed hammer.

-- Having same bounce off a rafter while framing a roof and having the claws catch you right under the eye and open up a hole in your face. The ultra-macho guy you're working with telling you how jealous he is that you now have a scar that chicks will dig.

-- Designing and building a custom built-in cabinet for a customer and having the customer tell you afterwards that your work is worth every penny.

-- Paying your living expenses during five years of Ivy League education by running your own business.

Academic (vis-a-vis thesis):

-- Pacing yourself throughout the semester by devoting one day a week to working on nothing else, creating a masterpiece, being the only student that year to get a solid A on a thesis. Being awarded departmental honors upon graduation.

Sports:

-- Surfing.

-- Taking off in the tube.

-- Consistently pulling off late takeoffs on a 50 lb. single-fin 9'6" on an epic day. Later being told by your buddys that you're "insane."

-- Catching the first wave you go for the first time you try a new custom board.

-- Catching the first wave of a massive set, then getting dragged across the reef by the remaining waves while caught inside and suffering multiple coral injuries on a remote Indonesian island without even rudimentary first aid. Not letting it keep you out of the water.

-- Being able to say, when asked, that you got that scar surfing.

-- Going back to your old surfing haunts after many years away and people you've never met have heard of you.

-- Snowboarding.

-- Charging so hard that you fracture three ribs and don't even notice until the drive home. Being voted "rookie of the year" by your friends.

-- Kayaking.

-- Placing first in your class in a major race.

-- Building your own cedar-strip sea kayak.

Finally, with a tip of the hat to John April:

-- Finishing Rohatsu. (Sit perfectly still and silent until you become intimately aquainted with your bone marrow, and all these manly pursuits will be seen in proper perspective.)

Most manly of all: Bragging rights.

 

[Pink22m]

I would have thought that my response would have elicited some responses by now...

 

[faustian bargain]

well, let's see. you sit down to pee, and have morning wood. the math is a little frightening.

 

[Huntsman]

Originally Posted by Nantucket Red

Automotive (with a tip of the hat to Aaron):

-- Taking an old car afficionado for a ride in the 1914 Kissel Kar with a clutch that sticks and having him complement me on how smoothly I shifted the crashbox transmission.

-- Double-clutch downshifting same.

Comments from others:

-- Taking my new romantic interest -- an executive for an international investment banking firm -- out to dinner, paying for everything and hearing her tell me how feminine it makes her feel. Did I mention she's a beauty?

-- Noticing a group of good-looking women surreptitiously watching and talking about you.

-- Your lawyer friend commenting enviously about your mint vintage watch that represents an investment of less than $1000.

Manual labor:

-- Wearing a tool belt for work every day (damn, I miss that!).

-- Framing with a 28 oz. waffle-headed hammer.

-- Having same bounce off a rafter while framing a roof and having the claws catch you right under the eye and open up a hole in your face. The ultra-macho guy you're working with telling you how jealous he is that you now have a scar that chicks will dig.

-- Designing and building a custom built-in cabinet for a customer and having the customer tell you afterwards that your work is worth every penny.

-- Paying your living expenses during five years of Ivy League education by running your own business.

Academic (vis-a-vis thesis):

-- Pacing yourself throughout the semester by devoting one day a week to working on nothing else, creating a masterpiece, being the only student that year to get a solid A on a thesis. Being awarded departmental honors upon graduation.

Sports:

-- Surfing.

-- Taking off in the tube.

-- Consistently pulling off late takeoffs on a 50 lb. single-fin 9'6" on an epic day. Later being told by your buddys that you're "insane."

-- Catching the first wave you go for the first time you try a new custom board.

-- Catching the first wave of a massive set, then getting dragged across the reef by the remaining waves while caught inside and suffering multiple coral injuries on a remote Indonesian island without even rudimentary first aid. Not letting it keep you out of the water.

-- Being able to say, when asked, that you got that scar surfing.

-- Going back to your old surfing haunts after many years away and people you've never met have heard of you.

-- Snowboarding.

-- Charging so hard that you fracture three ribs and don't even notice until the drive home. Being voted "rookie of the year" by your friends.

-- Kayaking.

-- Placing first in your class in a major race.

-- Building your own cedar-strip sea kayak.

Finally, with a tip of the hat to John April:

-- Finishing Rohatsu. (Sit perfectly still and silent until you become intimately aquainted with your bone marrow, and all these manly pursuits will be seen in proper perspective.)

Most manly of all: Bragging rights.

unh....<dumbfounded>

 

[faustian bargain]

i know. now i'm sitting here contemplating my own life.

 

[Dmntd]

Knowing that when I say &quot;I built that bike (motorcycle)&quot;, I mean I built it. The motor, ******, wiring harness, every thing from the ground up, even the paint.

Getting out of the car in a parking lot when some A**holes whining that I took his spot and he shuts up once he sees just how big I am.

Tying my girl to the bed and... well thats for another forum, and she likes it.

Wearing a kilt and boots.

Doing my own thing, regardless of what people think.

Having a big stainless ring, through the end of my thing.

Anthony

 

[Horace]

Originally Posted by faustian bargain

well, let's see. you sit down to pee, and have morning wood. the math is a little frightening.


A friend of mine complained to work around that problem by doing a hand-stand over the toilet.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by Huntsman

unh....<dumbfounded>


hunt - you have time.

what I think is manly is reading something like what NR wrote and thinking "cool, this would be a great guy to hang with", but not feeling jealous, or overwhelmed, 'cause you know you have your own list.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by Dmntd

Knowing that when I say "I built that bike (motorcycle)", I mean I built it. The motor, ******, wiring harness, every thing from the ground up, even the paint.

Getting out of the car in a parking lot when some A**holes whining that I took his spot and he shuts up once he sees just how big I am.

Tying my girl to the bed and... well thats for another forum, and she likes it.

Wearing a kilt and boots.

Doing my own thing, regardless of what people think.

Having a big stainless ring, through the end of my thing.

Anthony


hmmm.... hugely different concepts of manly here.

 

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by globetrotter

what I think is manly is reading something like what NR wrote and thinking "cool, this would be a great guy to hang with", but not feeling jealous, or overwhelmed, 'cause you know you have your own list.
Damn globe...you beat me to it. NR, if I'm ever in Yokohama, we're havin' a beer.

A.