The Mysterious East

While browsing through the May “How to be a Man” edition of Esquire, I stumbled on a list of 31 things a man should own and, for the most part, know how to use. Some years ago in a long lost column in the now defunct New Brunswick Reader magazine I mocked a Men’s Journal must have list of manly things, most of which I didn’t have or want. In my column, I made my own list. The new Esquire list is interesting to me because I own 24 of the 31 items, and have once owned another 4 of them (some like the chain saw I still regret selling in a fit of house cleaning one spring after I moved to the city). I’m not sure what this says about me. I’d add three things to the list: an instrument (if it is a guitar, the best you can afford), a canoe, and a fly rod. You may have some other suggestions. More on the “How to Be a Man” question in coming days…