Random Thoughts

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Watching the NBC Ironman broadcasts always makes me cry. They were replaying 2007's race on G4 this weekend. To see a triathlon swim start you have to wonder why anyone would want to try one, let alone an Ironman. But 90 minutes later, tears trickling down my cheek as I watched people finish - young, old, professionals, age-groupers, cancer survivors, double amputees - fists pumping, arms waving, I remembered why. There's no other feeling like crossing that finish line after months of training, talking about it, sweating over it, thinking about it, swim/bike/run/eat/sleep/repeating it. All the emotions culminate in those last 200 yards as the end comes into sight.

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Esquire's cover story this month is How to Be a Man and I can't wait to see the responses to it next month. Among other odd gems is this opening intro (paraphrased here) from one of my favorite writers, Tom Chiarella:

- A man carries cash.
- A man can cook eggs.
- A man makes or rebuilds things.
- A man fantasizes that kung-fu leaves deep inside him somewhere.
- A man can look you up and down and figure some things out.
- A man owns up.
- A man watches.
- A man figures he can knock someone, somewhere on his ass, even if he never has or never will.

In their list of "Men" Esquire includes Joe Rogan, Russell Crowe, Larry Fitzgerald, Liam Neeson, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Derek Jeter, Josh Brolin, Peyton Manning, Jon Favreau (Obama's hot young speechwriter) and Jon Favreau (writer/director), Javier Bardem, Troy Aikman, Bruce Springsteen. Okay, check, check. I don't disagree with any of those. But then they go on to list some marginal choices like Bill Clinton, Charles Barkley, George Bush (Snr), Mickey Rourke, Shaq and Billy Ray Cyrus. Really? Clinton? Even more random is the entire article dedicated to Todd Palin, The Man for America Now.

MIA? Jason Giambi, Sam Elliott, Robert Downey Jr., and anyone who plays James Bond.

It's definitely not the metrosexual man we were told to embrace in the early 2000s. 2009 is all about old-school masculinity. Hmmmm.

Comments

Rick Gaston said…
I think they are going back to the gruffier more cowboy type of man maybe. Look at the new James Bond or the new Batman. Let me see where I fall.

- I always spend my cash
- Can cook them anyway but always break the yolk on sunny side ups
- Love kung-fu and would be a master in another life along with being an adventure racer
- Umm no comment
- Owns up to what exactly?
- I can probably outrun more people than I can knock down. That sounds wussish when I say run but you know what I mean when I say "run".
12:53 AM
saulj said…
This is a great issue. Many favorite sections but the What I've Learned is really good.
3:14 PM
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