Is Patriotism Manly?
July 2, 2008
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Last week we started a feature where every Thursday we will simply pose the question “Is it manly?” Here is this week’s question:
Is patriotism manly? Vote. Discuss.
The Ultimate Man’s Guide to Fireworks
July 1, 2008
Photo by ggmossgirl
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.-John Adams, 1776
Ever since colonial times, fireworks have been an important part of celebrating American Independence. On the very first 4th of July in 1777, fireworks made of black ash were shot off. 12 years later, fireworks accompanied George Washington’s Inauguration celebration.
Most men in the United States probably have fond memories of lighting Black Cats or waving a colorful sparkler in the warm Fourth of July air. The operative word in fireworks is fire, the basic element to which all men experience a primal attraction. Even when you’re grown and have kids of your own, nothing can kill your boyish desire to make a racket with fireworks.
So in honor of the 4th of July and the little boy in all of us who still gets a kick out of celebrating American Independence with noise and light, the Art of Manliness presents the Man’s Guide to Fireworks:
The Best of Art of Manliness: June 2008
July 1, 2008
June was a great month for Art of Manliness, despite a few road bumps along the way. As many of you know, Digg.com banned our site, which is sort of a bummer because that’s how many of you found this site. We’ve appealed our case, but haven’t heard back from them. We’re still not sure why we were banned. Digg was a valuable tool to help AoM grow. We’ll just have to think of other ways to get the word out about the site.
Despite the ban on Digg, subscribers climbed to over 12,000. 2,000 more from last month. Thanks to everyone who subscribes and contributes to the site. The success of AoM wouldn’t be possible without you.
June’s Most Popular Posts
The All-Time Best (and Worst) TV Dads
7 Vital Characteristics of a Man
10 Ways to Be a Gentleman at the Gym The big surprise from this post was the defense of the hip abductor machine. Seriously, I’ve been going to the gym for several years and I’ve never seen a man use this thing. It has always been women. The crack against the machine was meant as a joke, but people got really defensive about it. Lighten up.
The Best of the Forums
If you haven’t already, make sure to join 419 other people in The Art of Manliness Discussion forums. You can register with this handy form. The forums are a great place to ask questions and discuss all things manly. I want to shoot a big thank you to those who have taken an active role in the forum and have helped create a sense of community there. These include karmazon, zyxthior, Barbarosa, Primus Pilius, RobbieC, naterg, Will, guidetomanliness, and Meiji-man. Thanks guys!
Here’s a run down of some of the most lively discussion topics in the forum.
What not to drive if you’re a man
Conceal/carry a weapon - Manly or—–?
Support The Art of Manliness
If you would like to continue your support of AoM, there are a few ways you can do that:
Buy some Art of Manliness Gear. We actually don’t make much from this stuff. It’s just a great way to spread the word about the Art of Manliness.
Subscribe to the site either by RSS Feed or Email updates. Tell your friends to subscribe as well.
Digg or Stumble or del.icio.us your favorite articles to help spread the word.
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The Manival #10: Independence Day Edition
June 30, 2008
This week in the United States we’ll be celebrating our Independence Day. The group of men involved with the founding of the United States were some of history’s best and brightest. They stood for the ideals that every man should aspire to. Among that group of men were military geniuses, inventors, and philosophers. It took men of valor and virtue to take on and defeat the most powerful military in the world. Simply amazing. While our country hasn’t been the perfect example of the ideals that the Founding Fathers espoused, those ideals are something we should continually strive to live up to. While you’re celebrating the 4th of July with your loved ones, take some time to think about the great men who helped make this country what it is today.
Submit to This Week’s Manival
June 30, 2008
The Art of Manliness will be hosting tomorrow’s Manival- the blog carnival for men. If you have a blog and have a post that you think men would enjoy, please submit it using this form. Submissions are due tonight by 9PM.
10 Ways To Be A Gentleman At The Gym
June 29, 2008
Perhaps it is the rush of testosterone and the feeling of primal power that accompanies working out, but many men seem to check their manners at the door to the gym. But just because you’re getting in touch with your inner man beast, doesn’t mean you should turn into an inconsiderate boob. Gyms should give new members a course on etiquette, but they don’t, leaving many men wholly ignorant of how to act civilly while pumping iron. Here are the rules of etiquette every man should know and keep. Feel free to tape them up in your gym’s locker room.
Reader Contest: Design an Art of Manliness T-Shirt
June 29, 2008
Calling all designers! Many of you may have noticed the “Shop” link up at the top where you can find Art of Manliness T-shirts that I created. I thought I did a decent job considering my sucky GIMP and design skills. But to be honest, I think they could be much better
I’ve decided to let the more talented among you create a much more aesthetically pleasing product.
Here’s how it works:
1. Design a logo/words that we can slap on a t-shirt and send us the image. We’re looking for two designs. One for the men and also one for the ladies who read Art of Manliness and want to tell the world they dig manly men.
2. Submissions are due in 2 weeks (July 13, 2008). You can submit by emailing the image to artofmanliness at gmail. Images should be in PNG or GIF format.
3. Submissions will be voted on by you the readers. We’ll have two winners: the men’s version and the ladies version. Double your chances of winning by submitting twice.
4. The winners will receive a wonderful list of prizes:
- $50 Gift Card to Amazon.com
- A Subscription to Popular Mechanics Magazine
- A Free T-shirt
- An insane amount of fame and prestige. Maybe not an insane amount, but you’ll definitely be famous among thousands of Art of Manliness readers.
5. The winning images you send will belong to me, so by submitting your image/ideas, you are signing them over to me. If you’re not down with that, don’t submit.
So you might be asking “What kind of design are you looking for?” Well, something that goes with the Art of Manliness ethos. The t-shirt doesn’t necessairily have to have John L. Sullivan (the AoM boxer guy) in it, but it would be cool if it did. We’re also big fans of the vintage look and a t-shirt with that vibe would go well with the site.
So show the world your manly design skills! We’re looking forward to seeing your submissions.
The Art of Manliness Weekly Roundup: Men’s Grill Edition
June 28, 2008
In the New York Times yesterday, there was a story about a golf club in Phoenix that has a men’s grill- a grill where only men are allowed. No ladies. It was a place the men could go to get a beer, a nice juicy steak, and talk manly talk with other men. The women were relegated to the ladies grill where old women would play bridge and shush any young whippersnappers that were too loud. Well, the women folk in Phoenix were none too happy about this, so they’ve filed a complaint with the civil rights division of the Arizona attorney general’s office claiming the facilities at the women’s grill of the golf club are inadequate compared to the men’s grill.
Well the men are up in arms about this, and what are some of them doing to counter these angry women? Well, according to the article they’re driving in golf carts up to the homes of women who are involved in the suit and peeing on their trees. Childish, not manly.
But regardless of their immature reaction, what do you think? Should men have their own places to hang out sans women?
Now for some links:
25 Tips to Stay Married (@ the standard times [via the art of intimacy]) Great advice on marriage. Marriage isn’t something that just happens. It takes work. The number one tip? “Put her first.” If you can do that, you’re well on your way to having a successful marriage.
The Nonconformist’s Guide to Personal Finance (@ get rich slowly) A different take on personal advice. I wish I could have followed #3: no student loans. I’m up to my ears in student loans. I would love to get rid of the debt as quickly as possible.
The Fedora Lounge This is one of my favorite discussion boards. When you go there, you’ll see why. It’s all about classic style- the era when men dressed like men. Check it out and sign up.
Not Being a Real Person (@ the growing life) An interesting look on not doing the “normal person” route. Sometimes being a man means marching to the beat of your own drummer.
From the archives
Spark Up Your Marriage: 4 Ways to Date Your Wife All Over Again Part of keeping your marriage alive is continually courting your wife. In this post, we take a look at four ways a man can do that.
At the forums
What did you do today? Awesome thread where people share what they did for a workout each day. Great place to get ideas for new routines and motivate each other. I’m impressed with our readers’ workouts. They’re animals.
How are you coping with high gas prices? People sharing what they’re doing to adjust to the high gas prices.
Lessons in Manliness: Knute Rockne
June 26, 2008
There was never a decade in America as sports crazy as the 1920’s. The true frontier had vanished into legend, and the playing field became the new arena for “pioneers” to demonstrate their ruggedness, determination, and ingenuity. Americans thus elevated the status of athletes and coaches to that of saintly heroes. Few of these heroes shined so brightly as Knute Rockne. Knute (pronounced ka-noot) was one of the greatest football coaches of all time. Although Rockne was famous for spinning yarns and exaggerating his exploits, such embellishments were hardly necessary; the facts stood for themselves. In his 13 years as the head coach of the Notre Dame football team, Rockne racked up 5 undefeated seasons and 6 national championships. Most importantly, he loved and embraced manliness. He encouraged men to stop dallying in effeminate hobbies and take up rough, physical pursuits like football. “America should be a place for rugged men, not flabby ones,” he proclaimed. While a plane crash cut short his life at age 43, his lessons in manliness echo on:
Technical Difficulties
June 26, 2008
I’ve been getting reports that some of you have been having difficulty with site. Some people are seeing the Art of Manliness homepage from the beginning of May and not the current one. If you’re having this problem, please shoot us an email via the contact form.
Is it Manly to Swear?
June 25, 2008
We thought it would be fun to start a weekly survey in which we ask Art of Manliness readers whether they think certain actions/jobs/cars/etc are manly. Manliness is a pretty vague concept and means different things to different people. We’re interested in what you think is manly or not and hopefully we can start some interesting discussion and civil debate. We plan on posting the questions on Thursday and we’ll run it in the sidebar for a week. So let’s get started with the first weekly edition of the Art of Manliness “Is it manly?” survey.
Is swearing manly? Vote. Discuss.
The Gentleman’s Guide To Tipping
June 24, 2008
A gentleman knows when and how to tip those who serve him. The unmannered and uncouth do not. Tipping an individual, while not mandatory, should always be done. The only occasion you should not leave a tip is if the service was completely horrendous and the person providing the service made no attempt to remedy the situation. When tipping, you should do so discreetly. Showing off how much you tip does not impress people, but only shows you are a shallow cad. Nonetheless, gray areas in regards to tipping often exist. So read on gents, as The Art of Manliness answers all your tipping questions.
The 15 Greatest Man Cries (Plus 5 Dishonorable Mentions)
June 22, 2008
On Friday we discussed when it is appropriate for a man to cry. In short, a man should only cry when something truly significant happens. The less frequently something occurs, the more weight given it. Thus the rarity of male tears lends to them true potency. When a man sheds tears, particularly in the public eye, people sit up and take notice. We know something truly consequential is occurring.
For the purposes of this post, a “man cry” is defined as anything ranging from being choked up to an out and out sob. Now without further adieu, the Art of Manliness presents the 15 greatest man cries in modern history:
Art of Manliness and Digg.com
June 22, 2008
Some of you may have noticed that starting several weeks ago, if you tried to submit an AoM story to Digg.com, it would be rejected. Digg has labeled the Art of Manliness as spam, and blocked submissions from our site.
We have resigned ourselves to this fate. But we are embarrassed that people will see us labeled as spam when they try to submit our content. The Art of Manliness is about honor, integrity, and manning up-the antithesis of spamming. Therefore, we would like to assure our readers that we have never, ever spammed or gamed the Digg system. Honestly and truly. Those articles which did well on Digg, did well because people liked and appreciated them.
We appealed to Digg to remove this block, but Digg refuses to do so. They did not cite any evidence of wrongdoing, but basically said that since people on Digg said we are spam, than that means we are spam, regardless of the actual facts.
We know that you all don’t think AoM consists of spam material. Neither do dozens of major blogs and mainstream media sites. Here’s a brief run down of places around the web Art of Manliness has been featured:
- Fox News
- Neatorama
- Mental Floss (and again)
- Andrew Sullivan (twice!)
- Lifehacker
- ChannelFlip (an awesome internet television channel that gave AoM an unprecedented 5 out of 5 stars)
- The Huffington Post
- Dark Roasted Blend
- And hundreds of other sites
Thank you for your past support with Digg. Our exposure on that site helped grow the blog tremendously and introduce it to many readers. For that we are grateful. If you would like to continue to promote the Art of Manliness, submit and vote for our articles on Reddit, del.icio.us, and Stumbleupon.
Best Regards-
Brett and Kate
Submit To This Week’s Manival at Night Writter
June 21, 2008
The Night Writter Blog will be hosting this week’s Manival: the blog carnival for men. If you have a blog and have written a post that you think men would find helpful or interesting, please submit it using this form. Submissions are due on Monday at 4PM.
