Cheap Date: Beer and Wine Tasting Fridays

If you really want to impress a girl, go on the cheap, and maybe get a little sauced, a great way to do all three is to attend a Beer and Wine tasting. These inexpensive soirees generally ask a small fee for the actual tasting and education, but if you do your homework, you could find a place that offers libations for free. Tastings in Kentucky are usually free, whereas the gatherings in Ohio have to charge at least a nominal fee (as giving alcohol away in Ohio is illegal–Go Buckeye State!). Many of these gatherings offer gourmet snacks to quiet the alched-up belly and to cleanse the palate, so don’t worry about spending your hard-earned money on dinner beforehand.

Check out the list of contacts below for a Beer or Wine Tasting event near you.

Beer Tasting (Cincinnati)

Beer Tasting (Covington)

Interactive Map (of Beer and Wine tastings)

Local Wine Tasting Blog

Brewers Guild of Indiana Blog

Things That Are Manly: Hair

I say this not only because I’m probably about a link and a half away evolutionarily from what’s known in cryptozoological circles as yeti, but also because there was a time where a healthy dose of hair was good and manly.  Yep.  To be a hairy dude is to be a manly dude.

Don’t mistake this for my saying that you’re less a man if you just don’t grow scads of hair all over your body–that’s not it at all.  But there’s definitely something to the notion that being hairy makes a man feel a bit more manly, at a minimum.  It’s something that appeals on some level to our inner caveman, that part of us which likes machetes, MMA, and pushups.

Of course, hairy guys over the last 15 or so years have been pushed out to the margins of what’s considered to be “good-looking” in a lot of ways, especially lately with the uploading of the word “manscaping” into our mainstream lexicon.  We’ve got fellas who are waxing eyebrows like crazy, tearing (TEARING!) the hair from their chests, backs, and tender spots, and perhaps saddest of all, fellas who aren’t letting their beards grow out even a little bit.  Again, don’t get me wrong–if you’re into shaving and all that junk, have at it, by all means.  But it doesn’t change the fact of your manhood to let it go.  In fact, I’d argue that it’s manlier to just let the chest go bushy.

Insert argument about how “being yourself” is the most important thing right about here, yeah?

So, the formerly-hairy guys are saying this: “You’re an idiot.  Chicks want a smooth-chested guy.”  Okay–if a woman is going to change her mind about you based on the amount of hair on your body, then she’s shallow and doesn’t deserve your or anyone else’s attention.  End of story.  It seems like so much of this cosmetic stuff, for both men and women, is for the purpose of impressing one another.

Pretty is good.  Handsome is good.  Working at this is good.  But how much change should you have to make to achieve this?

___________________________

Front pg. thumb: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevegatto/ / CC BY 2.0

If Vengeance Be My Destiny: Chapter 1

This is Chapter 1 of If Vengeance Be My Destiny in its entirety. Sit back, get caught up, and enjoy the fun. Also blood, robot fists, and mustaches.

Me and Veterans Day: I Should Feel Terrible and I Do.

This might be a bit personal.

I was never in the military, and I’m finding that the older I get, the more I regret not doing a few years of service. I’m not talking about getting my ass shot off or anything like that, but it’s something that definitely would have done me some personal good. Nonetheless, I avoided it.

Why?

My dad was a Marine in the late 60’s-early 70’s and spent some time in Vietnam. Yeah, that one. We never really got along, to put it lightly, and I figured that if the military had anything to do with him, then I wasn’t going to go down that road. This, of course, makes me an asshole, which I fully accept and welcome at times. Point is, I ignored the possibility of service and pops didn’t. Which is kind of embarrassing for me to say.

Lots of people thank veterans on Veterans Day, and they should. We should be thanking veterans every day. Not necessarily for “fighting for our freedom”—though that’s certainly part of it—but rather for simply serving at all, for contributing. It’s important, and those who serve deserve the attention.

So, thanks guys. You too, pops.

Man Stuff Roundtable: Manliest Show on TV Right Now

Each week, The Cincinnati Man asks its writers to wax philosophical on a question of manliness.  This week: What’s the manliest show on television right now that isn’t Mad Men?

Megan

Ergh, I’m horribly ill-equipped for this question since I don’t really watch TV, but from what I’ve seen on the Spike Channel, it’s obvious that there are entire genres of television-watching options with manliness in mind. That said, I choose late-night Cinemax shows. Porn or porn-esque television clearly caters to the male audience with its grateful and open-mouthed supplicated women on their knees, being waiting receptacles for any male fluid. Oh, we want it so bad! Oh, yes! Oooooh, give it to us! Yeah, right there!

Hipp
Sportscenter. Every man likes some kind of sport, and while I’d prefer to see some changes in coverage (swap golf for rugby), it’s got something for every type of sports fan. On top of being really informative on sports, it’s actually a pretty damn funny show too if you know what they’re talking about. While it may seem easier to go to some type of violence or sex first, Sportscenter is really something that can appeal to every time of man.

Wes Crout

Is manliness surrounding yourself with traditionally “manly” things?  Me thinks not.  I’m in the camp that believes in challenging the traditional gender roles, and trying to escape unscathed.  Mutual exclusivity is often just a false dichotomy.  We’ve learned that we can still be men and get a pedicure.  So why then should we spend all of our time watching porn and sports?  I say the manliest show in TV today is America’s Next Top Model.  Yeah, I know, there’s an element of womanliness that comes with watching this tripe and actually investing in the success of a contestant.  I say, then, to challenge yourself by watching it with your significant other who is invested, spending the entire time commenting loudly on extraneous features of the show at the exact moments when something “important” is being said by someone “important” on the show.  That, or turn the channel seconds before they reveal who isn’t going to be returning for next week’s riveting episode.  Worst-case scenario you enjoy the eye-candy, and there’s always the potential for Tyra to wig out.

Jason McGlone

You guys are silly.  Manliest show on television is Mythbusters.  Hands down.  DOWN!  A few reasons for this.  First, it’s smart by design.  Everyone on the show from top to bottom knows things, and applies these things to the experiments they run.  The goal of the show is to know more things than you did at the beginning of the show. Point: knowing stuff is manly.

Second: explosions.  Yeah, not sensing any un-manliness here.

Third and final piece of evidence: Kari Byron.  You’re welcome.

Today in Manliness: November 10

Every so often, TCM takes a look back at the day through its history in manliness.  Today is November 10.

-1775: The USMC is born.

-Along that line, in 1954, President Eisenhower dedicates the USMC Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

-1969: Sesame Street first airs.

-1975: The Edmund Fitzgerald sinks, killing the entire crew.  This results in a tasty Cleveland porter.  More popularly, this man’s mustache wrote a popular song about the whole matter.

-Birthdays with balls: Martin Luther, George Lowe (the voice of Space Ghost), Neil Gaiman and Richard Burton.

-Dead guys: Louis Cyr, Ken Kesey, Jack Palance, Norman Mailer.