The Republic of T.

How much of a man are you? A better question would be how much time (and lives) are wasted trying to answer that question, guys, to our own satisfaction, not to mention others. Right? Well, if you needed a handy yardstick, Popular Mechanics has kindly supplied us with a list of 25 skills every man should have?

Here at PM, where we at least try to do everything, we spent weeks fine-tuning our list of “25 Skills Every Man Should Know,” debating over whether certain items were too basic, too challenging or just too obscure. You can find a full how-to rundown of each one in the October issue of Popular Mechanics, which just hit newsstands. But for now, check out our carefully selected list below, then offer your own arguments and suggestions in the comments section below, or tell us how to perform your must-know skill by writing to us here…

How many do you have? I’ve made bold the ones I can claim.

Technorati Tags: current events, gender, masculinity, memes

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The Queen is dead. Long live the Queen. Of mean, that is. Leona may have gone to that great tax-shelter in the sky — though not before one last slap, leaving $12 million to her dog and strangely conditional trusts to her grandchildren — but there may be a new contender for the crown. While shopping for jewelry, Condoleezza Rice was heard to say to an exasperated clerk:

Condoleezza Rice may be willing to compromise at a Middle East negotiating table - but not at a jewelry counter.

Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor who is one of the secretary of state’s closest friends, recalls going into a shop where Rice asked to see earrings. The clerk showed her costume jewelry. Rice asked to see something nicer, prompting the clerk to whisper some sass under her breath.

Blacker remembers Rice tearing the woman to shreds.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” he recalls her saying. “You are behind the counter because you have to work for minimum wage. I’m on this side asking to see the good jewelry because I make considerably more.

I don’t know that an annual salary of $183,500 puts Condi in Leona’s bracket, but then again I also don’t know how much her total assets add up to. I do know that she’s serious about her shopping. There was that woman who scolded her for buying Ferragmos in the midst of the Katrina aftermath. She got dragged off by security.

Those two stories, plus one or two others I’ve read lately, have brought up one question in my mind: What is it about power/money/success, that it seems to come with a license to treat other people badly?

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After this test, I might just order one of those t-shirts.

You Are 100% Feminist

You are a total feminist. This doesn’t mean you’re a man hater (in fact, you may be a man). You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It’s a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.

No big surprise there. I mean, Duh! Who wouldn’t “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” with those questions? OK, OK. I know who. I just don’t like to think about them too much.

Technorati Tags: feminism, gender, memes, politics, web

You Are Fairly Skeptical

You’re not the type of person who will fall for anything… But you do keep your mind open to all sorts of possibilities. You figure that anything could be true. After all, the world is a strange place. However, you’re going to need some convincing before you can believe in aliens or reincarnation!

Interesting. But I’d like to see a quiz that asks “How cynical are you?” Then again, I might be afraid to see my score.

Technorati Tags: memes

84%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Online Dating

No major surprises there. And I’m not even going to say I can quit anytime I want to…

Technorati Tags: blogs, humor, memes

Another personality test.

There’s a more detailed description here. I guess I can live with this. Although…it reminds of a song I heard in college, “I Am a Sensitive Artist.”

Technorati Tags: memes

This feels like lazy blogging to me, but today is one of those days when life stands squarely in the way of blogging. I’ve got three more substantial posts in some phase of completion, but I won’t be able to do much writing until much later this evening. So, I fall back on the busy blogger’s best friend: the meme.

This one I borrowed from Karsh who borrowed it from Fave who borrowed it from someone else. And, because I kind of hate to go a day without posting something I’m borrowing it here.

Technorati Tags: blogs, memes

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I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Besides, I've already admitted as much. According to the Gender Genie, I blog like a girl. Hmmm. Well, most my favorite bloggers and a lot of the ones I read regularly are women. So, as far as I'm concerned, I'm in good company. [Via Lindsay .]

Still recovering from the day, but via Corpus Callosum here’s an interesting “Visual DNA” meme.

Not entirely sure how accurate it is. The “New Wave Puritan” is definitely not me. Strict, organized, and neat are not words that have ever been used to describe me, even by myself. I think that’s because I picked the bedroom I’d like to have. Everything else, though, is pretty much spot on.

Well, that was interesting, though rather long. But I’m not sure I agree with all of the results.
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I already delivered my armchair psychologist assessment of questionable state the president's sanity . Now this website allows you diagnose Dubya via an online assessment form (with some of the info, like extramarital affairs, already filled in). The poll closed on Wednesday, and no further results are being posted, but I filled it out anyway. By my assessment, he scored 38 out of possible 40 on the psychopathy checklist. Out of 5,540 total evaluations (after tossing out the 40s and 1s), he averaged 31.0404. That's just enough to qualify as a psychopath.

Got this from Rachel, who forgot to tag anybody with it, but I decided to join in anyway.

1. Find the nearest book.
2. Turn to page 123.
3. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
4. Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.
5. Name the book and the author, and tag three more folks.

So….

In the 1970s many historians began dating the love match from the eighteenth or even the seventeenth century. Today, many scholars trace the celebration of married love and companionship back to the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. A few even believe the basic contours of marriage go back as far as the thirteenth century.

But I can't resist adding the following as well.

I believe the older system of marrying for political and economic advantage remained the norm until the eighteenth century, five thousand years after we encountered it in the early kingdoms and empires of the Middle East.

That's from Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz. It's a fascinating historical take on marriage, which reveals that what we think of as "traditional marriage" today is a relatively new institution in human history, and that marriage itself has gone through constant changes during human history. (Including some cultures that recognized same-sex unions and included them in the structure of their society, so it hasn't always been an exclusively heterosexual institution.)

In fact, what we recognize as the "traditional family" today, according to Coontz, only reached it's current form in the "long decade of the 1950s," form 1947 to the early 1960s. For more on how even that idealized "family" was a myth, check out Coontz's The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap.

As for who to tag next, I'm not really sure. So, if you read this and you want to join in, by all means please do!

No surprises there…

Via Retrospectacle.