Author: Brett and Kate McKay

In the film versions of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novels, 007 often wins the day through the use of special high-tech gadgets furnished by the Q Division. But in the books that birthed the character, Bond very rarely relies on wiz-bang gizmos, or really, very many tools at all, to defeat the world’s super villains. The literary Bond certainly knows how to wield a gun and drive a car like his cinematic counterpart, but his equipment is comparatively minimal. The secret to his success instead rests more primarily on his possession of a singular quality: Savoir-faire. It’s a wonderful … Continue reading →

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Up until the 20th century, a man’s roots — his ancestry — formed an important part of his identity. Noble families in ancient Rome displayed wax masks of their ancestors in their homes as reminders of their legacy. In ancient Japan, ancestor worship was common, and families fiercely guarded the scrolls that contained their genealogy. The goal in life was to live in a way that would bring honor to the family. In the 19th century, it was typical for homes in Europe and the U.S. to prominently display a family Bible that had been passed down through the generations … Continue reading →

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No element of men’s style combines fashion and function quite like the wristwatch. Nor does any other male accessory inspire such devotion and interest. Nevertheless, in recent times there have been those who believed the watch had finally met its demise in the smartphone and would fade away with other sartorial anachronisms like monocles and sock garters. And yet the popularity of the wristwatch persists. To understand why, we need to understand the history of this timepiece, how its past continues to inform its present, and why a man might consider wearing a watch in the 21st century. History of Wristwatches  … Continue reading →

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A few years ago, we highlighted the manly last words of 16 men. Since then, we’ve discovered many more intriguing, poignant, badass, or just plain virile utterances given right before a man stepped into the abyss of the great beyond. Today we highlight 25 more pre-death declarations. The top ace pilot of WWI, the Red Baron uttered these words after being shot in the chest during aerial combat and roughly landing his plane in a field in France. Kaputt is German for broken, busted, finished. A Dutch naval lieutenant fighting in the Belgian War of Independence, Speyk so despised his foe, that when … Continue reading →

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As Lesley M. M. Blume observes in Let’s Bring Back: The Lost Language Edition, while clothing fashions have a way of cycling in and out of popularity, when the sun sets on popular slang, it tends to remain buried forever. This isn’t always a bad thing — no one is jonesing for “Tubular!” and “Groovy!” to resurrect from the 1980s and 60s, respectively. In some cases, however, where words have died, no equally worthy substitutes have risen in their places. This is particularly the case when it comes to our modern stock of insults and put-downs. If someone we meet … Continue reading →

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Saving someone who is drowning is more difficult and dangerous than many people think (heck, even realizing someone is drowning is hard — the signs don’t look like you think they would.) A person who’s drowning can be panicked and clutch, kick, and grab at you as you try to rescue them, dragging you both underwater. And simply carrying someone through the water to safety who isn’t fighting you is more physically arduous than you’d imagine. For this reason, the first recourse to saving a drowning victim should be to extend a rope, oar, or stick to them from the shore, … Continue reading →

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Editor’s note: The following selection comes from The Technique of Building Personal Leadership (1944) by Donald A. Laird. It has been condensed from the original chapter. A group of ambitious management executives attended a conference in the Societies’ Engineering Building in New York City. Almost all the men were college graduates. They were well dressed, well fed, polished. Each stated his opinions carefully and fluently. The meeting simply reeked of logic. But it was getting nowhere. It needed some magnetism to pull it together. When it seemed that the conference might break up with nothing accomplished, a shrimp of a man … Continue reading →

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A couple centuries ago, pickpocketing was the scourge of cities around the world. From Dickens’ London to New York City’s famous Five Points, skilled thieves practiced their craft, filching the valuables of passersby without the victim noticing a thing. In fact, that’s how pockets in clothing got their start: Prior to the 17th century, men and women alike carried their valuables in purses outside the body; they then started tying pouches inside their clothes in an attempt to thwart would-be “cutpurses” and thieves. But pickpockets soon adapted and learned how to deftly extract the goods from trouser, waistcoat, and jacket … Continue reading →

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As a teenager, flip flops were a staple for me in the summer. I would go through a pair or two each season. But as I got older,  I stopped wearing flip flops. Why? Well, for starters, I realized that men have really ugly feet and that most people probably don’t want to see my ugly man toes all the time. Additionally, flip flops just became too casual and adolescent for my maturing style sensibilities. As I started to dress more “grown-up,” flip flops didn’t seem to fit in anymore. Now I only wear them when I’m going to the … Continue reading →

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Editor’s note: I’ve long been a proponent of the benefits of cold showers, and cold baths are just as good, if not better, as they allow your whole body to be submerged. As another witness to the wisdom of this practice, today I add the endorsement of world famous strongman Eugen Sandow. Under the heading “The Magic Cold Bath” in his health and fitness manual, Strength and How to Obtain It (1897), Sandow recommends taking a frigid dip after each exercise session. While he suggests only staying in a cold bath for a few seconds, I personally try to soak for up to 20 … Continue reading →

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Come! Enter a banquet hall of the early Middle Ages and sit down to enjoy some dinner. At one end of the table is a whole spit-roasted pig, which seems to be looking at you funny. At the other end are a few game birds, their feathers still intact. Your dining companions sniff at the platters and snort in approval. The host carves up the meat and passes it down. Each man holds a knife (his only utensil) in one hand and grabs a piece of meat with his other, stuffing it in his face and chewing with his mouth … Continue reading →

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This pithy little maxim was first coined by the British politician and prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, and adopted as a motto by many other high-ranking Brits — from members of royalty to navy admirals, to fellow prime minsters Stanley Baldwin and Winston Churchill. The maxim well encapsulates the stiff-upper lipped-ness of the Victorian age, but the timeless wisdom it contains has made it a guiding mantra of powerful, confident, accountability-prizing men up through the modern day. The “nevers” of course aren’t ironclad and don’t apply to every situation, and even when they should apply, they can be hard to follow through on! … Continue reading →

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In this series on mastering your attention, we have emphasized the fact that attention is not just the ability to focus on a single task without being distracted, but in fact is comprised of several different elements that must be effectively managed. But this doesn’t mean that single-minded focus is not of paramount importance. Yesterday we compared managing your different kinds of attention to being the supreme commander of your mind – you must be able to deftly maneuver and deploy your units to various battles. But good management can only get you so far; to win the war on … Continue reading →

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It’s a new year and people all over the world are making resolutions on how they’re going to improve themselves. Usually these goals consist of doing something new or adding a habit to their lives: get back into exercising, start journaling, launch a side hustle, adopt the Paleo diet, earn more money, etc. But after a few weeks of motivated effort, most folks start to lose steam. They stop going to the gym, never sign up for that woodworking class, and go back to eating Pop Tarts and Doritos. And then they feel like crap because they haven’t made any … Continue reading →

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If you’re like thousands of folks across the country, the beginning of a new year — and its attendant resolution making — has prompted you to think about joining a gym. Alternatively, maybe you’re contemplating fleeing the new year’s crowds and creating your own gym in the garage. Or, perhaps you’re feeling stuck deciding between these two ideas and can’t make up your mind about which course of action to take. If so, this article is for you. Six months ago, Kate and I canceled our gym memberships and created a home gym in our garage. Gus starting preschool this … Continue reading →

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