Men's Journal

I read very few magazines these days. I used to read a lot: Reader's Digest, Golf, Golf Digest, the random male entertainment rag (note that I read them). The only magazine which consistently captures my interest these days is Men's Journal. The publisher is Jann Wenner, who made his mark at Rolling Stone (and was portrayed by Eion Bailey in Almost Famous, which was basically an homage film to the mag).

The current issue has a usual assortment of intriguing articles. In particular, Matt Taibbi writes about the greatness of the ugly athlete, saying that most high paid, high powered athletes are too pretty to be truly effective at their craft. He points out several examples of ugly beasts (as my 15 year old would say) in notable divisions (Swamp Thing Division: Tayshaun Prince; Area 51 Division: Sam Cassell). The hero of the article, though is a baseball player:

"Then there’s Kevin Youkilis. Youk has only three body parts, all hideously oversized: an enormous set of gnomish, bushy forearms; a massive, casaba melon–size white head; and a cauldronlike belly. He has a truly awesome bristle of thick red chin hair that makes his face look like a cross between a vagina and something out of The Hobbit. At the plate he disgustingly gushes sweat by some means previously unknown to science in which the moisture travels upward along his body, racing in a cascade from his balls and armpits up his neck, over his head, and back down over the bill of his helmet to shower the plate. Whereas a guy like Teixeira was born with a swing so gorgeous you want to paint it, Youkilis fighting a middle reliever to a nine-pitch walk looks like a rhinoceros trying to fuck a washing machine. "

There's also an noteworthy column about the impact of the lowly emerald ash borer on our nation's pastime. The wood of choice for major league bats is ash. This insect is infesting all the major ash growing regions of the US. In a few years, we will likely have to import the wood or switch to maple, which tends to explode more forcefully than ash when subtle cracks are hit by 90 mph fastballs.

Finally, the issue has an article about building the perfect workshop and the power tools needed to stock it. I like the 18 volt Makita drill with the litium ion battery. You just can't have too many $200 drills.