Overnight open thread: America’s Manliest Cities (genghis)

Tonight’s non-topic topic concerns an extensive research effort to determine and rank America’s Manliest Cities. Yeah, yeah…it’s a marketing rollout by Mars Foods (for the Combos snack line) but apparently they actually did at least some nominal research compiling the stats on the thing. (Pardon the early post...technical issues, etc.)

“HACKETTSTOWN, N.J., March 5, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Step aside men of Motown, Sin City and the Big Apple. Nashville now ranks as the manliest city in America. Mars Snackfood US announced today the release of "America's Manliest Cities" - a study commissioned by COMBOS(R) Brand in partnership with Bert Sperling, the research expert behind the popular "Best Places to Live" studies.”

”The study used criteria such as the number of professional major league sports teams, the popularity of tools and hardware and the frequency of monster truck rallies.

Cities lost points for "emasculating" characteristics like the abundance of home furnishing stores, high minivan sales and subscription rates to beauty magazines.”

Oddly enough, the city that came in dead last out of the top 50 isn’t what would probably pop into your head immediately. Others just seem to defy logic or at least preconceived notions, such as Chicago and San Diego being ranked in the bottom 10. Below Seattle? Some other conclusions from the study below the fold. The list of cities by rank of manliness is at the first link above.

-- Nashville is the Mecca of manliness. With its high number of NASCAR enthusiasts, popularity of hunting and fishing and concentration of BBQ restaurants, the Music City stands alone atop the mountain of manliness. -- Despite high ratings in the "bowling" category, New York City ranks 50th out of 50 in the study due to low scores in manly indicators such as "fishing," "home improvement" and "drag racing." -- If you're in the Midwest and looking to enjoy a game with a cold beverage, look no farther than St. Louis, which has the highest concentration of sports bars in the country. -- Grand Rapids, Mich. has more monster truck rallies, per capita, than any other U.S. city. -- Philadelphia and Chicago, with low scores in the "hunting" category fail to crack the top 25 (ranked 30th and 46th respectively). -- The men of Oklahoma City know how to snack with gusto. Their city owns the highest purchase rate of salty snacks, such as COMBOS(R). -- Got chainsaws? What about hammers and power drills? The men of New Orleans do. The "Big Easy" boasts more hardware stores per capita than any other U.S. city.

I think they left out some fairly important criteria, such as “Highest Number of Strip Joints Per Capita.” If weighted properly, that would immediately send Portland, Oregon straight to the top of the list. But I guess we all have our own priorites.

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posted by xgenghisx at 08:59 PM

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