Maxim is just Playboy with smaller words and more clothing.

Yeah, it was weird to watch my friend be transformed by reading Maxim. He became super-materialistic, got into designer labels and started wearing cologne and obsessed with dating as many women as possible. He liked women fine and had girlfriends before, but his attitudes completely changed. From philosophy student to pussyhound asshole.

I wondered why, then over at his house I found all these copies of Maxim, read them, and realized what happened. It was really weird to see the influence of advertising work on another person like that.

The story closes with this:

Louise McIntosh, the manager of the Refinery, an all-male beauty salon in London, said that men who paid for treatments such as Indian head massages, pedicures and enzymatic mud wraps, left the salon "looking unquestionably masculine".

Well, okey dokey then. Wasn't Ben Johnson a big fan of enzymatic mud raps? Or maybe that was Warren Oates.

Not to derail this thread, but I peaked into the Oliver Willis blog, (dubbed Filet o' Fish, by Ace) and I wasted many hours crafting a thoughtful response to some anti-war, foul mouthed, irrational creep.

I'm amazed at what kinds of people are our neighbors in this country.

Oh and Men's Health is only slightly better than Maxim, just for the gizmos and the recipes.

That was me with the blockquote two posts up. I was so proud of my new HTML skill, and then I went and forgot to sign my post.

Symptoms of the "illness" that has been dubbed "mantropy" include a penchant for pedicures, fruit smoothies and small dogs.

Uh, besides the preference in dogs, does anything else atrophy? A girls gotta know!

Maybe I'm just spoiled, but when I think reading the "lad-mags," enzyme wraps, manicures, crying on the Senate floor, bla bla bla and I think: "Geldings."

I believe these men are also known as Manginas.

No, Maxim is actually the flip side of Cosmopolitan (both are owned by the same publisher). It's essentially Cosmo for men, but with better models and better sex tips.

Vladimir said

"Not to derail this thread, but I peaked into the Oliver Willis blog, (dubbed Filet o' Fish, by Ace) and I wasted many hours crafting a thoughtful response to some anti-war, foul mouthed, irrational creep."

Oh, I wouldn't call it a wast of time Vladimir. I was quite entertained, and your points nicely backed up my own thoughful response to the abovementioned anti-war, foul mouthed, irrational creep.

We have to take the good fight to the enemies camp now and again just to see what nonsense they are up to, and to rattle their cage. Musn't get stuck in our own "Echo Chamber" after all.

The problem with Men's Health and the rest of that lot is that after a couple of issues you realize they're just saying the same thing over and over. I can save everyone the price of a subscription:

For good health, eat right and exercise. (And no, there really aren't 150 different ways to do curls. There are three.)

To get women, bathe regularly and try not to be an ass.

That's pretty much it. Now go buy Hustler.

Symptoms of the "illness" that has been dubbed "mantropy" include a penchant for pedicures, fruit smoothies and small dogs.
Total crap. I've got a chihuahua and I'm about as manly as you get without being "too manly" if you know what I mean.

Is this an appropriate time to admit that I subscribe to Maxim? Yeah, I like the card tips.

And the boobies.

Digital Brownshirt,

Is your dog named Nacho? If I had a Chi-hua-hua I'd name him Nacho.

He's named Charger, after the NFL team.

Hmmmm. That's a pretty good name. Maybe he can have a middle name, too.

I vote for Nacho.

I vote for Salsa. Or Frijoles.

Great, now I'm hungry.

Later,
bbeck

Charger Nacho Frijoles!

A great pet name AND the body of nonsensical email spam.

Anybody else noticed that Instapundit doesn't seem to have forgotten his little falling out with Andrew Sullivan? He just keeps on getting in a dig here and there. Don't piss off Glenn Reynolds, I guess. Andrew Sullivan deserves it, though.

Maxim is better than Playboy. A little pube does not outweigh a much better spectrum of celeb boobage and much better articles. Some of their oddball journalism, like their tour with the 3rd ACR in Kuwait, is really damned good.

Too bad Penthouse started to suck.

Those mags are OK, if you're a left-wing metrosexual. Otherwise, planetmoron summed them all up nicely. For the semi-nude boobage pics, that's what the Internet was created for.

OT alert

I am recording a local radio show on which The Therapist will be a guest, on an old dinosaur cassette tape. This radio show has streaming audio on the web.

Is it possible to record directly from the web into an audio file? Or would this require a CD burner?

If only I could find a magazine that had cool guitars AND boobies.

That would be great.

I think this subject was the basis for the creation of King of the Hill.

Louise McIntosh, the manager of the Refinery, an all-male beauty salon in London, said that men who paid for treatments such as Indian head massages, pedicures and enzymatic mud wraps, left the salon "looking unquestionably masculine".

How would he know? As Guthrie said in Rob Roy, "he could not tell arse from quim."