Just decided to pull myself away from the TV, watching some ridiculous show on the Travel Channel about the "manliest" restaurants in America. Really? To be totally honest, I could give a flying fuck about how "manly" a restaurant is. I have no problem with hitting a steakhouse - if I'm flush with cash or someone else is buying. But I'd much rather cook it myself. Isn't putting a slab of dead animal on the grill and cooking it yourself by its very nature primordial and therefore manly - not to mention a whole fuck of a lot cheaper?
And of course, different people have their own notions of what a 'manly' restaurant ought to be. Here's Denis Leary's take from No Cure For Cancer (fast forward to about 7:15). I have to admit to having something of a soft spot for Denis Leary's comedy. But why not take it a step further? Why not have every seat in the restaurant be a toilet, with a woman under the table giving the patron a blumpkin as he ate his giant hunk o' meat? If the link I just gave you isn't informative enough, I'm sure there's probably some.... how shall we say it.... adult-oriented website out there that has a video of it. Don't say I didn't warn you.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I'm as much of a red-blooded man as anyone else, does anyone else find something like that to be a bit much? I'm not even particularly interested in going to a Hooters. Hot chicks in next to nothing doesn't make up for mediocre food if you ask me. And since there are plenty of strip clubs with full dinner menus out there - my wife and I visited on in Bend, OR once - doesn't that make a place like Hooters irrelevant?
I'm just not impressed with guys who feel they need to establish status and credibility through displays of overt masculinity. I could give a fuck less who the 'alpha dog' is, or who has the 'type A' personality. I don't give a shit if you feel you have to make some display of superiority in front of me. I'm not impressed. You ordered the sixty-ounce steak and you're going to try to eat it all in one sitting? Enjoy the vomiting, asshole. And the cholesterol. I'll be just fine with the twelve-ounce portion, or maybe the sixteen if I'm really hungry. You really should only be eating four-ounce portions of proteins, and leavening that with lots of vegetables and grains. You might feel manly, but I'll live longer and better. You feel the need to drive a lifted truck down the highway at 80mph? Hey, gas is only $3.05 a gallon or so here in Port Angeles, who cares if that monster only gets 10 miles to the gallon? I'll drive my POS at 55 - I won't even take it over 65 unless absolutely necessary - and get where I'm going safely, efficiently, and not pay an arm and a leg for gas then sell a kidney to cover the insurance. I don't feel the need to display my masculinity on a minute to minute basis. My wife loves me just the way I am. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get dinner started. It's time for my awesome meat loaf.
Sorry, just had to rant.
