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July 24, 2008
Sounds like a fun thing to do
The 75 Things Every Man Should Do by Esquire
No. 12: Leave yourself a letter in a library book. Look for it twenty years later.
Pick an obscure biography in a college library, since no one there wants to insult obscurity by decataloging a book, and the library will most likely always be there. One page. Be discreet. Type it on erasable bond, tuck it in the back, and hope that no one ever notices. As for content, skip the hopes and dreams. Mention the weather, tell yourself what you ate that morning, make a list of your friends, note how much you weigh and whether you feel fat, remind yourself of a secret you want to keep.
My other favorites from the list are under the fold:
No. 19: Live in a hotel suite for a week.
Lean into the services a good hotel offers as if it were a way of life and it will be. On the first day, order the same breakfast to be delivered to your room at the same time, every day thence. Tell them you like the newspaper on the cart, with no plastic bag. Take long showers. Stop in at the front desk for messages. Greet the doormen with a twenty. Take walks. Take saunas. Learn the name of the room-service manager. Establish a routine involving a cocktail, the balcony, and a bowl of olives. Tell the concierge to make you seven dinner reservations for seven nights. Tell him to surprise you. After you leave, go back a year later and they will remember your name. At a hotel, it is good to be known.
No. 22: Carry a totem in your pocket.
A watch, a badge, a medal, a poker chip, a silver certificate -- for one year. Then give it away. My dad, whose brothers were tailors, carried a thimble on his key ring for forty years. In our house, where keys were constantly interchanged and lost, it marked the set as his. Several years ago, he gave the thimble to me. He’d had several strokes by then, and he was afraid he was going to lose it. I told him to put it away instead, to leave it on his dresser. He shrugged and asked me why. “I can’t remember anything,” he told me. “And you can. That’s the point of a thing like that.”
No. 37: Get very good at a sport that isn’t a sport.
Horseshoes. Poker. Beanbag toss. Discuss this with no one. Use it when the time comes. Rest assured, the time will come. When it does, don’t take over, don’t push others around. Just execute and dominate.
No. 38: Listen to war stories.
Buy a veteran a beer. Ask your questions.
No. 47: Attend the funeral of someone you didn’t know that well.
Attendance at a funeral registers. You don’t have to stick around. You don’t have to cry. You can just sit there and take some lumps for the copy guy you ignored, or the coworker you basically forgot about, or the neighbor you never properly introduced yourself to. Sometimes the best respect you can offer is the last respect.
Posted by OneEyedMan at July 24, 2008 8:40 AM
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