Around the Horn

Over at The Mantuary, The Founding Father has featured perhaps the manliest product The Common Man has seen in a long time. It's small, powerful, practical, and affordable. It is, ladies and gentlemen, the pocket chainsaw. Just how it works is a mystery to The Common Man, as The Founding Father was a little light on the details. However, he claims that it allowed him to fell his own Christmas tree in 58 seconds flat (impressive, indeed). It also is small enough to fit in your pocket, making it ideal to take on camping trips or for any other occasions you think you might need to pull a chainsaw out of your pocket (which happens to The Common Man at least once a day. And at just $22 on Amazon, The Common Man challenges any real man to not get one. How can anyone with testosterone possibly resist?


The Art of Manliness is always abundant with advice and information for the manly man, but was particularly impressive this week, as they explained both how to be a good party guest and how to dress appropriately for a job interview. Given that The Common Man and The Uncommon Wife really enjoy entertaining, he appreciated the party guest advice, and hopes some of his future guests were paying attention. And he hopes that no one spills a gravy boat of orange sauce on the floor, and grinds pink frosting into the carpet without telling anyone at future parties. That cost The Common Man a security deposit once. Also, buried deep in the comments of the interview post, one man's sad secret is revealed, that he has no idea how to tie a tie. The mind reels at the thought.

Shysterball has spent a lot of words going over just how hypocritical and corrupt the New York Yankess and the New York City government have been over the construction of the new Yankee Stadium that is scheduled to open next spring. And now, he has proof in the form of emails. According to Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News, "In March 2006, the city's chief tax assessor put the market value for the stadium site at $27 million, far lower than the Yankees wanted. A Finance Department official ordered him to redo the report. Within hours, he jacked up it up to $204 million." This allowed the Yankees to qualify for almost a $1 billion in tax-exempt bonds. As Shysterball says, "New Yankee Stadium is built on a foundation of graft." In tough economic times, this particular pickpocketing of the public coffers is tough to take, especially since the Major League Baseball in general, and the Yankees in particular, are flush with cash. Their financial outlook is entirely different from the Big Three automakers and big banks, whose bailout The Common Man tends to support.


The Common Man may be out of touch tomorrow. But he'll try to check back in tomorrow night. If he can't, he'll see you beautiful people on Mondahy. A manly day of football to you all. Go Vikings!