Popular Mechanics the Man's Magazine

I like to put my reading into four categories. The first is incidental which is anything I did not intend to read but did, like a cereal box at breakfast or the instructions on the toothpaste tube. I do this reading when I have nothing else to do and it is the only thing I can reach. The second is professional and this is reading directed solely at learning. The third is entertainment which can be a good mystery, novel, or historical fiction. The fourth and last category is stress reduction reading. This is the intentional brainless reading which I attach no shame in doing. I have one magazine which I use for this purpose and that is Popular Mechanics.

I have had a subscription to Popular Mechanics for many years and I still get excited when each new issue arrives. This is a man's magazine, which makes no pretensions to be anything else. I have no shame in reading it and the Hearst Company has no shame in publishing it.

There are no concessions made to attract female readers. The articles and editorial content are directed toward only a male audience. Traditional female topics are never covered. An article dealing with adding a room will end with the plaster on the drywall, and not go into decorating. Gardening articles concentrate on choosing plants to increase energy efficiency, or block unwanted noise. Attention will be given to how to dig the hole and not to the color or smell of the flowers. Exercise and diet are taboo subjects. New product articles never include exercise equipment, instead they concentrate on manly things like 3D TV and multi purpose remote controls.

Sex does not play well when it finds its way onto the pages. One issue that introduced recent advancements in the fuel injection systems of stern drive power boats included a photo of a bikini clad woman. The next issue was full of irate letters to the editor. It turned out that the woman's leg was blocking an injector port making it impossible to clearly see the advancements made by that manufacturer. Women's legs have their place but not in a real man's magazine.

The January issue, which arrived this week, is a perfect example of how the priorities of a true man's magazine are being maintained by this fine publication. Opening the front page reveals a two-page full color advertisement of a truck. There it was a beautiful pickup truck standing in a field, which reveals some freshly turned dirt, a tree and an antique ice cream truck. I stared longingly at the tailgate of this truck dreaming of owning this red treasure.

The January issue contained forty-one full page advertisements. There were more trucks, a garden tractor with a front-end scoop, a metal lathe and my favorite for this month, a ship I could order and build. A man's magazine must have man's ads. These do more than entice one to buy the products. The ads encourage fantasy and that is a man's favorite pastime.

Most of the articles deal with fantasy. One feature article this month explained how to install your own sump pump. The writer went into great detail on how one can rent a jack hammer and break through the concrete in your basement floor. This created a vision of standing in my basement with a red bandanna wrapped around my forehead catching the sweat pouring from my brow as I exercised control over the gesticulating jack hammer.

The muscles in my arms swelled to match my imagination as I read with envy of anyone who would actually tackle a project like this. I could not help but remember the goose bumps I got when reading the article about digging a leach field to supplement a septic system. The magazine does not confine itself just to home improvement articles. This month there was also an excellent article on repairing the weatherstripping on the trunk lid of your car.

The automotive articles range from the helpful to informative and then dreams. It is common to have a review on a Lamborghini or Rolls Royce written as if each of the readers will soon be purchasing one. I have also noticed that there is never a bad review printed about any of the advertiser's cars. This unabashed concession given to the advertisers is acceptable since no effort is made to conceal it. A real man's magazine must never apologize for what it does.

I will continue to anticipate my Popular Mechanics magazine. I know that for the few hours it takes to read it cover to cover I can be in that testosterone laden environment of real men. There is no need to denigrate women or establish my superiority. I can just be a man, shed my stress and enjoy the articles for what they are.