Another Monday after another plane ride; another week ahead in the Arctic environs of the upper Midwest.  We could really use a little of that global warming right now.

This appeared yesterday from the inestimable Dave Barry:  Dave Barry’s Manliness Manifesto.  Excerpt:

But the point is, these pioneering men did not do “crunches.” These men crunched the damn continent—blazing trails, fording rivers, crossing mountain ranges, building log cabins, forging things with forges, etc. We modern men can’t do any of those things. We don’t have the vaguest idea how to ford a river. We’d check our phones to see if we had a fording app and, if not, we’d give up, go back home and work on our cores.

We American men have lost our national manhood, and I say it’s time we got it back. We need to learn to do the kinds of manly things our forefathers knew how to do. To get us started, I’ve created a list of some basic skills that every man should have, along with instructions. You may rest assured that these instructions are correct. I got them from the Internet.

This is a matter that has perplexed yr. obdt. for some time, in spite of personally having maintained a tight connection with the Manly Arts, and not just on the one week a year when loyal sidekick Rat and I head to the mountains to do battle with antlered ungulates.  A man should know how to do certain things:  Catch fish, operate heavy equipment, use a rifle, shotgun and handgun, start a fire without matches or lighter.  A man should be able to change a tire.  He should be able to jump start a car.  He should be able to drive a manual transmission vehicle.  He should now how to find his way in the woods without a GPS device.

Mr. Barry is right to decry the loss of manly skills, but there are still a lot of us out there who maintain them; Brad Paisley said it best: