testosteroni

The real San Francisco treat.

ahem, now that we've gotten that out of the way.

So apparently, I'm a guy. Err, let me back up.

I picked up my mail today, and as is often the case, there was a new magazine waiting for my perusal. I seem to have gotten on some weird mailing list where they decided I need to be enlightened with new subscriptions from time to time, none of which I've paid for. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I've been able to drool over many pictures in Cooking Light this way. What, you want me to actually *cook* the recipes in there? Pshh. You obviously don't know me very well.

Anyways, back to today's magazine. It's an issue of a magazine I've never heard of, Sync. Ignoring the scantily clad, airbrushed model on the cover (because really, what magazine cover doesn't have one of those?), I zoom in on a few snippets of headlines: "Mind-blowing New Gadgets for 2005!" "Free Gear! Flat Screens, DVD Burners, Digital Cameras..." Woohoo, this sounds right up my alley! Eagerly, I dive in, and start flipping through the pages, and... hello. Something's a bit off, and it takes me a minute to figure out what it is. There seem to be just a few too many pictures of lingerie, women in skimpy bathing suits, and columns with topics like Baby Spice's Top 10 Pink Items, replete with a picture of her in a dress slit up to there and cut down to there. I flip back to the cover, and there it is. The explanation. The subtitle. The mission statement, if you will. There, in a font about a tenth of the size of the title, it says, "Stuff for a Man's Life".

Oh, but why. Why, I ask?? This is clearly a geeky gizmo magazine. The content would have survived on its own. I, for one, loved the short interview with Robert Adler, the guy who invented the tv clicker. And the review on noise-cancelling heaphones? Spot on. Those Bose babies are amazing, it's like your life has been transformed into a movie montage. Things are happening "on the screen in front of you", but all you hear is the music of the soundtrack.

But back to Sync. Why did its creators feel the need to window-dress it with "manly stuff" and lose any chance of a female readership? I'm guessing they read this and decided the gals were a lost cause anyways. Ah well, I guess it's a good thing the mail gods have decided I'm a guy. Where else am I going to find out about things like MP3 vending machines?