July 30, 2005

"Adventures in Masculinity"

Link: Michael Berube Online.

Berube tackles a fallen tree...

We’ve had a couple of severe summer storms lately, and we have an old tree out back that’s about sixty feet tall and six thousand years old, but I’ve never seen anything like this. And I’ve never used a chainsaw, either. I pointed this out to Janet, who, I fear, occasionally forgets that she is married to me and lapses into thinking she is married to one of her three sisters’ husbands/ boyfriends, all of whom Fix Things (and one of whom not only Fixes Things but plays a world-class sax). This is not a coincidence; it is an integral part of the Lyon Family Plan. I recall very well the day in 1985 when I filled out the paperwork that would grant Lyon Family permission for me to marry Janet; when I got to question four, What form of manual dexterity or mechanical skill will you bring to the family? I wrote, “typing speed greater than 90 wpm.” Her parents and siblings laughed long and hard at this, before modulating subtly into mockery and derision.

Posted by Anupam Chander on July 30, 2005 at 02:10 PM in Life | Permalink