Feminism

Manliness

by Harvey C. Mansfield

Publisher: Yale University Press $27.50

Cool off, Pilgrim. When I got me this here book of yours on manliness, I was spectin' some fine words on a subject close to my heart. Heard tell you were just about the most book-smart man ever wrote on the subject.

But a man's got to have a code to live by. And according to mine, stranger, a real man don't ride around saying things like it's "a considerable… more

Margaret Talbot is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker. She has also written for The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, where she published numerous cover stories as a contributing writer from 1999 to 2003, and The Atlantic Monthly, among other publications. Her essays have been anthologized… more

Just when I thought this columnist gig wouldn't pay off, I got a call from Kenny Yee, L.A.'s "Noodle King." Kenny is the president of Wing Hing Noodles, a local, family-owned firm, as well as the head of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles. He called to ask me to be a judge at this year's Miss Los Angeles Chinatown Pageant. Who was I to turn him down?

Actually, for a week I went around telling anyone who… more