Friendship

How to Make Friends in a New City

by Jeremy Anderberg

Brought to you by Jameson Black Barrel. How to make friends when you move to a new city.

Too Seldom Is Heard an Encouraging Word: Why and How to Offer More Compliments

by Brett & Kate McKay

“Idle words are characterless and die upon utterance. Evil words rankle for a while, make contentions, and then die. But the hopeful, kind, cheering word sinks into a man’s heart and goes on bearing fruit forever. How many beautiful written words—words in book and song and story—are still inspiring men and making the world fragrant [...]

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Listen Up! Part III: Crafting Good Questions and Responses

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Tony Valdes. As this series on listening comes to a close (see part 1 and part 2), we should consider a few things in terms of the transition from listener to speaker. When the time comes for the roles to shift, our responses to the messages of [...]

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Listen Up! Part II: 15 Techniques to Improve Our Listening

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Tony Valdes. Welcome back to our three-part series on becoming better listeners. In the previous installment, we established that listening is a desirable ability to have as men. But how can we practically begin to exercise this ability and develop it in ourselves? There are active steps [...]

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Listen Up! Part I: Learning the Manly Skill of Paying Attention

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Tony Valdes. As part of earning my bachelor’s degree in rhetoric and communications I elected to take SPC 3350, a college course titled “Listening,” taught by the forebodingly named Dr. Paine. I’ll admit that I was skeptical when I sat down on the first day of class. [...]

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Beware The Tit for Tat Trap

by Brett & Kate McKay

As we talked about in a previous post, Kate and I have what might be termed a “Marriage Master Mind.” We share everything just about equally—the blog, parenting, household chores, and so on. We get along really well, especially for people who spend practically 24/7 together and have to balance issues involving both work and [...]

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Look ‘Em in the Eye: Part II – How to Make Eye Contact the Right Way in Life, Business, and Love

by Brett & Kate McKay

In our first post in this two-part series on eye contact, we discussed the importance of eye contact and some of the reasons we don’t always feel comfortable looking someone in the eye. But just because eye contact is a great thing and a vital tool for improving the quality of all your face-to-face interactions [...]

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Look ‘Em in the Eye: Part I – The Importance of Eye Contact

by Brett & Kate McKay

How often have you talked with another guy who never looked you in the eye during the entire length of the conversation? Or perhaps he did meet your gaze a few times, but then his eyes shifted back to his shoes or to some point off in the distance. I’d like to say that the [...]

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Manly Rules for Naming Man’s Best Friend

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Jon Finkel. Presidents are notorious for giving their dogs politically correct names (See: Bill Clinton re: Buddy or Gerald Ford re: Liberty). Lyndon Johnson even had a pair of beagles he simply named Him and Her. But our manliest president, Teddy Roosevelt, would have none of that. [...]

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How a Man Can Grieve for a Deceased Friend

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Marcus Brotherton. How unexpected—and yet not—this late night phone call from Shannon, the wife of my close friend Paul. “Come to the hospital,” Shannon said. “Come say goodbye to your friend.” Paul had already beaten cancer. He had gone through five rounds of chemo. After his hair [...]

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The Ins and Outs of Opening a Door for a Woman

by Brett & Kate McKay

Readers email us surprisingly often with questions about opening doors for women. AoM readers are interested in being gentlemen and obviously understand the basics of this traditional act of chivalry: when you get to a door before a lady, you should open it for her. But they wonder about scenarios where the set-up isn’t as [...]

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The Art of Conversation: How to Avoid Conversational Narcissism

by Brett & Kate McKay

Last month I met up with an old friend I hadn’t seen in forever to have lunch. Having both read and written about how to be an effective and charismatic conversationalist, I followed the old dictum of listening more than talking and asking the other person engaging questions about themselves. This is supposed to charm [...]

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How to Use Your Calling Card

by Brett & Kate McKay

Maybe you’ve been using calling cards for quite some time. Or perhaps you recently invested in a set when we introduced our line of AoM-designed calling cards. Either way you’ve likely already been putting them to use in the obvious way-handing them to new friends, business contacts, and potential love interests. Calling cards truly do [...]

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Forging the Bond Between Brothers

by Bryan Schatz

My brother was in the driveway, shooting free-throws at the basketball hoop our father had attached to the garage. Every day he shot free-throws until he made one hundred of them, all net. He didn’t count them if the ball even slightly grazed the rim. He was thirteen, and this is the kind of discipline [...]

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The Art of Conversation

by Brett & Kate McKay

I think we’ve all encountered men who have a knack for good conversation. They can talk to anybody about anything in a laid-back, casual manner that sets people immediately at ease. A complete stranger can walk away from these conversational maestros feeling like he’s known known them for years. It’s easy to think that the [...]

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How to Firmly Say No Without Coming Off Like a Jerk

by Brett & Kate McKay

We’ve talked a lot about the Nice Guy Syndrome here on AoM. You know the guy. Big time people pleaser, always puts others before himself, lets people walk all over him. Heck, maybe you’re that guy. These so-called Nice Guys might appear happy on the outside, but on the inside they’re feeling burnt out, resentful, [...]

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Don’t Be That Guy: The Taxonomy of Lousy Male Friends

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Steve Kamb. We all know “That Guy,” and we all have at least one in our group of friends. He’s the one scalawag who is generally pleasant to hang out with except for one glaringly painful characteristic. Although there are different species of That Guy, some far [...]

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Our Disembodied Selves and the Decline of Empathy

by Brett & Kate McKay

“Fellow-feeling. . .is the most important factor in producing a healthy political and social life. Neither our national nor our local civic life can be what it should be unless it is marked by the fellow-feeling, the mutual kindness, the mutual respect, the sense of common duties and common interests, which arise when men take [...]

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The Duties of the Best Man

by Brett & Kate McKay

“Wedding season” is currently upon us. June is the most popular month for weddings, and they’ll be going full steam from now until September. You may have received a few invitations in the mail or even been asked to be your friend’s or brother’s best man. Being asked to be the best man in a [...]

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