Well, fuck. We lost Bourdain yesterday. It’s an impossible loss — for no other reason than if Bourdain couldn’t find a way to survive this increasingly awful world of ours, how are the rest of us supposed to make it?
As staff writer Miles Klee pointed out in his gorgeous elegy for the fallen chef/host/writer/provocateur, the best place to start is by trying to be the kind of man Bourdain was. “Bourdain’s writing and spirit should forever put to bed the lies that empathy is weakness, that feminism is an option and that introspection is narcissism. He cultivated flintiness, a style of anger and aplomb through which his optimism shone more forcefully,” Klee wrote.
Read the rest of Klee’s essay, “Anthony Bourdain and the Hope for Better Men,” here. As for everything else from this (sad) week…
The Week’s Most Popular Stories
“Do Men Really Care About A Woman’s Stereotypical ‘Beach Body’?”
The summer beach body is, for better or worse, a cliché most associated with women. But contributing writer Bridget Phetasy wanted to turn that cliché on its head — asking 200 men what they think about the annual pastime of women getting bikini-ready. Their responses will surprise you. READ MORE
“Brendan Fraser’s #MeToo Story Is Why More Male Victims Don’t Speak Out”
There are many reasons why victims of harassment or physical abuse don’t always come forward right away, and for men, “it’s just a joke” is high up on the list. While women are to be permitted their righteous anger at predatory men of influence (in a small degree at least), victimized men have a duty to reframe the same trauma as homosocial horseplay. READ MORE
“Mr. Rogers and Why Kind Men Freak Us Out”
It’s okay if Won’t You Be My Neighbor? makes you cry: It does the same thing for the man who made the documentary. Our resident film critic Tim Grierson talked to Morgan Neville about grace, manliness and the the man himself, Fred Rogers. READ MORE
“Why Do Men Think ‘Crazy’ Women Are Better At Sex?”
An emotionally stable woman or the best fuck of your life? There’s no third option. At least, that’s what men have been taught for generations. So what’s behind this idea that crazy equals hot sex? And more importantly for the fates and fun of men everywhere, is it actually true? Staff writer Tracy Moore investigates. READ MORE
“What Activists Are Doing to Fight the Rampant Growth of Bestiality”
As a whole, bestiality isn’t well understood or tracked in the U.S. That said, experts suggest that the number of bestiality acts has increased in the last decade-plus, fueled by online communities that normalize the act and provide clearer opportunities to engage in sex with an animal. Features writer Eddie Kim looks deeper into the reason why this is happening, and what’s being done to stop it. READ MORE
The Best Way to Cook Your Own Foot
Hope you haven’t eaten anything today. Not only because we’d like to offer up a recipe for human foot (a la the redditor who had his foot amputated in a motorcycle accident, and decided to eat the remains), but because said recipe will probably make your stomach turn. Here it is anyways. Barf.
- Season your foot — easily the most disgusting body part, by the way, how could you ever even consider eating it? — with a dry rub of black pepper, dark brown sugar, paprika and cayenne pepper. Put it in the fridge overnight to sit (thus contaminating all the other food in there).
- Fire up your smoker and bring the heat to between 225 to 250 degrees. Place your seasoned, grotesquely colored foot on the smoker rack. Cover.
- Cook until the center of your foot steak reaches approximately 165 degrees, rubbing it down with barbecue sauce every 45 minutes. Should take about six hours total.
- Shred your foot into bite-size pieces and place between a bun, possibly with a little coleslaw for textural and flavor contrast.
- Serve to your friends, who are either demented enough to willingly eat your foot along with you, or whom you’ve tricked into consuming it.
Quick, Some Eye Bleach
Whew. That’s better.
Still Traumatized?
Try an episode of our daily video series TL;DR:
TL;DR: Reddit Has Made 'The Ocho' from 'Dodgeball' A Reality
The Ocho is no longer a pipe dream, thanks to people on Reddit who have way too much free time.
Posted by MEL Magazine on Friday, June 8, 2018
And Finally, A Word from Our Readers
In the aforementioned piece on “beach bodies,” we spoke to men young and old, guys in relationships and guys who are single. But if you read the comments section, perhaps there’s another demographic we should have focused on?
Okay, okay, so Mr. LeHere is mansplaining the mindset of women. But in our defense, we are a men’s magazine and, us guys, we think we’re pretty smart. Though never smart enough to know when to keep our mouths shut.
Jeff Gross
Jeff Gross is MEL’s senior editor for social media and content marketing. His daily ICYMI column, which chronicles all things meta on the site, is the quickest way to catch up on MEL, and the funniest thing you’ll read all day. Follow him on Twitter.
