Sunday Reads: Surviving a ‘Nice Guy’ Bootcamp, The Millennials Chandler Bing-ing It at Work and the World of Competitive Whistling

Everybody having a nice weekend? You can’t answer so I’ll just assume you’re suffering from crippling end-of-summer depression like the rest of us. I kid, I kid. Take a walk outside, it’s another beautiful day in Trump’s America. Just, don’t drink the water, mmk?

Must Read

“My Weekend at ‘Nice Guy’ Bootcamp”
Are you too nice of a nice guy? Perhaps you need to go to a workshop for men hoping to become less nice. One such workshop, the 48-hour No More Mr. Nice Guy® Breaking Free Bootcamp, held on the outskirts of London, promises to help its attendees free themselves from the limits of their “Nice Guy” personas — assuming you can stomach the cutting insults and venomous rage of its participants. C. Brian Smith visited the boot camp — which aims to “cure” nice guys who suffer under the belief that being “good” will allow them to be loved, have their needs met and experience a problem-free life — in an effort to unleash his inner bad boy. READ MORE

The Week in Features

Just Out Here Chandler Bing-ing It
Do you know what any of your friends — particularly those “in the digital space” — actually do for a living? Probably not. In fact, an entire generation of white-collar folks with degrees from universities they still owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to are following in the fabled corporate footsteps of Chandler Bing — the 1990s sitcom character whose actual occupation remains an enigma to even his closest “friends.”

Snakes on a Phone
Almost anyone of a certain age remembers Snake, the Nokia brick-phone game that was as ubiquitous as it was beloved. But few people know the story of how Snake was created — or have ever heard from the Finnish software engineer who created it and sparked a billion-dollar industry — until now.

Incels Without… Hate?
More or more, the hatred and anger of incels has turned violent — from 22-year-old Elliot Rodger’s Santa Barbara killing spree to the livestreamed murder of Bianca Devins. Now, however, a supposedly softer faction of incels has come out eschewing the hate that’s long been a pillar of their movement. But is the damage is already done?

Beautiful Strangers
You could spend thousands of dollars a year talking to a therapist in an effort to improve your mental health. Or — and bear with me now — you could ride the bus or take the subway. Because striking up a conversation with strangers (like the ones you might meet on public transport, at the gym or at the supermarket) is the cheapest form of therapy there is — if, of course, you can get past the awkwardness factor.

The Ban-Happy Men of Tinder
It’s a common story: Girl meets boy on Tinder. Girl and boy text on the dating platform, maybe make plans to see each other. Girl says something to boy that boy doesn’t like, or changes her mind. Boy flies into a rage, reveals his true colors and vindictively reports girl for violating the app’s Terms of Use or Community Guidelines in some way, resulting in her permanent ban. It’s a scenario that’s more typical than you might think, and it often leaves the women on the receiving end hurt, bewildered and with little to no recourse for getting the ban reversed.

RuPaul’s DragCon Dads
Since launching in 2015, DragCon NYC, the immersive manifestation of reality-TV juggernaut RuPaul’s Drag Race, has become the premier daytime event for fans of drag and the show. Many of the show’s devotees, however, are young girls, and where they go, a throng of dads, uncles and male family friends aren’t far behind. But don’t think that the guys supporting the young superfans in their life are just chauffeurs — they’re fully committed.

Five Things We Learned This Week

1. The Trevi Fountain collects $4,000 a day in wishes coins. That’s a lotta money — $1.5 million a year, in fact. All those Euros, quarters and pence don’t go to Rome’s coffers, however. They go somewhere far more heartwarming.
2. White Claw might be the most popular hard seltzer, but it’s hardly the healthiest. You probably haven’t heard of #1 on our list of waistline-friendly hard seltzers, but maybe you should.
3. Of all the training montages in the Rocky franchise, experts say Adonis Creed’s in Creed was the weakest. Can you guess which Rocky film had the most bad-ass training scene (bad-ass in this case meaning the one that will get your ass in the best shape most effectively)?
4. Vape-juice homebrewers are bracing for Trump’s flavored e-cigarette crackdown. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to take this abuse sitting down.
5. “Competitive whistling” is a real thing that exists. And when the sport’s greatest “athletes” aren’t putting their lips to the ultimate test, they’re using their talents to create some incredible music.

Quote of the Week

News broke this week that Paramount is slating the 1997 John Woo gonzo classic Face/Off for a reboot, and people are pissed. How does one remake something that was so bat-shittingly perfect? The whole point of a film where Nic Cage and John Travolta put on epically hammy performances, and unbelievably, SWAP THEIR FACES, was that no one could expect to top it. And Miles Klee would argue that nobody ever has — or ever can in the future.

But Don’t Take Our Word For It…

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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.