I think it is perfectly acceptable for 2 guys to get together for an evening in order to engage in the greatest sport of all, the hunting of the wild human female. I think it is perfectly acceptable for men to meet and seek wisdom in the water of life.

The article was as queer as a three dollar bill.

That's nothing. I never knew that kind of discomfort till I found myself caught up in conversations with other stay-at-home dads on topics like naps, diapers, potty training, etc.

The author of the NYT piece has got a very interesting middle name.

David:

That's why you bring a book, so you don't have to talk to them.

The moms always think I'll be more comfortable if there are more of my kind around. Ha!

I saw Master and Commander with a male friend. Does that count?

Brother Cohen would let you slide.

What about going out to shop for electronics or power tools?

That's a sport.

Interesting how the discussions on this site seem to veer towards Gay issues so often. Political Issue?

Yeah sure.

How about lunch with a single friend who can't find Miss Right?

Uh, oh.

h-man: ever since OJ and I had a dialogue about the British navy I have been worried about him. i almost fled to the Central Time zone.

jim:

What did you have, crustless cucumber sandwiches?

This might be the most ridiculous article you've posted here, and that says a lot.

I've been doing this for decades with friends of mine. Whether it is to try a restaurant or just to get together for a laugh. The notion that it is somehow inappropriate requires a rather unhealthy fixation on sexual issues, that should have disappeared after the initial onset of puberty.

bart:

You prove my point.

No, I ate his crust.

After disemboweling him because he didn't know what he wanted in a woman, of course.

OJ,

Actually the obviously arrested development of people like yourself in being dismayed by this behavior demonstrates my point. If you are so consumed about the appearance, i.e. what other people think, of meeting a male friend to go look at a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum and then going to a high-end restaurant afterwards for dinner including the splitting of at least one decent bottle of wine, then you are the guy with sexual issues, not me.

I fail rather badly about the implication of my previous post and so to make amends watch the following video of true red blooded american country girl doing her thing.

Bart is 40 and unmarried and likes to meet "a male friend to go look at a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum and then going to a high-end restaurant afterwards for dinner including the splitting of at least one decent bottle of wine".

Any singing of show tunes?

(Kidding, just kidding)

French Restaurant.

Nathan Lane will play him in the movie.

bart:

Yes, it's called homophobia.

Wouldn't Harvey Fierstein be better?

Too tall.

Bob:

"My Dinner with Andre" transformed into "My Experience with Bart".

OJ,

Stick to sheep.

Four years at a fancy private college and you still lack the basics of couth, culture and sophistication. It really is pathetic that you are so worried about your own sexuality that you can't go out with a male friend to a museum, a concert or a zoo followed by a nice meal without feeling as if you were somehow behaving like a 'gay' man. Maybe, if you just did things you liked with whom you liked and weren't concerned with its appearance, you'd be less of a puritanical jerk.

Yeah, that clinches it. Bart's a man-dater.

A museum followed by a fine meal, eh? OK, I've got couth, I'm game. As I recall, on my last man-date we went to a tavern for draft beer and pickled eggs and then had a farting contest. Great memories.

But a zoo? Bart, that's sick.

Peter, every year I take a personal day in late Spring, which I call Zoo Day. I go to the Bronx Zoo, walk around for most of the day looking at the new exhibits, then I top it off with either beer and lobsters at City Island or Italian food on Arthur Ave. I'll either do it alone or with a friend of similar interests, like my attorney or some of my friends in academia.

What could possibly be wrong with that?

That it screams: Empty life? Those who don't have children stay children.

Bart:

Nothing wrong per se. It is the priority or significance you put on it. You make it sound like the year's major event to be planned and savoured long in advance. I saw this book in a gift shop the other day and thought of you.

Rare is the time the professional gets to act like a 9 year old, so when I can, I schedule and savor those chances. Going on a weekday avoids the crowds. And since I'm a creature of habit, they become predictable so my boss and I have names for my personal days, Zoo Day, Fenway Day(when I fly to Boston for a Sox game with my old thesis adviser), Aquarium Day(like Zoo Day except the food options are Nathan's, Totonno's Pizzeria, or Rasputin Russian Nightclub), Packer Day(when I get tickets at Lambeau)etc.

As for vacations, in the short term, Jewish guilt demands that I fly down to Jacksonville to see them or that I fly them up here to see me. The only permitted exception is some family function either in Wisconsin or France. I didn't even get to do my extended Vegas weekend last year, because Nicolas got married. And I've been to every continent but Antarctica and Australia.

What about MOMA day?

I hate modern art, except for Mondrian, early Picasso and the Austrian Expressionists like Klimt. Pretty much all the rest is a scam, having an Emperor's New Clothes quality about it. My preferences are conventional: French Impressionism, Pontillism and the Dutch and Flemish masters, and Holbein the Elder. I can't stand Gauguin and Rousseau, whose work is cartoonish.