Drink More, Earn More

A new study came out concluding that people who drink socially earn 10 to 14 percent more than teetotalers. According to Edward Stringham, co-author of the study, “Social drinking builds social capital.” Social capital — as in new contacts, networking, and closer relationships. With the end result being higher salaries.

Interestingly, men who drink earn 10 percent more than abstainers. But women who drink earn 14 percent more. Hmmmm.

[via Mutual Improvement, who unfortunately make arguments against the study. Booooo!]

Dethroner

Joel Johnson, of gizmodo fame, unveiled new men’s blog dethroner this week.

Dethroner.com is an every day digest of news, advice, DIY projects, pictures of lions, grooming products, and fist-clenching admonishment. It’s the perfect guide for the imperfect man.

At first I assumed Joel was inspired by what we’ve done here, given our antonymic names, but it seems we both started at the same time. I liken our sites to brothers, with dethroner filling the role of the mischievous younger sibling. Go check it out and see what you think.

open forum fridays

Week in and week out, we ramble on endlessly about all sorts of topics we think are worth sharing.  Now we’re handing the mic over.

I’m proud to introduce another new feature here on UM.  “Open Forum Fridays” is all about you.  Whatever YOU feel like discussing. 

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The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen

As if your Netflix queue wasn’t long enough, Pajiba has 10 more movies to add. I’ve only see Shallow Grave, which was great. And being a Gary Oldman fan, I definitely look forward to checking out Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.

Tom Waits - Orphans

Tom Waits has a new album, Orphans, out November 21st, 2006. The release’s 56 tracks are carefully spread out over 3 discs labeled Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards. The limited edition also comes with a 94 page booklet of lyrics and rare photos.  Tom had this to say about the breadth of the album.

On Orphans there is a mambo about a convict who breaks out of jail with a fishbone, a gospel train song about Charlie Whitman and John Wilkes Boothe, a delta blues about a disturbing neighbor, a spoken word piece about a woman who was struck by lightening, an 18th century Scottish madrigal about murderous sibling rivalry, an American backwoods a cappella about a hanging. Even a song by Jack Kerouac and a spiritual with my own personal petition to the Lord with prayer…There’s even a show tune about an old altar boy and a rockabilly song about a young man who’s begging to be lied to.

You can get a taste of the album by downloading “Bottom Of The World” free of charge.

finding a decent apartment

I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about apartments from hell. 

From vindictive landlords to bug problems, to intolerable neighbors and beyond, there is a lot of potential danger when you’re getting ready to sign on the dotted line.

After all, the leasing agent’s sole job is to sell you on the place.  Honesty is not always on their agenda.

It’s quite refreshing then to find the internet, as usual, coming to the rescue.

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How to Sleep Only 4 1/2 Hours a Day

Really. And not die from exhaustation or need a coffee maker strapped to your back. Actually you feel quite good — not at all “sleep-deprived.”

The method to the madness is sleeping in 90 minute increments. 3 hours. 4.5 hours. 6 hours. 7.5 hours. Definitely not 8 hours.

Glen Rhodes has a blog post titled “The Power of the Sleep Cycle” with all the details. For over 3 years now, he’s been sleeping 3 hours at night and taking a 90 minute nap after work. No tiredness, ill side-effects, or caffeine addiction — just lots of extra time.

If your schedule doesn’t allow a 90 minute nap, consider sleeping 6 or 7.5 hours at night. You might be surprised to wake up feeling a lot more refreshed and awake compared to your usual 8 hours.

Discerning Quality Food

Get into good foods with Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating.  Slashfood summarizes the book as follows:

Its subtitle promises that it will tell you “How to Choose the Best Bread, Cheeses, Olive Oil, Pasta, Chocolate, and Much More” and it is one of the best, easiest to read guides you can find, and will be useful, or at least enjoyable, to anyone interested in learning more about the specifics of some important food groups.

It’s already on my wishlist.

bar bets you can’t lose

In a social situation, there are two types of people; the ones being watched, and the ones watching. 

Women are always drawn to someone who’s the center of attention. 

In a bar or club setting, one way to be ‘that guy’ is by learning a few simple bar bets (aka ones you can’t lose).

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Off-Peak Travel

Italy in January. London in April. Eastern Europe in October. Not all in the same year of course. But I am a big fan of off-peak travel. Celebrating New Year’s in St Mark’s Square was unforgettable. Walking down Unter den Linden with a cool Autumn breeze and the changing leaves was sublime. And London in Spring — well, it was overcast, like it is all the time.

Smarter Travel has an article for choosing good off-peak destinations. (Basically, visit the Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory to find the office of the place you’re interested in visiting — then call and ask what times of year are off-peak). They have an older article on the top five off-peak Summer destinations as well. No matter what time of year you can travel, seriously consider visiting a place that’s off-peak — you won’t regret it.

How To Store Open Wine

A wine spends most of it’s life developing in the bottle. After the wine is opened and the air mixes, the wine starts to die. At this point you have only a limited number of days to drink it. The older a wine is, the more delicate and fragile it becomes. Thus an older wine will spoil much quicker than a younger wine. A younger wine conversely benefits from a little air, artifically aging and rapidly developing character. Read more

drink for free

If there’s one thing in life I love more than a cocktail, it’s a free cocktail.

Modern Drunkard has an excellent article eschewing the proper ploys to get you soused on the cheap. 

The techniques run the gamut from beginner (almost anyone can do it, with little or no guilt) to the truly diabolical (and even more powerful) advanced techniques that may require a bit of, ahem, suspension of morality. 

Either way, you’re getting drunk. Read more

Inexpensive Australian Cabernet Sauvignons

Record Online has the results of a recent Wall Street Journal blind wine tasting. Critics Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher tried a variety of Australian cabernet sauvignons under $20, and gave us their favorites.

I’ve added the 2004 Yalumba to my ever-growing cork’d shopping list — I’m hoping it goes well with leftover thai peanut chicken!

Details Magazine in 60 seconds

In Nanjing China the Rising Sun Anger Release Bar let’s customers hit the wait staff.

Little Children is a movie about a woman cheating on her internet-porn addicted husband.

Horizontal striped shirts are cool.

There are a few man spas.

Web guys make up 6 of Details 50 most influential men under 42.

#4 Chad Hurly & Steven Chen - You Tube

#5 Celebloggers
Trent Vanegas - Pink is the New Blog
Mario Lavandeira Perez Hilton
Josh Levin - Cameraman

#8 Jimmy Wales - Wikipedia

#11 The google guys - Sergey Brin & Larry Page

#24 Chris Dewolfe & Tom Andreson - Myspace

#43 Political Bloggers
Eli Pariser - moveon.org
Markos Moulitsas - Daily Kos

Women in the kitchen sexy. There may be a reason or two or three behind this.

Revlon’s chairman Ronald Perelman doesn’t take any shit, nor does he believe in sending flowers.

happy birthday urban monarch

We recently celebrated a milestone here at Urban Monarch; our 100th post.  (Actually, our 106th post, but who’s counting).

Now that we’ve compiled a sizable volume of information, I thought it would be good to point out some ways to find some of the older articles you may have missed.

Some of you are old hands at this ‘blog’ thing, but for anyone who’s just recently come on board here are some tips to get the most out of our website.

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18 Tricks to Teach Your Body

Men’s Health has a handy article with 18 tricks to common problems, just by having a bit of knowledge about your body. A few of them include:

• Hold your breath underwater longer
• Better hearing at a loud bar
• Clear a stuffed nose
• Reduce the pain of needle injections
• Cure a toothache

The one I’m most curious to try is fixing the “stitch” in your side from running (exhale as your left foot hits the ground). A couple tips are silly and fun, but most are genuinely useful. Check it out.

The Science of the Female Orgasm

Women experience orgasms different than men, something men are well aware of.  With the help of new research, the understanding of that difference is becoming more clear.  A new study monitored brain activity as partners stimulated each other.  The results give interesting insight.

The key to female arousal seems rather to be deep relaxation and a lack of anxiety, with direct sensory input from the genitals playing a less critical role.

One other interesting fact was found.

The experiments also revealed a rather surprising effect: both men and women found it easier to have an orgasm when they kept their socks on.

men’s skin care made simple

Let’s face it, many men shy away from proper skin care because they think it’s either too complicated or too expensive. 

Men might also think using ‘let’s face it’ in a post about skin care is a horrible pun, but these men are wrong.  Bow before my brilliance. 

The truth is, there are really only three simple steps that need to be followed to take better care of your skin, and the products required need not be expensive.

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Welcome Aboard

As you probably suspect, the in-flight announcements given by flight attendants are more truthiness than actual fact. We all know cell phones can’t be a huge risk on the flight, since it’s a given that one of the passengers will forget to turn theirs off.

The Economist has a funny (and eye-opening) article of what truthful in-flight announcements might sound like. Pass it on to all your single-serving friends.

Do It Yourself Wine Tasting Seminar

In the often intimidating and confusing wine arena, Chef JoAnna invites the novice with a simple do it yourself wine tasting seminar.

Wine is such a wide and vast subject that I don’t ever feel like I could come close to being good with it. I’m still anxious about the different brands, I don’t pay much mind to terroir, and I don’t know a thing about vintages. Sometimes the descriptions I read in Food & Wine sound more like porn than beverages. Which is fun, but not very instructive.

The plan is to buy two of the same wine from different producers and observe the differences. Also included is a link for a wine terminology glossary.

sidestep travel search engine

 

In the past, I used to be a die hard Expedia devotee when it came time to make travel arrangments.  Then a friend told me about Travelocity and I began comparing the two services when making plans to insure I got the best deal. 

Believe it or not, there are often big differences in price from one travel site to the next.

Now I use Sidestep, a travel aggregator that searches hundreds of sites (including individual airline and hotel sites) and presents the results in an easy to compare, sortable fashion.

It’s truly the best way to search for air, hotel, and vacation package deals on the net.

Technorati Tags: travel deals, travel bargains, cheap travel, cheap airfare, cheap hotels, deals, saving money

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