Male Call, Advice From a Guy

There is a column in the San Jose Mercury News that I like to read. Often I would share my thoughts on various columnists in the Mercury News with my good friend Tim Shannon, who also read the same paper. Education and budget cutting thereof was a favorite topic of discussion. But there is one column that we both especially enjoyed reading, and the column is entitled "Male Call".

I don't know who writes this column, as the listing at the end of the column simply says to contact malecall@mercurynews.com. One of the staff on this column certainly must be a guy. The comments ring so true; if a woman writes this column, she is very, very male savvy.

I had stopped receiving the paper last August, after I lost my job and sold my house in Santa Clara. The news was too depressing to read this past year anyway. Today, on my morning walk, I passed by Tim's house, as I usually do on my way to "downtown" Willow Glen. There on his front porch sat yesterday's Sunday edition, carefully placed on top of his stack of firewood by the front door. The paper appeared to be just waiting for a willing reader, so I took it with me. Now I had two papers to carry home - Tim's Sunday edition, and the Monday morning edition I had just purchased at Starbucks, because the paper ran an article on education "furloughs" on the front page. "Furlough" means the state has given the California state school districts the right to cut up to five days of classes for the next school year, due to budget distress, without being financially penalized by the state.

"Male Call, Advice from a Guy" was in rare form today. The subject was entitled "Guys are masters of fashion apathy". I didn't even wait until I got home to read the article. I read and walked at the same time and busted out in loud guffaws as I walked home down my neighborhood sidewalks in the mid-morning hours of a quiet Monday.

I am convinced that only a guy could write a column like today's column. If I'm wrong, I'll eat my shorts.