Esquire articles from August 2005

Esquire archives from August 2005

FORTIS B-42 MarineMaster.(StYLE AGENDA: a special promotion for esquire readers)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... From diving to the ocean's darkest depths to a harmless wade in a kiddy pool, the FORTIS B-42 MarineMaster is the perfect accompaniment. Water-resistant to 200 meters, this Swiss-made automatic timepiece is ready for any adventure. For...

VTech's new digital i5871.(StYLE AGENDA: a special promotion for esquire readers)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... Experience the cutting edge of both style and function with VTech's new 5.8GHz digital i5871 Expand it with up to 7 accessory handsets, upload hi-res caller ID images, record custom ringtones and import MS Outlook or Palm phonebooks directly...

Honda Rune.(StYLE AGENDA: a special promotion for esquire readers)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... When people see one for the first time, it stops them cold in their tracks. What is it? The most unique motorcycle you've ever experienced, the Honda Rune. Huge 1832cc six-cylinder engine. Unmatched fit and finish. Unbelievable design. And...

Create your ideal trip with Expedia.(StYLE AGENDA: a special promotion for esquire readers )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... From small fishing towns with fresh seafood to relaxing resorts and beautiful white beaches, Mexico is known for its enticing beauty and great cuisine. And Expedia can help you create your ideal getaway. Choose the perfect hotel, book the right...

East Side House Settlement gala preview of the 2005 New York international auto show--hosted by Ferrari Maserati North America.(BY INVITATI ONLY: a special promotion for esquire readers)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... On Wednesday March 23rd, Ferrari Maserati North America, and Esquire Magazine came together to celebrate and raise funds for East Side House Settlement, a community resource in the South Bronx. Held at the Jacob Javitz Center amongst a...

The sound and the fury.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2005... IN THE JUNE ISSUE, Star Wars vet and thrift-store model Ewan McGregor discussed, among other things, his penchant for baring his, um, light saber onscreen. Also, Tom Junod traced the story of thirty GIs who survived World War II by performing...

Vision quest.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2005... Michael May's decision to undergo sight-restoration surgery, as detailed in Kurson's piece, was tougher than many imagined. Not in recent memory has an article held me in its grips until the final word like this one did. If blindness is an...

Such a tease.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2005... Having glimpsed only her feet, some readers think they've already divined the identity of this year's Sexiest Woman Alive ('Who Is She?"). For this month's clues, turn to page 72. I found a mistake in the June issue: The Contents page...

Effective but creepy.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2005... The twenty-dollar-bill hiccup remedy we offered in "The Cure" struck one reader as a missed opportunity. Any Old World grandmother can show you how to get rid of hiccups and foster a romance all at once: Stand behind the afflicted lady,...

Supplemental knowledge.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2005... In "The New Laws of Health" (The Better Man), you advised readers not to take vitamin E supplements. Sorry, but the jury's still out. Recent studies have shown only a statistically trivial possibility that vitamin E might raise the risk of...

Funny * joke from a beautiful woman.(Cameron Richardson)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... As told by CAMERON RICHARDSON What's a pirate's favorite designer? Arrr-mani. ABOUT THE JOKESTER: Cameron Richardson knows a lot of jokes, but all her favorite ones are about pirates. "I'm obsessed with them," says the 25-year-old...

The eight most remarkable things in culture this month.(The Awards)
August 1, 2005... 1 Hippest Train From the photography book Jazz Life, an enhanced edition of photographer William Claxton's definitive collection from the '60s. 2 Least Likely to Succeed Tommy Lee: I got one last question, 'cause I wanna kick some...

Suicidal tendencies: Last Days and Grizzly Man are very different stories of self-destructive loners--with the same sad end.
August 1, 2005... AT THE VERY END of Last Days, Gus Van Sant's semifictionalized account of the hours leading up to Kurt Cobain's suicide in April 1994, we're shown an image so queasily familiar that it borders on the obscene. Kitted out in Cobain's familiar...

Q+A: Gus Van Sant.(Movies)(Interview)
August 1, 2005... THE ROMANTIC POET of American independent film, Gus Van Sant has built a career on the musings of troubled teens and sensitive adults--misfits struggling against a world that reviles quirks. And even though he's worked with everyone from Nicole...

The rules.(Movies)
August 1, 2005... RULE NO. 118: Avoid any doctor whose middle name appears in quotes. RULE NO. 203: Aspire to be the kind of person you've convinced your grandparents you already are. RULE NO. 512: You are twice as likely to get lost using GPS as you are with a...

Q+A: Steven Bochco.(Television)(script writer)(Interview)
August 1, 2005... YOU MIGHT SAY THAT Steven Bochco, the writer and producer who gave us Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, has reached a career crossroads. His character-driven dramas have been eclipsed by procedurals like CSI and Law & Order. His...

The (unexpected) soundtrack to summer: because sometimes the sunniest pop just won't do.(Music)
August 1, 2005... THIS ISN'T the happiest, most feel-good-sounding summer ever. New singles from Nine Inch Nails and the White Stripes don't threaten to overtake "Walking on Sunshine" as the greatest summer hit of all time. Yet memorable summer songs don't...

This month's lesson: four good things going on in music.(MUSIC LESSONS)
August 1, 2005... IF YOU READ this column every month, you may get the sense that I'm becoming harder to please. To show you that I'm still your forever lover, here's my list of four things that are very much right with music right now. Beyonce: Who leaves...

The showdown: Madden 06 vs. NCAA 06.(Games)(Illustration)
August 1, 2005... THE MOST NOTABLE OFF-SEASON FOOTBALL EVENT this summer is not Jerry Rice refusing to retire with dignity but the release of the new EA football video games, Madden and NCAA (both available on Xbox and PS2; $50). This year's versions offer up...

Dangerous knowledge: how to hustle your friends.(Games)(Gin Rummy expert Michael Sall)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Michael Sall, the author of Gin Rummy: A Predator's Guide (self-published, sold for $200 a copy, read by people who expect it to be a good investment), has made a handsome living out of winning money from friends. Here's how he's taken their...

Lies your teacher told you.(1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus )(Book Review)
August 1, 2005... IN HIS CONTROVERSIAL NEW BOOK, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (Knopf, $30), journalist Charles C. Mann refutes our long-held notions about the Indians (his preferred nomenclature) who inhabited our nation long before it...

No Country for Old Men.(Book Review)
August 1, 2005... WHEN YOU FINISH Cormac McCarthy's newest book, No Country for Old Men (Knopf, $25), you'll have to wonder if you know any real men at all. From Moss, the unlucky sap who finds a bag containing $2.4 million at the scene of a botched drug deal,...

Crusader's Cross.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
August 1, 2005... JAMES LEE BURKE'S novels are irresistible. Whenever you're browsing the airport bookstore or killing time in Barnes & Noble and you see a new Burke book, like his latest, Crusader's Cross (Simon & Schuster, $26), you buy it. It's automatic....

Bring the noise: three headphones that pacify the world around you.(The Digital Man)
August 1, 2005... WHEN MY 12-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, Chloe, was a baby, she had a hard time falling asleep. I would spend hours holding her, hoping she wouldn't vomit on me, singing her my special lullaby, Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction": "My blood's so mad,...

Take back the daiquiri.(Food & Drink)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... YOU WOULDN'T know it from its present state, but the daiquiri was once a pretty ballsy drink. Of course, that was before it got tarted up with strawberries, bananas, kiwis, rhubarb (really--Google it yourself), and whatnot, drowned in gallons...

Meat of the month: pork butt.(Food & Drink)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... I GOT THIS RECIPE from a professor friend, a really Zen guy--although my definitions of Zen and recipe may differ from yours. He's half Amish, half Swiss, and highly evolved, at least in the sense that he cooks every night for his beloved. I...

Flipping the bird, folding the square & the incredible shrinking vacation: Esquire's Answer Fella believes that there are no stupid questions, just stupid people who don't ask questions, fearing they'll took stupid. So ask Answer Fella anything. If he doesn't know the answer, he'll find out who does or who has a guess that sounds right.(Answer Fella)
August 1, 2005... Giving some jerk "the finger"--when did that start, and from what is it derived? Here, it's "flipping the bird." The ancient Romans called it the "digitus impudicus"; Caligula, the Tom DeLay of his time, supposedly required his subjects to...

Up to speed: here, thirteen timeless ways to keep your wardrobe from going stale.(THE ESQUIRE CATALOG)
August 1, 2005... VERY AMERICAN. AND ALSO SWEDISH. Gant has a long history of making preppy clothes for American men. With a new creative mind, Richard Bengtsson, pitching in, this fall the Swedish company's tweeds, cashmere, and corduroys further sharpen...

What we have here is a failure to communicate: chaos is coming to Madison Avenue.(Chuck Klosterman's America;)(Chaos Scenario: traditional forms of mass entertainment disappearing leaving advertisers without viable options)
August 1, 2005... LET'S PRETEND WE COULD END world hunger with drugs. Let's pretend someone invented an inexpensive pill that would make eating unnecessary forever. You swallow this pill once and you're never hungry again. You'd always remain your ideal...

Sex.(questions and answers)
August 1, 2005... I'd like to introduce toys into our sex life. My wife is intrigued but tentative. Can you recommend a good beginner's toy? One of the benefits of Living in the twenty-first century is the range of newfangled sex toys to suit every level of...

Hard to kill: you know those beat-up car-company stocks? Shut up and buy.(The Portfolio)
August 1, 2005... MY FIRST CAR WAS A MAROON 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Brougham. It had more than a hundred thousand miles on it when my dad sold it to me for $500 in 1985, the year I got my driver's license. I dragged its eight cylinders of Detroit muscle...

Fifteen things you don't know about women.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... 1. We travel in packs and howl at the moon. 2. One third of us are mermaids. 3. A little-known fact; Mermaids can talk to whales and dolphins. 4. We have the ability to become invisible. At night, we look through the homes of...

Who is she? [a mystery in six parts].(THE SEXIEST WOMAN ALIVE PART III)
August 1, 2005... She is half revealed, a woman so unfathomably hot that to show her all at once would be reckless. Instead, we are revealing her one extraordinary body part at a time over six issues. (Tear out and save all six for your own life-sized mural to...

Performance-enhancing footwear.(The Better Man)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... THESE SHOES AREN'T FAIR--or so says the Boston Marathon. Spira running shoes are built around metal springs that return some--supposedly 90 percent--of the energy created when your feet slap the pavement. And to the folks at U.S.A. Track and...

Ask Dr. Oz.(The Better Man)(energy bars)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Energy bars: yes or no? No. Eating an energy bar is a little like driving a Hummer in the city: It's fashionable, expensive, and you're probably not in a position to enjoy any of its benefits. These things were designed for athletes who need to...

On advice.(30 Second Sermon)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... SOMETIMES PEOPLE going through a rough time really don't need your advice. All they need is you. Just you being there for them. They'll tell you what needs to be done. A while ago, a mother and her child were shot and killed in Texas. They...

Testosterone: a handy guide for users.(THE BETTER MAN)
August 1, 2005... Do you know your own testosterone level? Do you know why you should even care? Here, fourteen things a man should know about the stuff that makes him a man. > The normal, range for testosterone in an adult male: 270 to 1,000 nanograms per...

The Esquire ten.
August 1, 2005... There is power in things. The right things. Each of the items on the following pages--and the stories behind them--has the power to enhance the quality of your life. By at least 10 percent. Part one in a three-part series. 10 The...

It happened in Jersey: halfway into his sixth decade, thirty years after Born to Run, Springsteen finally lets us inside--to show and tell us what it feels like to be Bruce.(Interview)(Cover Story)
August 1, 2005... HERE IS THE STORY of a Springsteen concert in Springsteen's own words--as told to Esquire's Cal Fussman and as delivered to the crowd during a solo performance in May at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey, just up the turnpike from...

What it feels like: you are about to experience the heights and depths of the human condition. From the terrifying (surviving the tsunami) to the mind-altering (getting high with Snoop) to the deeply satisfying (picking up Britney Spears), we present our fifth-annual feature of amazing first-person tales. Plus: What It Looks Like (a peek inside Wolf Blitzer's Dopp kit) and What It Tastes Like (grasshoppers, anyone?).
August 1, 2005... ... To Survive the Tsunami BY PAUL LANDGRAVER, 33, SCUBA INSTRUCTOR Sitting around, day after Christmas, in Thailand, just staring at the TV, some movie we've seen before. Midmorning, post-breakfast stupor controlling Karin and me. The...

Jimmie Wallet is buried alive: one day last January, this man went to the store for ice cream. By the time he got home, everything was gone.
August 1, 2005... Here is a photograph, undated. Jimmie Wallet is seated, his face turned, the sharp lines of his chin and jaw like an alligator that doesn't bite. He's terrifically handsome, with a boyish nose and cheeks, sly smile, a little patch of beard...

Dan Rather: journalist, 73, New York City.(What I've Learned)
August 1, 2005... --One good thing about having a birthday on Halloween is that people tend to remember it. --You trust your mother. But you cut the cards anyway. --Always marry a woman from Texas. No matter how tough things get, she's seen tougher. ...

Of all the ways that we race cars in this country--run them, wreck them, make them scream, and blow them up--this is the craziest. It's called drifting. Not just crazy. Future Crazy.
August 1, 2005... IT'S A BLUE-SKY FRIDAY, and today an eighteen-year-old Japanese-American kid named Ken Gushi will burn through ten sets of tires just getting amped up for tomorrow's big event. Specifically, he'll burn through Toyo tires, and even more...

The five-minute guide: models.
August 1, 2005... Imagine going through life having everyone staring at you because of your ridiculous height, perfectly thin body, and storybook features. Imagine being constantly evaluated, judged, and sized up solely on your DNA-lotterg-winning looks. Tough,...

The collections: each of the outstanding collections featured on the following pages offers something distinct. Some are about luxury and elegance; others are about casual comfort. But no matter the man wearing them, they have one thing in common: they all stand for something.(Fall Style Preview)
August 1, 2005... Armani THE PERFECT FIT GIORGIO ARMANI'S THIRTY-YEAR EXPERIMENTATION WITH THE INNER WORKINGS OF MEN'S SUITS HAS RESULTED IN SIGNATURE JACKETS SO SOFT AND COMFORTABLE THAT IF YOU SLIP ONE ON, YOU'LL FORGET YOU'RE EVEN WEARING IT....

What it feels like ... to be a putz.(THIS WAY OUT)
August 1, 2005... * What It Feels Like to Stub Your Toe IT'S THE SAME THING every night: I get to bed about midnight and wake up around 3:00 A.M. with a full bladder. I pee and head back to bed. No biggie. You get used to this sort of stuff as you age....