OAS Saguaro swim shorts. I needed a new pair of swim trunks this summer. I’ve always loved Western motifs, and reading Lonesome Dove with the Dying Breed book club has put cowboys particularly on my brain lately, so when I came across these shorts from OAS (a Swedish swimwear brand), they were hard to pass up. They feature a Western cowboy print that’s a Huckberry exclusive. The shorts are made with a quick-dry fabric and several pockets for your stuff, including a small hidden zip pocket on the side to stash your car or room key. There’s also a camp-collar shirt with the same print available that you can wear with the shorts while lounging by the pool or separately when you’re out and about. Giddy up!
The Death of the Stick Shift is Almost Here. Both Kate and I learned to drive on stick shifts, and for years during our married life we had a manual Honda Element. We sold it several years ago, and I kind of wish we hadn’t. Gus is driving age now, and it would have been nice for him to learn how to drive stick on the Element. Because as this Washington Post piece observes, this is a fast-dying skill. Less than 1% of new vehicles made for the U.S. market last year were manuals, down from about a third in 1980, and only 39% of Gen Z knows how to drive one, compared to 83% of Baby Boomers. It’s too bad. Working a clutch and shifting through the gears makes you feel connected to the road in a way an automatic never does. It makes driving more fun. And the modern world could sure use more tactile fun. For a refresher on this going-going-gone skill, check out our article on how to drive a stick shift.
Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton. Eleven years ago, we wrote an in-depth series on the nature of status, and this book is what sent me down that rabbit hole in the first place. De Botton explores why we care so much about what other people think of us and the consequences of that caring. Modern life only exacerbates status anxiety since it’s possible to compare how we’re doing with pretty much everyone in the entire world via social media. He then makes the case for how philosophy, art, and religion can be a balm for status anxiety. De Botton’s a philosopher, but he writes for regular folks; it’s an easy, accessible read, and I still think about it a lot.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the Odyssey just hit theaters, and while I haven’t gotten around to seeing it yet (hoping to soon), all the Homer talk got me hankering to revisit the Coen brothers’ version of the epic, which I watched in chunks during my Zone 2 cardio sessions this week. Twenty-five years later, it’s still hilarious. George Clooney’s fast-talking, pomade-obsessed Ulysses Everett McGill remains one of his best roles. And the soundtrack is still awesome. The T Bone Burnett-produced collection of old-time bluegrass and gospel got a lot of rotation in my car’s 5-disc CD player back in high school (a great soundtrack for when you’re driving stick). I’ll be queuing it up on my iPhone in the car in 2026.
On our Dying Breed newsletter, we published Sunday Firesides: Advancing on Chaos and the Dark and Dying Breed Field Trip: Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve.
Quote of the Week
Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly toward an object and in no measure obtained it? If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated? Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them? That it was a vain endeavor?
—Henry David Thoreau
This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.
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