The Art of Manliness explains why you should grab your shower cap, bite your lip, and jump into an ice-cold shower.
Enjoy!
People have been subjecting their bodies to extremely cold water for thousands of years, but is it really worth the torture? Among some of the possible benefits like helping with depression, increasing testosterone in men, and developing emotional resiliency, there are several more benefits to be had:
Improve circulation: Your heart has to get pumping to try and warm you up, and that helps increase cardiovascular health.
Improve sleep: Taking a cold shower one hour before bed may help your body trigger sleep signals and give you a deeper sleep.
Keep skin and hair healthy: Cold water can add shine to your hair and close up your pores.
Speed up workout recovery: Cold exposure decreases inflammation and helps remove toxins like lactic acid because blood flow increases as your body warms up. The same reason athletes take ice baths.
Give an energy boost: Cold water will give your body a jolt of energy like nothing else. If you don’t believe it, give it a try.
John Green looks at the name origins of 26 alcoholic drinks including the Martini, Alabama Slammer, and the Sidecar.
You don’t need to be a professional bartender to know the difference between a sidecar and a Tom Collins, but if they’re not drinks you order regularly, you may not know how they’re made or what the history behind them is. This video from the folks at Mental Floss will teach you.P
The video tells the tale, but odds are that if you’re not an avid cocktail drinker you’ve heard of some of these drinks before but didn’t know how they were made, or what was in them. John Green’s approach to the topic is hilarious, but it’s also educational—by the end of the video you’ll be familiar with all sorts of different drinks, from mimosas to sidecars to the ever-classic martini. Plus, the next time you’re at a bar and want to order one, you’ll know what should go in it (and you’ll be able to tell if the bartender has no idea).
Here is everything you wanted to know about steaks.
Enjoy!
There are no recipes in this video. Instead, Pat LaFrieda explains the differences between the different steak names you’ve heard. Frankly, I knew the difference between these as a matter of price, not what part of the cow they come from or what characteristics they have.
A SHOT OF WHISKEY
In the old west a .45 cartridge for a six-gun cost 12 cents, so did a shot glass of whiskey. If a cowhand was low on cash he would often give the bartender a cartridge in exchange for a drink. This became known as a “shot” of whiskey.
THE WHOLE NINE YARDS
American fighter planes in WW2 had machine guns that were fed by a belt of cartridges. The average plane held belts that were 27 feet (9 yards) long. If the pilot used up all his ammo he was said to have given it the whole nine yards.
BUYING THE FARM
This is synonymous with dying. During WW1 soldiers were given life insurance policies worth $5,000. This was about the price of an average farm so if you died you “bought the farm” for your survivors.
IRON CLAD CONTRACT
This came about from the ironclad ships of the Civil War. It meant something so strong it could not be broken.
PASSING THE BUCK/THE BUCK STOPS HERE
Most men in the early west carried a jack knife made by the Buck knife company. When playing poker it was common to place one of these Buck Knives in front of the dealer so that everyone knew who he was. When it was time for a new dealer the deck of cards and the knife were given to the new dealer. If this person didn’t want to deal he would “pass the buck” to the next player. If that player accepted then “the buck stopped there”.
RIFF RAFF
The Mississippi River was the main way of traveling from north to south. Riverboats carried passengers and freight but they were expensive so most people used rafts. Everything had the right of way over rafts which were considered cheap. The steering oar on the rafts was called a “riff” and this transposed into riff-raff, meaning low-class.
COBWEB
The Old English word for “spider” was “cob”.
SHIP STATEROOMS
Traveling by steamboat was considered the height of comfort. Passenger cabins on the boats were not numbered. Instead they were named after states. To this day cabins on ships are called staterooms.
SLEEP TIGHT
Early beds were made with a wooden frame. Ropes were tied across the frame in a crisscross pattern. A straw mattress was then put on top of the ropes. Over time the ropes stretched, causing the bed to sag. The owner would then have to tighten the ropes to get a better night’s sleep.
SHOWBOAT
These were floating theaters built on a barge that was pushed by a steamboat. These played small towns along the Mississippi River . Unlike the boat shown in the movie “Showboat” these did not have an engine. They were gaudy and attention grabbing which is why we say someone who is being the life of the party is “showboating”.
OVER A BARREL
In the days before CPR a drowning victim would be placed face down over a barrel and the barrel would be rolled back and forth in an effort to empty the lungs of water. It was rarely effective. If you are over a barrel you are in deep trouble.
BARGE IN
Heavy freight was moved along the Mississippi in large barges pushed by steamboats. These were hard to control and would sometimes swing into piers or other boats. People would say they “barged in”.
HOGWASH
Steamboats carried both people and animals. Since pigs smelled so bad they would be washed before being put on board. The mud and other filth that was washed off was considered useless “hog wash”.
CURFEW
The word “curfew” comes from the French phrase “couvre-feu”, which means “cover the fire”. It was used to describe the time of blowing out all lamps and candles. It was later adopted into Middle English as “curfeu”, which later became the modern “curfew”. In the early American colonies homes had no real fireplaces so a fire was built-in the center of the room. In order to make sure a fire did not get out of control during the night it was required that, by an agreed upon time, all fires would be covered with a clay pot called-a “curfew”.
BARRELS OF OIL
When the first oil wells were drilled they had made no provision for storing the liquid so they used water barrels. That is why, to this day, we speak of barrels of oil rather than gallons.
HOT OFF THE PRESS
As the paper goes through the rotary printing press friction causes it to heat up. Therefore, if you grab the paper right off the press it was hot. The expression means to get immediate information.
