Gear Patrol

The Man Who Shot Osama Bin Laden is Screwed Phil Bronstein reports for Esquire in this riveting tell-all about the Navy SEAL who fired the three shots that killed Osama Bin Laden. Tremendous reading. Bronstein’s account of the government’s failure to help our cherished heroes move on in life is astonishing and frustrating. esquire.com How…

BioLite CampStove Because the only thing better than a camping stove is one that fires up enough juice to charge your iPhone too. Read More » Honda Hybrid Snow Blowers Because you won’t be able to help that shit eating grin as you help clear out your neighbor’s Prius from under a snow drift. Read…

The Story Of New York’s Sidewalk Clock In lower Manhattan there is a simple clock with a not so simple story. It has been living in the sidewalk ticking for over a century. Steven J. Pulvirent sweepingly reports its story in this long-form piece. hodinkee.com Beat By Dre: The Exclusive Story of How Monster Lost…

A 23-Year-Long Game of Tag You played tag as a child. You may have even joked around with it in your adolescent years. But now that you’re a grown-ass man, can you recall the last time you actually played tag? These gents can — and they’ve been doing it for 23 years. wsj.com The Man’s…

A Week of Testosterone The ever on-point Art of Manliness dives into a week’s worth of testosterone, covering everything from benefits, know-how and ways to increase the big T naturally. Their in-depth coverage should be atop your reads of vigor. artofmanliness.com Best Cult Sports Books You read the news, you watch the stats, but how…

To Hell with Resolutions, Be Better in 31 Days Valet’s fifth annual 31 Days of Style Tips & Tricks is better than ever with enough bite-sized how-to’s to get you on the pages of The Sartorialist. Well, maybe. A definite must-read for you Dapper Dans. valetmag.com This is the Coolest Shoe Shop in Hawaii So…

Mr. Samuel L on the N-Word In a role reversal, Samuel Jackson asks Jake Hamilton the hard question. The rest is history. youtube.com 10 Toughest Motor Races in the World Jalopnik answers the question you’ve been asking yourself every morning while moseying up your gravel driveway: “What, really, are the toughest motoring races in the…

Manly Origins of Cheerleading What do Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Stewart and Tom DeLay have in common? They were all cheerleaders. thesocietypages.org Better Than Human Wired’s Kevin Kelly postulates the questions: What would happen if 7 out of 10 Americans were fired tomorrow? What would they all do? With special guest…

Filson Oil Finish Travel Tray Put an end to those “have you seen my…” conversations with this Filson Oil finish travel tray, and gain some serious heritage bonus points. $24 Read More » Bike Exif 2013 Custom Motorcycle Calendar Pure. Motorcycle. Porn. From one of the web’s best motorcycle resources online. $26 Read More »…

The Adventurer He shows up at Christmas dinner with new scars and less digits from his latest cage dives and winter Alpine ascents. His tales, most of them true, scare Aunt Betty to tears and enchant the kids. And while the adventurer’s gifts for you usually amount to a carved tribal trinket or a rock…

On Boredom Are you bored? Is a colleague yammering on about his Pinterest account? If yes, go for a walk. If no, continue reading. Psychologists at York University in Canada have developed a unified theory of boredom, which suggest doldrums are caused by a conflict between our inner focus and our environment. Whatever. bostonglobe.com An…

It’s not always easy to rip a theme out of our five Briefings selections. But cool is cool; ditto interesting; ditto unexpected. Randomness and spontaneity: we like these things, and they’re harder and harder to find. Some of the most fun exercises are done without a purpose. Why pigeonhole what you’ll enjoy? Embrace the entropy…

A cheery wave of holiday gift lists are upon us (we’re partly to blame) — but hey, who doesn’t like some guidance? Life is hard, and so is buying quality presents for the people you care about. Our suggestions? Research thoroughly, sleuth like Sherlock Holmes (“Cashmere? Elementary!”), and never give away the surprise. Oh, and…

You’ve survived the Month of Beef and Bond Week without being grilled or assassinated; now, on to bears, heavy surfing and cycling up majestic mountains. Lucky for you, we’ve done all the work — you’re safe and sound in your comfy computer chair. Don’t worry, it’s more fun than it sounds (and it should sound…

Short and sweet. No, we’re not talking about your first girlfriend or how you like your shopping trips. Our pinnacle of pertness is far, far more important (just like every Briefings). Our theme: more content, less time spent. Reading, that is. History. Dating. Beef. More beef. Sudsy math. Our finds keep it quick, because goddammit,…

The coffee-laden mist rising out of our morning mugs is music to our noses. The cool autumn breeze is music to our jacketed skin. The taste of beef — broiled, fried, chopped or otherwise — is music to our tongues. We’re so happy with melodies of all kinds this week (can you tell?) that we…

We like to think of this week’s briefings as a sandwich. An interview with Nick Offerman about meat (and canoeing, and woodworking, and acting) is the meat. An NFL officiating expert demonstrating how to pick life over work is the philosophical meat. Westerners going crazy in India is the intriguing, creepy meat. A shooter’s remorse…

It’s only midweek, and already we’re feeling blue. Why? We love wine, and it appears Al Gore’s nightmare is looming over our favorite form of intoxication (that’s a lie; they’re all our favorite). Worse still, NFL scab refs are ruining our Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays. Luckily, we only sulk lightly; we’ve got the surprisingly recent…

The ultimate spy compendium, a man hunted by assassins and the mysteries of top-secret theft. We’re only throwing in the best of the internet and what not to do on Everest to remind you that this isn’t a plug for Skyfall. Or is it? No, it’s not. It’s a big and complicated world. We’re at…

The most important excerpt from this week’s Briefings, which we ask that you read if you have time for nothing else: “Perhaps more importantly, did you know that the 18th century Hungarian engineer, Wolfgang von Kempelen, made a phony mechanical chess master to woo Empress Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina of Austria?” But you can’t…

Whenever someone passes it’s a good opportunity to reflect on what we knew about them, what they meant in our lives, and how the world will be different without them. Neil Armstrong’s lesser-known skills, meditations on perfectionism, and meditations on meditation, in this week’s Briefings. It’s a big and complicated world. We’re at tips [at]…

We’re off to Ironman this week. There’s plenty to keep you occupied, though: a great director needs to be mourned, rare bourbon consumed, and mobile phones hurled. All in a days work. It’s a big and complicated world. We’re at tips [at] gearpatrol.com if you think there’s something we should know about.

Off the top of our heads, what’s most important in the world at this very moment is finely tailored menswear, Facbeook surveillance cameras, and three young women standing trial in Moscow. We cast a wide night. We’re doing our best. It’s a big and complicated world. We’re at tips [at] gearpatrol.com if you think there’s…

Inevitably, in the wake of big events with major accomplishments, the instinct of writers and reporters is to look for the hidden stories, the secrets of the trade, the explanations for The Way Things Work. Our Briefings this week is roughly about that, both in the Olympics and in things and events more generally. Sometimes…

During the Olympics the geopolitical world seems relatively simple, cultural stereotypes prove true, and we’re all basically friends if the teevee is tuned in to an NBC affiliate. It’s the USA v. China in the medal count. Great Britain’s pommel horse savant looks like a DJ. Kazakhstan wins gold in weightlifting. Cherish these simple times….

It’s been a strange and unsettling week in America. We’re trying to keep our heads about us by spending time with friends and family and keeping up with other, more light-hearted news. We left out the videos of watermelons wrapped in rubber bands exploding, but there’s some other good stuff, like softcore food porn and…

Maybe next year one of us will run with the bulls in Pamplona. (Any takers, guys?) Until then, we’ve got more accounts from the festival, plus a battery of other man-related things: a debate about manliness, Carl Sagan’s reading list, Elon Musk’s latest venture, and a shop in Maine where you can get cool vintage…

It’s funny, we were just reading John Jeremiah Sullivan’s essay about the coming battle between humans and animals, “Violence of the Lambs,” when we realized the bulls are running in San Fermin. A few cuts and bruises, a few people gored — but this has been going on since Medieval times, so nothing to get…

The internet is a great place to wander around and read stories about guys like Charlie Wittmack, who conquer imagine impossible physical and mental challenges and then conquer them. It’s a good place to watch documentaries about the ’92 Dream Team and to read great poetry. It’s also a good place to incubate your depression,…

We trust you had a good long weekend filled with plenty of burgers and brews. What you missed: Quebecers banging on pots and pans en masse, and not because they didn’t get enough to eat this weekend. This, plus the best Arnold Palmer you’ve ever mixed on the porch, in this week’s Briefings. It’s a…