Finally something more interesting than which watch to buy.

From Esquire, October 2007, by James Othmer:

"The Hasselhoff Effect"

The definition of what it means to be a responsible man is being rewritten by ment who seem anything but responsible. According to a white paper by ad agency Leo Burnett Worldwide -- more specifically, by the firm's resident "man expert," Rose Cameron -- the much maligned bachelor is getting older, and he just may have a better handle on responsible, twenty-first century masculinity than anyone thought. According to the study, in 1970, four out of five men in their twenties were married. Today it's less than half. A generation of men -- men raised in divorce, or who have glimpsed their bitter, unfulfilled dads silently weeping in the garage, or who have been subjected to the You Tube video of David Hasselhoff slobbering drunk in front of his daughter -- are giving marriage, fatherhood, and what it means to be a man a bit of a rethink.
"Because of the environment in which they were raised, men in their mid-twenties today are far more sensitive to the repercussions of their actions and the ramifications of responsibility," says Cameron, who surveyed thousands of men in fifteen countries. "They've seen that their fathers' concept of masculinity didn't work out so well."
Why? "They want to ensure that they've figured out what it means to be a fulfilled modern man before they commit to a marriage," says Cameron. This includes anything from extreme tourism, to pursuing vocations because they want to rather than ought to, to experience every aspect of a relationship with a woman short of matching gold bands. Cameron calls this self-actualization. Your father would probably call it fucking off.
In fact, these may now be the most responsible things a man can do. Cameron says that because men aren't following the same old-man path anymore, the divorce rate will actually keep dropping. "This is potentially because more men are creating married lives that reflect their needs," she says.
Johns Hopkins sociologist Andrew Cherlin recently said, "Marriage used to be the first step into adulthood; now it's often the last." Which would seem to mean that at some point, the twenty-seven-year-old single dude whose life is the envy of married men and the bane of single women will declare himself self-actualized enough to tie the knot. Then he can start making a whole new set of mistakes the next generation of children can blame him for.

Today's Song: Ocean of Noise, Arcade Fire

p.s. Gray is this season's most versatile color.