If you’ve ever had a nosebleed, chances are someone told you to lean your head back.
Turns out that’s exactly what you shouldn’t do.
Came across this on Art of Manliness and, while I wouldn’t normally think twice about nosebleeds, this is one of those everyday things most people get wrong. Simple, practical, and actually useful to know — especially if you’ve ever ended up swallowing blood like a mug.
Worth a quick read.
Britannica Dictionary definition of LAD
[count] informal
1
chiefly British : a boy or young man
— compare lass
2
British : a man with whom you are friendly : fellow, chap
◊ In British English, a man who is a bit of a lad does things that are considered a bit wild, such as getting drunk and having sexual relations with many women.
We all love a toastie. Crispy bread, melted cheese, whatever filling you fancy. That’s never been the issue.
The issue starts the moment the sandwich comes out.
Cheese leaks. It always does. It burns onto the hot plates. Corners are awkward. You’re told not to get water near it. You can’t put it in the sink. You definitely can’t put it in the dishwasher.
So you scrape at it.
You wipe it while it’s still warm.
You burn your fingers. Maybe your wrist. Possibly your forearm if you’re really committed.
You tell yourself you’ll clean it properly later.
And next time you fancy a toastie, a small part of your brain goes, “Is it worth the hassle?”
That’s the problem. Not the food — the clean-up. When something feels like a chore (and a minor health risk), you stop enjoying it.
What you might not have realised is that this has quietly been fixed.
There are now toasted sandwich makers with removable plates. Plates you lift out. Plates you can put straight in the sink. Plates you can throw in the dishwasher and forget about.
And that changes everything.
You make your sandwiches. You enjoy them. When you’re done, you pop the plates out, give them a rinse or drop them in the dishwasher, and that’s it.
No scraping.
No hovering hands over hot metal.
No accidental first-degree burns in the name of melted cheese.
Bosh. All done. Sorted.
Instead of thinking about the mess, you’re back on the sofa, watching TV, or getting on with your evening like nothing happened.
Same toasted sandwiches.
No clean-up dread.
Game-changer.
INTRODUCTION
There are some things you don’t realise you need until the moment you really need them.
The phonetic alphabet is one of those things.
If you have ever had to spell your name, an email address, a postcode, or a reference number over the phone and had to repeat yourself several times, you already understand the problem.
This is a simple, practical reference that makes everyday communication easier.
WHAT IS THE PHONETIC ALPHABET
The phonetic alphabet, often referred to as the NATO phonetic alphabet, is a standard way of spelling words using clearly recognisable words for each letter.
Instead of trying to explain letters that sound similar, each letter has its own word.
For example, A becomes Alpha, B becomes Bravo, and C becomes Charlie.
This removes confusion almost instantly.
WHERE IT IS ACTUALLY USED
The phonetic alphabet is not just a military thing.
People use it every day when dealing with banks, utilities, customer support, work calls, admin, email addresses, postcodes, and reference numbers.
Anywhere clarity matters, it becomes useful very quickly.
WHY A PHYSICAL REFERENCE CARD HELPS
Yes, you can look the phonetic alphabet up online.
But when you actually need it, you are usually already on a phone call, already trying to be quick, or already slightly flustered.
A small reference card sitting on a desk, pinned nearby, or kept in a drawer means you do not need to search, scroll, or think.
You simply glance at it and carry on.
WHAT IS ON THE CARD
The card contains the full A to Z phonetic alphabet laid out clearly and cleanly.
There is no clutter and no unnecessary information.
It is designed to be glanced at, not studied, and to be useful rather than clever.
WHO THIS IS USEFUL FOR
This is useful for anyone who regularly deals with phone calls or admin.
It is useful for anyone who has ever been misunderstood when spelling something out.
And it is useful for anyone who prefers simple, physical solutions rather than relying on apps or constant searching.
In practice, that includes most people.
FINAL THOUGHT
This will not change your life.
But it will quietly remove one small, annoying friction point, and those small improvements add up over time.
That is why it earns its place here.
There are few things more annoying than pulling your favourite jumper out of the washing machine and realising it’s now about three sizes too small.
You didn’t do anything dramatic. You didn’t set fire to it. You just washed it. And now it looks like it belongs to someone else.
This usually happens because of heat, agitation, or a combination of both. Natural fibres like wool are the worst for it. Once they tighten up, they don’t easily relax again.
That said, all is not necessarily lost.
Most jumpers shrink because the fibres tighten when exposed to heat and movement. Wool and cotton are especially bad for this.
Hot water, a long wash cycle, or a spin that’s too aggressive can cause the fibres to contract and lock together. Once that happens, the jumper physically becomes smaller.
Tumble dryers finish the job.
Sometimes. Not always. Anyone who tells you it works 100% of the time is lying.
But if the jumper is only slightly shrunk, you’ve got a decent chance of improving it.
Fill a sink or basin with lukewarm water. Not hot.
Add a small amount of hair conditioner or baby shampoo and mix it in.
Submerge the jumper completely and leave it to soak for around 30 minutes. This helps relax the fibres.
After soaking, gently squeeze out the water. Do not wring it.
Lay the jumper flat on a towel and carefully stretch it back towards its original shape. Take your time. You’re persuading it, not fighting it.
Leave it to air dry flat, adjusting it slightly every so often as it dries.
This won’t make miracles happen, but it can take the edge off the damage.
If the jumper has shrunk badly, especially if it’s been through a hot wash and a tumble dryer, the fibres are usually locked for good.
At that point, forcing it will only distort the shape and make it worse.
That’s when you move on.
You’ve accepted reality.
The jumper isn’t coming back. But at least it fits your Action Man.
There’s something oddly calming about that moment. You stop being annoyed and start laughing at it instead.
We’ve all been there.
Check the label before washing, even if you think you already know.
Wash jumpers on a cool, gentle cycle.
Avoid tumble dryers unless the label clearly says it’s safe.
When in doubt, air dry flat.
It takes longer, but it beats donating another jumper to the washing machine gods.
Shrunken jumpers are annoying, but they’re also one of those everyday mistakes that everyone makes at least once.
If you save it, great.
If not, lesson learned.
And if nothing else, your Action Man is now very well dressed.
Everyone remembers Heisenberg.
Everyone remembers “I am the one who knocks.”
But how well do you really remember Breaking Bad once you get past the famous quotes?
This quiz is for people who actually paid attention — not casual rewatchers.
No Googling. No cheating. Answers are at the bottom.
A) Crystal Clean
B) A1A Car Wash
C) Blue Sky Wash
D) Desert Shine
A) Victor Saint-Clair
B) Jimmy In-N-Out
C) Kevin Costner
D) Gene Takavic
A) A dog
B) A rabbit
C) A bear
D) A monkey
A) El Pollo Loco
B) Los Hermanos
C) Pollo Real
D) Los Pollos Hermanos
A) Crystal Blue Persuasion
B) Dead Fingers Talking
C) A Horse with No Name
D) Out of Time Man
A) Ricin
B) Mercury
C) Lily of the Valley
D) Cyanide
A) Jane Margolis
B) Andrea Cantillo
C) Wendy
D) Lydia Rodarte-Quayle
A) A cleaning service
B) An extermination company
C) A moving firm
D) A demolition crew
A) A pizza
B) A ladder
C) A toolbox
D) A plant pot
A) FBI agent
B) DEA agent
C) Police officer
D) Military contractor
A) Red
B) Blue
C) Green
D) Purple
A) His home
B) A hospital
C) The desert
D) A meth lab
Answers (No Cheating)
12/12: Calm down, Heisenberg
From the thunderous chants in football stadiums to the nostalgic melodies that have become cultural anthems, England songs have a unique way of touching our hearts and rallying our spirits.
Listening to these tunes get the memories of celebrated victories and shared camaraderie flooding back. Such is the power of iconic England songs—they are more than just tunes; they are the soundtrack to our collective experiences, capturing the very essence of national pride and resilience.
In the Italia 90 World Cup where we reached the semi finals, only to beaten by the German’s in a penalty shoot out there was New Order’s ‘World in Motion’ . The song features England footballer John Barnes’s as a guest rappeer and other members of the team, along with comedian Keith Allen taking part in the vocals. A very catchy tune but luckily John Barnes decided not to pursue a career as a rapper.
In Euro 96 there was the infectious chant of “Three Lions” by The Lightning Seeds, which captures the eternal optimism of English football fans. Unfortunately we got to the semi- Finals again only to be beaten by the German’s in another penalty shootout.
A proper lads track this one featuring the legendary Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder’s other band Black Grape.
The classic Karaoke song adopted by the England fans back in 2020 and showing no signs of being replaced anytime soon
A new version for 2024 claiming to be the new ‘Official England Euro 2024 song’ by someone calling himself Mr England
Bash Fakhouri discusses drug addiction,Tae Kwon Do, becoming a Head Doorman at 19 , travelling Europe to fight in underground ‘no rules’ fighting and more
An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week.
Do you remember the scene in The Road where the boy and his father discover an untouched, perfectly stocked survival bunker? The hungry nomads happily gape as they take in crate after crate of canned goods, an unbelievable oasis in an otherwise desolate, apocalyptic landscape. The pair liberate the contents of the cans with a can opener, and make a dinner of canned pears and peaches; “They licked the spoons and tipped the bowls and drank the rich sweet syrup.”
But what if father and son hadn’t found a can opener amongst the supplies? Fortunately, as long as they knew some alternative opening methods, they wouldn’t have been out of luck.
Despite how impenetrable they may seem, cans of food are made from fairly thin aluminum. Exploiting the can’s weakness with a variety of tools is easy. Here are three ways to get at your next meal if ever you find yourself without a can opener.
Illustrated by Ted Slampyak
Content retrieved from: https://www.artofmanliness.com/skills/manly-know-how/how-to-open-a-can-without-an-opener/.
Walk into any commercial gym, or even a hotel fitness center, and you’ll probably see a cable machine and/or a functional trainer.
A cable machine features two weight stacks connected by a cross-beam. The weights in each stack can be adjusted by the user and are lifted through a system of pulleys and cables that travel up and down a track.
A functional trainer sports a similar system, but is more compact in design, with the weight stacks sitting closer together. Most functional trainers also have a pull-up bar between the two weight stacks.
Cable machines/functional trainers are pretty dang versatile. While a downside of weight-training machines is that they lock you into one position, a cable machine allows for movements that are more dynamic and exercise your balance and stability more than other machines. And with one machine, you can do multiple strength-training exercises and use movements that effectively isolate muscle groups and work them from a variety of angles. It’s possible to use cable machines/functional trainers to get an effective full-body workout.
This advantage is particularly beneficial when you’re traveling. Most hotel gyms are pretty basic: it’s typically a small, poorly lit room with limited equipment. But they do often offer a functional trainer, which means you can get in a good all-around strength training session while you’re on the road.
To learn a full-body cable workout that can be used either at regular or hotel gyms, I turned to Chris Contois, my physical therapist at Vitality Therapy and Performance here in Tulsa, OK. He’s also a competitive bodybuilder and has been doing some bodybuilding programming for me the past year.
Chris created a simple upper body/lower body split that can be done with a cable machine or a functional trainer. He noted that in the last two hotels he’s stayed in, the functional trainer had fixed handles; you couldn’t swap out attachments and put on a rope handle, for example. So he designed this functional trainer workout assuming you might only have fixed handles available.
Also, one of the downsides of functional trainers is that they’re not great for training legs. While you can do some leg exercises with a functional trainer, your options are limited. If you feel like you need a bit more lower body work, Chris recommends adding some plyos or some bodyweight movements, like air squats.
For a full-body workout, do all the exercises for both the upper and lower body, resting 90 seconds to two minutes in between each set.
Source: https://www.artofmanliness.com