Do wusses eat quiche? [An email]

Dear Mr. Horrigan,

Your amusing piece in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer made me recall my teenage infatuation with a thirty-years-ago bestseller called Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche. I still occasionally quote from memory the line about real mean not saying, “It’s an unpretentious, fruity red with ambitious overtones of Bordeaux” about "a four-dollar bottle of Ripple.” Certainly this book would have agreed with most of your “objectively wussie" items. However, in perhaps contrarian fashion, the book did not agree that “real men drive stick.” It said the opposite, that “real men are secure enough to have their gears shifted automatically.” As a new driver at the time, I was happy for that one.

Sincerely,

Adam Block