Some of those are okay; others not so much. I figure that a list like that made by just about anyone would have a few that I wouldn't agree with.

I wouldn't have suggested a reef knot. It is a pretty useless, and potentially dangerous, knot. I would have taken Up about four of the 'skills' with four knots: bowland (from bow-line), round turn and two half hitches (properly a clove hitch), clove hitch, sheet bend (double sheet bend for extra credit). Know them well enough to make them reliably blindfolded. [Note that is really only three knots as two are actually the same knot very useful knot in different uses. Can you name the two that are the same? If in doubt get a length of line and try them out. It will dawn on you if you look at them long enough.]

My pet peeves are guys who think certain skills are 'woman's work' and beneath or beyond them. Get over yourself. A good women likes guys who aren't entirely dependent on them. She's a wife or girlfriend, not your mother. Every man should know the basics of how to sew (sew a simple hem and reattach a button) and clean (sweep, mop and wipe) and cook (cook a simple meal, and make soup, stew and salad). That's either three or nine skills depending on how you count.

Anyone who drives should learn how to skid, drive in mud. It is useful to learn how to drift around a corner, do a 'doughnut', do a 'bootlegger's turn while staying in control. Find a flat piece of muddy land, or smooth-wet parking lot free of obstacles, and have someone teach you. If you know how to slide on purpose you can control a skid when you get into one.

Everyone should know how to erect a simple shelter. Minimal standard is to make a simple shelter on flat open ground if given at least one pole, tarp, four stakes and 25' of light line. Advanced builders should be able to make a shelter entirely out of found materials virtually anywhere, excepting places like sand dunes and sea ice, using nothing more than a knife.

There are many more but those are the ones that come to mind.

Okay, my first response was particularly smart@ss, though I think it still has great merit. I would therefore add: a real man reserves the absolute right to edit his list at will; consultation be hanged.

I confess that re-reading the Esquire list, I quite like it. Not as a hard checklist, but as an off-beat and amusing and well-written piece. It endeavours to frame the impossible, that fleeting entity, the Well-Rounded Man.

It seems we've given up on that ideal; we know too much about too much; we despair of knowing enough to claim that title. Everyone is a specialist now. We're all tribal, and entrenched, in our niches, knowing more and more about less and less. Our only WRM is fictional, on the big screen.

It used to be that the Well-Rounded Man was the goal of education. He had a working understanding of science, of commerce, of governance, of philosophy and religion, of the military and aesthetic arts. He could fight a duel, go to war, hold his own in conversation, and dazzle the ladies at the ball. An officer, gentleman, and scholar, with practical savvy and social graces. This idea is as old as the Greeks; and I seem to recall that H.G. Wells tried his hand at framing this as well, which puts us well into the 20th century. I also note that Google has some 2.67 million hits for that phrase.

(For the record, I have no objection to the Well-Rounded Woman either. In every sense of the phrase. I am proud to count my DW as one of these.)

So, if you buy my long-winded argument: what defines the Well-Rounded Man in this day and age?

I've learned that in electronics class.

Edit: I have not read the entire list but everyone, who drives a vehicle, needs to know how to change a battery, add water to a maintenance battery, clean battery post and connectors, change battery cables or connectors, change the alternator, check and inflate tires (once every two months) and know the correct p.s.i., properly check and top off the fluids with the right fluids.

Jeanette Isabelle

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

The Heinlein quoute in general is great, but THIS



is in a league of its own.

the core of the message, the whole thing in a nutshell, roughly the size of the thing, well, there it is.

i like to think i'm fairly well rounded.. let me fire off a short list.

the usual ETS stuff -fire, shelter, first aid, basic auto maintenance, bear wrestling, etc.

Right an essay.
Tell a story.
Address a crowd.
Sketch a landscape.
Weld a joint.
Operate a lathe, drill press, and mill.
Build functional furniture.
Make, sharpen, and use a knife.
Sew.
Crack a whip.
Set all manner of digital clocks.
Cook.
Leave no obvious trace of having cooked.
"Do my own damn laundry."
Push the right "buttons" at the right time(if you know what i mean).