There’s An Aging Man in My House

A lament and an ode to the 50-something man in my house. [View in Browser]( [Esquire Sunday Reads]( [My Aging Husband]( My Aging Husband I have a man in my house, and he’s been aging for a long time now—I want to say 50-odd years. In my understanding, this aging process was supposed to refine all of his flavors, making him more robust yet more patient, more tenacious yet more caring. And while I have observed a notable uptick in tenderness and affection, I was under the impression, based on the novels I’ve read and the movies I’ve seen, that he’d become increasingly independent and bold and courageous over time. This has not been my experience with the man in my house. While I enjoy and treasure this man very much, lately he’s seemed to dislike rapid changes in temperature. He has a minor foot injury that he updates me on daily instead of, say, boarding a nuclear submarine in search of spies. The man in my house is losing his hair, but he says the Rogaine he bought is “too sticky.” To be fair, this man looks good with or without hair. But when I mention the countless painful treatments I’ve used to maintain my girlish good looks, my man no comprende—a verb he would understand if he learned Spanish as he’s been threatening to do for more than a decade. [Read the Full Story]( [MORE FROM ESQUIRE]( [What I’ve Learned: Billie Joe Armstrong]( What I’ve Learned: Billie Joe Armstrong Billie Joe Armstrong, 51, is the lead singer and guitarist of the pioneering punk-pop band Green Day. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the group's breakthrough record, Dookie, and twenty years since the release of the multiplatinum album American Idiot, which was adapted into a Broadway musical. On January 19, Armstrong and his Green Day bandmates—drummer Tré Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt—are releasing Saviors, the group’s fourteenth studio album. The band starts a major tour this spring. I love black. I love leather jackets, and I like having my old favorite T-shirts. I end up buying the same outfit over and over. I was never Mr. Hardcore. When we first started playing together, there was a big trend of who can play the fastest. And it was like, “Well, I don’t want to do that.” That’s not really musical for me. It became almost a bit macho, which is something we were definitely trying to get away from. [Read the Full Story]( [Finally, Great Hiking Shoes That Don't Look Like Hiking Shoes]( Finally, Great Hiking Shoes That Don't Look Like Hiking Shoes I own one pair of heavy-duty high-top hiking boots that I've had for about twelve years now. I still vividly remember my heels, bleeding viciously, for the multiple weeks it took me to initially break them in. So many band-aids, so much pain. I suppose some tough hikers might say that’s just part of the game, and tell me to buck up. But, I'll let you in on a secret: Technical hiking shoes without a break-in period exist. You don't need to bleed or clunk around in thick heavy soles to be able to go for a hike. You do not even have to own shoes that look like traditional hiking shoes in order to go for a hike. My fellow casual, style-minded hikers, let me introduce you to the Adidas Terrex Free Hiker 2.0. [Read the Full Story]( [How to Take Back Your Life From Algorithms]( How to Take Back Your Life From Algorithms Something’s off, but you can’t quite name it. It’s the moment you get home after staying with friends, and an influencer using their exact coffeemaker pops up on your Instagram feed. It’s the split-second after an actor delivers a quippy line on a streaming series, and you try to parse whether this scene has already become a meme, or if it’s just written to court them. It’s the new song you’ve been hearing everywhere, only to discover it’s an ‘80s deep cut, inexplicably trending on TikTok. There is a name for this uneasiness. It’s called “algorithmic anxiety,” and it’s one of the main subjects of Kyle Chayka’s new book, Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. A staff writer for The New Yorker, Chayka charts the rise of algorithmic recommendations and decision-making, and shows how culture has slowly started effacing itself to fit more neatly within the parameters of our social media platforms. Algorithms, Chayka reminds us, don’t spring from the machine fully-formed. They’re written by humans—in this case, humans employed by the world's biggest tech conglomerates—and their goal is simple: to prioritize content that keeps us scrolling, keeps us tapping, and does not, under any circumstances, divert us from the feed. [Read the Full Story]( [Todd Snyder's Return to the Runway Was Worth the Wait]( Todd Snyder's Return to the Runway Was Worth the Wait Is putting on a fashion show like riding a bike? Is it the sort of thing that, once you’ve got the hang of it, comes back naturally after stepping away from it for a while? “Not when you suddenly go from riding a bike to the park to getting into the Tour de France,” Todd Snyder tells me backstage at Stazione Leopolda in Florence, Italy, a cavernous event space that, in a few hours, will be the home of his first fashion show in four years. The sense of occasion is palpable. See, Synder is here with Pitti Uomo, the influential fashion trade show. He first pitched himself to the powers that be eight years ago, so this is a long time coming. And even if it weren’t for the long road to this moment, this is the American designer’s first European show—and that’s a huge deal. In New York, where Snyder is based, opting out of the fashion-show ecosystem has become the norm for a strain of cool-kid brands that want to do their own thing. But here in Italy, with a huge show to kick off the proceedings at Pitti, all eyes are on Snyder. And he knows it. [Read the Full Story]( [10 Shows Like Reacher to Watch Next]( 10 Shows Like Reacher to Watch Next Reacher is one of those shows you just can't turn off. Based on Lee Child's wildly popular novels, the Amazon Prime adaptation stars Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher, a retired military police officer who tries (for an extremely short amount of time) to live a normal life—you know, one where he doesn't spend all of his time hunting down bad guys. Since its premiere in 2022, Reacher has become Amazon Prime Video’s most-watched series. It's not hard to see why: Reacher has mastered the recipe for a badass thriller. But with season 2 ending and our wait for season 3 beginning, one of these 10 series will have to tide you over. 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