~~~~ The Mikey Observer ~~~~
Guys hint at holiday gifts they really want
by A. Scott Walton, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
9 December 2004
All men are dogs.
Knowing that, your shopping for the guys who figure significantly in your life this holiday season should be a breeze.
Eye-opening thoughts of why men seem so hard to buy presents for were exchanged recently at the "Men's Night Out" event hosted at Chops by Lui-B Italian Shirtmakers and custom jeweler Ken Goldwasser.
They all boiled down to a simple outlook that men have on gift-getting: Just throw us a bone!
What's "a bone," you ask? Try red meat, carbs and scotch with his knucklehead buddies in a dining room so private that only staff and select members hold elevator access cards.
Or, in the words of NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip: "Just go to the [shamelessly endorsed fishing gear chain], get it, bring it to me and I'll be happy.
"Just gimme a gift certificate I can have in my pocket when I go in there."
Jimmy Baron, the 99X morning jock, summed up the difficulty of saying what you want for Christmas/
Kwanzaa/Hanukkah out loud: "Men aren't hard to shop for. The average woman is just clueless about what a man really wants.
"Men want stuff they would not buy for themselves."
In an odd way of concurring, Buckhead gemologist Ken Goldwasser suggested: "It doesn't take a whole lot to make guys happy. But, very often, we don't want to be beholden to anybody."
There's a reason men have trouble verbalizing their holiday desires. Their gifts of choice tilt toward solitary or "male bonding" activities.
For Waltrip, obviously, it's fishing. For Goldwasser, interestingly, it's fueling his Formula One aspirations at Atlanta Motor Speedway. For dapper, jet-setting attorney Don Keenan, it's "the enjoyment of the challenge of putting a look together in 30, 40 minutes every day." For Buckhead urologist Dr. Bruce Stein, it's the notion of someone more computer-savvy than he arranging to make pictures of his family flash across the screens of his PCs.
"Not that this is a gift suggestion," Stein added, "but look at bifocal contact lenses. They've changed my life [and] made things so much easier now that I'm a half-century old."
Mike Hughes, the trade show producer (and husband of Star 94's Vikki Locke), put it succinctly: "You can't go wrong with cigars or golf balls!"
But seriously.
"Like a lot of guys here, I do pretty much have everything I want," Hughes said. "So, this may sound corny, but . . . I'd just as soon have something donated to charity in my name."
NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip is flanked by two models at the recent 'Men's Night Out' event hosted by Lui-B Italian Shirtmakers and Goldwasser Jewelers.
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