The Menaissance

By Ellin Martens

The manly man is back. Some data points: Harvard prof Harvey Mansfield's highbrow Manliness cites Achilles to, yes, Margaret Thatcher for such qualities as honor, bravery, pigheadedness. Meanwhile, monobrowed blogger Maddox's best seller Alphabet of Manliness high-fives hot sauce, Chuck Norris, chainsaws. Here, more evidence it's reigning men.

THE CABLE GUYS Entourage, the male Sex and the City, is back for its third season. The HBO series--about a Hollywood actor, his buds and his agent--purports to show how real men talk when women aren't around.

MANISON AVENUE Ad campaigns for Burger King's Texas Double Whopper play an I Am Man manthem a la Helen Reddy; Miller beer has celebs solemnly debating "Man Laws."

MAN OF STEEL Opening June 28, Superman Returns has it all: those manly virtues of heroic strength, risk taking and a sense of sacrifice, along with big explosions, kryptonite and Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. As for risk taking: back away from the tights.

MANLIEST OF FOODS Beef jerky. It's also one of U.S. troops' most wanted edibles. Operation Beef Up Our Troops (go to usobeefjerky com to donate cash) has sent 800,000 care packages to soldiers overseas.

GUYS' GUIDES No ode to Achilles in actor Jim Belushi's tome. Instead, it's Ditka and dating tips. The Sopranos' Frank Vincent is also practical in his Guy's Guide to Being a Man's Man. Sinatra music, yes. SpongeBob neckties? No.