wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Being handy can be a cost saver; I am a father of 4 and every penny counts. If I can fix it myself, there is more $ for other things like books for college! There is also a personal satisfaction of accomplish and something to share with your macho friends at the BBQ.

The downside is that I sometime spend too much time trying to repair instead of calling a pro or just tossing and buying a new one.

I am an Ivy league grad who is a cabinamaker and spent years in the trades, and presently am a wooden window maker.

I can hammer a nail, cut metal, and make a hand cut dovetail.

I get laid all the time!!! I am here to say women love that stuff, the numbers of housewives who lament their much richer husbands (Hard at work while I am in their homes) is astounding.......of course talking to them also helps....

....Whatever happened to the Idea of the "renaissance man". I can do most all of the things described and agree with your guest.
I gave the dangerous book for boys to my 13 year old nephew, and it lost miserably to the playstation, But i havent given up the fight yet!!

growing up in a large family (ten kids) my parents made a point of making sure the girls could fix their bikes and change tires and do all that the boys did; while my brothers can cook and sew on a button and iron. Basically, there was always too much to do and it was all equal teamwork.

Younger people are also losing traditional women's skills. The American-born younger people (male or female) that I know cannot sew on a button or make a meal from scratch or get a stain out or grow a garden.

Oldest daughters in older generations, by the way, often learned "boy" skills to help their fathers, until a son was old enough to help. I can change a tire, handle a crowbar, pump the brakes for Daddy to bleed them, etc., etc.

w.

My husband is incredibly handy -- in fact my neighbors are jealous that he is so handy when their husbands are not. The only problem with this is that he starts alot of projects around the house and never finishes them. When I threaten to hire someone to finish his projects, he gets very defensive -- so we live
in a perpetual state of unfinished rooms.

i think a class on power tools would be a big hit

everyone should know how to do these things
plus - power tools are sexy

He is just "City-centric."

This is not like this outside of NYC.

Almost every time I visit friends with my wife and kids, I invariably have to fix something.

My kids, though only 2 and five, are already showing a keen interest in learning how to fix stuff and therefore want to know how things work.

It's very important for little boys, particularly, to learn these things.

Little boys develop more erratically than girls as they spend more time developing in the right side of the brain early on where as girls develop over both hemispheres evenly from the get go. That makes girls more empathic and socially aware earlier where as boys just want to mess with wheels, balls and sticks. There is obviously an evolutionary reason for this and it means that boys develop spatial relations abilities early. Therefore you need to catch them young so that they can develop an interest in fixing things. It's actually rather crucial to their progress I think.

Men who can actually build and create things with their hands are incredibly attractive- and they are few and far between. But in all fairness, I am just as disgusted by women who can't cook, do their own laundry or generally take care of themselves.

Who cares that this is a repeated episode. The relevancy of the topic keeps it interesting. Don't be such a hater.

wow...what are they playing today? The worst of Lehrer? Not this silly segment again....time to tune out

What -- and cut into my commuting time?