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10 things a man should know - just ask me
Susan Nienow

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A recent issue of Popular Mechanics listed 25 skills a man should know, including building a campfire, cleaning a fish, cleaning a boltaction rifle and how to bleed brakes. Without taking anything away from the need to know how to build a campfire, I would suggest that these things aren't the most important things to know. Here are 10 of my choices.

Men should know female logic is different from theirs. There's that straight-line thinking and squiggly thinking thing. Last week, I took off to run errands and told my other half where I was going. I got back, hours later than if I just went the three places I planned to go. But I remembered that I needed a baby gift, saw the library and stopped to check out books, and grabbed a sandwich with Sara. Then I ran my three errands. We've been married decades, and he still expects me to do exactly what I say I am going to do.

I think it is more important for a man to know how to clean a bathroom than a fish. And he shouldn't know how to do such a bad job that he is never asked to clean the bathroom again.

It is critical for my other half to know when to stop asking "What's wrong?" as though there is a logical answer. That answer is affected by hormone levels, weather, time of day, my "to do" list, how long it's been since I've been shopping - you know - anything that's in the air at the moment. Sometimes "nothing" means just that.

My other half should know how to keep from spraying weed-killer in my flowerbeds. And I have to add that he should know not to ever pull up a plant he doesn't recognize as a weed.

A man should know how to cook. My other half does this really well and regularly. But he doesn't get extra credit.

Men should know how to hang pictures that aren't in a straight line. Mixing them up is OK.

Men should know how to sit through a chick flick without complaining. They could also act engaged and not snore. It isn't too much to ask them to talk about it afterward without referring to it as a new entry in the list of the "worst films of the past century."

I believe that men should be able to start the DVD player without giving a lesson on how to run a DVD player. They should just start the movie. No instructional classes.

There is someone missing from most of the pictures in our photo albums. The photographer: my other half. That's because, just like the DVD lessons, I get a reminder about how the camera works whenever I pick it up. So men who take pictures should know how to take snapshots of themselves.

Men will count the things men should know. There are nine. That doesn't bother me. That's number 10.