Bill of Rites for The American Man

Ten Articles that Pull A Man Out of the Cave, Make a Love Interest Take Extra Notice and the Boss Feel Compelled to Promote Him. Or at Least Not Fire Him. Most of these guide lines can be considered situational for everyday use but always when we are in black-tie or at a business event. This isn’t to say that manners should be reserved for fancy and formal occasions. Everyday manners are the goal, but extra attention is paid to special events where the use of such is easier to illustrate for our purposes and crucial to execute when we are out on the town. Just as we want our dinner suit to be clean, pressed and ready for use when we need it, so too should our confident grasp of the ways of the civilized world. Unfortunately, old-fashioned etiquette books are woefully dense with detail and many people, but particularly men, put them aside as not relevant to their lives. Understandable but not insoluble. SP has delved deeply into these tomes and come away with an edited, updated and completely accessible set of guidelines that fit neatly into the modern American man’s life. Stripped, pruned, updated and polished for your consideration, consider this a list of articles to the original declarations, a Bill of Rites, as it were.

SocialPrimer.com is a masculine online cross between the Preppy Handbook and Emily Post The Wall Street Journal

The Alabama dilettante is aiming to school even guys' guys with his lively and opinionated rants on everything from proper text-messaging etiquette to how to handle one's liquor. The New York Times

(SP highlights) the merits of old-school style. Vanity Fair


SP is a stickler for tradition and etiquette. SP is a bon vivant, sometimes a dandy, always a gentleman, and -- he will be the first to admit --something of a booze hound. SP - the alter ego of writer K. Cooper Ray -- reminds men to walk on the curbside of a lady and to always stand when they shake a man's hand. On his popular blog -- socialprimer.com - SP lays out the hard and fast rules for throwing a great party and most beneficially, shares with men how to be a welcome guest at any event, ski lodge or country house, thus ensuring a return invitation. In the tradition of The Preppy Handbook, SP casts a suspecting (yet respectful) and humorous eye on the world he inhabits. In these uncertain times SP insists that good manners have never been more important or more needed. SP reminds men how to dress for a date, a business meeting, a summer wedding, a boating excursion, even providing an instructional chart on the proper way to tie a bow tie. SP is not a snob. Nor is he only interested in exclusivity or expensive things. His mantra -- that one does not have to be rich to live the good life -- is one that resonates with contemporary man as his widely-read and critically-acclaimed blog proves.