It's A Moo Point... (3)

… like a cow’s opinion… it doesn’t matter… it’s moo.

Time to rifle through some correspondence and find out what’s at the forefront of your minds this week. First up – all the way from Texas, America – comes the following from a sweet l’il lady whose hair tumbles freely with a gorgeous honey-dewed aroma and whose eyes are… Huh? What did you say? She’s getting MARRIED next week? So I can’t continue with…? Whadya mean QUIT while I’m ahead - I’ve only gotten to her eyes!

Anyway, as I was saying, I got this email which said…

Man + Vacation = Mancation. Can’t wait to hear your glib and uninformed opinion about it! Especially since you were doing it with your buddies before it became the hot new trend…

m xxx

Having never encountered the term before, my first concern was to clarify exactly what “it” was I’d being doing with my “buddies” all these years. In order to keep my opinion as glib and uninformed as possible, I carried out the minimal amount of research and stumbled across the following definition.

Mancation (n)
1) Period of time where female significant other is absent, thus leaving male on his own without feeling obliged to female concerns. (If THIS is true then I’m on permanent mancation.)

2) Male-only vacation, usu. with intentions to escape female significant other.

N.B. This is a period that should involve take-out, canned beer, not making the bed. It is not to be confused with semi-awkward male-only fishing, hiking or camping trip where the unspoken goal is to prove manliness. See: Bareback Mountain

Related terms: Bromance

The definition went on to say that the term was “famously invoked” by Vince Vaughn in ‘The Break Up’ with Jennifer Aniston – “I’m excited. I look at it like I’m on mancation.” – but I can’t confirm this because ‘The Break Up’ is a chick flick and is likely to contain scenes of a weeping and/or r, r, r, r, relationship nature, so I haven’t seen it.

So yeah, I’ve been on male-only vacations (check back next week for possible photos) where the pursuit of birdies and holes-in-one has been the prime objective. And if they were hard to come by, then we’d just go play golf. Boom Boom!

However my main problem with the term ‘mancation’ is the clumsy use of the play-on-words. Surely it only works if the basic construction of the word remains? (Remember: rhyming, good) As I said to a close personal friend the other day, “If I was travelling in May then I’d be going on a ‘Maycation’; or if I was taking a trip to the bay it would be a ‘baycation’.”

“So maybe you should call it a ‘gaycation’ instead,” he replied with a wink. The rogue.

Anyway, I could drone on (even further) with stories from previous mancations (like the time six of us spent a whole morning huddled round a television engrossed in an infomercial for this) but instead let me leave you with a little game you can play the next time you’re away with your buddies.

Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox & the blond one. Which one would you marry, which one would you sh#g and which one would you throw off a cliff? Discuss.

If you have a favourite subject you’d like analysed quickly and glibly, send your suggestion to “It’s A Moo Point” at neil@neilwritestheworld.com