Esquire’s skills every man must master: 

• Tell if someone is lying. Everyone has his theory. Pick one, test it. Choose the tells that work for you. Examples: Liars change the subject quickly. Liars look up and to their right when they speak. Liars use fewer contractions. Liars will sometimes stare straight at you and employ a dead face. Liars never touch their chest or heart except self-consciously. Liars place objects between themselves and you during a conversation.
• Take a photo. Fill the frame.
• Name a book that matters. The Catcher in the Rye does not matter. Not really. You gotta read.
• Cook meat somewhere other than the grill: Buy The Way to Cook, by Julia Child. Try roasting. Braising. Broiling. Slow-cooking. Pan searing. Think ragouts, fricassees, stews. All of this will force you to understand the functionality of different cuts. In the end, grilling will be a choice rather than a chore, and your Weber will become a tool rather than a piece of weekend entertainment.
• Not monopolize the conversation.
• Write a letter: So easy. So easily forgotten. A five-paragraph structure works pretty well: Tell why you’re writing. Offer details. Ask questions. Give news. Add a specific memory or two. If your handwriting is terrible, type. Always close formally.
• Buy a suit: Avoid bargains. Know your likes, your dislikes, and what you need it for (work, funerals, court). Always get fitted.
• Swim three different strokes. Doggie paddle doesn’t count.
• Show respect without being a suck-up. Respect the following, in this order: age, experience, record, reputation. Don’t mention any of it.
• Throw a punch. Close enough, but not too close. Swing with your shoulders, not your arm. Long punches rarely land squarely.
• Chop down a tree. Know your escape path. When the tree starts to fall, use it.
• Calculate square footage. Width times length.
• Speak a foreign language. Pas beaucoup. Mais faites un effort.
• Sew a button.
• Know his poison, without standing there, pondering like a dope. Brand, amount, style, fast, like so: Booker’s, double, neat.
• Drive an eightpenny nail into a treated two-by-four without thinking about it. Use a contractor’s hammer. Swing hard and loose, like a tennis serve.
• Cast a fishing rod without shrieking or sighing or otherwise admitting defeat.
• Play gin with an old guy. Old men will try to crush you. You take a beating as a means of absorbing the lessons they’ve learned without taking a lesson. But don’t be afraid to take them down. They can handle it.

A clean-shaven Sam Roberts stopped by the studio today to chat up his new album, Love at the End of the World. Here’s the audio:

Sam Roberts Interview