It’S Time To Think About Resolutions

If your personal tradition is making resolutions at the end of December, it’s not too soon to start thinking about what you’re going to swear off of, or start doing.

And, while you’re at it, figure out how you are going to take this new tack and stick with it.

The University of Washington Addictive Behaviors Research Center studied New Year’s resolutions, then tracked respondents two months later. Of the 393 participants in the 1997 survey, 63 percent managed to keep their resolutions for two months.

The most popular resolution was to increase exercise (37 percent), followed by devoting more time to study or work (23 percent), eating more healthy foods or eating less unhealthy foods (13 percent), and reducing the use of tobacco, alcohol, caffeine or other substances (7 percent). (From Dec. Seattle Magazine)

* Pay attention, now: During this season of merry-making, some of Esquire’s “Things a Man Should Know About Drinking” bear repeating. And, really, they are not gender-specific:

— There is nothing sadder than a guy who orders beer by the pitcher when he’s drinking alone.

— Drinking is not a competitive sport.

— There is no upside to karaoke.

— If a bartender makes you flail your arms or beg for service, well, obviously, leave.

— Even if you have ascertained your bartender’s name, behaving overly familiar with him will be seen as a pathetic gambit for free drinks, or, worse, proof that you have nobody to go to for affection other than a random service-industry professional who does not, in fact, know you and just wants your money.

— Unless you are lounging on the Promenade Deck, do not drink from a fruit. (From December Esquire)

* Can he say Neanderthal? “You can marry an ugly woman for enough money, I guess.” — Providence, R.I., Mayor Vincent Cianci, on the decision of New England Patriots owner Robert Craft to move his football team to rival Hartford, Conn. (From Nov. 30 Newsweek)

* Ambivalence isn’t just a boy thing: Deborah Tannen, author of “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation,” weighed in on why men found the Lewinsky-Tripp taped conversations boring.

“Boys talk to negotiate their positions in a group: if you can tell other boys what to do and make it stick, your status goes up. … Conversations about who said what just aren’t that important, so boys don’t learn to pay attention to exactly what was said — unless it meant they got put down or pushed around.

“It’s not that boys and men don’t spend hours exchanging seemingly unimportant details — it’s just that the details aren’t about relationships and conversations. They’re more likely to be about sports or games.

“If a man is having an affair, he might not tell anyone at all, because his idea of friendship doesn’t require that he disclose what’s going on in his life. For many women, though, intimacy entails keeping friends informed of what’s going on in your life.” (From Nov. 30 Newsweek)