So, Do You Like ... Stuff?

Today we begin a special three-part holiday series on our favorite Christmas gifts of yore. When you grow up with two sisters, especially when one of them is older, you can easily be led astray. I watched “Dirty Dancing”— with interest —more times than I could count. I cried during “Steel Magnolias.” When New Kids on the Block emerged and my sisters scooped up all the albums and merchandise, I thought NKOTB were the coolest guys in the world and I wanted to be a member of their singing posse. Until I went to school one day and my third-grade friends started making fun of them, and I was like, “Ha, ha, yeah, those guys are THE WORST. I’m really into Johnny Cash these days.” But there were occasions when my natural, unconscious masculinity shone through. For example, I was very much into He-Man. These days, people might view He-Man (and that previous sentence) with some homoerotic skepticism , but I’m telling you—He-Man was a healthy representation of manhood back in the da...