thePULSETime to Consult G3nt ~ A Handbook for the Third Millennium Gentleman
By Jason W. Prokowiew
In an age when you can dump your girlfriend by text and moments later arrange via Smart Phone a weekend trip to Sin City to avoid the backlash, it can be tough to be a gentleman.
Worcester native, writer (you’ll remember Pulse’s features on Colin’s first book, Another Broken Wizard) and all-around gentleman Colin Dodds is helping those struggling men ~ and by extension the ladies on the receiving end of their Neanderthal ways ~ to master the arts of decorum in the modern world. In January, he and his partner in gentlemanliness Frank Schloegel launched the blog G3nt ~ A Handbook for the Third Millennium Gentleman.
“Politeness is a lot different than it was 10 years ago,” Dodds points out. “There’s a lot more disconnect now. Men need to understand that there are ways to get the point across without hurting other people’s feelings.”
Dodds and Schloegel answer a different reader’s concern every weekday and cover the range of struggles a modern-day fellow looking to refine himself faces ~ from what the heck LMAO means and when to use it to how to tell your friends that they’re bad parents.
“There’s a lot of confusion and trepidation out there,” Dodds explains. “This is a different world than we were raised in.”
The idea for G3nt sprang from a nonfiction book Dodds shelved years ago that focused on bachelors and how they could best approach dating. In November 2011, Schloegel, a friend since the two attended New School University in New York City, suggested they turn that book into an advice column.
“Our goal is to give some dead-on judgment calls and be funny doing it,” Dodds says.
In a recent query, a lost soul named Ghost Dog asked what he should do with his curiosity about his girlfriend’s sexual past.
“Nip it in the bud. Strangle it in the crib. No good will come of it,” Dodds and Schloegel advised. “The modern compulsion to talk about sex at all turns is in fact your worst enemy in this instance.”
While the Guide may claim to answer the call of the modern fool trying to pass as sir, Dodds says there’s room for the ladies, too.
“My advice to the ladies who want to send questions is just to disguise themselves as men,” Dodds says. “But honestly, I don’t think the women need a lot of help.”
To follow G3nt and pose your questions, visit www.g3nt.com.
THIS JUST IN! Colin’s second book, What Smiled at Him, became available on May 22 as a paperback and ebook. It’s a mystery in which the main characters seem to possess all the clues and information they need to solve a grisly double-murder, but, for their respective reasons, don’t. Childhood friends Lynn ~ a struggling musician ~ and Marv ~ who sells software ~ now in their late 20s, are beginning to question the choices they’ve made. One night, far from home, a mix of alcohol, irresponsibility and coincidence reunites them with the longtime object of their desires, Caroline. Now married into a wealthy Chicago family, Caroline is desperately unhappy and begins an affair with Marv. Not long after, she’s arrested and charged with murdering her husband and infant son. Lynn and Marv reluctantly investigate and debate what happened, all while remaining dangerously close to her. As her trial nears, the mystery dogs them through their searches for love and success and through their self-destructive lapses ~ and may ultimately end with one of their deaths.
Above photo: Colin Dodds
