At supper time last night, the headline read "If stressed, men more likely to crave alcohol than women: study" but not any more. I think the first draft was more honest. It seems to be tough news all around for stressed men as they also suffer from significantly higher heart attack rates:

Those men who were in the highest percentile for all anxiety scales were found to be at a 30 to 40 per cent higher risk of heart attack. The scales included:

• Excessive doubts, obsessive thoughts and irrational compulsions.
• Social introversion, or anxiety, insecurity, and discomfort in interpersonal and social situations.
• Phobias, or excessive anxieties or fears about animals, situations or objects.
• Manifest anxiety, measured the tendency to experience tension and physical arousal in stressful situations.

Good. Mind numbing boredom, day dreaming and the tendency to skive off don't make the list. Could it be that being indifferent is good for you? And what about rational compulsions, the sort most men are actually drawn to do whether it's excessive attention to badly done home repair to avoid in-laws, railroad memorabilia collecting to put off home repairs or playing or watching sports instead of attending to the railroad collection? Could it be that actually being a bit of an lazy lump is really good for you? That would be good. And if we can work a little bacon in, all the better.