Man Bag

Gentle reader, apologies for the dearth of entries of late.

The photo below will appeal to fans of the Boston Red Sox, who will snicker at Alex Rodriguez being called out for knocking the ball from the opposing player's glove (a foul in baseball).

An article in the Daily Telegraph struck home lately.  It was on the subject of back pain that men have caused by carrying a "man bag".  I have experienced this, when carrying my laptop, various commentaries/books/etc around in my leather attache.  I call it a "messenger bag" and this is how it is advertised, rather than "man purse"!  It looks like the bag I saw in the Wells Fargo museum, from the old Pony Express days.

In the Telegraph article, two photos are provided, one of Jude Law carrying what seems to be a purse, the other of David Beckham carrying a suitcase and, slung over his shoulder, what looks to me like what I term a "messenger bag".  But the article wishes to associate this with the purse in the first photo.  I don't take David Beckham's fashion sense as the height of either style or masculinity, but surely there is a differentiation between the two?  The point of the article is to say that guys are hurting their shoulders carrying around lots of stuff.  True for me as I have the thing slung over my shoulder for a couple of hours a day sometimes. 

The Swiss Army once used the bags pictured below for messengers carrying maps.  And the next picture is of a bag for carrying ammunition.

What think the fashionistas among you?  Is there any alternative to the square briefcase or the hiker's backpack?  Is Jerry Seinfeld right, "It's not a purse, it's European!"?

Or perhaps I've been in a metropolitan setting too long, and need to get a grip.