'Dudes Next Door' Spread Cool Via Email

Binoculars that can be discreetly filled with alcohol and a giant burger that requires the use of five napkins exemplify the "dude next door" cool that Thrillist.com promises with its daily emails, Meredith Goldstein writes in the Boston Globe. The 3-year-old site has 300,000 subscribers, say its founders, who hope to rival female-centric DailyCandy.com. (Just think "gadgets and beer" rather than "eyebrow tweezers," Goldstein notes.)

"The way I sort of explained it to my friends is, I'm their slave who sort of figures out and sorts through all the (junk) and finds cool stuff they can get locally," says Boston's Thrillist correspondent, adding that trust-building is key. "It's a very tricky thing, we've found. For young men, they don't want someone to treat them like they don't know anything." (More thrilllist.com stories.)