Do straight guys want to read a men's shopping magazine?

"I have to say, it just seems like the worst idea for a magazine in a while," says David Boyer, author of "Kings and Queens: Queers at the Prom" (Soft Skull). "I'm sure they've done plenty of research and there are no doubt guys out there who like to shop, but it seems to me it's a totally emasculating concept for a straight guy. An upscale gay shopping magazine, on the other hand, makes sense to me."

Foxman, who was plucked from the ranks of In Style magazine, says Cargo's readers aren't gay, straight or metrosexual, but "any guy in the market to buy something. He feels self-assured when he goes shopping and, with Cargo, has the proper tools to get what he wants."

That's all very nice, and possibly true, but the first issue doesn't feel like it's for anyone -- straight, gay, whatever -- in particular. The magazine isn't littered with half-naked babes in men's suits, bitchy queens telling straight guys how to behave, or hopeless geeks prattling on about the wonders of WiFi, but it doesn't read like a cool Consumer Reports, either. It's neither very gay nor very straight but rather fey, lacking a personality, as if the magazine truly wants to be all things to all people. As my friend Chris Harris, a 33-year-old married television writer in Los Angeles, says, "Finally, a magazine that's nothing but all the kinds of stuff I skip over in other magazines."

There may very well be legions of men lost in the suit racks at Macy's, who still don't know that a red rose means we're screwing and a yellow rose means we're not, and scratch their heads inside Best Buy, wondering whether TiVo is for them. Most guys I know, however, enjoy figuring out what they do and don't care about all by themselves. Those who don't have girlfriends who teach them most of what Cargo offers on fashion, grooming and culture. For guidance on gadgets, there's the Internet, Wired and the Wall Street Journal's tech guru Walter Mossberg.

"When I go to buy a digital camera, or a bottle of champagne, I think about cameras or champagne then," says Dan Hoffman, a 32-year-old CEO of a small telecom company in Manhattan. "I'll go out and research then, and wish magazines like Cargo had good searchable databases. Why waste time and money reading this stuff passively?"

Guys get a style and they want to keep it forever. The fashion industry thrives on the notion that you need to change your wardrobe every season, but the straight guys I know just find something they like and stick to it.

Every time my father passes a Rexall drug store in any part of the country, he goes in to search for the one perfect comb that was discontinued eons ago -- and I swear on my Cargo that he's been doing this for two decades. Now I find myself returning to a shoe sample sale looking for that style I bought the first time, wore out, bought two more times, wore out, and then realized was no longer available. Distraught over what I had thought would be the last type of casual shoes I would ever have to buy, I asked the designer if they were coming back. "It's time to move on," he said with both sympathy and authority. I know he's right. But I also know my dad will continue to search for the Holy Grail of $1.50 combs until he can comb no more.

Recounting my Cargo moment with Shoshana at Cafeteria to my girlfriend, she gave me her own once-over, noting the coat, scarf, sweater, T-shirt and jeans, and said with authority, "You do realize that except for the iPod, every single part of your ensemble was directly or indirectly due to me."

That's when it hit me: Some straight guys will read Cargo ... the ones without girlfriends.

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