We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Never Forget, Never Again as regards the Holocaust don't have the power they once had, as ethnic cleansing and mass murders continue and no one seems to really care or make the sacrifices to stop them.
My two sons and I just returned from Paris and Israel, where we had my younger son's Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall. We had spent the previous days in the Negev. I said to my son at his Bar Mitzvah: You've just experienced a bit of what Jews endured in the desert for 40-years of wandering, and you are at the Wall to where for almost two-thousand years Jews prayed to return to while suffering dispersion and persecutions, so the significance of you benefiting from countless generations of faith and perseverance is highly significant to your entry into Jewish manhood, into the community of Jews who may read from and learn from the Torah and learned writings, and sacrifice to continue Judaism and Israel for another milenium and more.
In another post I will put up some cheerier photos from the Paris area and Israel. Here I will post some photos about the Holocaust and the significance of Israel's creation, reincarnation 70-years ago. Never Forget, Never Again. I am now 70, have grown up along with modern Israel, I've been to Israel three times, 24-years ago, five years ago, and now. The hard work and dedication and brilliance keeps astounding me as new archaelogic discoveries, modern structures, diverse culture, and striving people spring up and overflow as from a cornucopia. Tourism is at an all-time high. Everyone I've ever met, of any background, comes away awestruck. I doubt that I'll be in Israel again. I've Bar Mitzvahed my two sons in Jerusalem, and have many places yet to travel on my punch list (going to Mexico City area in July) before my final rest.
Just a very few photos. First France. From Israel in a following post:
This was an-all NYC weekend for us. A splendid, uplifting weekend all-round. Glorious. Took a daughter and her boyfriend to see the Met's Thomas Cole show today after an early morning 4 mile mini-urban hike with my sis and her hubbie to loosen up stiff muscles from yesterday's hike (with evil Starbucks break this morning). Good informative show and ran into good family friends there serendipitously so the kids had to catch up and chat too-loudly in the museum. Saw his Oxbow painting of a sight which all drivers up and down Rte 91 near Northampton have seen.
At lunch, the good boyfriend told us that he, his dad, and his uncle will participate with 1400 people in this year's The Great Saunter on May 5th. It's a 32-mile all-day Manhattan hike. This event is new to me, but I love the idea. By comparison, our hikes are Little Saunters. 32 miles would be a challenge for me now but, dammit, I would finish it if I had to crawl. I have a friend who had to crawl a mile to finish the Hawaii Ironman triathlon a few years ago. His wife was proud of him.
There is nothing healthier than taking on things to dispel our self-esteem despite the ego-protective temptation to hide and avoid them. Into life, outside the comfort zone. Here are some of the things that work well:
- Socializing with high-achieving, highly life-competent witty people - Taking a calisthenics/fitness class at the gym - Taking the Great Courses Intro to Calculus or Intro to Immunology Class and discover your IQ limits - Joining a Bible, or classical music/opera study group and discover your ignorance and lack of insight - Accepting the duty of running a small volunteer organization - Inspecting your naked body carefully in a mirror - Reflecting on one's mortality and what good one will have left behind - Taking an advanced yoga class - Try to get your book published - Go to a new city or woods without a GPS and make yourself get lost - Reach out to befriend somebody you feel is smart, fun and interesting, and get the brush-off - Learn a new sport or skill from scratch - Go on a job search - Get into weight-lifting
I welcome your suggestions for deeper humility in the comments -
This was not the longest hike we've had, or so I thought. After reviewing the last three, I came to realize I'd bitten off a bigger chunk of steak than realized. We clocked in at just over 11 miles, and prior to yesterday, 10 was the longest. For some reason I had believed our hike two years ago was closer to 13 miles when in fact it wasn't even 9.5.
Despite this, we were on target for time during the first half, but fell behind on the second. Each site had a longer trek involved,and there were a lot of lights along the way. In addition, wrangling 25 people (the largest group yet) was not easy. Still, 8 people didn't continue past lunch (as expected) and a few other left midway through the second half. We had a solid core of hardy trekkers at the finish. Unfortunately, I made the tragic error of not checking to see if the water taxi was running. It was not. We are all very thankful for Citibike (the three who rode bikes back into Manhattan were the big winners!) and Uber (a cheap drive back into Manhattan from Red Hook).
As always, an enjoyable group. We renewed friendships from previous years' hikes, made some new ones, and I even learned my cousin and his friends have never seen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, despite one of his friends working for Pinkerton. Kids these days!
Mrs. Bulldog and I enjoyed a cocktail with two of our fellow trekkers at Ryan Maguire's, near where we'd parked. We commented what a pleasant and interesting group of people we did these hikes with. Everyone is open to chat, friendly, full of fun and information. Good people, no microagressions were noticed, no need for safe spaces.
One thing I did not factor into the hike at all was the Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn. I really didn't think there was much left to look at. I was wrong. We did run into several items which discussed the battle and its locations. A plaque on a bank, just after lunch, indicated the spot Washington had used to observe the battle as it began down in Gowanus (then the Guan Heights) and the Old Stone House had more information about the holding action a Maryland regiment had engaged to allow the Continental Army to escape. I'm an old dog, but still learning new tricks.
Thank you all for putting up with my error regarding 7 Middagh Street. Where I'd first said it was the location of the Plymouth Church, on the ride home I was sorting through my notes and found I'd flipped addresses and that it was actually the location of a home which was shared (over time) by W.H. Auden, Gypsy Rose Lee, Carson McCullers, Paul & Jane Bowles, and Richard Wright. Thankfully, my error was offset by a wonderful view of lower Manhattan and New York Harbor - so plenty of picture opportunities. In fact, we did hit Plymouth Church two stops later, so we didn't miss anything at all.
Several intriguing spots were missed on the second half, and that's fine. It was getting late, and we had to get the (not in service) water taxi. But we did finish, found a great dive bar (Sonny's) that was unfortunately considered by many to be a great dive bar...it was far too crowded.
All in all, a fun day. Pictures below of the Manhattan Bridge (Mrs. Bulldog pointed out it's the most heavily posted picture on Instagram, and judging by the crowds clogging the street at 10:30, she was right), the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park, and the Williamsburgh Bank Tower (once the highest building in Brooklyn).
It's easy to see why the DUMBO picture of the Manhattan Bridge is so popular...
We had a jolly crew of 25 yesterday on our group hike. Thanks to all who joined us to make it a congenial and amusing event. We didn't get lost, thanks to our fearless leader Bulldog, but occasionally stragglers would make a wrong turn which always led to interesting things. Cell phones are handy. On the loveliest day of the year thus far, we began by assembling downtown near Manhattan's financial district, passing by City Hall, then marching over the Brooklyn Bridge into the Brooklyn wilderness. We covered 11 miles on cement = stiff quads.
Events like this - new adventures, new explorations, new pals, new cozy pizza joints - create the memories that enrich us and will sustain us when we can no longer do them.
I can't look at the Freedom Tower without images of the WTC on fire coming to mind and feeling furious with the barbarians. This is looking back to Manhattan from the bridge's walkway. I'll post more pics later in the week.
Good advice, but it's also always a good idea to sense when somebody is tired of taking to you. Sorry to say, they probably are. On both ends, short and sweet is best in most cases unless you are lucky enough to get a truly lively and jovial interaction going.
A friend recently extended his driveway to put in a Pickleball court. The game is like a cross between tennis, ping-pong, paddle tennis, etc. It looks like this:
Was Kelo decided rightly or wrongly? The Supremes decided the case against Mrs.Kelo and her little pink house 5-4. Naturally, the little people of the USA were horrified by the decision which indicated that a local government could take your property for the use of a private business.
I wander'd lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the Milky Way, They stretch'd in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
There is no target. Just fishing for dirt anywhere they can find some or induce some to justify their existence. That is not the American version of law enforcement. Anyway, the Russia thing seems to have been left behind. Russia dirt seems to lead only to the Clintons.
Magical thinking about food and nutrition is pervasive in wealthy parts of the world where nutrition is over-abundant and biological knowledge minimal. The classic example in the US is Whole Foods - organic non-GMO foods and supplements for the rich. A scam, like this one:
My friend's son benched 505 last week. He is a serious lifter, a hunk of granite. Going for your one-rep max in powerlifts (bench, squat, deadlifts) is not a great idea for us "functional fitness" people. There is no need at all to do it except as a feat. For general fitness, keeping powerlift reps in the 3-10 range is correct for heavier weights.
You can guess your one-rep max by extrapolating from your 3 or 4-rep max. I do not have a lifter build (have a runner's build), but I go for barbell deadlift one-reps about twice a year, just for kicks and to be stupid. I discovered that I can not deadlift 275 lbs this week - just up to my knees. Damn. I know a gal who deads 300 lbs. Strong, fit gal with no visible muscle mass. Perhaps I did not warm up for it right...
With the powerlifts, always warm up light and work up, usually 5 total sets with a good rest between sets. If you want to be stupid like me once in a while, How to Warm Up for a One-Rep Max
If you like to use a trap bar for deadlifts (I do, occasionally), you can move much more weight than with the barbell. I have never tried a one-rep max with the trap bar.
Below the fold, a few words on other, non-powerlift pure strength exercises -
Science is not about finding the truth at all, but about finding better ways of being wrong. The best scientific theory is not the one that reveals the truth — that is impossible. It is the one that explains what we already know about the world in the simplest way possible, and that makes useful predictions about the future. When I accepted that I would always be wrong, and that my favourite theories are inevitably destined to be replaced by other, better, theories — that is when I really knew that I wanted to be a scientist.
Read the utterly innocuous but useful piece. How the idea of debating scientific theories could be "high risk" is beyond me. Or maybe the very phrase "free speech" triggers people. If so, I feel depressed.
I've always felt that the best kid car songs are the ones you can continue to make up verses for. That used to be fun in our family. This one is good for going around the car so everybody can invent new verses (the sillier the better, and half-rhymes accepted). I like "there ain't no lobsters on me...".
People have different goals for physical training. Aspiring or real athletes have a training program designed for their specific sport. Training for tennis is different than rowing training. Endurance training is an entirely different thing. Some people (very few, though) in the gym only care about lifting heavy and nothing else. Good for them. They have a goal. Some people simply jog on the treadmill every day, sit on the exercise bike reading the news, or swim laps, etc. Putting in the time. I don't know why they do that (the elderly excepted), but they are convinced it's good for them and they are doing something besides sitting so that's good.
However, most people just want what we discuss here: Fitness for Life. That means fitness for recreational sports and activities, an energetic and vigorous approach to life with enough strength to handle tough things and enough endurance to never feel tired or lazy. Not to mention the considerable mental benefits.
I think many people (as I did) suddenly hit a point at which one is forced to face the limits of energy, or strength, endurance, vitality, agility, power - whatever. It is depressing. That is the Come To Jesus moment.
That is why we focus our fitness posts on general, functional, fitness rather than on specialized forms of training. The physical basics: Cardio, Calisthenics, Muscle and bone Strength.
Daffodils
Toy