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.
The Swede Jonas Bronck is supposed to have been the first European settler there around 1630.
The Borough of the Bronx in NYC has 1.3 million souls. West to east, it runs from charming Riverdale with the lovely Wave Hill, to the unique City Island. North to south, it runs from famous Woodlawn Cemetery to Hunt's Point where most of the metropolitan area's food arrives. It's the most diverse political entity in the USA. OK, it has a ton of housing projects, including Co-op City, the largest residential development in the US with 45,000 residents. A city within a city, sort-of, and dreary to my way of thinking.
The Bronx has Yankee Stadium, the Bronx Zoo, the New York Botanical Garden, Fordham University, and Arthur Avenue (the new Little Italy), among other things like Pelham Park. The South Bronx has been notorious for crime, but not so much now. I would not wander around there at night. The history of The Grand Concourse, built to copy the Champs Elysee, is interesting. At one time, The Grand Concourse was an elegant escape from tenement living, mostly for Jews from the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Our hike route is in the development stage because we always have too many things to see, but it will not disappoint.
But what do people mean by "physical conditioning"? After all, it's a something that most people exercise to maintain or achieve. When people commit to a daily or near-daily exercise program, conditioning is what most people are after. They are in crappy physical condition (sedentary, overweight or underweight, flabby muscles, poor cardio and muscular endurance, low energy, agility, posture, or power, etc).
They are not after mighty muscles, winning marathons, or entering the Crossfit Games. Most people just want to move from a poor or mediocre physical condition to the best condition they can reach given their age, sex, and physical architecture. And, really, people want to look in good condition too instead of looking like they are going to seed, over the hill. That's not a good look to present to the world.
When you see trainers working with clients in the gym, they are usually working towards general conditioning. That's why they do so many varied things in an hour: ball throws, some weights but not too heavy, combat bike sprints, lunges, kettlebell stuff, body weight squats, box jumps, band walks, machine rows, sled pushes and pulls, etc etc. A full mix of good conditioning exercises. Trainers in most gyms rarely have the opportunity do do real training.
The Maggie's Fitness for Life program is basically a general conditioning program - but it can be a general fitness training program if you keep records and graph performance. What can we easily graph? The weights we move, speed and endurance with "cardio", our own weight, and similar. It is difficult to graph out our performance with calisthenics and calisthenics classes, but it's easy to know how many pushups or pullups we can do, or how many kettlebell swings with a given weight.
So I guess my point today is that the Maggie's Fitness for Life Program can easily be turned into a training program by keeping records of most of the components (especially the weights and cardio speed/endurance parts). Oh, also, body weight - some need more weight and muscle, some need less body fat.
What is the Maggie's program? Readers know what it is: 2 days of weight training (powerlifts and accessory weights), 2 days of cardio with HIIT, 2 days of calisthenics/fitness class, and one recovery day of some sort of enjoyable recreational activity after church. This doesn't include most recreational sports, because they do not really count. Recreation is the reward.
Facing Up To the Revolution - Our ultimate objective, unlike that of our enemies, is “peace among ourselves and with all nations.” But what kind of peace we may get depends on the extent to which we may compel our enemies to leave us in peace. And for that, we must do unto them more and before they do unto us.
OK, but does the US have any serious enemies these days? Not really. There's a lot of peace out there.
"Whether women singing and dancing in barely-there costumes or otherwise celebrating their bodies is empowering, or an assault on our ability to move through the world as men’s equals..." - "... is one of those forever fights....
Mrs. BD and I caught the Balanchine/Stravinsky show at the NYCB on Saturday. As the premier ballet company in the world (not that I could tell the difference but Mrs. BD is a dance expert), it's definitely worthwhile to see what Balanchine did with Stravinsky. Once does it for me, but whatever...I don't get most of Stravinsky, regardless of how long I close my eyes and concentrate. All I end up doing is admiring the athleticism of the 1st violinist.
There was one piece that I got a good kick out of (Dances Concertantes), but for me the best part of the outing was brunch at Jean George's Nougatine on Columbus Circle. The downscale version of that Jean Georges. Haha, in the Trump International Hotel but nothing to do with the President. We both had the caramelized foie gras appetizer with a pineapple sauce. Food for the gods. She had the parmesan chicken with a lemon sauce, and I had the best, juiciest boneless piece of short rib I've ever had in my life, with a mystery sauce which I forgot to ask about. I had a Bloody, but shoulda had a Pinot.
A fancy brunch and ballet was my Christmas present to Mrs. BD. She wants nothing material. Makes her very happy that I will sit through 2 1/2 hours of ballet just to please her. She sees plenty of modern dance and ballet with her dance pals, but it's special for her when I go.
For me, fun is meeting people. We had great chats with people at adjacent tables at the restaurant (including couple who come for Restaurant Week every year, with a daily theater outing), and a late-80s lady at the ballet who chatted mostly with Mrs. BD during each intermission about the NYCB style. I said jokingly to the couple from South Carolina who love Restaurant Week "Isn't NYC such a cold and unfriendly place?" He said they feel it's the friendliest place in the world because they get into fun chats with smart people everywhere here, like with us. Yep. That's us! Semi-smart and kinda friendly.
I love New York. To visit, anyway. It's one of our magnets on this planet. Just wandering around is a blast.
1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1:19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
1:20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.
1:22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,
1:23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
1:24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1:25 For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
1:26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
1:28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,
1:29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
1:30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
1:31 in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Jerry Nadler was overheard on the metro bragging on the phone about how he should be the one leading the impeachment against Trump … the day after Trump took office
No, but for people who try to move serious weight (meaning weights you can only move 3-8 times) two or three times/week (or do regular HIIT), creatine can be helpful to get you moving a bit more and thus stressing your muscles more than you might have the energy for otherwise. No stress, no effect. I use it, when I remember to take it. It might have a placebo effect on me too.
For real muscle magic, steroids and maybe GH. Do not touch that stuff though, friends. It is bad juju.
Amusingly, the only other supplement the Greysteel doctor recommends is coffee. Without a cup at 4:30 in the morning, there is no way I could get my head into effort.
Here's the Greysteel doc on Creatine. Good basic energy physiology. The stuff works like a little battery.
My book stack is high enough for another 6 months. I have enough outdoor clothing (I do like to do outdoor things) for a lifetime. I have enough gym clothes for daily workouts if I do the wash weekly. For hunting and fishing gear I am ok. Too many firearms too, really.
So the family got me some of the usual rare stinky cheeses I love along with exotic jams to go with them. Also, a cool spy boardgame: Codenames. It makes you think about words.
They also gave me a trip, but to where remains a secret surprise to me. I hope it's low on museums, medium on quaint or historic architecture, and high on hiking, cafes, and vino. Provence might hit the spot, and I think the Hadrian's Wall hike is in the pipeline. I never know.
They did identify one thing I didn't really need but is an excellent layer: that featherweight Patagonia quilted vest. I don't like sweaters - too constricting - but I do like to feel relatively comfortable outdoors. A bit chilly is fine with me. Yeah, fleece is great too but heavier than this thing.
Next year I think I will get one of them for my lad.
Is this latest Chinese influenza over-hyped, or serious? You never really know until time passes because there are always hysterias. The news is always about hysterias, because they sell.
Already 6000 Americans have died from the ordinary flu this year. It can be the last straw for the frail elderly and otherwise fragile and ailing. Normal, natural final straw.
As greeters at church this morning, I refused to shake hands because I am getting over a stubborn cold/cough. To good friends, I explained "Just back from Wuhan."
Mrs. BD was NOT amused. Your Editor can be a jerk sometimes. I like dark humor but not everybody does, especially when entering church.
She's at the theater and dinner in NYC this afternoon/night with gal theater friends, so my high crimes and misdemeanors will blow over as long as I do the dishes, the laundry, and a bunch of indoor and outdoor pick up (I am doing, including clipping the heck out the the Wisteria as best I can - but I would do them anyway on a winter afternoon without plans. Except a steak supper out with a dear old pal later today cuz whenever She is out for an evening, I get together with pals. Me not much of a sitter except when I edit this darn website - and for my day job).
There is always a reason for not sitting, unless at work. I am off to the damn gym while the laundry cycles. Beer after. Life is pretty good in the good old USA.
4:12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.
4:13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali,
4:14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
4:15 "Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles
4:16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."
4:17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."
4:18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.
4:19 And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people."
4:20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
4:21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them.
4:22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
A significant new book by Andrew Marantz, a staff writer at the New Yorker, has reinvigorated the gatekeepers’ efforts to censor the internet. Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation is an account of our ongoing democratic revolution, a historical moment that brings into relief two realizations for Marantz: (1) conservative influencers are now able to out-compete legacy media outlets, and (2) it was this that led to the election of Donald J. Trump. “[T]hey helped propel their man to the presidency,” he writes.
For Marantz, these two realizations justify all-out censorship of the internet. But his extremism comes as little surprise when you recognize that, from start to finish, Marantz’s argument is grounded in his contempt for the intellectual and moral capacities of ordinary Americans.
Pompeii's ancient drains are still 
We discussed
Photo is a reader's Winter Crocus this week. Sadly, not in the snow right now
It's Brexit Day. 
Colorado bill allowing 
My book stack is high enough for another 6 months. I have enough outdoor clothing (I do like to do outdoor things) for a lifetime. I have enough gym clothes for daily workouts if I do the wash weekly. For hunting and fishing gear I am ok. Too many firearms too, really. 
Is this latest Chinese influenza over-hyped, or serious? You never really know until time passes because there are always hysterias. The news is always about hysterias, because they sell.