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.
I don't think people should have strident opinions about trivialities. Children have strident opinions about trivialities.
Men don't. Men are supposed to be wise enough to know which things are trifling, and which things deserve their concern, and express themselves accordingly.
If it's important, you say something.
If it's not important, you practice the most ancient of all manly arts, the Manly Art of Shutting the F*** Up Once in a While and Giving Your C***slappers a Rest.
The Afghanistan fiasco reads like a systematic failure of leadership. The people in charge did not know what they were doing. They did not know what victory would look like. They did not set the agenda and define the policy. As a result, every junior officer and every junior bureaucrat could project his or her own priorities.
I hear you asking about my other favorite contemporary novelists. OK, Mark Helprin and Cormac McCarthy, not including beach books with snappy, wacky, sociopathic dialog like Carl Hiassen.
They do not need it and they are not on food stamps, but it's fun to do. You get to see what birds are around in wintertime, and you get to try to figure out how to defeat the greedy squirrels. It adds vitality to your winter garden, same as butterfly plants do in summertime.
Lots of Saturnalian and also northern European pagan aspects to this season around this part of the world. It's a multicultural festival season.
- Cocktail parties, lots of them. Saturnalian, but on a civilized level. Time to look great and behave well. Get hair done and dig out that tux for the fancy ones. Gotta show up or people will forget that you exist.
- Excesses of foods and hors d'oevres. Saturnalian. Control oneself.
- Random reckless holiday drunken sex. Saturnalian. Sounds exciting, but I have not seen this yet around my neighborhood, so no worries.
- Decorated evergreen trees. Ain't they purty? Pagan German/Scandinavian. I do not think baby Jesus had one, though. We bought one for outdoors and one for indoors. Almost bought a fake one for indoors. It looked perfect, and had 1000 lights but I hate white lights. They look like a bank lobby and if you're not sensible, you might need to visit the bank for Christmas anyway.
- Presents? Sort-of Saturnalian (jewels for your mistresses - they can give you Viagra), sort of European with St. Nicholas. And the wise men with their perfume and stuff. You know what She wants - A Pucci scarf and ballet tickets. We guys generally want nothing other than family happiness. Presents are the worst thing about Christmas unless they are food (we like rare stinky cheeses). We go with 1/person only to keep the tradition going. Yes I know - little kids love opening gifts. Adults don't.
- Snow and cold. Not real Christmassy - northern European. Lucky for me, I like snow and cold and the only thing I love as much around here as a powerful hurricane is a beautiful blizzard that stops life in its tracks and gives us time to not be busy.
- The Messiah. It was written for Easter, for heaven's sake.
- Christmas - it was illegal to celebrate it in New England until, like, a few years ago. You could go to jail for making a savory mince-meat pie at Christmastime. They had pie-police sniffing on the streets of Boston. I have (well, had) and old-tyme Connnecticut Congregationalist pal whose family still refused to acknowledge Christmas. As a Congregationalist by ancient family tradition, I do not think of Christmas as "holy" either but there is nothing not to like about it and the hymns and carols are as good as it gets.
- As for me, any excuse for assembling family is good. I have a big one (5 sibs), and I love them all. Not certain about vice-versa... The holiday decorations are fun, and lovely. Church on Christmas Eve always brings tears to me but whether they are holy or sentimental is hard to tell. All has little to do with whether I am a Jesus-follower or not but yeah, I feel He's worth following as best one can and I take it seriously. Not a grinch, not a scrooge. Birth (Christmas), or re-birth (Easter) - all good lives of the living Spirit.
3:1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,
3:2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."
3:3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"
3:4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
3:5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,
3:6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
3:8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
3:9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
3:10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
3:11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
The first few months of lower body weight training move along fairly quickly because the improvement is more neuromuscular than muscular.
After the neuromuscular system wakes up and is ready for action, progress slows down a lot. Physical architecture, frailties, and age are of course possible obstacles too.
Lack of progress, and plateaus, can be discouraging with large muscle group strength. I think my max 1-rep deadlift has only increased by about 20 lbs in the past year. 2020 will improve by 10 lbs, maybe, because I am fighting ageing. Small muscles improve more quickly (eg arms, but even backs improve fairly quickly - pullups)).
In my experience, the aspects of fitness that improve most dramatically and quickly in the Maggie's Fitness for Life program are endurance and energy. Precious things. Two days of weights/wk is not enough for serious strength-building, but the part of our program with 2 days of calis and the 2 days of HIIT cardio will get you fit for most recreational activities like sports, day-long hill hiking, etc.
Any age or gender. Give it a try. Include the barbells. A good Christmas/New Year present to oneself is a badass sexy and highly functional physique but, God knows, it takes discipline. Nothing pleasant about it except the slow progress.
I have a retired friend who has taken on learning Mandarin as his retirement project. I'd rather face a nasty, ugly barbell.
In my view, squats are not as total-body as deadlifts. Anyway, best to do both because synergy. Barbell squats are of course the best stressor for building or maintaining lower body strength, but there are plenty of squat exercises in the Calisthenic category that are worth doing in a Calisthenics routine:
5X5 is one standard, but it depends on your goals same as everything else in life. Just one set of 5X5/wk is better than nothing but will not be enough to become a powerful lifter.
Because my goal is to maximize general fitness, endurance, and energy, and to minimize deterioration rather than to become a serious powerlifter, I alternate every couple of weeks between 5X5 heavy, and 8-rep pyramids of, say, 6X8. I also throw in one set of rack lifts/wk to work on my sticking point with my max lifts. Why not? It's just more mental and physical challenge. It builds character and sex appeal.
Remember that when we discuss weight training we mean to integrate it into the Maggie's Fitness for Life program which means approximately 2 days calisthenics, 2 days weight training, and 2 days of cardio with lots of HIIT. Around 6-7 hrs/wk, not including sports and recreation. Also, appropriate nutrition for fitness of course.
No promise you'll live longer, but guarantee you'll live better and look better.
Rocky Mountain High. From a reader skiing in Loveland, CO yesterday. I'd love to be there now because that is really living to the fullest. My quads, glutes, and hammies are fit for more skiing. Probably needs to be a guys' trip, though. Many wives seem to have lost interest in this cheap sort-of-costly, high-energy thrill.
Father Mulcahey 
Image via 
Perhaps my favorite contemporary novelist, the late Walker Percy: 
Lots of Saturnalian and also northern European pagan aspects to this season around this part of the world. It's a multicultural festival season.
Image borrowed from...I forget where.