What Brits call “holiday brain,” Yanks call “the weekend”
That headline might be unnecessarily provocative, but there is a needless breathlessness about the heedlessness of Brits over age 50 in this story in the Daily Mail, which is shocked…shocked…to discover that 13 percent of these blokes and lasses will engage in extreme sports while on vacation…and of...
Exercise and weight loss: Do these running shorts make me look “skinny fat”?
Over the past month or so, the web has blessed us with a handful of articles on the limited effect that exercise—especially running—can have on weight loss. Some of the arguments are simplistic (albeit accurate enough): people who work out a lot tend to eat...
Sunday quote: October 9, 2011
“My home ranch-house stands on the river brink. From the low, long veranda, shaded by leafy cotton-woods, one looks across sand bars and shallows to a strip of meadowland, behind which rises a line of sheer cliffs and grassy plateaus. This veranda is a pleasant...
Glamping: not glamorous, not camping – but hard to dismiss
Occasionally, one comes across a story on glamping, a portmanteau word combining glamour and camping. So, glamorous camping: boardwalks through the forest, spacious white safari tents with beds and plumbing, top-notch food cooked by a real chef—but with the scenery and silence of the wilderness. At first...
Colorado’s Powderhorn Ski Resort tweaks the cost of its senior pass. By 400 percent.
The operators of Colorado’s Powerhorn Ski Resort used to offer older skiers (those over 70) a season pass for $75, which was ridiculously cheap. For the coming season, the price was bumped up…if 400 percent constitutes a bump. The new price will be $329 (although 75-year-olds can still...
Breaking: Old age not a cakewalk, according to NPR, Harvard and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
This just in: a new study commissioned by National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health has discovered that for “one in four retirees,” life after retirement is worse than the 5 years before retirement. There’s a lot more to...
There’s an app for this bike…or there’s a bike for this app
Why does an auto-maker like Ford offer an e-bike, even as a concept, when they’re (1) strapped for cash and (2) pre-occupied with bringing new technology into their four-wheeled vehicles. Could be just a PR gambit. Could be someone saw all these technologies on the shelf and thought...
Hiker meets hero
There’s a special charm in seeing someone honestly and appropriately awed by someone else. Like watching a kid walk up to the mall Santa, or a young football player shaking hands with Peyton Manning. We read a bit of that same enchantment in a recent story by Scott Williams in...
And while we have surfing on our minds…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLTEPzKRa-k Can we recommend that you click through to a sweet, poppy, and mildly infectious homage to the beach that was? It’s pretty good, right? We would have picked this for our summer song but we didn’t find it until September. There might be a metaphor lurking in that. Anyway, hope you liked it. Time...
Graybeard surfers: “I thought you’d be less wrinkled when you dried out”
Outside of the actually sport, the word “surfing” seems to suggest something that is easy and effortless. (“I’ve been eating nachos and channel surfing all afternoon.” “Those kids spend all night surfing the web.”) This is odd because the sport of surfing strikes the non-surfer (we are...
The year of the microadventure
By rights, we should hate Alastair Humphreys. He is pretty clearly having more fun than we are, in more exotic locations, with better gear. But it’s very hard to take issue with a person who has such infectious enthusiasm. And we especially like his campaign to make 2011...
More good beer (or wine) news
This isn’t the first time you’ve heard this but it bears repeating. Alcohol, in moderation, is part of a healthy lifestyle. The latest proof comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—your go-to source for health information—which puts alcohol up there with diet, exercise and...
