Again: pack the essentials. And no more.
There are three dark emotions that can attend the end of any long hiking trip. The first is interpersonal: I swear I’ll never again set off into the woods with that whiner. The second is gear-related: how can someone in good conscience sell a tent/boots/shirt with seams that pop apart under my gentle/frantic/angry tugging? The...
More Fauja-mania!
We are carrying a bit of a torch for Fauja Singh, the Punjab-born, 101-year-old marathoner and ginger curry aficionado. And on Sunday, he carried one for us. Dressed in white, surrounded by a cheering throng of his fellow Sikhs and other admirers, Singh bore the Olympic flame along a section of the torch’s route through...
L.L. Bean’s 100-person kayak is ridiculous and splendid
L.L. Bean turned 100 in 2011 and even though we’ve turned all the pages in the calendar,making it 2012, the company continues to celebrate. Fair enough. Turning 100 is kind of a big deal. And the celebration isn’t just an exercise in corporate vanity. Bean is also sponsoring the Million Moment Mission: every time someone...
Two reasons to harangue Congress (this week)
The government giveth and the government taketh away. This week, it is mostly takething away. We’ll try to make this easy, but as always with legislation and regulation, the devil is in the details. First, the transportation bill that will be signed into law today significantly changes the funding of biking and walking paths. Under...
Fire and rain
Mother Nature has been kicking up her heels over the past few weeks. In the sense that she’s been leveling leg punches to the head of mankind. She’s also been working on what looks like a preview of the end of days, using two strikingly opposed mechanisms. Colorado has been on fire. The nightmare burn...
Glamping: return to nature without touching it
We suspect the glamping bubble is about to burst. Why? Because movie stars have climbed on the bandwagon (as witnessed by the recent McConaghey-Alves wedding) and (the surest sign that a trend is in freefall) glamping apparently showed up on one of the Housewives reality shows. On the other (manicured) hand, most days we get...
Exercise might make you less fit
It’s been a painful week for exercise. First, a review of six studies of physical exercise found that 10 percent of the subjects—people who exercised regularly—actually experienced a decline on one of four common measures of heart disease (blood pressure, insulin, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides). Seven percent scored worse on two measures. So, for reasons...
Tamae Watanabe is sitting on top of the world. Again. And Everest claims four others.
UPDATED: On Saturday, May 18, Tamae Watanabe became—at age 73—the oldest woman to summit Everest. This is an amazing accomplishment because (1) it is Everest, (2) she attacked the mountain from the difficult north face and (3) she broke her own record, set in 2002, when she was a spry 63-year-old. So congratulations to her....
Saturday mash-up: May 12, 2012
By separating these odd lots into discrete posts spread over several days, we might appear more professional. But alas, we are what we seem to be: The National Park Service is reminding folks that 33 national parks will offer premier seating for the solar eclipse on May 20, and six parks “are at the center...
Raleigh is now a Dutch brand
The iconic British bike-maker, Raleigh Cycle has been sold to Dutch rival Accell for $100 million. Founded 125 years ago, Raleigh was once the largest bike manufacturer in the world, employing 8,000 people. Make no mistake, Raleigh is still a going concern. It sold 850,000 bikes last year; its current brands include Avenir and Diamondback....
Did you have a happy National Parks Week?
Why does anyone think we need a National Parks Week? To “celebrate” these treasures? No. Bogus. You don’t “celebrate” good wine or the Sistine Chapel. Yes, you acknowledge the joy they give us, so in that sense you celebrate them. But the main idea is that you are supposed to partake of them. Consume them....
Happy Tax Day!
Your taxes are due. Pay them, because you must. Then ask yourself if you’re getting your money’s worth. It won’t matter. Even if you don’t like the hand you’ve been dealt here, you still have to pay. And pay. If you’re paying, it’s because you’re making money. In this economy, that’s a good problem. You...
