Denali wins again
Let’s focus on the success here: climbing solo, AARP-eligible adventurer Lonnie Dupre reached 17,200 feet on Denali, in January. Not to belabor this, but he carried all his food and fuel, alone, to 17,200 feet, in January. He was planning to reach the 20,320-foot summit today but, as his website reports, “extremely...
What would “more accountable” parks look like?
If we hated election season anymore, we would advocate for monarchy. We would trade this rancorous debate for no debate. We would replace distortions of political ads for the relative integrity of other ads. For chiropractors and mattress stores. But we aren’t there yet. We still pay grudging attention to what the sides are...
Don’t jog in Beijing. Or bike. Or breathe deep.
For some time, people have noticed Bakersfield, California. Not as “the birthplace of the country music genre known worldwide as the Bakersfield Sound” or because it has more Basque restaurants than any other town in the country. Bakersfield gets a lot of unwanted attention because it is the most polluted city in the United States....
Can seniors run barefoot? (Redux.)
If you’ve lived long enough, you’ve learned to be skeptical. Maybe cynical. You may even have crafted a few homemade conspiracy theories that you’re reluctant to divulge because everyone knows what conspiracy theories mean. (They mean you’ve taken the first step on the meandering trail to someone’s-been-sneaking-into-my-apartment-and-moving-my-reading-glasses-and-car-keys.) You might even think that Nike’s huge advertising...
Keep the camping fire going over the winter
If you live at my latitude, these are the weeks hope, when every trip to the basement reminds you that the camping gear is still there, still not packed away for the season. Part of you wants to believe you might get out again this year, but you know the odds get slimmer with each...
A bad travel guide for midlife crises
Travel publisher Lonely Planet just sent me an email with a subject line that promised “The top 10 places to have a midlife crisis”—an enticing come-on for a huge load of inexperienced posturing, a smoky glance from a virgin. The travel article (which was, oddly, two years old when it appeared in my mailbox)...
Flabby old heart no impediment to wrecking knees, hips
“We always worry about marathoners who are sort of dropping dead, if you will, and having a heart attack during the marathon,” says Dr. Davinder Jassal as he explains the purpose of his recent study and, simultaneously, gives us our favorite quote of the month. Jassal (an associate professor of medicine, radiology and physiology at...
A tip sheet for hitting 100
Aging is like sex and home maintenance: done well, it’s a source of pride and satisfaction. Done poorly, it’s a nightmare. Thankfully, there isn’t one secret to doing it well. You can figure out how to excel at this in your own way. But you can also learn by listening to others who have been...
Saturday mash-up: June 16, 2012
This sounds like a fairly ominous collection: detailed maps, rolling protests, killer kilocalories and powerful 80-year-olds. Read closely, though, all is benign. Except the calories. Ever find yourself in a new town and wonder about nearby recreational resources? It’s easy enough to find the national parks, and fairly easy to find the state parks. But...
Saturday mash-up: June 2, 2012
This appears to be late but we were here yesterday and no one showed up so we took off. Look for a slightly less pristine experience in your national parks this summer. You shouldn’t let that stop you from going: any visit there will still be a deep dive into unparalleled natural beauty. Or a...
Saturday mash-up: May 26, 2012
Busted glasses, busted diets, lost manufacturing…no intention here to sound ominous. Sometimes the news just points you in a way and there’s no point in resisting it. But summer is here at last. Break out the white flannels. Soon. Just as soon as this small dark cloud passes over. They’re pretty light, those glasses, so...
Saturday Mash-up: May 19, 2012
Like the other photos for Saturday mash-ups, this one is picked not for its relevance but just because we like it. It’s a photo of a “black ice growler from a recently calved iceberg closing in on the shore at the old heliport in Upernavik, Greenland. Such black ice growlers originate from a glacial crevasse,...
