Saturday mash-up: May 5, 2012
Yes, yes. A day late. But what is time if life is an eternity? You are exhausted with special events—Tax Day, National Parks Week, Derby Day—so you may have failed to notice that May is Older Americans Month. You should go to the web site, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration...
Saturday mash-up: April 28, 2012
As noted earlier, ski areas are getting spooked about climate change. The latest manifestation: the Aspen Chamber Resort Association has voted to withdraw from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce due to differences with the national group’s position on climate change. “Aspen’s economy is inextricably tied to the future of the global climate,” the local chapter...
Happy National Parks Week!
A gentle reminder: in the United States, this is National Parks Week. Free admission to all 397 properties managed by the National Park Service, “84 million acres of the world’s most spectacular scenery, historic landmarks and cultural treasures.” (Note to the National Park Foundation, which penned the citation above: the parks are inarguably excellent places...
101-year-old Fauja Singh finishes London Marathon
Fauja Singh has (again) broken the record for the oldest person to finish a marathon. The BBC reports that the 101-year-old Londoner (and proponent of ginger curry) posted a time of 7 hours and 49 minutes. That’s about a half-hour faster than his time at the 2011 Toronto Marathon, where he set the previous record...
UPDATE: Micah True found dead
Sad news. An incident commander for the New Mexico State Police has announced that teams scouring Gila National Forest have found the body of Micah True (aka Caballo Blanco). No word yet on the cause of death, but police report that there were no obvious signs of injury. True, who was either 58 or 60,...
Saturday mash-up: March 31, 2012
Whenever there’s a pile of items that accumulate over the week and we can’t get around to individual pieces on each one, we throw them into a bin like this, which we previously called a stew and then a hash. This time we’re call it a mash-up, which seems like another food metaphor but less...
Bird-watching is the new NASCAR
Mark the date and time: with this post, bird-watching shows up on our radar as a bona fide recreational pursuit for over-50s. We used to think of this as a hobby, but it seemed to lack the physicality we seek in recreation. Also, no gear, no cool jargon, no bracing risk of self-destruction. How wrong...
We’re so done with glamping
We’re done with glamping. So over it. We’re over thinking about it and looking at the pictures. There’s no future here. But we can’t quit it. Not just yet. Soon, but not now. One reason: we like the pictures. We don’t know why we like them. It might be for the same perverse impulse that...
A guide to the paths less travelled
So much of our attention is diverted to the marquee destinations, and understandably so. It’s fun to read about diving in Bonaire or skiing Whistler, and we can convince ourselves that we’re actually gathering useful information. Something that will help us plan that next outing. No, I’m not wasting time looking at this video of...
This is what ski videos used to look like
One nostalgic post (Runestone’s harkening back to his Jet Stix knock-offs) leads us to another. We came on this fascinating film that purports to show skiers in 1932 Poland’s Tatra Mountains (Geography lesson: The Tatra Mountains form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains. Thanks,...
Sunday hash: February 26, 2012
Odd lots and bolt ends from the past week: As pointed out in an earlier post, research demonstrates that “exercising with an interactive computer game improves brain function among the elderly.” Now comes news that you might not need the exercise part of that: a study by North Carolina State University...
Century-old Frenchman (with the body of a 75-year-old) sets biking record
There are many, many things to say about this, and there is nothing that is necessary beyond the following: at the age of 100, Robert Marchand—citizen of France, former inhabitant of Venezuela and former Canadian lumberjack—has just ridden a bike 15.1 miles. In an hour. That sets a new record because it...
