Please excuse this interruption in service
For the next ten days, we will be down for routine maintenance. Of ourselves. (Could be longer than ten days if we get good weather. Or lost.) Please take this opportunity to go outside. Or, if your weather is unseemly, please visit one of our URL friends, found on the blogroll.
The Sweetest Valentine (for your bike)
Typical: We’re a tad late for Valentine’s Day. We thought about trying to let it slip by, without saying anything, but then we came across this touching video from British Cycling. Sure, it’s corny. Love’s like that. The organization asked readers to confess whether they spent more on their bikes or...
Being a retired pro surfer sounds almost as fun…and as risky…as being a pro surfer
The notion of retirement is changing. The Great Recession has scrambled a great many nest-eggs, so many older folks who have left their full-time, long-time occupation—people who are nominally retired—are still working. They are picking up part-time gigs where they can, or starting new businesses, or going back to their...
Sunday quote: December 25, 2011
“A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.” ~Garrison Keillor
Saturday stew: December 24, 2011
For those who don’t want more Christmas pudding, here’s another helping of Recreati stew. Digestible, delectable and full of good cheer: Don’t blame the holidays for your gut, Canadians. In a study conducted by Molson (yes, the brewer), most people say they’ll gain from one to nine pounds over...
Saturday Stew: December 17, 2011
Hey, this week we’re out on schedule with our week’s collection of miscellaneous bits and pieces. Don’t tell us there’s no such thing as progress. Or discipline. Or time on our hands. Years ago, we read a reference to the preposterous number of calories chocked into a single serving of...
Winter kills
Winter is the odd season when the mere act of stepping outside can cause pain; it is also, often, void of smell. And it’s a time of death. Extreme heat may make for more dramatic photographs and garner bigger headlines but—in the developed world—cold is a bigger killer. (In fact,...
The secret to a reasonable retirement: flee the country
As America ages—and it’s really aging—America’s newspapers and websites are churning out lists of great places to retire. Sadly, these survey stories are meaningless for a large proportion of older folks because (as reported a few weeks ago) a staggeringly high percentage of Americans have only a pittance set aside for retirement....
Mayo Clinic looking at what keeps you really alive
Over the past three years, the renowned Mayo Clinic has been building “one of the largest aging centers in the nation,” according to the Minneapolis StarTribune, with “48 geriatricians, 10 geriatric psychiatrists and research supported by 90 federal or private foundation grants.” And they’ve put all that money to good use,...
On alcohol, scientists still successfully confusing us
Anyone who drinks has probably decided either that the health benefits don’t exist or don’t matter. We’re pretty sure no one drinks because of the health benefits. No matter what you tell your spouse. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in the news about alcohol and health, because we’re...
Plugged in, in nature: How much isolation do we want?
Alaska Dispatch has a nice piece by Deanna Neil on the integration of technology and our experience of nature. Truth be told, that integration has been going on for centuries, since an ink-stained printer using movable type chunked out the first backpack-sized plant and wildlife identification books. And books are just...
Sunday Quote: November 13, 2011
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. ~ William G. T. Shedd, American Presbyterian theologian
