Author Archives: Ron Byrnes

Brutally Funny

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A taste of Zoe Williams’s scathing review of Tom Bower’s book, House of Beckham about David Beckham.

“There are much smokier guns in the book, as regards David Beckham’s infidelity, detailed accounts of his text message and travel history with Sarah Marbeck, Celina Laurie, Rebecca Loos, Danielle Heath. All of this is quite historical – the annus horribilis from the institution of marriage’s point of view would be 2004 or, to put that another way, 20 years ago. Perhaps more problematic for the biographer is that it was all already in the public domain, courtesy of many overlapping newspaper reports and in quite granular detail. So without anything from inside the house of Beckham, and almost nothing new from the many women involved, Bower’s is more of an aggregator role. Chat GPT could have done the whole thing faster, with the prompts: David Beckham – erection – sun lounger.”

Podcast To Ponder

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Plain English with Derek Thompson, “The Radical Cultural Shift Behind America’s Declining Birth Rate.” Related. What Are Children For?

This convo got me thinking about my running posse. Between the five of us, we have 12 children whose average age is somewhere between 25-30 years old. Between those dirty dozen, there is one child. There will likely be more in a decade, but time will tell how many more.

Sentence To Ponder

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Follow up to last post. Cohen argues that homophobia, and its cousin, homohysteria, or the fear of being thought homosexual because of behavior that is typically considered gender atypical, conspire against close male friendships in the (dis)United States.

At the same time, she writes:

Homophobia has declined over the last few decades, and with less stigma attached to being gay, researchers have found that homohysteria has eroded too.”

Given those complimentary trends, maybe younger men stand a better chance of developing more robust systems of support than in the past.

Or maybe Cohen and the researchers she cites are almost exclusively coastal elites who are slighting the cultural impediments that continue to rob men of emotional intimacy throughout large swaths of the fruited plains.

Paragraph To Ponder

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From The Other Significant Others by Rhaina Cohen.

“Having fewer close friends is associated with loneliness, and loneliness is linked to a variety pack of negative health outcomes, from high blood pressure to depression to cognitive decline. Compared to women who lose their husbands, men who lose their spouses experience a much more pronounced and long-lasting spike in loneliness and depression; they’re more likely than women to die by suicide. Researchers attribute these differences to women having more diverse systems of social support.”

A Christian Nation?

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From the NYT.

“Now, Supreme Court justices have become caught up in the debate over whether America is a Christian nation. While Justice Alito is hardly openly championing these views, he is embracing language and symbolism that line up with a much broader movement pushing back against the declining power of Christianity as a majority religion in America.

The country has grown more ethnically diverse and the share of American adults who describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated has risen steadily over the past decade. Still, a 2022 report from the Pew Research Center found that more than four in 10 adults believed America should be a ‘Christian nation.'”

Guess that means almost 6 in 10 grasp the profound difference between being a country with many Christians and being a “Christian country”.

And I can’t help but wonder if the “4 in 10” crowd has any real understanding of the persecution experienced by the earliest Christians, let alone believers in places like China and North Korea.

Best Saturday Ever

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Yesterday was an especially nice Saturday. The sun broke out at the end of the long, wet run with great friends who uncharacteristically didn’t complain about the elements. The YMCA hot tub was glorious. Fully recovered, I picked up some raspberry chocolate and deep chocolate chocolate gelato and other essentials, before heading home for a late breakfast and hit of caffeine.

Then I put an ass groove in the couch watching the pros flail at Pinehurst #2. “How do you like making double bogey sucker!”

Then I connected with the GalPal and got fully updated on the Coffee Klatch. Then we rolled down the hill to Well 80 where I ate an order of brussels sprouts and a whole pizza. And maybe a little of someone’s Impossible Burger. Of course I positioned myself so I could watch the Mariners win again and further extend their American League West lead without the GoodWife suspecting a thing. “Yes dear, you don’t say.” Inner voice, “Come on Julio, where’s the power?!” The American League West is one sad (sick) division, but I digress.

Then I prepped a giant bowl of popcorn and watched episode 3 of the second season of Netflix’s Tour de France documentary which taught me sprinters are not likable.

But of all of those highlights, one towered above the others. It was this discovery.

Are you shitting me? Kirkland Rolled Oats (KRO)?! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Good riddance Quaker Oats, oh ye of the .62 cents per ounce. These babies are .50 cents per ounce! For the numerically challenged, that’s .12 cents an ounce cheaper. I eat 8 ounces of oats about 6x/week. The Kirkland Rolled Oats nutrition info says 1/2 a cup is 40g. So when we convert my 80g into ounces we get 2.8. Then we multiply that by our savings of .12 and get a grand total of 33.6 cents saved. Every damn morning. Costco for the win! And Ron!

In a few days, after I’ve finished all the remaining Quaker Oats, I will launch Operation KRO which consists of three phases. Phase one, invest my KRO savings in NVDA. Phase two, in a year or so, sell all my NVDA. Phase three, buy this.

Don’t hate me because you ain’t me.