You have to have a beard to ride a gravel bike. Sorry XX’s.
Little Known Fact
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The Difference Between the (dis)United States and South Korea
Like the (dis)United States, South Korea is in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. Japan too.
From CNN:
“Some South Korean youth are so cut off from the world, the government is offering to pay them to ‘re-enter society.’
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced this week that it will provide up to 650,000 Korean won (about $500) per month to isolated social recluses, in a bid to support their ‘psychological and emotional stability and healthy growth.’
About 3.1% of Koreans aged 19 to 39 are ‘reclusive lonely young people,’ defined as living in a ‘limited space, in a state of being disconnected from the outside for more than a certain period of time, and have noticeable difficulty in living a normal life,’ according to the ministry’s report, citing the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.”
And yet. . .
How Grande is Mexico?
The Sad Truth of the Matter
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“Don’t Let Em’ Hold You Down”
Some of what I’m watching, reading, and listening to.
- Film. The Quiet Girl. Made explicitly for people like me who don’t need anything blown up (apart from my emotions). I can’t remember the last movie that hit this hard. Maybe it’s the Irish in me. Couldn’t get up from my seat afterwards. Exquisite doesn’t quite do it justice.
- TV. The Last of Us, Succession, The Crown, Beef. An eclectic collection, but all enjoyable in their own way.
- Book. Vladimir: A Novel by Julia May Jonas. The nameless narrator is a 58 year old English professor who lusts after her new-to-the-department 40 year old colleague. Strong undercurrents of the MeToo movement, the sensitivities of today’s college students, and marital conflict. In the end, I decided I didn’t like the narrator all that much which detracted from the journey.
- Pods. Pivot, Kara Swisher (liberal) with Alyssa Farah Griffin (conservative), “Trump Arrest Fallout”. And Morgan Housel, “Play Your Own Game”. Derek Thompson, “Why the Cult of Achievement in Schools Is Making People Miserable”.
- Music. Spotify’s “I Love 90’s HipHop.”
I Run With My Knucklehead Friends
On Saturdays.
This Friday morning, ever-so polite Siri saved all of their text messages until the end of the podcast I was listening to on my solo jaunt. The group text topic was initiated by one knucklehead’s public service announcement about our preferred running shoes being half off at REI. Somehow, very funny accusations of snow-flakery followed.
Brooks Ghost if you were wondering, regularly $140, for a limited time $70 for florescent yellow in certain sizes.
Let’s do the math. Running shoes typically last 500 miles. We run 10 most Saturdays at a cost of $2.80 based on the $140 shoes and $1.40 based on the florescent yellows. For a difference of, drumroll please, $1.40 per Saturday run.
That highlights one of the coolest things about running, its groovy minimalism. Especially compared to cycling. You could buy about 100 pairs of full-priced Brooks Ghost for a carbon race bike with the correct wheels.
I’d have to create a second blog to fully detail all the ways in which my running friends are knuckleheads, but upper-middle class professionals arguing over $1.40 gives you a little flavor flav of their knuckleness.
Of course, in true knucklehead fashion, they’d probably point out that a year from now, since one can earn 5% on cash now, the savings would be $73.50.
Sentence To Make Grown Men and Women Cry
The last one in this short/live update from Jonathon Swan in the NYT on Trump’s Tuesday night speech at Mar-a-Lago.
“One theme to watch in the speech is how Trump portrays the nature of his victimhood. His advisers and allies have explicitly referenced scripture and the fate of Jesus Christ — a play to rally evangelical voters. Trump’s campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, on Monday tweeted out a picture of a Trump supporter by the roadside in Florida holding a large wooden cross. Mr. Cheung quoted Ephesians 5:2, implying that Trump was imitating Christ’s sacrificial love through his handling of his criminal indictment in the porn star hush money case.“
Someone PLEASE tell me we’ve bottomed out.
Progress in the (dis)United States
From the Los Angeles Times. Nobody was shot. Nobody died.
If You Haven’t Heard
The former guy is being indicated indicted. Props to Rhode Island Dan for the game winning reply.
Another Shrinking Private Liberal Arts College
Strong opening from a Los Angeles Times story on Whittier College’s woes.
“The grounds of Whittier College are lush and the buildings stately. But the once-bustling quad is often all but empty these days, students say, and inside the Wanberg Hall dormitory, carpets smell musty, the WiFi is spotty, and 25 students share two restrooms with toilets that frequently break down and take ages to fix.”
If you’ve been following the decline of modestly endowed private liberal arts colleges, you know the rest of the story, including declining enrollment, plunging revenue, a divided board, a president under fire, the elimination of some sports (and subjects of study), and the selling of the president’s house.
Why would anyone shopping colleges choose one on the financial ropes? That’s the tipping point the bottom third of private liberal arts colleges are trying desperately to avoid. Similarly, if you were wanting to making a charitable contribution to a college or university, would you choose one with an uncertain future?
Pressing Pause 