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Age is just a number

“You can’t beat death But you can beat death in life, sometimes…” Charles Bukowski – The Laughing Heart Being in your mid-50s is sort of a weird, transitory period. You’re not young, you’re not even middle-aged, to be honest, unless you think you’ll live to 110 years old. But you’re not old-old yet, if you […]

Exercise – sometimes it’s a lifeline

Ok, everyone knows that regular exercise helps ease the symptoms of depression and anxiety. It’s exceedingly well-documented. For the most part, those of us who exercise regularly don’t need to be told about the very real endorphin rush one receives after physical exertion. It’s not a magic bullet, though, but it is a valuable tool […]

POWERLIFTERSvs. BODYBUILDERS – CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

Bodybuilders are the low hanging fruit of the weightlifting world. So visible, so easily parodied…And the sport is so incredibly weird, at least in it’s current form. To win a bodybuilding competition you must look completely unnatural on the stage – roll-on tan, dangerously dehydrated, the works. Let’s acknowledge the elephant the room, i.e. the […]

Dumb Luck

The other day a thought occurred to me as I drove down the road. It hit me just how many times in my life I’ve avoided literal serious injury or death by sheer, dumb luck. These were instances in which no common sense was yet available or, if it was, was studiously ignored. Broadly speaking, […]

Things can always get worse, but they can always get better, too.

I recently read a CNN article that explained that studies have shown that childhood trauma has been shown to later affect the grown adult’s relationship to money and finances. Basically, the instability and stress of living in a financially precarious household often causes extremes in people as they reach adulthood. Many become extremely conservative with […]

How not to do drugs…

A primer in harm reduction: As a society, we tell our kids from a pretty young age that drugs are dangerous. In school we give them the dry clinical facts about the harmful effects of each of the drugs; alcohol, cannabis and other illicit drugs. This information is useful but it ignores the reality that […]

“the tarry shingle of the morning…”

This morning I got up early, made my coffee, checked the news (yikes) and, for some reason, thought about gratitude. I mean, there is the war in Ukraine and gas has reached prices that make really make one contemplate how badly one needs to use their car. Inflation is ramping up and set to snowball. […]

Are you what you eat?

If this was a newspaper, this post would akin to a “Letter to the Editor”. I’m not a dietician, nor do I play one on TV. The opinions I express are just that, opinions, albeit backed by a certain amount of research. The question I’ve been pondering is what is the best sustainable dietary regime […]

How blogging is exactly like strength-training

My two favorite things to do on Saturday morning, after I’ve had my coffee, is to write a few pages and then go to the gym for a few hours. It occurred to me this morning that there are quite a few similarities between the two activities. Let me explain: Hygiene: Powerlifting is an important […]

Why the name of the blog has changed…

My readership, in their teaming dozens, may have noticed that the title of this blog has changed slightly. I took the word “beer” out. To be honest, I originally added it for alliterative effect, to follow “barbells” and “books” but also, beer was a major part of my life for a long, long time. If […]