I’ve seen the new style playgrounds, generally in more affluent areas. But most kids are still using the same basic equipment that I played on. Maybe literally! I honestly don’t know where my hometown came down on the age-old debate between “kids are getting lockjaw” and “this would cost me 20 cents more in taxes”.

If someone comes in and says the school has too many buildings, let’s sell these ones that aren’t even on campus (oops, those were the dorms for 20% of the student body), that’s an example of Chesterton’s Fence. But if a Chancellor comes in with completely different goals (maybe even by decree of the board that hired…

Boston to New York is most relevant to my world. There are times when the train is not only cheaper and more comfortable, but also faster, once you factor in all the time on either end of the flight. What amazes me is how some people will agree with every step of the comparison math, then somehow insist that the plane…

I think lowtop Chucks should be the default first step. I bought a pair at the outlet for $17. That’s about 90% cheaper than a decent pair of squat shoes. I’m fat, weak, and lazy, but I joined an Olympic- and Powerlifting gym and my shoes match about 75% of the people putting up absurdly heavy weight. Chucks are…

Longer words are not smarter words, being obscure is not the same as being specific, and simplifying your language is not the same as “dumbing down”.

If you constantly worry about having to “dumb down” your writing, you’re a bad writer.

Something hurts? Rest it. Feeling utterly drained? Listen to your body. Taking an arbitrary number of days off is not going to magically help you recover. “Run every day!” crowd: 0 days off is also an arbitrary number.

Me: Runners should try to get off the pavement and onto the track

Most marathon training plans I’ve seen increase the long run way more than 10% each week. Two miles is a pretty common step. (8)-10-12-14-16-18-20, then taper. That’s a 25% increase to start, with the last increase still above your threshold at 11%.

A backpack is useful at every destination, holds your laptop, and won’t be checked at the gate when the overhead bins fill up. Mine always has my tech stuff (adapters, cables, batteries, etc.), my Kindle with a fresh charge and batch of books, and a snack up front. More crucially, I pack some clothes and my dopp kit…

I strongly recommend AAA battery-powered headlamps over USB-charged ones. Spare batteries weigh practically nothing and can be changed out in no time (even with cold fingers), but when your fancy ultralight USB light is dead, it’s dead.

But if there are people around who want to use the power rack, and those people refuse to spot somebody on the bench press, why should we care if they’re pissed off? The solution here assumes no one is around to spot.

I think it’s important to note that this balance doesn’t necessarily follow a “mirror” push-pull rule (bench/row, press/pull-ups, etc.) I just did my first bent over rows in months. I went from a Push/Pull split to basically nothing to Starting Strength. SS starts out with just squat, deadlift, bench, and shoulder…

“Don’t use this extremely common phrase! Stop saying this innocuous but apparently infuriating cliche! Never email someone these 4 basic English words in any order!”

That’s not what this is about. This is about a follow-up email on a previously discussed project, task, etc. “Hey, just checking in about the slides for the presentation Friday. Will we be ready to go? I have to let Dawn know if we should be on the agenda or not by the end of the day today.” It’s a request for a…

If a casual runner asks a coach or a serious distance athlete for advice, the chances that the first thing out of their mouth is “take shorter steps” is damn near 100%. 180 is just an easy benchmark, it’s not the “right” cadence. It’s also not a pace— in order to know what your pace is at 180 spm, we need to know how…

“I don’t think we always need to be ticking off the boxes of some invisible checklist of life improvement,” says the guy advocating for “a ‘microadventure’ for your brain”. You know what else is a microadventure for my brain that I enjoy for its own sake? Music.

For Massachusetts

I would start with a photo tip— Saranac Lake, NY, while beautiful and quaint, isn’t in New England.

I find negative reviews to be incredibly helpful, because people tend to be more specific and they tend to show you who THEY are. If the people who hated a place sound a bit like me, I may question a high rating—not so much when every negative reviewer sounds like someone I’d rather avoid, or has a complaint I…