Archive For February 17, 2019

Things That Are NOT A National Emergency

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Things That Are NOT A National Emergency

Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion. – Edward Abbey OBESITY Approximately 40% of adults – including The Donald – are obese.  That’s not healthy. CLIMATE CHANGE “There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed.” It’s getting worse….

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Original Gangsters Of Running (Jack Leydig)

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Original Gangsters Of Running (Jack Leydig)

Many years ago, I was in a bit of trouble, so I made a rare call to the Anonymous OGOR and asked if I could stay for a few weeks. Maybe twelve.  Hadn’t heard from me in years. Conversation went something like this. “It’s me. Jack. The Running magazine guy.” “Oh, Jack. Hi.” Told him I’d stay out of his way….

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The Last Cowboy

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The Last Cowboy

Good or bad, a strong man is trouble. – Denis Johnson, Tree Of Smoke To be honest, I am not a fan of  men.  The older, the whiter, the fatter, the worse.  Now don’t get me wrong, some old fat white men might be completely okay.  I have friends who are old and white and…

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A Book Review I Just Discovered While Researching Somebody Else

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A Book Review I Just Discovered While Researching Somebody Else

“He wrote with a flare that brought the sport and the subject alive and he wrote with passion so that his pieces were not always journalism, but sometimes strayed into an understandable adoration for his subject(s).” Review by Rich Benyo Marathon & Beyond 2014 It is unfortunate, but most newbie runners aren’t going to read…

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I See Myself Winning

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I See Myself Winning

“I was so worked up and excited about this new thing for running. I couldn’t sleep.   I put on my race clothes and looked in the mirror, and thought  deep thoughts about what I was going to do each and every mile. And how I would feel the last mile and and how I would…

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A Letter To The Editor

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A Letter To The Editor

You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great. – Zig Ziglar. This is a poem I was forced to write to pass an English class at Danbury State Teachers College. Or Western Connecticut. Thinking maybe 1972. A couple of notes from the professor in a blue ink…

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For Dog-Loving Intellectuals Only

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For Dog-Loving Intellectuals Only

Companion and Commodity: The Victorian Dog By Colin Dickey ONE OF THE PERENNIAL questions of anyone who meets our dog Alistair is, what is he? He is certainly part- or mostly Labrador Retriever: he has a lab’s face and demeanor, down to the innate love of tennis balls. But he’s half the size of a normal lab, and…

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The Muddiest OGOR (Pat Porter)

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The Muddiest OGOR (Pat Porter)

A number of the Original Gangsters passed before I could celebrate them. Steve Hoag. Tom Fleming. Pat Porter is gone, but I managed to have a conversation with him on the record. The Panther gets his club patch posthumously. If I find many more forgotten pieces, I may actually have enough for a sequel to…

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The Uncommon Gangster (Anne Audain)

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The Uncommon Gangster (Anne Audain)

“The key to success is consistency in training and a determination to give it your very best effort every time.” When did you start running and why? I was adopted at birth and was born with bone deformities of both feet which grew as I grew. They caused me great pain and I did not have a…

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Blackface For Clowns Only

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Blackface For Clowns Only

Wrote a friend in Williamsburg. Have you been asked yet to serve as Virginia’s governor? I was a big fan as a child of Al Jolson and Emmett Kelly and nobody of color lived in our town until I was like fifteen. Had no idea blackface was this appalling. At least to Democrats. Never thought Virginia suburbs’ Washington Redskins was racist….

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