More Coffee, Please

While I don’t want to dwell on the palpable negativity and gloom that pervades our everyday lives, I do feel it’s important to acknowledge that life for most of has become virtually void of the joy we once experienced, and that I am affected by it more than I’d like to admit. I say this to offset the notion that the “how great my life is” pabulum proffered in this Mildly Informative communiqué is a completely accurate representation of the entire elephant (if you are blind, my life is an elephant, and you are one of those Cretins who believes that metaphors are somehow clever and illustrative).

That said, my life is great! During the last week of January, I was fortunate enough to guide the Cumberland Island, GA Fitpacking trip, a new destination. The island is largely flat and features gnarled, century old live oak trees, saw palmettos, and scads of tilazia eucinoides, aka Spanish moss, which by the way, is great for cleaning oil out of a popcorn pot. We saw a panoply of the island’s charismatic mega-fauna including wild horses, wild hogs, alligators, armadillos, and dolphins, not to mention a wealth of birds and smaller critters.

I could continue to try to instill you with false enthusiasm about the trip by droning on and on about it in prose, but why not just look at some of Z’s photos here:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=278854972/a=7458331_99082776/t_=7458331 as well as some of Julie’s photos here: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=258485474/a=7458331_160772505/t_=7458331.

While we’re on the subject of backpacking, the website Trip On A Deal recently featured Fitpacking in their very first video segment of 2009: http://triponadeal.blip.tv/file/1630580/. In the immortal words of Frank Zappa, “It’s a little bit cheesy, but it’s nicely displayed”. The Fitpacking coverage occurs only about a minute or two into the broadcast, so you can probably sneak this into your day while on hold for your hair appointment, even though your hair probably looks far better than you think it does, and if you just smiled once in a while, nobody would even notice your hair.

Attention people who read! Elitists like you may prefer reading a website about Fitpacking over watching a video about Fitpacking. Of course, you most likely prefer suffering through a kidney stone to either. So after you pass that stone, why not check out the slightly less painful Fitpacking feature on the HealthStatus website: http://www.healthstatus.com/health_blog/2009/01/05/2009-weightloss/

Regarding media coverage, not much new on the barf bag front, although the Air Sickness Bag Museum did have a few blog mentions recently:
http://www.been-seen.com/article.cfm?id=10848
http://jimmathers.com/02/04/crazy-museums/

On a more serious note, I received the following from Ann Lefebvre:

My friend, Margie LaSalle in Atlanta GA has been diagnosed with bone cancer and has been given a prognosis of less than 2 years. She has a husband and two very young children whom she will leave behind very soon. Since Margie is no longer able to use the stairs, they are trying to sell their townhome and purchase a ranch home in the same area. In this market, things just aren't moving and they really cannot wait. So, a children's book has been created in Margie's honor as a message to her two small children about her being around "always and everywhere". The proceeds of this book will directly support the LaSalles in purchasing the home that they desperately need while they sell their townhome and will allow Margie to remain home with her family. The book can be purchased at www.alwaysandeverywhere.org for $14.99.

Please help if you can.

My mother, Noa Miller has been featured in the book “In the Spirit of the Maggid”. One chapter of this book, “A Grandfather’s Plea” details her fairly recent visit to her grandfather’s (my great-grandfather’s) hometown in Germany, and what she found in a letter written by him to German officials soon after Kristallnacht. You can find the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Maggid-Paysach-j-Krohn/dp/1422608727/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234131256&sr=8-2. Go Mom!

In conclusion, there are many things to pontificate about, but this time I’d like to weigh in on steroids, which have become resurrected into de rigeur news fodder. While I can see both points of view, I am unsure whether or not records, awards and championships should be stripped away from athletes who have taken performance enhancing drugs. However if it is determined that their athletic accomplishments are tainted and no longer count, then I feel it’s only fair for beauty pageant winners to be stripped of their titles if it’s found that they’ve undergone any kind of cosmetic surgery. For that matter, even wearing make-up should be considered “performance enhancing” and be cause for their dismissal.

Remember that this newsletter is mirrored on the Mildly Informative Blog: http://stevesmildlyinformativestuff.blogspot.com/