From Superbarista:

The Maple Bacon Latte has arrived! Our painstakingly developed recipe uses real bacon and locally made maple syrup (from Richard’s maple products in Chardon, OH), this is the most extreme specialty beverage we have ever had on our menu. Each 8 oz. drink uses two slices of real bacon to make this the richest meal-in-a-cup you have ever experienced. We have purposely not calculated the caloric content, so don’t ask. $4.95.

Where’s my IV?

[College students preparing for and during final exams] abandoned healthy diets and increased their consumption of junk food by 50 percent. It wasn’t that they suddenly convinced themselves that potato chips were a brain food. They simply stopped worrying about unhealthy fattening food when they were focused on exams. they also became less concerned about returning phone calls, washing dishes or cleaning floors. Final exam time brought declines in every aspect of personal hygiene that was studied. The students became less diligent about brushing and flossing their teeth. They skipped washing their hair and shaving. And yes, they wore dirty socks and other unwashed clothes. p. 32-3

From Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney

Previously…

Found in my electronic chapbook.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=812350928

Recently, some scholars [Tierney, here, is writing, of course, about David Eagleman and Incognito: The Secret Lives Of The Brain. JH] have begun to argue that the legal system must be revamped to eliminate outdated notions of free will and responsibility. p. 8

From Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney

Previously…

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Last evening we gathered at the Phoenix Coffeehouse in South Euclid to invest 90 minutes of our time in the exploring the question from the jar: What is a terrorist? We quickly agreed that the term, as understood by Americans, is a subjective one and that we commonly use it as a label and pejorative to undermine, diminish and even dismiss the cause or rational for a particular violent act: one society’s terrorist is another society’s freedom fighter.

I was not surprised that we spent considerable time unpacking the notion the our own country – as seen in William Blum’s Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower and Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States – has more often been the perpetrator of acts easily labeled terrorist than it has been the victim. In this context we discussed how the British viewed our Founders, how Southerners viewed the Union army in the War of Northern Aggression, how Japanese-Americans viewed their government’s decision to ship them to concentration camps during World War II; how the Vietnamese viewed Lt. Callie, how Iranians and Chileans viewed the CIA’s engineering of the overthrow of their democratically elected governments and most recently, how the people of Iraq and Afghanistan view the invasions and occupations of their countries. (I wanted to add our treatment of Native Americans – one of my favorite posters is that of four armed Indians posed above the legend: Homeland Security since 1491 – to the mix, but others had their points to make as well.)

Finding the line where a violent or criminal act rises to the level of terrorism became increasing difficult as we turned the question in many ways to get at the essence. We agreed that spectacle plays a role in determining a transition zone, as well as psychological components and the enormity of the attack, but we could not point to a degree of each that clearly defines the transition.

In turns we kept expanding who we might label under the terrorist rubric to include the laughably inept (the shoe and underwear bombers); the psychological (a verbally abusive spouse who terrorizes their partner); and even the school bully. I find this last particularly interesting because as parents have, I believe rightly, begun to associate bullies with the label terrorist, school systems have retreated in an attempt to dial back the rhetoric lest it spin out of control (no parent wants the word terrorist to appear in their third-grader’s evaluation but I’m sure that more than one or two Chardon parents have used the word in recent weeks).

If we could be said to have reached any conclusion (and, as typical for Socrates Café, I don’t think we did) I would suggest this: a terrorist is whoever we say is a terrorist; that the word serves simply as shorthand for a person or persons we don’t like and wish for others to not like without too closely examining our reasons for doing so.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

I’ve known Dennis Kucinich since the mid-1960s. As a reporter, I went door-to-door with him in Tremont in 1967. It was his first run for Council. He lost. At times I’ve been supportive and at times very critical. When some people at the City Club gave me a luncheon to mark 25 years of Point of View, a newsletter I wrote, Dennis surprised me by attending. Indeed, he was the speaker. He spoke positively about me. Although mischievously he deadpanned that he thought the celebration was to mark my retirement. I’d finally be gone!

Now, it is many years later. He has suffered a damaging defeat. He likely lost merely by the way lines were drawn in the new misshapen 9th District. It took voters from him.

However, I think, Dennis – the consummate Cleveland politician and never a shrinking violet – misplayed the election. I don’t think he expected his opponent, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, to play hard ball. But she did. It was supposed to be a friendly battle. After seeing one of her TV commercials I actually sent $25 to Dennis’s campaign.

So it was a shock that a man who has played hard ball with the best of Cleveland politicians – from Carl Stokes to George Forbes from Ed Feighan to Ralph Perk – didn’t come out with a knife against Kaptur. By the time he must have grasped his mistake Continue Reading »

I’m a morning person and a biker. For me, the optimum time to put miles on my bike are at dawn when the rest of the world is waking up and bike paths are clear. Thanks to feckin’ daylight savings time, I only get about five months a year when the there’s enough daylight for me to get in that early morning ride.

I would vote for Newt Gingrich if he promised to abolish daylight savings time.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

Is it time for Mayor Frank Jackson to go?

If it isn’t – it sure is time he had some competition.

Cleveland is suffering from depression. Not just the economic kind. But the spiritual kind.

It needs an awakening. A prodding. Something to spur its spirit that there are better times ahead.

And I don’t mean another useless lakefront development poke. Or a Public Square spruce-up talk.

I don’t believe it can get a push without a mayoral contest that awakens the public.

Where are the Carl Stokeses and the Dennis Kucinichs of today?

They must be out there.

But they’re hesitant. Waiting for what? The Old Guard to anoint them? Ain’t going to happen. Power has to be seized. Our Old Guard is stultified. It’s too lazy and old to even think NEW.

But that’s exactly what this town needs. A shake. Badly. Desperately. Continue Reading »

0548 (update @ 0828): Free speech under attack

On Friday I have a 1 p.m. appointment with my doctor at the Veterans Administration’s Behavioral Medicine Department. In our most recent meeting we talked a bit about mindful eating. I’m aware of the practice, I’ve even taught a bit about it in meditation classes and used the potato chip experience as a taste of the practice, but I’ve never given it a full shake. In the coming week, I’m going to make a concerted effort to enjoy my dinner in a mindful way and journal about the experience.

In thinking about my intention to today I went back into my own archives and found this post from Alexander Green. The original is now behind a paywall, but fortunately I emailed myself a copy back on 26 March 2010 when it first appeared on Green’s Spiritual Wealth blog. Here’s what Green wrote nearly two years ago.

Dear Reader,

Two weeks ago, I suffered a home invasion – and not for the first time.

I had plopped down to watch Duke play Virginia, having just fixed a toasted ham and Swiss on rye, and a few minutes later – to my astonishment – my plate was bare except for a few crumbs and a spot of pickle juice.

The sandwich thief had struck again!

How clever of him to enter my home in broad daylight, steal the sandwich and dill spear right under my nose, then vanish without a trace.

Wiping the Dijon mustard from my lips, I considered the suspects…

Seriously now, how many meals have you eaten this way, so consumed by your plans for the day, the conversation at the table or – worst of all – the drone of the Tube that you never really tasted the food?

Thich Nhat Hanh would not approve.

Who’s he? Nhat Hanh is an expatriate Vietnamese monk and Buddhist Zen Master who has spent his life advocating nonviolence, setting up relief centers for refugees, ministering to the needy, establishing monastic centers, and authoring more than two dozen books on what he calls “mindful living.”

(In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, telling the committee, “I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of this prize than this gentle monk from Vietnam.”)

Nhat Hanh insists that most of us in the West live mindlessly. We spend our days on autopilot, reminiscing about the past or, more often, endlessly planning for the future, even if that’s only ten minutes from now. By doing this, we miss our appointment with life. Because the only time we can be fully alive is in the present moment.

To change, we need only recognize that it is always now – and increase our awareness of what is going on within and around us.

Sounds simple enough. But few can actually do it. Instead, we live in a near-constant state of distraction, even when we sit down to eat. (And some, I’ve noticed, don’t even bother to sit.)

Nhat Hanh says we can change this and turn mealtime into an art, a spiritual discipline, simply by following the Seven Practices of a Mindful Eater:

1. Honor the food. Start by unplugging all your daily distractions. Turn off the TV, your cellphone, and the laptop. Then take a moment to consider that everything you are about to consume – even the contents of your salad bowl – was recently alive and is about to provide your sustenance. Be grateful, too, for the many people who made this meal possible: the farmer who grew and harvested the food, the trucker who transported it, the shopkeeper who offered it, and your spouse or other individuals who may have worked hard to prepare it.

2. Engage all your senses. Before eating, make a practice of pausing. Notice the color, the smell and the texture of the food. With your first bite, take an extra moment to savor each nuance.

3. Serve modest portions. Nhat Hanh recommends using a small dinner plate no larger than nine inches across. Modest portions are not only healthier, they are less wasteful and a small step toward a more responsible use of the planet’s resources. It’s hard to believe, but over 16,000 children in the developing world still die every day from starvation, malnutrition or hunger-related illnesses.

4. Savor small bites. This allows you to better enjoy the taste of the meal. It also improves digestion since the process begins with enzymes in your mouth breaking down the food.

5. Eat slowly. This will make you feel pleasantly satisfied sooner and help you avoid overeating. There is a big difference between feeling you’ve had about enough and swearing you can’t eat another morsel. Set your fork down between bites. (Few people do this, I’ve noticed. Try it in a restaurant and more often than not your server will try to whisk your plate away.)

6. Eat regular meals. Skip a meal and you’re more likely to yield to fast-food restaurants and vending machines. Planning and sticking to regular meals – at least as much as your schedule allows – will enable you to eat more nutritious food, enjoy more satisfying company and settle your body into a consistent rhythm.

7. Eat a plant-based diet. Buddhists like Thich Nhat Hanh claim this isn’t just healthier, it is also easier on the environment and more compassionate toward animals. To the extent you do eat meat, studies show it’s better to favor fish and poultry. My good friend Dr. John Reed, head of the Burnham Institute (one of the world’s leading medical research institutes), loves a good steak. But he told me recently that he has given up red meat altogether. He says the increasing evidence of a connection between red meat and colon cancer is pretty scary.

So there you have it. To eat like a Zen master, you don’t need years of training or hours spent in cross-legged meditation. You need only recognize your mindless habits and make an effort to change them.

Dine this way and you’ll find that not only are your meals more enjoyable, you’ll eat less too. And that’s a good thing. Scientific studies show that caloric restriction is an important source of longevity.

Eating mindfully allows you to appreciate your food and its connection to the rest of the world. It makes you look and feel better. And it helps you live longer, too. So try this Zen Master’s guidelines. See if you can make them second nature.

And, who knows, you might never fall prey to the sandwich thief again.

Carpe Diem,

Alex

I know that my greatest challenge will be visual. I’m a lifelong dine-and-read kind of guy so the hard part will be not putting down my spoon, but putting down my book.

Do you have any experiences with mindful eating? Please tell me about them.

*That would be way cooler if Sandra Dickinson (timemark 5:33) read it.

If I were to make a deal with the devil it would be this: I want to live peacefully and in good health until I have read every book that I want to read.

This morning I’m doing a bit of a spring cleaning of files on my hard drive and one of the tasks involves consolidating a number of lists into one of 43 (yes, those 43) files. I’m always jotting down the authors and titles of books I think I ought to read and in just a few minutes I’ve assembled the list below which, if I did noting else, could easily fill the balance of the year.

Earlier this year I promised myself that I would buy no new books or take any books out of the library until I had finished reading a short list. I’m holding to that pledge (mostly, more on that elsewhere in the near future) and so I’m not going to be reading these book in 2012, but maybe next year.

My question to my readers is this: do you have a system for dealing with your reading list? How has your system worked for you?

99 Drams of Whiskey by Kate Hopkins; An Experiment In Criticism by C;S; Lewis; Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster; Bleak House by Charles Dickens; Bringing it to the table by Wendell Berry; Burmese Lessons by Karen Connelly; Burnt Books by Roger Kamenetz; Calculus For Dummies by Michael Kelley; Cleveland Papers, The by Roldo Bartimole; Crack In Everything, The by Alicia Ostriker; David Copperfield by Charles Dickens; Death of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers; Democracy’s Prisoner by Ernest Freeburg; Dewey by Vicki Myron; DIY U: Edupunk Eduprenuers by Anya; Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail ’72 by Hunter S; Thompson; Gonzo Republic: Hunter S; Thompson’s America by William Stephenson; Great Expectations by Charles Dickens; Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Levinson; Hard Times by Charles Dickens; Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens; Introduction to Liberation Theology by Theodore Baff; Keep The Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell; Letters of John Keats by John Keats; Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens; Mountain Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder; Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens; On Writing by Eudora Welty; Rhetoric of Fiction, The by Wayne Booth and Super Capitalism by Robert Reich.

I’ve fallen in love with RSAnimate’s white-board talks — think of them as TED Talks with cooler graphics — partly because they strive for helpful smacks upside your head that make clearer those facts you think you know that just aren’t so which are the ultimate danger in life.

Dan Pink makes the case that what motivates people, once they get past the Maslow’s most basic level are not carrots and sticks, but rather autonomy, challenge, mastery and making a contribution and that money, when the pursuit of wealth is the driver, creates bad outcomes result.

I confess to irrational feelings of bad outcomes over filling out a third-party request for my FBI file. I know I have a file because I held a Secret, Nuclear Weapons security clearance while I was in the Navy. The FBI conducted a background check, talked to my friends, etc., before I was allowed to become a Gunner’s Mate Missiles. If I do this, I’ll most likely take the direct route suggested by Comment No. 28, and if I do, I’ll absolutely post the results here.

Next up: A Minimalist’s Guide to eBay: The Least You Need to Know to Get Started (from 537 days ago) and CLOSE YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT from nine days ago.

Previously…

At my last Behavioral Medicine doctor’s appointment at the Veterans Administration we talked a bit about how to track success. There’s weighing myself in the morning, of course, but I was hoping for other measures because weight (especially when I kick-up the exercise later this month with daily bike rides again — my 2012 goal is 1,000 miles — and start adding muscle) doesn’t really tell the story.

I’ve been tracking my body mass index (currently 28.4) but the measure is only a general guide when calculated using the formula since it doesn’t differentiate between different densities of tissue. That’s why reading Why the Body Mass Index is a Poor Measure of Your Health by Peter Janiszewski (tagged in Read It Later 10 days ago) interested me.

Janiszewski confirms my understanding of the wishy-washyness of the BMI and, like my doctor, suggests the waist-to-hips ratio measurement as a better alternative — he refers to it as the apple vs. pear challenge, my ratio is .98:1 at present — but beyond that and certain seemingly arbitrary tipping points, there’s not a lot of help for people who are really, really goal orientated.

There is how clothes fit (loosely right now, and that’s good) as well as the very subjective: how do you feel? question. The whole process, as a scientific exercise, is dissatisfying. What is satisfying, amazingly so, is the recognition that after 36 years of steady weight gain, I’ve shed 55 pounds, and that feels pretty damn good.

Having Chuck Adams as my editor would feel pretty damn good too. I first became aware of Adams as an editor back in the mid-’90s when Simon and Schuster was publishing local novelist Rick Montanari’s Deviant Way and Adams was Kinky Friedman’s editor at that house.

Adams fell victim to New York downsizing and now he’s the Executive Editor at Algonquin Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Back in September of 2009, Adams sat with literary agent Sally Hill McMillan on a panel sponsored by ProNoveWriter and talked about the business of writing.

What I took away from the talk was not specific, or even general advice for writers, but rather the humanity of Adams. I’ve been enough panel discussions over the years, read a highest enough stack of books on writing, clipped and saved a carpet of articles from Writer’s Digest, The Writer and Poets and Writers to have delivered the factual content myself, but I believe Adams when he says he wants to see great writers publish great books, not because he wants to make piles of money, but because it gives him joy and if we’re not in this lifestyle for the joy of it, why the feck are we here?

Next up: RSA Animate – Drive (from 562 days ago) and Get Your FBI File! from nine days ago.

Previously…

Update @ 0810 from Tim Russo: Front page of the business section in the Plain Dealer.