French philosopher Xavier de Maistre spent forty-two days in confinement in 1794 after being arrested for getting into a duel in Turin. Somewhat parodying the emerging and grandiose narratives of travel writing, De Maistre challenged himself to write about the journey that his curiosity and imagination took him on in his room, while under house arrest! Autour De Ma Chambre is the short often hilarious text that resulted, a book he felt too silly to try to publish, but his brother did posthumously. To me, Autour De Ma Chambre makes the serious call-to-arms that it is an important faculty to be able to be deeply curious in whatever situation we’re in. Per De Maistre’s opening, this applies to rich and…

'Rumspringa!' my colleague Tyler wrote to me, during last days at work when hearing of my departure. What a curious word, I thought, with the excited exclamation he’d added… I had to look it up. Etymology is a phonetically beautiful German word 'Rumschpringe', with origins in the Upper Rhine Valley (Wikipedia). Meaning is 'jumping or hopping around'. I was quietly miffed…feeling more deliberate than jumping or hopping around aimlessly. But only for a split second. As I read more, I loved the spirit of the concept let alone this beautiful word. Rumspringa! I’ll take that. But in my own words, it’s been coming out in conversations more as a mid-life ‘philosophical exercise’. To pause, to catch up and to slow…

My recent London Class Reunion days had me thinking about continuity and change on the train that evening. Being born in Canada (in four houses, right Dad?), then growing up in England (two houses) and spending University years in three countries before moving every two years of so when living in London, I’ve grown up with the rhythm of change. But today, and for the last twelve years now I've been gazing at the same bone white ceiling every morning as I wake up. Today, San Francisco and this bedroom has outstripped both the London days (12 years) and my later childhood home of Polesden View, Great Bookham (8 years) where I lived from around ten to eighteen plus the…

Before Donegal days this last week, I'd sneaked in a night in Dublin, and a night in London before a fine 50th Birthday party in the beautiful Cotswolds. Like Donegal, but richer (those English...!) the Cotswolds is sheep country. It sits just south of Stratford-Upon-Avon in the West Midlands - where Shakespeare was born in 1564 and lived. I had an evening with a favorite Aunt from growing up (Di) and cousin (Hannah), and got to learn more about my much missed Uncle John who died October 2021, as briefly written about during sabbatical writing (Postcards From Sabbatical - From Ecuador (Part II), Galapagos Islands). But the trip started in London for an economics class reunion that I pulled together,…

Aer Lingus Flight 3408 angled down through the clouds, and I couldn’t wait for a whiskey with Dad. Then suddenly the whole plane was pulled into a hard ascent, every window still filled with thick cloud. And the engine hum leapt an octave higher, an accelerating grind. Clearly, we weren’t landing. Fuck. That whiskey. This was not a feeling that could wait a lap... We had an announcement explaining the cloud cover was too low to sight the landing lights on the runway, and were going to try again. And so we did, a wonderful giant arc’ing loop in the big blue space that yawned above the uniform blanket of cloud. Slowly tipping back down into the cloud. Slowly gliding…

Noting nine types of fitness function assessment, learnt in the first of Andrew Huberman's guest series with Dr. Andy Galpin - link. I've been returning to listen to Andrew Huberman, on impulse while traveling in Canada last week visiting Toronto and Montreal with Antler. For a few years, I've been wanting to develop a menu of "baseline" tests to keep one gentle eye on, every quarter or so. [Note as at 4/3/23, for this quick note right now, just jotting these down. I'll return to add details on how to perform each test] Skill or technique (how you move given what you're trying to do) Speed (moving at velocity, ability to accelerate) Power (speed multiplied by force) Force (strength: how…

The most obvious difference is butterfat: By law, American butter must contain at least 80 percent, while the minimum for French butter is 82 percent (unless it is demi-sel, or salted butter, which can check in at 80 percent and include up to 2 percent salt). Two percentage points may sound measly, but since butterfat affects butter's flavor, texture and workability, every little bit counts. New York Times, 2001 Enjoyed reading about Beurre d'Echire, which enjoys an appellation (awarded to Deux-Sevres butter) indicating that the quality of the butter is marked by the quality of the milk, with its provenance in cows feeding on land within 19 miles of the small village of Echire, between Poitiers and La Rochelle on…

'Utterly devastated': Grieving widow's tribute to firefighter killed in landslide My sister Keara and her husband Tom lost their best man in utter tragedy this last week, beloved husband of Amy Van Zwanenberg and father of two young children. I met Dave only the one time, at Keara and Tom's wedding. Dave was one of life's great spirits, and I was thinking this morning about just what exactly that means. Like John Collins, who died at 88 at the end of January, who'd I also referred to as a great spirit. What these characters have in common is a blend of enthusiasm, empathy and curiosity, and humour. They lead such rich and spirited lives, and when they're gone we feel…