Occupation of Independence

If only I had pushed in the direction of podcasts and audio books years ago, instead of waiting to discover this world during the lockdown! For years I have complained that reading books was a miserable activity during winter evenings, especially when camping. Even the most hard-core optimist would admit that reading is tedious. I would rather just blurt out that reading is unsociable, glum, and lifeless. It is an unnatural and annoying activity. Furthermore, we sometimes forget how recently the printed word has come to dominate the Oral Tradition. I envy my grandparents' generation for being able to listen to the Golden Age of Radio on a winter evening on their farms. Go back even further than that and you have the world of theatre, live and on stage, where the playwright's words are 80% of the show. My generation caught the end of the (tawdry) newspaper era, but saw the hegemony of movies (aka, eye candy) and television (aka, chewing gum for the eyes.) It would be interesting

There are more important things to worry about right now, but I have always wanted the ultimate shirt for mountain biking in the summer time. The recreational industry has oversold the benefits of texturized polyester, supplex nylon, and polypropylene. The only thing these modern high-tech fabrics are good for is not absorbing water. That is important if you are climbing a 14'er in Colorado and you get caught in a squall or hailstorm. (Well OK, they are durable. But they are unforgivably hot and sweaty.) But I am mountain biking in warm summer weather, with low humidity. The cliche about cotton 'absorbing' sweat or water is irrelevant. So what if the fabric absorbs sweat? It evaporates quickly and cools the fabric. The only problem with thin 100% cotton is durability. Rayon is even cooler than cotton, but weaker yet; especially near the button holes. I have yet to find a long-sleeve rayon shirt, and I don't want flamboyant tropical colors. I am a Southwesterner, not a

Many people might be wondering if the modern crisis will make important improvements to American policies. For instance, will Americans decide that spending a trillion dollars per year on intelligence agencies, foreign wars, and toys for the Pentagon is something we just can't afford any more, and that we need to reallocate that money elsewhere. I used to think so. But maybe that is just wishful thinking. I am rereading Madame de Stael's "Considerations of the Principal Events of the French Revolution." She was well-placed to know some of the famous actors of the Revolution, and eye-witnessed important events in it. And a woman author has a tendency to emphasize different things than the usual male historian.   She quotes an English politician who criticized Bonaparte: He must promise to make them the masters of the world, that they may consent to be his slaves. Was that true with the mob in ancient Rome? Their lives were miserable and hopeless most of th

Yes, I am ashamed of myself. But I'm not the only scoundrel who is wallowing in schadenfreude over the demise of the tourism industry. Really folks, it was getting ridiculous before the virus came along and saved us. All those people living in their vans.  All those clowns showing up in campgrounds at 11:30 p.m., and then slamming car doors for the next hour or two. Every other vehicle in America having four wheel drive, and the ability to pollute the backcountry with their presence. Gigantic house-sized fifth-wheel trailers with open frame generators from China. Reservations, rules, fees. Loud music playing half the night. Pickup trucks that require step-ladders to enter.  Side-by-side UTVs everywhere, blasting by at high speed. Lines outside restaurants with boutique food at high prices.  McMansions popping up on every square foot of private land that can be said to have a "view." In other words, every place was getting as crowded as Colorado.  And now