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Saturday, September 17, 2011

2011-09-17_06-40-57_866.jpg

2011-09-17_06-40-57_866.jpg

Saturday, August 6, 2011

midsummer grapes 2011.jpg

midsummer grapes 2011.jpg by elihandler
midsummer grapes 2011.jpg, a photo by elihandler on Flickr.

midsummer grapes 2011.jpg

Sunday, January 23, 2011

A salute to “Sarge”

When Sargent Shriver moved from inventing and building the Peace Corps to heading up President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, the poverty rate in the US was 19%. In 12 years, between 1966 and 1974, poverty had dropped to 11% -- almost to half the previous rate. Oh, and today it’s 30%.

It’s hard to grasp both the speed of the changes that Shriver helped create, and the fact that we lost the “War on Poverty” after that kind of amazing success.

Shriver was buried yesterdayy, and I was in tears as I listened to the Fresh Air interview on NPR. My first job out of college was with the Office of Economic Opportunity, the agency Shriver established to implement programs such as HeadStart, Community Health Centers, Job Corps and VISTA.

There could not have been a better place for a freshly graduated, directionless and idealistic person to work. The OEO folks were serious, learned, overworked, thrilled, funny, dedicated, eclectic and all on fire with the mission to get this thing done: re-think all the things that keep poor people poor, find ways to inspire change and move on to the next impossible thing.

It threatened the heck out of lots of the guardians of the status quo. But it worked.

I was privileged and honored to have been a part of the programs Sargent Shriver built. I hope that his passing, and the reminder of what he achieved, can re-ignite that spark of idealism and belief in positive change. Thanks, Sarge!


Friday, January 14, 2011


At home in the kitchen, Friday night..

Build myself a little cocktail, start fixing dinner.

Need to make some fresh salad dressing, press some garlic, add olive oil, squeeze in some fresh lemon juice... hmm, pretty sour.

Ok, maybe some balsamic vinegar will smooth out the sharpness. There, a little dash -- CRAP! I put it in my Martini! So -- taste it?!

Ok, not too bad... Not for every day but... Martini Modena? Trend, anyone? Call the Singlebarrel guys!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Dining with a feral fox in the frozen forest...


This is how I've been describing my current eating plan, started right after the first of the year. It's based on a book, Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution, which I read over the eating extravaganza we fondly call "the holidays" -- although I was not willing to start the plan while pie and mashed potatoes were on offer.

For seven days, I've been using my feral fox image to help me follow the recommendations for the first two weeks of this process. Ms. F. Fox can raid hen-houses in the dead of winter, catch birds and bugs and grubs, can snack on nuts, seeds, bitter mosses and ferns, pine needles, and gag down some kale or cabbage that grows even in the cold. I can eat eggs, meat, fish, nuts, and any vegetable that is green. (Avacados and tomatoes are NOT vegetables.) No fruit, no starchy roots, no grains. No sugar, honey, molasses and no refined or processed foods.

Essentially, the premise of the book is that our Western culture has provided us with a food supply that our bodies interpret as "end of summer, fruit's on the vine, eat everything that tastes sweet and comforting, to build fat for the winter." This evolutionary programing was successful -- so it got nicely encoded in our 21st century genomes, where it is now busy killing us.

This first two weeks in the frozen forest is designed to reset the genes that signal to my body that I, munching sweet potato casserole and mince pies, am in fat-storing mode. A sensible preparation for a winter food shortage, this mode is driven by complex interactions of hormones including insulin, causing every bit of available blood sugar to be packed away as body fat. It's only intended to happen for a few months once a year, not every waking hour all year long.

In another week, I'll be able to start adding back some specific fruits and veggies. If I have done the first two weeks right, I should have lost about 5-8 lbs, according to the book. I'm already down 5 -- probably water weight, but woohoo anyway!

The second premise of the book is that our genes are also being urged to kill us off before we hog any more of the shared resources. I'll talk about that in the next post. It's scary!

Oh, and in honor of my foxy mascot, I'm a redhead again.




Friday, January 7, 2011

A habit of strenuous casualness


Ok, that's a really clumsy headline. I can't come up with a better short description of the language we use to describe some of the most casual and careless actions in our everyday life. Here are some examples:

-- throw on some jeans
-- run to the store
-- dash off an e-mail
-- dive into a project
-- toss in a load of laundry
-- throw dinner together
-- fall asleep

These are mundane activities, no sweat or strain required. And yet the verbs we use are more appropriate to Olympic competition. Any ideas on why we do that?