Yesterday was a dark and stormy day here on the hilltop. The weather report says that we got 0.42 inches of rain, which in an area that averages 10 inches per year, that’s a healthy rain day. Hidden Meadows (of which we are technically a part of even though it is not an incorporated village) receives between approximately 5.6 and 13.6 inches of rainfall per year , with sources varying somewhat. One source reports an…
Everything you read that seeks to give advice to our demographic bulge known as the Baby Boomers, tells you to avoid the sedentary life at all costs. A sedentary lifestyle is thought to be remarkably harmful to human health and is considered one of the most significant preventable health risks in modern society. There is an evolutionary mismatch between being sedentary and good health. We’re built for movement. Humans evolved as hunter-gatherers, walking 5-10+ miles…
I started in business school during the spring of my senior year in college by taking a few of the first-year courses. To be fair, I had taken economics courses for four years already by then, but economics, while connected to business, is simply not the same. So, for all intents and purposes, I have been thinking about the finance business since 1975, a full fifty years at this point. Wall Street tends to bifurcate…
As I have mentioned in previous stories, I am scheduled to head off to New York City on Sunday for a trial in which I will be giving expert testimony on a case that started in the middle of 2022 and which I have put about 330 hours of time on since then. This is the case that I was contacted about in mid July and told to start preparing for trial due to start…
We may occasionally try to pretend that the wisdom of age and perhaps the hurdles to attaining a ripe old age make the aged revered. Bullshit. The only honest comment along those lines is that growing old is better than the alternative. There is truth to the fact that wisdom and experience, which mostly only come with age, have value. If only I knew then what I know now is a very common thought that…
This feels like an unusual week for me. It’s probably most unusual because it’s a transition week for us, just getting back to our normal hilltop life. First of all, it’s early June, which means that we have an overabundance of June Gloom in the morning. That’s the marine layer that comes in from the ocean and creates a fog layer up here that burns off somewhere between 10am and early afternoon, depending on how…
Pickleball has become extremely popular and continues to be America’s fastest-growing sport. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) Topline Participation Report, there were an estimated 19.8 million pickleball players in the United States in 2024, which represents a 45.8% increase from 2023 numbers. Pickleball has been named the fastest-growing sport in the US for the fourth consecutive year. The growth has been phenomenal over the past few years, with participation increasing by…
Croquet as a sport has a fascinating history dating back several centuries. It’s thought of as an elegant lawn game that developed in Victorian England and is played in whites like tennis used to be played. Croquet appears to have evolved from a French peasant game called “paille-maille” (pall-mall) played in Languedoc in the 13th century. Players used mallets to hit wooden balls through hoops made of willow branches. By the 17th century, a similar…
This is a profound philosophical question that has been pondered throughout human history. There are many perspectives on why humans exist, depending on different philosophical, religious, scientific, and cultural viewpoints. From an evolutionary perspective, humans exist as a result of natural selection and biological processes that have unfolded over millions of years. We didn’t come into being for a purpose; rather, we emerged through evolutionary mechanisms. That is the definition of Darwinism and it exhibits…
Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” is one of the most iconic songs in popular culture, often associated with a carefree, beach-focused lifestyle. The song itself has its own cultural impact that has been substantial and multi-faceted. It defines the “Island Escapism” Lifestyle, crystallizing a specific American fantasy – escaping the rat race for a laid-back tropical paradise where worries melt away with frozen drinks and ocean breezes. In keeping with yesterday’s story, it is, perhaps, the best…