Adventures in Whole-Food, Plant-Based Eating
I realize that this title could very well be a reader’s reaction to this blog, but that is not what I discuss in this post. Rather, it is a sales gimmick that I have encountered twice this year when buying big ticket items. I fell for it the first time....
I am a native-born citizen of the United States, as were my parents. The prior generation were immigrants, Jews from eastern Europe. I attended public schools in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Northridge, California. The education was mixed with a generous portion of indoctrination. When one course is set for all,...
I thought about calling this post “Prison Break,” but decided that would be too clever and obscure. Kathryn and I recently finished binge watching five seasons of a television show with that name on Netflix. But that really has no connection with this post. It is late September 2024, and...
It is a hot Tuesday in August 2024. Our skydiving group, the Wuest Ways has made two jumps early, trying to make four before it gets too hot and the dust devils amplify the danger of landing. Because there is a military team training here at Perris today, we get...
Click on any image to see it in full resolution. Our trip to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky went off without a hitch. There were some twists on the return, however. The plan had been to return our rental car at the Cincinnati airport early afternoon on Monday July 16,...
Click on any image to see it in full resolution. Friday night, after an early vegan dinner in Indiana, we drove our rented Malibu through Cincinnati to a Kentucky suburb to see our best friends Mike and Amy Canary. We stopped for some flowers and a few provisions along the...
Click on any of the images to see them at full resolution. The morning after our visit in Peoria, we began the driving part of the trip. It was a pleasant drive through the corn and soybean farmland, passing through the towns of Homer and Paris. I am tempted to...
Click on any of the images to see them at full resolution. It has been an eventful year, and it’s only July. We discovered a hot water leak in the crawl space under our house on January 18. It had likely been there for almost two weeks and did a...
Guides on whole food, plant-based eating often address the special challenges of eating at restaurants or while traveling. We are planning to do both this summer, and we expect to make compromises. When traveling, we still don’t eat animal products, but we might eat food with a little more oil,...
The terrorist attacks on Sep. 11, 2001, were the most severe enemy action on United States soil in American history. They precipitated great shows of public patriotism, such as displaying flags on motor vehicles. Also to travel restrictions and inconveniences, and, tragically, to domestic hate crimes against innocent people. Beyond...
We celebrate a secular Christmas. This year, we agreed with our adult friends and relatives not to exchange gifts. We would only give gifts to the children. This seems better than putting each other on the spot to pick something thoughtful, and risking hard feelings, pretending to be thrilled, and...
When I wrote my previous post, WFPB Black Bean Brownies, I noticed that a WordPress plug-in called JetPack has added a feature to provide “AI Assistant” suggestions. Out of curiosity, I tried it. Here is what it generated. My reactions are in red. The content provides a clear and concise...
I brought these brownies to our block’s 2023 Halloween gathering. They all got eaten and the recipe was requested. Note: no eggs, butter, or milk are used, and it’s fun to see who can guess the secret ingredient. Need: 1 15 oz can black beans1 cup water1 1/2 cups whole...
It is October 2023, and I am eagerly awaiting my new main parachute. In 26 years of skydiving, I have owned just two main canopies, both made by Performance Designs. I love my original Sabre 170 with my custom colors, manufactured in 2000. Given the limited color palette available for...
I own lots of books by Raymond Smullyan. Two of them have titles that refer to both themselves and each other. Books titles and article headlines are often chosen not by the author of the book or article, but by an editor or publisher. I mention this also in Headlines...
My previous posts about this project are part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4. After solar system installation, there is a final inspection from the city. Titanium Solar sent a representative to pre-inspect and to tell the city inspector what he was looking at. As with the previous...
The television show featured an author promoting his new book about artificial intelligence. He had concerns as well as hopes for the promise of technology to further improve our lives, especially when it comes to health care. An example he gave was of an AI radiologist being much more accurate...
It is September 2023, and after a six week session tutoring math over the summer, I have started tutoring high school kids remotely on money-related topics. Here is my self-introduction to my students. Let me just introduce myself for a minute, and then I want to hear about each of...
My previous posts about this project are part 1, part 2, and part 3. It is August 2023. The roofers finished reinstalling the concrete tiles over the new underlayment in time for us to safely withstand the heavy rain brought by Tropical Storm Hilary. The city inspector signed off on...
Despite delays caused by light rain, our roof was rebuilt and ready to withstand the heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Hilary. Now we wait for the final inspection of the roof. Then we can schedule the installation of the solar panels.
Want to make it rain in August in Southern California? Try removing all your roof tiles. As I recounted in Residential Solar, Part 1, we decided to have our roof underlayment replaced prior to having solar panels installed. Demo Day Supplies are Delivered When the truck stopped at our end...
Our house in sunny Southern California was built in 1989. Prior to us buying it in 2018, it was occupied by renters. We have made many improvements inside and out. We love this home and don’t plan to move. Investing in photovoltaic to generate electricity has never been more economical....
There you are, minding your own business. Something you hear, read, smell, see, taste, or just think about suddenly calls to mind something else, seemingly unrelated, that you haven’t thought about in years. The recalled event or situation may only have the most abstract or tenuous connection to the triggering...
I enjoy watching shows about wilderness survival, like Naked and Afraid, even though I consider the people who voluntarily put themselves in those positions to be crazy. I could never do that. I can’t even walk barefoot on the beach. In the show, the survivalists have to build shelter, make...
It is June 2023. This blog is one year old. It is my project in retirement, along with skydiving, brewing beer, playing games, leading senior singalongs, eating healthfully, and hopefully soon, tutoring school kids in math. This blog began with a number of posts I had written in the years...
It is Father’s Day 2023 and I am reflecting on my Dad, Rabbi Richard M. Leviton. This is not going to be a flowery paean to him. He was very human. He loved his four children and took good care of us, but it was difficult, especially after Mom died....
I think I strained my left elbow pulling myself back onto the boat after swimming around it. We were on a sunset cruise in Quepos, Costa Rica, in February 2023. About a month later, I started to feel neck and shoulder pain on the right side. If I bend my...
Griped about commercials on TV. Told my wife I love her very much. Played Gin Rummy with my wife. Played dominoes with my wife and family. Led a singalong at a seniors’ community. Listened to Influx by Daniel Suarez. Read a bit of the Kindle edition of Hive by Gregg...
When one is an employee in a typical hierarchical organization, the concept of “managing up” helps increase one’s value and align one’s priorities with those of the team. Rather than just doing one’s job description and taking orders, pay attention to what your boss should be doing. Boss may need...
Since I am such a lucky man, and having benefited vastly from the power of negative thinking, I seldom indulge in public grousing. Call it noblesse oblige, or, more accurately, the moral responsibility of the lucky. Today I make an exception, and vent, just a little. Grocery Bags I shop...
Life Line Screening is a mobile heath screening service. They set up at various locations, often churches and hotels. I got the “Stroke & Cardiovascular Risk Screening,” and they offer many other tests, including some that require fasting and drawing of blood. It’s an easy way to get information that...
As I explained in this post, after 13 years of eating exclusively whole food, plant-based, I have started to take a statin drug to lower my LDL cholesterol and thus my calculated risk of heart attack and stroke. I would have liked to have been right that eating WFPB would...
Theoretically, I should be able to look at my genetic analysis on ancestry.com and learn directly if I have the DNA for FH (familial hypercholesterolemia). Instead, I learn that due to careful inbreeding for hundreds of years, I belong to an ethnic group that has that problem. Ashkenazi Jews, including...
One of the reasons for renting the house in Quepos was proximity to Manuel Antonio National Park. I had been wanting to see it, and had missed it on our last stay. We took a short guided tour through this small, newer national park. The guide was very valuable, because...
Our second excursion from the rental house in Quepos was called “off the beaten path.” It started with a ride in a large Jeep-like vehicle through the back country. There was a stop at a small country store for an agua and baño break. It was unremarkable, except for the...
After the boogie at Hotel Barceló, Playa Tambor, Costa Rica, Kathryn and I rented a house in Quepos along with our good friends Mike and Amy Canary and Jim and Jen Dolan. Our first excursion from there was a sunset cruise from the Quepos marina, aboard the Amy’s Dream. I...
Most of the time, the only skydiving there is in Costa Rica is at small operations catering mostly to tourists seeking tandem jumps. My friend David Clark has a place called “DESAFÍO VERTICAL” like that, when he is in between touring the world himself and helping Rich Grimm put on...
Before I started eating whole food, plant-based at the end of 2009, I remember getting some kind of cold or bronchitis pretty much every year. I would feel miserable, with coughs, nasal congestion, runny nose, lethargy, and general aches and pains. I would miss a day or two of work....
Like many men, I feel that Valentine’s Day is basically a marketing promotion to get me to spend money on cards, candy, flowers, and other romantic gifts. Like many women, my wife feels that is no excuse to ignore the opportunity to demonstrate the depth of my romantic feelings for...
In August 2008, I started to inventory, organize, and grade my comics, most of which I’ve had for over thirty years. When I was 6 or 7 years old, my grandfather sent me the first of several big boxes of comics. Here’s the story, as I understand it. These were...
It is January 2023. I have finished reading Q is for Quantum, along with an online course Introduction to Quantum Computing for Everyone, part 1. I will not try to summarize what I learned. Together, these two resources provide an accessible introduction to a field that is, according to them,...
Within the small whole food, plant-based community, fractured as it is, it is often observed that it is hard to make a profit selling the “secret” to healing many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. As “plant-based” takes a small but growing share of the marketplace...
Uncle Al, may he rest in peace, was the oldest brother. Uncle Les, may he rest in peace, was the middle brother. My father, Richard, may he rest in peace, was the youngest. I vividly remember Uncle Al explaining to my teenage self that he considered allowing hunger to persist...
It is January 1, 2023, and 60 Minutes runs a story called “Obesity”. I can’t recall any other time when a 60 Minutes story was so self-contradictory and counter to my personal experience. It opens with Leslie Stahl saying “Almost half of American adults have obesity, a condition that was...
Whatever the urge is that makes people gather in large crowds at midnight in winter, to watch a lighted ball drop communally or to get a good spot to watch a parade pass the next morning—that urge does not apply to me. Kathryn and I stay home with the animals,...
When Kathryn and I met in 2012, she had just one dog, Margo. Margo was shy of me at first, but gradually trust built, and she would come when I called and walk with me, with or without a leash. We played Margoball, a game in which Kathryn and I...
We are going to die. Short of suicide, we have no direct control over the reason or the means. We try to improve our odds, by managing the risks we take. Still, life cannot be completely safe. Accidents and illnesses can claim us, despite all our precautions. Yet, if we...
When I was perhaps four or five years old and my mother announced it was bedtime, I often used to say that I could not sleep, because I was not tired. I didn’t want to miss out on whatever went on among the grownups while I was asleep. Mom, knowing...
My friend Rick has published his second book, so I get to write about it. It’s about skydiving. It is not a how-to. It tells you just enough, or maybe almost enough, about the mechanics and technology of the sport so that a person unfamiliar with it can follow the...
It is November 2022, and the world population has just reached 8 billion people, according to news reports. I don’t know how many people the planet can sustain, but I suspect that with improvements in technology and behavior, it is a lot more than 8 billion. We are experiencing extreme...
It is 2022, heading into Thanksgiving. I haven’t eaten any Halloween candy, but seeing the little boxes of Dots gumdrops somehow awakened in me a craving for black licorice. I realize not everyone likes black licorice. It’s one of those tastes that are just popular enough for the market to...
As a kid growing up in Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, I loved Halloween. My costumes were usually not much, and one time an older kid broke an egg on head, and I ran home crying to my mother. I did not love that part. In those days, kids as...
Engineers tend to focus on what’s wrong or could be improved. In contrast, creative writers need to be able to turn off their internal fault-finder, to get a full draft done before paralyzing themselves with analyzing the flaws. I’m definitely the engineer type. I have always tended to think negatively,...
Lee gets a break, for once. Cruising through the Compass Rose subdivision, looking for packages to snag, and here comes a Package Express vehicle from the other direction. It passes, and Lee sees in the rear-view mirror where it stops. No hurry, proceed to the end of the block and...
Beyond the spam I discuss in How Not to Spam My Blog, I also receive frequent emails that are computer generated and sent using the Contact Dan’l page. So far, they all seem to come from the same source, using a variety of email addresses that I suspect are invented...
In three years of high school, Chatsworth High class of 1974, I took five Advanced Placement classes and did well in all of them. But I only took three of the AP tests. Passing the test could be worth college credits. I didn’t want too many of those, because I...
At one level of description, everything that happens is extremely unlikely. So many other things could have happened, but didn’t. At another level, because it happened, everything seems to have been inevitable. I have seen several versions of a line of reasoning that goes something like this: the conditions required...
