Feldman's Faves: July 29, 2024

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

The long anticipated Paris Olympics are underway and so far they have not disappointed. The buzz around Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh is palpable, Simone Biles return to the Olympics is inspiring and the US Men’s Basketball team should run away with Gold, assuming they can beat South Sudan.  But nobody can deny that the highlight of the games so far, is Snoop’s carrying of the torch. The only question I have is whether he was using performance enhancing drugs to do this job.

I hope all of you are looking forward to the upcoming long weekend. It’s been quite a busy summer so I nice break for everyone will be very nice. And the weather looks great.

Finally, please join me in wishing both Diarra and Janice each a very happy birthday (both celebrating – on the same day - later this week).

Today’s theme is sort of dealing with heat and hydration.

A Walk in the Park - By Kevin Fedarko – One of the best trips I ever took was in July 1999, when after finishing the New York Bar Exam, my dad and I took a week long cycling and hiking trip of Grand, Bryce and Zion Canyons.  This trip was epic – we would ride around 100 miles / day in hot, hot heat and then hike some pretty grueling terrain. I was certainly in much better shape those days but I am in awe that my dad (who was close to 60 at that time) was able to do everything as well (something to aspire to for sure). As epic as I believed this trip to I soon came to realize that our trip was the “Disney” or “Diet Coke” version of this kind of adventure. It felt challenging but, frankly it was nothing compared to what I have seen others do.  Kevin Fedarko’s experience that he describes in A Walk in the Park (a terrible misnomer, of course) is the true definition of epic. Fedarko was a guy who had spent time in his youth running river rapid tours in the Grand Canyon, which itself is something. But he was drawn to the idea of being one of the very few people to hike the entire distance and range of the park. So he and friend (with a lot of help from others) embarked on a journey that is a grueling and both mentally and physically challenging on a level that only very few people could only consider trying. In addition, that he was totally unprepared for what was in store, which led to a large number of disasters along the way for him and his team. Of course, the story ends with enormous personal victory and accomplishment along with a lot of self-knowledge acquired on his part.  The other interesting part of this book is there is a lot of history about the canyon, its flora and fauna and the tribes that have been there forever.  All in all a very interesting and terrifying story worth reading if this type of real life adventure is of interest. As one reviewer notes, “An immersive account of the challenges of a grueling 750-mile hike through the Grand Canyon. In the autumn of 2015, Fedarko, author of The Emerald Mile, and his frequent associate, photojournalist Pete McBride, headed out, with very little preparation, on the first leg of their journey on foot through the canyon—“a thing that fewer than two dozen people had ever done.” Fedarko, who had served as an unpaid apprentice on boat trips through the canyon for several seasons, knew the place from that point of view, but experiencing the dry and dangerous landscape and traveling without marked trails, on foot, was a different matter entirely, and the adventurous duo began the trip with “a conflation of willful ignorance, shoddy discipline, and outrageous hubris”—as well as about twice as much weight as they should have been carrying in their backpacks. Luckily, a series of expert local hikers volunteered to accompany them on several of the legs of their expedition, but even so, they went through more than a few near-death experiences from illness, dehydration, infection, slides on ice, falling rocks, lack of food, and other calamities. Fedarko expansively describes the journey—“a misguided odyssey through the heart of perhaps the harshest and least forgiving, but also the most breathtakingly gorgeous, landscape feature on earth”—with a combination of dry humor and horror, and he pays tribute to the spare beauty, grandeur, and silence of a place that few have seen, resulting in a memorable reading experience. Integrated into the memoir are maps, photos, accounts of earlier and contemporary hikers, explorations of the geology and biology of the region, interviews with Native Americans whose lands are adjacent to the canyon, and examinations of the many pressures from tourism and economic development faced by the park. Vivid armchair travel through a haunting and forbidding landscape.”   Last week when I was in Arizona I found it extremely challenging to walk outside for two minutes.  I’m pretty sure what Fedarko and team did in the Grand Canyon was even more difficult than that…. Here’s a good review from the NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/25/books/review/a-walk-in-the-park-kevin-fedarko.html

TED Talks Daily - Sunday Pick: How much water do you actually need a day? – Who among us have not been told that it is crucial to drink eight glasses of water per day as a basic foundational element of good health? I have always taken that guidance as a given and have done my very best to attempt to do this. But like with many things I do (as a result of my sheep like personality…) I don’t always ask myself why this is so important.  In this PODCAST we hear from Dr. Jen Gunter about what hydration really is, who we can get the hydration we actually need and what is really necessary for good health. Big shocker, I am a victim of some marketing of certain companies that have been pushing the hydration narrative in a way that may not be in line with how scientists best understand it. Here’s an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “Glowing skin, increased energy, higher mental function and weight loss: These are just a few of the benefits we have been promised for the low cost of 8 glasses of water a day. But can this magical elixir really do all that it claims? Dr. Jen Gunter takes us behind the fascinating (and scandalous) history of hydration pseudoscience, unpacks the investigative report that ROCKED the beverage industry, and sits down with a nephrologist who tells us what's fact and what's fiction about our kidneys. It will quench your thirst for the truth about hydration.” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ted-talks-daily/id160904630?i=1000662891163

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon