Porque Ando de Ônibus: Because I Ride the Bus, Part 3

Finally this morning, I had a chance to talk with the guy with the curly hair on the bus. He explained it was his brother who was involved with the international exchange students to support English as a Second Language. He surprised me in that he was not a former missionary who had served in Brazil, but he learned his Portuguese by living there when his dad was in the Foreign Service. They lived for for a time in Porto Alegre where I served my mission. I asked when, and it was the same period of time I was there! It sparked a memory that I had actually met his dad! There was an LDS guy in the American Consulate. I recalled sitting down in his office and talking about his work and family life living in a foreign country. The memory came to me rather vividly even as I recalled I had not recorded it in my missionary journal or letters.

My new friend explained that at that time he was in the eighth grade in an international school that was run by some US Citizen hiding out from the IRS. It wasn't a very good situation for education so his dad got himself transferred to Brasilia where they had much better international schools. My friend graduated from high school there.

Guess Who Came to Dinner?

We had a wonderful evening last night with the future in-laws of my son who is engaged to be married in May. He and his fiancé are a great match for each other. Her parents and brother and sister are great people too. We felt an instant connection with many shared life experiences--even knowing some of the same people as the mom grew up just a few blocks from our present home.

Cultural Mormonism can be interesting because there are so many things in common with people you may have never met before. And while a clear sub-culture of its own, it is not homogeneous. There are many varieties of belief and practice and life-style. And there are a lot of Mormon families I wouldn't feel the same level of comfort with my son marrying one of their daughters.

Passionately Moderate Marathon Weight Loss: Eating, Right?

In honor of running six miles yesterday (!!) up and back City Creek, finishing strong, and finding my mojo again, I celebrate with this. As sort of an appendix to my Marathon Story that starts here, I thought it might be of benefit to document the significant weight loss that resulted and how. So climb into the Way-Back Machine with me and set the dial to 2001: 

Checking myself out with the doctor, I got all the middle-aged male tests. Then the results came back. The cholesterol problem had been ignored for a few years, but the blood tests showed my cholesterol at 295 and my triglycerides at 400. That’s not good. Normal range for cholesterol is supposed to be under 200. Some people are down below 100. 200 to 240 is considered moderate risk. 240 plus is high risk. My scores were so high on the bad cholesterol that the lab wouldn't do the ratio calculation between bad and good cholesterol.

One Small Step for Newt: A Giant Leap for Mittkind

Congrats to Mitt Romney with a little assist from Wolf Blitzer last night for standing up to the school-yard bully. I didn't watch but picked up enough news reports and video clips to see that Mitt came well prepared for some good, and deserved, attack lines on the newt. It doesn't mean I will likely support Mitt as I still like the old Mitt who was Governor of Massachusetts and his dad even better, but I was glad to see him help the newt destroy himself.

The newt did himself no favors in letting his grandiosity get the better of him as he pandered to the Florida Space Ghost Coast about establishing a colony on the Moon and even getting it to statehood. (Hail, Hail, Newtonia!) I think that was actually the turning point for the newt's demise. But credit to Mitt for the well-rehearsed line in response to the newt's garbage about free-enterprise building the moon base. He said that if anyone had come to propose such a scheme to him, Mitt, the successful capitalist borrowing a line from the donald would say, "You're FIRED!"

Crushing the Aristocracy of Corporations - The Jeffersonian/Rooseveltian Way

Inspired by this quote passed along through Facebook:

I did find reliable provenance in a letter of Jefferson to George Logan, November 12, 1816.

SOTU Live-blogging!

We're going to give this another try. The Republican Debates are getting so painful. I hope the President is in good form tonight. And for heaven's sake, I hope he doesn't try to redistribute the wealth!

What he does need to do is to call the bluffs and collect the political high ground. Promote a fair playing field and opportunity for all. Challenge the Congress to reform the tax code. He needs to explain that it's not about "spreading around the wealth" or any other catch phrases the newtists will pounce on  to accuse him of African Mau-Mau Alinskyism. I much prefer Romney, in his more civilized way, accusing the President of being "European." Although I'm not sure that French-speaking Romney means that as a compliment either.

Republican Debate in Tampa (LIVE BLOGGING sorta)

Back late from getting my boy and neighbor kid back from a band practice. I have it linked up live on the internet because my family would rather watch "Cake Boss" than Republicans yelling at each other.

I heard the newt explain that we should go to war against Iran because we didn't really want to go to war with Japan in 1941. I'm sorry, but this guy is the looniest historian ever.