I like the blue jumpsuit.

That's image that sprang to mind for me as we were discussing this blue jumpsuit worn by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong at the Madison protest yesterday.

If you don't know who that is in the photo above, it's Jack Lalanne. Why did I know his jumpsuit was blue? I only ever watched him on black and white TV. His daytime show began in 1951 (the year I was born).

Are you reading all these instructions about assiduously overwashing fruits and vegetables and thinking, I'll just indulge my longterm desire not to eat fruits and vegetables?

I'm reading things like this: "Can washing produce help prevent cyclosporiasis? What experts recommend. The way you prepare produce may make a difference in your risk for the 'diarrhea parasite' that’s going around" (WaPo).

And I'm about to give up on fresh produce. I walk into Whole Foods, and the first experience is, of course, the very grand array of fruits and vegetables, but the news media has demanded that I see invisible filth permeating everything. If you knew there was cyclosporiasis — we can't just say "cyclosporiasis," because it's too hard a word, none of us idiots can be trusted to learn it, so we always need to hear the atrocious word "diarrhea" — if you knew there was cyclosporiasis on a vegetable or fruit you wouldn't even touch it. The issue of bringing it home and washing it to death wouldn't arise. But we are expected to view the entire array of fruits and vegetables as innocent enough to buy in the hope of eating but suspicious enough to plan to subject to some elaborate treatment.

From the article:

"In aiming for a vision of fitness that avoids overemphasis on masculinity, I gravitated away from influencers and biohackers toward strong artists..."

"... who had prioritized physical strength in their daily routines.... There is the cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who in her book 'The Secret to Superhuman Strength' could not talk about fitness without also talking about her private history of romantic relationships and the role exercise played in managing stress and quashing depression.... The novelist Laura van den Berg turned to boxing to combat destructive anxiety patterns.... And I spoke with the poet Hanif Abdurraqib about how running... was about stress relief and managing clinical depression... In a recent interview with Haruki Murakami, the singer Harry Styles credited Mr. Murakami’s book on running with freeing him 'from the idea that music had to be an unhealthy profession and I had to be this tortured soul.'... These artists weren’t going on about perfect blood panels or maximum efficiency or tracking immense protein intake. They cared about feeling alive in their bodies, sleeping well and having the stamina to do meaningful work.... Rather than follow the voice of one supposed strongman, rattling off advice, I learned to favor a chorus...."

Writes Sebastian Langdell, a professor of medieval literature, in "Men Need Better Fitness Role Models" (NYT).

Langdell is rejecting the "fitness bros." He names a few of them — Peter Attia, Tim Ferriss, Andrew Huberman — so aren't the bros, too, a "chorus"? The distinction is not between a "chorus" and "one supposed strongman" but between the practical rules you ought to follow to achieve better fitness and the psychological motivation to pursue it. I don't see why the "chorus" wouldn't include both voices. Even if you feel inspired by Harry and Haruki and Hanif to go running, you'd still want to know if running long or short and fast or slow is more beneficial to your body and your mind.

"In those two minutes, you ask yourself existential questions about what time even is, what a body even is, what a feeling even is."

"It’s just a sensation, right? But knowing that pain — and there is pain — is just a sensation does not help you right now because that took three seconds to figure out and you still have a wild wagon-train trip to California to go. Did you mention that there’s a man with a ukulele there? He appears to work for this cold-plunge outfit, and he is wearing that dumb hat and quietly strumming — is that? — Leonard Cohen’s 'Hallelujah'? You love that song and have never enjoyed it less. Your hatred for this man only buys seven or eight more seconds, and as you cast your mind about, looking for something else to get you through, a strange thing happens...."

Writes Taffy Brodesser-Akner, in "I Survived a Cold Plunge and All I Got Was Everything I Ever Wanted/I resisted the trend until I couldn’t any longer" (NYT).

By the way, do you need a fancy cold plunge machine or a session at a cold plunge commercial establishment? Can't you just fill up your bathtub with water from the cold tap and maybe toss in the ice that's accumulated in the bin inside the refrigerator? That was a good question for Grok.

Not obese.

"The 6-foot-3 president weighs 238 pounds, having gained 14 pounds since his physical last year — meaning he is technically 'overweight' and is about 1.6 pounds shy of being classified as 'obese,' according to body mass index calculations. Trump was encouraged to increase his physical activity and pursue continued weight loss, according to the report."

From "Trump’s doctor says he is in ‘excellent health’ after latest checkup/While the president’s medical report says he remains fit to serve, independent physicians have raised questions about the recurrent bruises on his hands and swelling in his legs" (WaPo).

Trump's sunny summary: "Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY."

Why did The Washington Post put "overweight" in quotes and modify it with "technically"? He's simply and straightforwardly overweight. And that's not perfect. Can we get Bobby Kennedy over here for a second opinion?

See "RFK Jr dares governor of America's fattest state to do regular public weigh-ins/'You look like you ate Governor Morrisey,' RFK said on Friday" (Fox News, March 29, 2025).

"AJ Jasper, 40, has been struggling with anorexia for about 30 years. Three years ago, at a time when he was a healthy weight, he relapsed after purchasing GLP-1s..."

"... from various apps without ever seeing a doctor. Using multiple drugs at once, he dropped 50 pounds within three to four months. 'The apps make it frighteningly easy. It is like anorexic heroin to my brain chemistry,' said Jasper, a social worker in Chicago. This past winter, he went into triple organ failure — his kidneys, liver and heart were all affected — leaving him too weak to walk or even turn in bed at times...."

From "People with eating disorders are taking GLP-1s and doctors are alarmed/Providers said some patients with anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorders are taking GLP-1 drugs" (WaPo).

"The Trump administration’s spotlight on testosterone and its increasing availability through online clinics come at a time when exaggerated, uncompromising, even aggressive masculinity is in vogue..."

"... in Hollywood and online in the so-called manosphere. Wildly popular figures like Joe Rogan and Andrew Huberman have spoken about their own use of T.R.T., framing it as a medical treatment for aging. But many influencers go much further, amplifying the message that being 'low T' is synonymous with low status, weakness and sexual inadequacy — and often profiting off promotional links to T.R.T. clinics, or even starting their own. That message seems to be reaching younger men in particular. Clavicular, the 20-year-old streamer who popularized the 'looksmaxxing' subculture, which casts the relentless pursuit of physical attractiveness as the clearest route to social capital, has said that he started using testosterone at age 14 to achieve 'a more dimorphic look.'..."

From "Why So Many Men Are Obsessed With Testosterone/From the Trump administration to online influencers, the hormone is increasingly seen as the key to achieving a new male ideal" (NYT)(gift link).

"Certain pro-meat influencers even treat plants as hostile combatants. 'Plants are trying to kill you'..."

"... the influencer Anthony Chaffee says, repeatedly. Chaffee, who received his bachelor’s degree in medicine, surgery and obstetrics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, has compared the long-term health risks of eating salad to smoking cigarettes. Kennedy hasn’t gone that far, though at the Annual Meat Conference, he denigrated vegetables. 'Most plants do not have the complete chain of amino acids that we need,' he said."

From "The Dogma of Meat/From Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s food pyramid to online influencers, beef has become more than just a source of protein" (NYT).

The Times doesn't elaborate the anti-plant argument, so it just sounds kooky, but what's the argument? Something about plants producing chemicals to ward off the creatures that would eat them? That was my guess, and, looking it up, I see that's the argument. To quote Grok: "Plants can’t run away or fight back, so they manufacture hundreds of different secondary metabolites (natural pesticides and toxins) as a defense strategy.

"Getting sun exposure within one hour of waking up can have a powerful effect on your sleep later that night..."

"The light suppresses hormones that make you sleepy and shifts your body into wake mode, setting you up to be tired again by bedtime.... Ideally, we’d all get out in the sun for an hour every morning.... 'Ten minutes is better than zero minutes'... even if it’s cloudy."

That's #1 out of "6 Daytime Habits for Better Sleep/Experts say a great night’s rest starts as soon as you wake up" (NYT).

#5 of the 6 habits is "Wake up at the same time every day." The article treats "time" as a number on the clock. You'd think right after the "leap forward" they'd be more attuned to the reality of the sunlight and say what I assume they intended to mean: Rise consistently with the sun.

Get up and get out and do your sun exposure with the sunrise. Make it a sunrise walk (or run) and you'll take care of #6 on this list: Exercise. 

I know I'm biased because this is what I do, but I don't know why everyone doesn't at least experiment with getting up and out to do a sunrise walk or run. Were you born a night owl — a permanent night owl?

"It's about what happens when you let athletes be themselves and put their own joy first..."

Explaining the Alysa Liu story:

"If you use chopsticks to pick up apple slices, begin the day with hot water and goji berries before meandering down to a nearby park for a dose of t’ai chi..."

"... there’s a chance that this is a 'very Chinese' time in your life. If you’re under 30, you won’t be the only one. One of the more unusual cultural trends to sweep Gen Z recently has been among TikTok users who share wellness tips typically associated with China.... Chinamaxxing, as the social media trend is known, is all the rage in the US...."

From "I taught America how to be Chinese, says 23-year-old TikTok star/Gen Z is mastering chopsticks and t’ai chi, thanks to Sherry Zhu from New Jersey" (London Times).

You can sample the TikToks of Sherry Zhu here. I'll embed 2 of them:

1. "You didn't know it, but you are Chinese."

"Private equity firms are making vast profits from investing in ADHD clinics which provide assessment and treatment for tens of thousands of NHS patients."

"The NHS has become dependent on privately-run services to diagnose ADHD and autism, leading to an 'exponential' growth in ADHD spending which is 'blowing NHS budgets.' More than half a million people in England are on NHS waiting lists for ADHD assessments. Under an initiative called Right to Choose, they have a legal right to get assessed privately and the NHS will pick up the bill. This has led to a proliferation of private providers, several of which have attracted private equity investors looking to generate quick profit."

From "How ADHD became a multimillion-pound industry for private equity/NHS has become dependent on privately run services to diagnose ADHD and autism as patients given legal right to assessments under Right to Choose initiative" (London Times).

"I fell into an oceanic unconsciousness — did a high dive into eternity, circled the solar system infinite times, breathed the breath of my ancestors, became everything and nothing...."

"Eons later, I was reborn. I opened my eyes onto a new world. I would not have been surprised to have discovered myself cradled in my mother’s arms, unable to speak, ready to start my whole life over. Or to find that I had grown a long white beard and that everyone I knew was dead, including the gastroenterologist and his staff, and to have been informed (by the A.I. robots monitoring me) that I was actually the last surviving human being. Instead, I opened my eyes to see a nurse wheeling me into a recovery room. My brain fumbled for a few seconds until it rediscovered a scrap of human language. 'How long was I out?' I asked...."

Writes Sam Anderson in "Want Nirvana? Try a Colonoscopy. It turns out that despite everything you’ve heard, getting a colonoscopy is wonderful" (NYT).

"For people who make and sell beef tallow, a golden age has dawned. Consumers spent $9.9 million on food-grade beef tallow in 2025...."

"Jars of it landed on the shelves of Costco this year, and big retailers like Walmart and Target sell it. Fat Brothers beef tallow sells for almost $20 for 14 ounces on Amazon, and business is brisk... Jenni Harris is a fifth-generation rancher whose father in the late 1990s transformed their small conventional cattle feeding operation in South Georgia to an organic one where cows are raised on pasture. She remembers a time when they had no market for the fat from the animals they slaughtered. 'We damn near gave it away' she said...."

From "Beef Tallow, Long a Health Pariah, Rises to the Top of the Food Pyramid/The new dietary guidelines give federal approval to a fat that has slowly caught on with consumers, even as doctors have warned against it" (NYT).

Have you made the transition from seed oils to beef tallow? Or do you think butter is tracking the new food pyramid well enough? Or do you think this new fat advice is just crazy?

I'm reading the comments over there, including: "The man is barefoot as he stands next to a vat of hot oil while removing a drippy bird. What can go wrong?" And: "Anyone that works over a vat of 400 degree oil barefoot shouldnt be in charge of anything safety-related be it food, drugs, or healthcare."

They're responding to this photo, which is taken from RFK Jr.'s own social media:

And I like the NYT's correction at the bottom: "An earlier version of this article misstated how much consumers spent on beef tallow in 2025. It was $9.9 million, not $900 million." That's kind of a never mind correction. They wrote this whole article about the hot new business that is beef tallow and then it turned out to be on 1.1% of what they thought it was!

What's worse, the Secretary of Health's risky approach to home cooking or The New York Times's embarrassing and extreme botching of the dollar amount as it conducts its supposedly professional journalism?

And by the way, while RFK's feet deserve some attention, a lot of us are noticing his torso. He's 71 years old, and look at him. And he's eating beef tallow.

"'Inflammation' captures the visceral sense that something in our body isn’t working as well as it should."

"It’s the perfect scapegoat for that creeping feeling so many of us have that our modern world — with our phone addictions and plastic-filled kitchens and pantries stocked with ultraprocessed foods — is slowly poisoning us. For as much as influencers love to talk about inflammation, I had no idea how to picture it. When I ate bread, I imagined my gut swollen and angry. I wondered if a sudden rash on my chin was really a sign that my entire immune system was out of whack. I considered how bad things would have to get for me to give up tomatoes.... One dietitian I spoke to pointed out that, technically, the act of eating anything is inflammatory. In fact, even exercise causes inflammation. When you lift weights, you cause little tears to the muscle that have to be repaired; that process is what grows the muscle. In other words, the inflammation is kind of the point.... Perhaps the only thing that became clear to me was that inflammation is an inevitable part of being alive...."

From "How Inflammation Took Over the Internet/Influencers constantly talk about how to avoid it. But no one quite seems to agree on what it is" (New York Magazine).

"This is what it means to be a disruptor. They will try to discredit you. They will lie about you. They will attempt to silence what they don’t understand."

Writes Emilee Saldaya of The Free Birth Society, quoted by The Guardian in "Five key findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society."

The Guardian tells us: "The Free Birth Society (FBS) is a business run from North Carolina that promotes the idea of women giving birth without midwives or doctors present. It is led by Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris-Clark, ex-doulas turned social media influences...."

Here's the rest of the FBS statement, on Instagram. Highlights:

When you challenge the status quo, it pushes back. 

Peddling propaganda on mainstream news channels is nothing new....
The [Free Birth Society] message is simple:

• We make our own decisions.
• Birth is a normal biological process.
• We have the right to enact our own biology, even in a culture that shames it.
• Freebirth is ours to choose or not choose....

This moment is not a battle; it’s a mirror. A collective reckoning about birth, power, and spirituality.

The eternal dance of darkness and light continues in infinite forms.

I am not afraid of the shadows.
They reveal what needs to be seen.

And so, we continue
because the work is meaningful.
Because it is needed.
Because women deserve better than the narrative they’ve inherited....

"It is... really important we don’t accidentally create body dysmorphia-style messaging and an unnecessary ‘fixing’ culture too early."

"Children should not be preoccupied with skincare. Their skin is already biologically excellent. Our job is just to protect it."

Said Dr Anjali Mahto, a dermatologist, quoted in "Actress faces criticism over ‘dystopian’ skincare brand for children/Shay Mitchell’s line sells products for youngsters aged three and older, which dermatologists say reflects a wider and concerning trend" (London Times).

Interesting phrase: "too early" (as if it's fine to have that body dysmorphia-style messaging and unnecessary ‘fixing’ culture later).

Another doctor, Amy Perkins, said:

"The president’s deals with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly... would appear to run counter to Mr. Kennedy’s longstanding hostility toward the weight loss drugs...."

"But neither he nor high-profile followers of the 'Make America Healthy Again' movement would be likely to risk seeming disloyal to Mr. Trump.... Mr. Kennedy was careful in the Oval Office to emphasize that obesity drugs were not a 'panacea' or a 'silver bullet.' He repeated his beliefs in ways of tackling the root causes of Americans’ ill health that include new dietary guidelines expected next month and a presidential council on physical fitness.... [In October 2024, Kennedy said] 'If we just gave good food, three meals a day, to every man, woman and child in our country, we could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight'.... The medications do carry side effects, most commonly gastrointestinal complaints that are rarely severe, as well as the hazards that come with losing a lot of weight through any means, like shedding muscle. And because these medications are relatively new, there is not yet data on what happens if people take them for decades. Speaking of Novo Nordisk’s product in February 2024, Mr. Kennedy said, 'The impacts of this drug are just terrible.... The moment you stop using it, you regain all the weight, and meanwhile your stomach’s been paralyzed.'"

From "Kennedy Walks a Tightrope on Trump Deal for Obesity Drugs/The weight loss medicines are proving to be a test case for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, in straddling divisions between his supporters and the president" (NYT).

In Trump's America, everyone will be thin and also constipated. What form will the greatness of Making America Great Again take if it is accomplished by thin, constipated people? I don't think it will be Trumpian — all the gold and the lavish decoration, the dancing and the good times. No, the America of the thin constipated people is pinched and bleak. I would rather see the culture that arises out of people who flourish through "good food, three meals a day."

How to stop fretting about the coming and going of Daylight Savings Time and live by the light not the clock.

I know you have appointments and work and social obligations and need to observe the time of the clock to some extent, but your waking and sleeping and much of the rest of what you do — eating, going out walking, chores, reading, napping, conversing, and generally being the human animal that you are — can and should be done according to the time of the sun, which doesn't leap forward and fall back in one hour chunks semiannually, but changes very slightly day by day.

The easiest adjustment you can make is to get up at dawn, which is about half an hour before the sunrise. I recommend getting out and about and really experiencing the early light. Lots of health benefits to that — circadian rhythms and so forth. There's nothing about your "o'clock" affairs that should stop you from doing that. Set your day by the sun. I've done that since 2019, and I didn't need to be retired to do it. 

Now, I've been designing an app in my head for a while. I wanted something that would display Sun Time next to clock time. It would know where I am located and display the clock time of dawn, sunrise, sunset, and dusk along with the passage of the sunlight over the course of the day. I pictured Sun Time as a percentage, with dawn at 0% and the end of dusk at 100%. So every day in Sun Time has an equal number of daylight gradations understood in terms of percentages even though the number of hours in clock time varies greatly over the course of the year and includes the brutal jumps when DST comes or goes. The Sun Time gradations are perfectly gentle — because they are tiny and because they put you in close touch with the natural world of sunlight.

I thought I could get A.I. to write the code for this app I had in mind, but I had the sense to ask first if there already was such an app. There are a few. I picked Sundial. It looks like this:

I would like to see the Sun Time percentages displayed on the dial, but you can see at the bottom right that I was 45.1% into today's daylight when I took the screenshot. I want to maximize my thinking in terms of that percentage, which, of course, ticks by faster in the winter than the summer. But that's good if you want to be adjusted to nature. You've got to hurry a bit to get out for a walk (or whatever) in the daylight, and it's cold, so you'll want to move fast. You've got a longer night in the winter, but confront it, full on, and make something of the dark.

I've had it with complaints about Daylight Savings Time. I have shown you the better way to live. Step into the Sun Time and don't go back.

I only have 3 months left before I fall off a cliff.

Here's this character Dr. Peter Attia, "an innovator in longevity medicine," platformed on "60 Minutes," declaring:

"At 75, both men and women fall off a cliff.... At the population level, it's unmistakable what happens at the age of 75."