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Archive for the ‘paterfamilias’ Category

A dirty little secret stains the neat homes that lurk behind the tree-lined streets and across the manicured lawns of suburbia: those little nail clippers you picked up at the Walgreens for $3.99 will never cut through a man’s gnarled, oaken toe nails.

They’ll make little cuts in it, they’ll promise and fail to deliver, they’ll even break apart in ashen resignation to the formidable power of the nail.

Those cheap little metal gizmos were made to sell on promise alone. You need a nail clipper that was not designed by the bean counters and the marketing wizards, but by the car guys … I mean … the toenail engineers.

That would be the Seki Edge. (more…)

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On balance, it’s probably a good thing that the Historical Guy who decided we should be clean shaven was handed that decision. Otherwise, he might have got himself up to some even more lethal project.

As things stand now, a man’s face is one of life’s great hostile environments, what with the scraping we do every morning and the stressing throughout the day. The surface of Mars beats us out only by a few toxic gases and we’re occasionally capable of giving even that one a run for its money. (more…)

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Two or three years ago, my eldest son and longest arrow began to obsess on getting a motorcyle. It seemed to his mother and me a very bad idea.

Then, in a crystalline moment of letting go, of grace, of letting life happen, it occured to me that there was a better way than resisting the river’s flow. Why not join him and make it a male-bonding hobby?

Thus did I begin to obsess on getting a motorcyle. (more…)

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My job makes sure that I spend lots and lots of time in my car. I need three things in order to make that a good thing: great music, good directions, and reliable hands-off phone service.

My 2004 Passat W8 has excellent sound but lacks built-in satellite radio. I’ve installed a Sirius receiver, a Magellan GPS, and a Parrot Bluetooth phone service. That adds up to some serious clutter and a spiderweb of cables. (more…)

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This year I initiated an HSA with a high deductible insurance policy and an FSA. I threw myself into this particular lunacy on the grounds of liking the idea of people taking responsibilty for something that costs society (you ‘n me) as much as medical care does. I’m still glad I did, but man does it get complex! (more…)

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Publications like Bicycling practically define narrow-casting. Aimed at a modest population that throbs with interest in their shared pursuit, a magazine like this one has to meet elevated expectations and yet recruit enough advertisers to pay the bottom line and maintain an accessible price.

The result is almost doomed to be something of a hybrid. (more…)

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Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

‘Eat up!’, the diet doctor might say. That’s the point of this short introduction to the diet regimen that Dr. Agatston-a heart surgeon-stumbled upon while trying to figure out how to help his patients enjoy healthier hearts. When he discovered that the plan worked for people whose main concern-unlike their cardiac surgeons-was to lose weight, he produced this rarity, a diet book that treats its readers with respect and makes the assumption we want to know how things work. Including our bodies. (more…)

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Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

With all the passion but none of the overbearing noise of the ex-smoker, the formerly indebted-up-to-her-eyeballs Mary Hunt dispenses not just advice, but a combination of encouragement and practicality to those who are being eaten alive by the modern scourge we call consumer debt. (more…)

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Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

This book is best used after working through one or two more generic workflow systems like David Allen’s Getting Things Done and Sally McGhee’s Take Back Your Life! The reason is that Linenberger’s approach tends to assume mastery of those core skills and then take its reader deeper into somewhat technical aspects of Outlook’s impressive capabilities. (more…)

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Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

Harley Pasternak thinks you can stay fit on 25 minutes per day and he backs up his confidence with quotes from celebrities who say he’s right. Halle Berry leading the list of enthusiasts. This reviewer thinks most of us lack the genes and the circumstances to manage that. Still, I think Pasternak’s program is a great supplement to gym-based fitness disciplines. I travel half the time and take 5-Factor Fitness on the road. This works if you stay in a hotels that have a cardio machine (stationary bike, treadmill) and a set of dumbbells and will actually go there before settling into ESPN and your in-room minibar. Perhaps G.P. Putnam’s Sons should work out a strategic alliance with the Gideons. (more…)

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