Stephen Whitty of the Star-Ledger has posted an article over at NJ.com about one of my all-time favorite movie stars, Humphrey Bogart.
From the article:
Close your eyes and you can still see him.
The fedora, pulled low. The trench, belted tight. The shoulders hunched up, and the eyes squinting with suspicion. The right hand, with a bourbon in it, or a Chesterfield, or just pulling, ruminatively, at one ear.
Since I didn’t win the Mount Whitney Lottery this year, I’ve opted for a different goal. This goal is actually a series of goals, and will – in theory – help me to train better to get my fat ass into shape to conquer the formidable peak that Mount Whitney is.
There is a series of day hikes known as the SoCal Six Pack of Peaks.
The hikes are all day hikes, so – in theory – I should be able to drive out to the trailhead, throw on my Keens, grab my trekking poles, toss on my CamelBak, and go for a walk. In practice, these are all all-day hikes ranging in distance from 10.4 miles to 17.3 miles. Some have snow that sticks around ’til June, others are over exposed areas that you just don’t want to hike on during the hot summer months without bringing a water sherpa along with you.
I’ve done a bit of research, and think I can put the hikes in an order that will allow me to hike from ‘easiest’ (relatively speaking) to ‘hardest.’ None of the hikes is particularly easy (I’ve already done some of them; I’ve hiked San Jacinto several times, for example, which is supposed to be the most strenuous of the hikes – although only once up Marion Trail; I took the tram the rest of the time).
So. In order, here are the heavy-duty hikes I’m going to accomplish this year:
Thomas Leo “Tom” Clancy, Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist and historian best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, and for video games that bear his name for licensing and promotional purposes. Seventeen of his novels were bestsellers, and more than 100 million copies of his books are in print. His name was also a brand for similar movie scripts written by ghost writers and non-fiction books on military subjects. He was a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles and Vice Chairman of their Community Activities and Public Affairs committees.
“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”
Albert Einstein was born on this date in 1879. If he were alive today, he’d be really, really, really old.
I’m a chili snob. There. I said it. A little personal insight into the twisted mind of Shawn E. Bell.
For decades I’ve cooked chili, attended chili cook-offs, sampled great (and not so great) chili, and traveled wherever there was chili to be had. I’ve amassed hand-written notebooks and computer directories that are chock full of recipes for every kind of chili known to man. I’ve had quinoa chili, white chili, black bean chili, bison chili, squirrel chili, varmint chili, Texas chili, Cincinnati chili, con carne and straight chili. Chili from Pink’s, Tommy’s, Hemingway’s, Wienerschnitzel, and many other restaurants that touted this awesome food.
Wherever there is chili to be had, I am there.
