Archive for Sports & Recreation
November 19, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Technology & Computing, Clever Ideas, Sports & Recreation
When I first learned to drive, I learned on a car with a manual transmission. It never seemed especially difficult because that was what I got used to. In fact, the first time I had to drive an automatic, I remember being very confused. What was I supposed to do with my left foot? Do I not have to shift at all? And if it’s automatic, then what’s with all these different choices on the gearshift lever? I quickly got the idea, of course, but still preferred the increased control and responsiveness I got from making my own decisions about when to shift. It would therefore seem that I should have the same attitude about bicycles, which not only require manual shifting but typically have many more than four or five gears. But manual bicycle transmissions have always given me trouble, and I’ve frequently wished I could have the convenience […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
November 10, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Society & Culture, Sports & Recreation, History
I can’t remember when I first learned of the existence of piñatas, but it must have been at a very early age. Perhaps a kindergarten teacher was demonstrating papier-mâché and told us that people sometimes use it to make colorful candy jars that you can break open with a stick at a birthday party. There’s nothing about this concept that any kid wouldn’t appreciate. Candy: good. Party games: good. Wanton destruction of decorative objects with full parental consent: good. All in all, a great concept, and I always wondered why I didn’t get to have one at my birthday parties.
Then one day, I went to a friend’s birthday party and had my first and only hands-on experience with a piñata. In fact, “hands-on” is an exaggeration. Like each of the other children, I was blindfolded, spun around, and allowed three swings with a long stick in what I could only […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
September 12, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Mind & Body, Sports & Recreation
Most people who have heard of t’ai chi know it as a gentle, flowing set of movements that senior citizens do in the park on Sunday mornings. At first glance, it doesn’t even appear to be a martial art, in that each person is doing the same movements without coming in contact with anyone else, like some sort of slow-motion, silent line dance. The solo form, however, is just one aspect of t’ai chi. This sequence of postures is designed to strengthen the legs, improve posture, balance, and circulation, and teach the basic principles of shifting weight, relaxing, and remaining rooted. For all its benefits, though, this aspect of t’ai chi is just the beginning for serious practitioners. What many t’ai chi enthusiasts find most interesting about the art is a two-person exercise known as push hands (sometimes referred to as “pushing hands,” as it sounds more grammatical in English).
Resistance […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
July 28, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Mind & Body, Sports & Recreation
There’s nothing like a good action film, especially if it involves martial arts. Explosions and chases are all well and good, but I like kung fu better. I’ll eagerly watch Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, or even Keanu Reeves give the bad guys a whomping using no weapons other than physical skill and a sharp mind. In the real world, though, I find the best kung fu not in the flashy, Hollywood-friendly jumps and kicks, but in a discipline your grandmother may well practice: the slow, gentle movements of a martial art called t’ai chi ch’uan.
For a westerner, the first challenge in learning about a Chinese martial art is figuring out how to pronounce it. There are several systems for representing Chinese sounds using the Roman alphabet. These varying transliterations have led to numerous spellings (“tai chi chuan,” “t’ai chi ch’uan,” “taijiquan,” etc.) and pronunciations. I’ll leave the details for […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
April 2, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Sports & Recreation
With apologies and all due respect to my Canadian friends and relatives, I have never had the remotest interest in hockey. I’ve tried to watch it a few times, but always found it tedious and hard to follow. Even though the pace of the game is often frantic, there is typically a lot of time between goals, during which I can rarely tell where the puck actually is. Where confrontations between players seem to be the most exciting part of the game for many fans, I don’t enjoy watching people knock each other around. There is, however, another popular Canadian sport that involves sliding objects around on ice: curling. Unlike hockey, curling moves at a fairly slow pace and doesn’t require protective gear.
Stones Without Sticks
When I first heard a description of curling, it sounded too weird and dull to attract my interest. But the first time I saw curling on […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
September 21, 2007 at 10:00 am · Filed under Interesting Places, Sports & Recreation
Guest Article by Jillian Hardee
When I was young, my friends and their families would head out to the commercial beaches for their vacations. By “commercial beaches,” I mean the ones with oceanfront hotels, boardwalks, and a dizzying array of lights. My vacations, however, were quite different, as they were spent at Assateague, a 37-mile-long island off the coast of Maryland and Virginia. The island is owned by both states, and the state line divides it in two. Because it is a national seashore and wildlife refuge, buildings on this island are few and far between. Not a hotel, restaurant, or arcade can be found here. The beach offers a 360° view of the sea and sky, with nothing to mar the experience except for horseflies and kamikaze kites.
What do you mean there’s no boardwalk?
Assateague is a natural barrier island, so it is constantly battered by water and wind. Its topography […]
Original post by Jillian Hardee
August 1, 2007 at 10:00 am · Filed under Clever Ideas, Society & Culture, Sports & Recreation
Children, I have observed, seem to have an innate affinity for dirt. No matter how recently a parent has dressed the child in freshly laundered clothes, no matter how carefully the parent has attempted to keep the child geographically separated from any substance that might soil or stain, it is just not possible to keep a child clean for more than 60 seconds. I use the word “affinity” advisedly, because it implies not merely a liking, a preference, but a chemical attraction. Kids clearly have a talent for finding dirt, but also, dirt finds them. If you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about. Eventually, having spent a sum equivalent to your monthly grocery budget on moist towelettes, you give up on keeping the child perpetually clean and set a new, lower but potentially reachable standard of not-entirely-covered-with-mud.
Mud, of course, is that particular species of dirt that children seem […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
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