B.S. Digest

When I was a 16 years old my parents paid for a scuba diving course for my brothers Trace and Luke, and me.  It was one of the coolest experiences I ever had.  Even in the swimming pool where we practiced diving, it just felt like an amazing and different world to be underwater and yet still be able to see clearly, to move up and down with so little effort, and most spectacularly, to be able to breath underwater!  Probably because of this experience and also coupled with my one time boy scout caving experience in the now infamous Nutty Putty caves, I have lately gotten into watching online videos of caving, and particularly underwater cave diving, tragedies and close calls.  Even all these years later, I remember our diving instructor telling us about the special training that is required to dive in caves.  I have learned several things from watching the videos I mentioned above.  First is that cave diving is the second most deadly sport in the world (base...

When I was in middle school, I had the great privilege of being able to go to the school with my cousin, Tyrell, who is a year older than I am.  Tyrell’s family is all boys and my family is all boys.  We were all about the same ages too.  We had great fun when we were growing up doing fun things that boys do like playing cops and robbers, playing steal the flag, playing football and basketball, climbing around the lumber yard at night, catching tadpoles and pollywogs, and all sorts of other great things.  His family moved a lot, so I was only in the same school as he and his brothers for a couple of years.  At that time, mosh pits were becoming a big thing.  Mostly they were popular at concerts (I think, how would I know, I never went to one).  A mosh pit—if you didn’t know—is a large group of people with the center cleared out and then a few people are put into the middle and pushed around like pinballs and they bounce, or are pushed, off the edges of...

Is a calorie a calorie no matter what form it comes in?   I used to believe to lose weight, one just had to eat less calories. It's a simple formula, right?     Calories in < Calories out = Weight loss Calories in > Calories out = Weight gain Calories in = Calories out = Weight stable This is what I was taught in medical school, as well as in undergrad for my nutritional science major.  Maybe differeing views were taught too, but this is what I had made up my mind to be already.   But i s this the truth?  The answer is, w ell, kind of.   I was reminded today of an experiment/study that Coca-Cola did. They compared two calorie-equivalent diets, one with Coca-Cola products and one without.   At the end of the study, the groups had equivalent weight changes.   So, in a strictly experimental environment, where all calories one eats are controlled, yes equal calories equals the same results in weight change or stability.   ...

We were out of town a few days ago staying with some friends. They had been making us delicious meals, and the wife and I wanted to return the favor. We decided to make sweet potato burritos which are a family favorite. We went to the local grocery store, which was organized differently than our grocery store back home, so it took longer than normal to find the ingredients we were after. The last thing we were looking for was a bottle of coconut aminos, which is a soy sauce substitute. I knew if we could find the Asian food section we could then find the soy sauce and the coconut aminos would be right next to them. The wife and I went up and down the 3-4 aisles that it could have been on and we couldn’t find the soy sauce. We checked the aisles a second time and still couldn’t find it. We were getting down to crunch time and dinner was already going to be late, so we decided to divide and conquer. We began looking at the aisles a third time. As luck would have it, I began looki...

  Beth Wynn Jacobson     My Mom, Beth Wynn Jacobson, was born on December 10, 1958 to David Bartee Jacobson and Nancy Thompson. She had one older sister named Blythe, who was also her “Irish twin.” Beth was the second child, and was followed by Joanna, Jill, Dathan, Danna, and Dayne.       She was a smart and quick worker. She graduated from high school 6 months early in California. She had a calico-colored quarter horse named Calico and loved to ride her in the rodeos doing pole bending and barrel racing. She once competed against her sister, Jill. Both of them rode Calico and tied for first place. As the contest was a draw they raced again, Calico running her 3rd and 4th race, but they tied again. They competed a 3rd time (Calico’s 5th and 6th races), but they tied again! They stopped there and just called it a draw. She kept Calico until Calico was put to sleep as she was, I believe, 35 years or so old at that point. Beth held Calico in her arms and...

     I can enjoy eating a salad with little or even no dressing.  I enjoy not having any salt on my food.  I enjoy eliminating all animal products (red meat, poultry, fish, cheese, milk, eggs, etc) from my diet.  In the end, I guess what I am saying is I enjoy eating food as fuel--eating to live, not living to eat.  With one exception: sweets.  I can do well if there are no sweets around--which I will admit I am the biggest offender of bringing sweets home from the store; reference: the chocolate and cookies and cream stuffed marshmallows plus graham crackers from Walmart last night.  So, the simplest thing is to do is not buy any sweets.  Sometimes I ask my wife to make a treat, and boy does she make some amazing chocolate chip cookies!   And it is difficult not to down the whole batch.  My oldest daughter has become an excellent baker as well!  That is an occasional problem at home.  The main problem is the candy at...