General

Just in time for peak wedding season (imagine that!) FitnessMagazine.com has launched a "bridal boot camp" that includes workout videos, targeted workouts, and a 20-minute circuit workout for buff brides.

Brides want to look great on their wedding day, a worthy and understandable goal. But muscling up before the wedding also has a utilitarian purpose—the buff bride is prepared to take charge when it obliges her fancy:

My DI women's bracket for one thing. I don't as a rule pick many upsets, but I invariably succumb to temptation and pick one or two. Well, of course there were upsets this weekend. But none that did me any good. For instance, I picked Virginia (5) over Green Bay (12). Green Bay pulled off the upset yesterday. Not the end of the world, since no doubt that one caught more than a few by surprise. But my problems were made worse by my picking Lehigh (13) to upset Iowa St. (4). Didn't happen. Thus I'm completely out of tomorrow night's matchup between Green Bay and Iowa St.

So much for my bracket, my little lonely trifles.

Unless you are reading this blog for the first time, you know that I hold politicians (and our increasingly servile citizenry, who seem incapable of thinking or acting on their own to solve problems) in fairly low esteem; not that political shenanigans aren't sometimes amusing to watch. But the year-long health-care debate that (perhaps) ended with a vote last night takes the cake. Too much even for me.

Astonishing were the lies and corruption so clearly on display; worse still, the impudence with which it was all done (Ways to Become a Banana Republic 101). What further damage will come from this latest round of lies and irresponsible promises remains to be seen. But maybe, just maybe, after having had an unfiltered whiff of the miasma in Washington, people will not be quite as gullible from now on. Politics is about power, and it's played best by megalomaniacs. End of story. Remember that the next time you hear a politician saying that he or she is "fighting for you."

Congress consists of one third, more or less, scoundrels; two thirds, more or less, idiots; and three thirds, more or less, poltroons.
—H.L. Mencken

The music of North America owes a tremendous debt to Irish (and Scottish) music: country and folk, obviously, but later the "hillbilly" in rockabilly, one of rock-n-roll's foundational music forms. You will see, hear, and feel this connection in a moment, thanks to an extraordinary musician, indeed one of the world's best: Máiréad Nesbitt.

Nesbitt has an athletic performance style that at moments leaves one wondering if she isn't a world-class athlete too. (Ah, you weren't quite sure how I would tie this in, were you?) Such is the case seen here in a performance of "Granuaile's Dance" (possibly a tribute to Gráinne Ní Mháille, another remarkable Irish woman).

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Today, International Women's Day, we honor women—something we should in fact do every day, without prodding.

Still, it's nice to have a special day to celebrate women. I was pleased to find this beautiful tribute created for the occasion: Women of the World ~ Divine Goddesses: