Author Archives: Rich Freggiaro

The full quote is “Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain”. It’s from the play by Friedrich Schiller titled Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans, as translated by Anna Swanwick). I remember the quote from reading Isaac Asimov’s novel 1972 novel The Gods Themselves. And no, I don’t carry all this aroundContinue reading “Contend In Vain”

Yesterday I had an appointment with my Family Care Physician. I like him well enough, but he spends more time looking at the computer screen with my medical data than he does looking at me. Everything was fine, except that the take home report said I was ‘overweight’. That kind of irritates me, since atContinue reading “Testing, Testing…One Line or Two?”

I said I would write about my recent trip to France/Andorra/ Spain, and here we go. If it gets a little too much ‘woe is me’ then just skip it. I promise to return to skewering pronoun nonsense or expressing outrage at student loan forgiveness or at being called a ‘semi fascist’ (moi? Non!) soon.Continue reading “My 15th Euro Trip: A Climb Too Far?”

I’ve just returned from my 15th (!) cycling trip to Europe. I can hardly believe it myself. I started in 2007, went back in 2012, and after my first trip with 44 | 5 Cycling Tours (https://www.445cyclingtours.com/) in 2014 I been back to ride with them every non-Covid year since. Some years I made twoContinue reading “Manejandores Muy Amables”

News today on all three fronts: Inflation: The CPI for July came in at 8.5% above July 2021. The stock market is excited because this was lower than expected, but I’m still getting sticker shock at the meat counter. If you had $1000 in your wallet in January 2020, it’s worth $883 today. Put anotherContinue reading “Intervals, Inflation, and Implants (Update)”

I try to take good care of myself, and so far through a combination of good luck and healthy living, I haven’t had any serious issues. My weight is fine, my blood work is really good (no statins for me) and with medication my blood pressure is under control. As my regular readers know, sometimesContinue reading “Intervals, Inflation, Implants: The I’s Have It”

First a little history lesson from just over one year ago: June 22, 2021 WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday responded to concerns from Republican lawmakers about spiking inflation by reiterating his view that current price increases will likely prove temporary. Consumer prices jumped 5% in May (2021) compared with aContinue reading “Sic Gloria ‘Transitory’ Mundi”

I’m sure Frank would like to add another word that starts with ‘F’ to the title, but he is too much of a gentleman to do so. The trouble started about 18 miles into the 4th of July club ride from Lodi to The Fruit Bowl. Fearless heeded a call of nature and ventured intoContinue reading “Fearless Frank Fiori’s Four Front Flats Fiasco”

Stealin’ Watermelons was a song by Elvin Bishop, whose albums were a regular feature of our Tuesday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday drinking club back in college. I still remember the lyrics to Travelin’ Shoes. Not politically correct…Somebody fetch my coat and hat, and hand me my walkin’ cane. I love watermelon. Cold and fresh and sweet and messy andContinue reading “Stealin’ Watermelons”

Thursday’s club ride drew a very small crowd. Only Bill (my France riding companion) and I showed up in Wallace. So we decided to do a route with a little more climbing and skip the coffee break and hopefully finish before it got too hot. Now despite my almost constantly saying what a weak riderContinue reading “Feeling the Heat”