Power of Swimming on Mental Health

 https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/the-power-of-swimming-on-mental-health/

Athlete, psychiatrist, and Chief Medical Officer of Brightside Health, Dr. Mimi Winsberg, told me that while exercise in general stimulates the BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) — key ingredients in the health and growth of brain cells — swimming may actually outperform other forms of exercise.

“Swimming may be particularly good for our brains,” Winsberg wrote in an email. “In addition to enhancing sleep length and quality, it also seems to boost mood, reduce anxiety, and improve cognitive function. Animal studies have shown that swimming exerts these positive effects on mood both by stimulating the growth of new brain cells, and the neurochemicals they produce.”

 

Sara Anstis

https://www.contemporaryartissue.com/8-artists-to-watch-in-2026/ 

https://fabianlang.ch/armory-show

Broccoli

Broccoli is my favorite vegetable but the reheated leftovers are often bitter. 

Broccoli leftovers taste bitter primarily because glucosinolates (naturally occurring sulfur compounds) break down into sharp, pungent byproducts as the vegetable ages or sits in the fridge. Additionally, enzymes in the plant start to degrade, releasing strong flavors that are further intensified by oxidation. 

Understanding exactly why this happens can help you manage and even prevent that strong taste:

• Enzymatic Breakdown: When cooked and stored, the cellular structure of broccoli degrades. This process releases enzymes that convert glucosinolates into isothiocyanates and other sharp compounds that taste highly bitter to our receptors. 
• Oxidation & Spoilage: Storing cooked broccoli for more than 3–4 days or improperly sealing it causes oxidation. This causes a strong, sometimes sour or ammonia-like sulfur smell and taste.
• Genetic Sensitivity: Your own biology might be the final culprit. Roughly 75% of people inherit the TAS2R38 gene, which acts as a bitter taste receptor. If you have a dominant version of this gene, you are much more sensitive to these naturally occurring compounds. 

How to Prevent the Bitter Taste

• Quickly Blanch: If you are meal-prepping or freezing, quickly blanching broccoli in boiling salted water for 1–2 minutes, then shocking it in an ice bath, deactivates the enzymes that cause bitterness. 
• Proper Storage: Always store leftover broccoli in airtight glass containers or sealed bags to limit oxidation.
• Neutralize with Acid: If your reheated broccoli tastes a bit bitter, splash a little bit of lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar over it. The acid will help neutralize the bitter compounds on your palate.

The French City That Champions Its Trees In scenic Sceaux, a one-of-a-kind Tree Charter protects and nourishes the urban canopy as “a long-term investment.”

 Article

Think before you speak. Read before you think.

 Fran Leibowitz

The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.

 Fran Leibowitz

Life is something that happens when you can’t get to sleep.... I love sleep because it is both pleasant and safe to use. Pleasant because one is in the best possible company and safe because sleep is the consummate protection against the unseemliness that is the invariable consequence of being awake. What you don’t know won’t hurt you. Sleep is death without the responsibility.

Fran Leibowitz 

A book is not supposed to be a mirror. It’s supposed to be a door.

 Fran Leibowitz

As a teenager you are at the last stage in your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you.

 Fran Leibowitz

In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.

 Fran Leibowitz

In the Soviet Union, Capitalism triumphed over Communism. In this country, Capitalism triumphed over Democracy.

 Fran Lebowitz

 It’s always a thrilling risk to say exactly what you mean, to express exactly what you see.

— Patricia Hampl

We do not, after all, simply have experience; we are entrusted with it. We must do something – make something – with it. A story, we sense is the only possible habitation for the burden of our witnessing.

  — Patricia Hampl

Maybe being oneself is an acquired taste. For a writer it's a big deal to bow—or kneel or get knocked down—to the fact that you are going to write your own books and not somebody else's. Not even those books of the somebody else you thought it was your express business to spruce yourself up to be.

Patricia Hampl

To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom. Jiddu Krishnamurti

There’s a cost to the choice of loving work — and there’s honesty in admitting it can be worth it.

Joan Vennochi 

The zombies stagger up the driveway looking for their fix. Their dealer is holding office hours in a white Toyota Avalon in the neighborhood parking lot. The front fender is on the ground. Over the past three weeks a few emaciated women take turns sleeping in the car overnight pinning up a white sheet to block the morning sun. 

Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

Article

Choosing it Changes Everything

I play and keep playing because I choose to play. Even if it's not your ideal life, you can always choose it. No matter what your life is, choosing it changes everything. Andre Agassi, Open, an autobiography (p359)

you can feel completely despairing and hopeless and in over your head and lost and incompetent in the course of writing a book, but that doesn’t mean all those things are true.

 “I don’t think I could have worked on Fountain City for five years and generated as much material as I did if I didn’t have steady work habits. I think that if I learned anything, it’s that you can feel completely despairing and hopeless and in over your head and lost and incompetent in the course of writing a book, but that doesn’t mean all those things are true. You can fight your way through those periods to a new appreciation of what you’re doing and to a firmer grip on the material. If I had known that with Fountain City, I might have fought just a little longer to try to pull it together.” Michael Chabon