Early Version

💬 rule number one: puns are avoided by careful use of 翻译 .

⚙️ the phrase "rule number one" should never be construed to imply that 卡只家 exist. This is agnostic to whether 卡只家 can never exist, or because 卡只家 can and do exist, and yet the rule here would not be considered "rule number one" in any of them.

This is a course in running. It is not a course in fitness.

🔥 Once you can run an hour in sixty minutes, you can join us.

💡 What do I mean by "run an hour"? That the first half-hour is at tempo, and the second half-hour is not much slower than the first.

There is a saying that "a bad craftsman blames his tools".

✨ a hostile accusation: tools so shabby that no craftsman could use them. it is a task of the craftsman to distinguish good tools from bad.

A bad teacher blames his pupils. The good teacher selects those who have the capacity to learn.

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In French, the phrase "red fruits" refers to berries.

⚔️ well actually, it is "fruits rouges"

In English, the phrase "red meat" refers to 牛，羊，猪肉。

💡 I use the phrase "red meat" to refer to any mammal flesh. Pork is sometimes considered a "white meat".

🤖 Red meat includes beef (from cattle), lamb (from sheep), pork (from pigs), and game meats like venison (from deer) and bison (from buffalo). White meat includes poultry, such as chicken and turkey, as well as rabbit meat and some fish (e.g., cod, haddock).

I have taken to not purchasing red meat for preparation at my household. Apart from the annual Paschal lamb, I do not particularly expect to miss it.

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The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.

L.P. Hartley, first line of The Go-Between

Today's missive: the 1999 Tour de France, as a single 3-hour film presentation. Check local listings.

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If you were to watch one stage of the Tour de France, stage 17 was the day.

⚙️ so I did. five straight hours.

With it, the triple header of training:

The problem with the rowing machine is that I can’t watch a screen while using the device.

💡 the second problem is that it has no Watt output meter.

🔥 The third problem is that I would feel much more comfortable in its stability if I weighed 10 公斤 less.

And, an inquiry from the floor: should whole milk consumption be encouraged?

9 And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue:

10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.

11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?

12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.

the Gospel According to Matthew, KJV translation, 12:9-12

📣 song cue: Christian Zeal and Activity, John C Adams

When I discussed the law to "cover thy head in public", I noted that it could not possibly apply to the cattle and the sheep.

For the observance of the Sabbath, it is more reasonable to extend the scope in that way.

🔥 we imagine pews full of sheep in barnyard churches

It used to be well-known that one must rest a draft animal. But today, we live in a world of 铁马 and 电驼.

⚙️ 铁马 (TIE3 MA3) - lit. "iron horse". 电驼 (DIAN4 TUO2) - lit. "electric camel". In context, referring to railroads and automobiles.

Six days shall you work, and the seventh shall be a day of rest.

💡 I'm not sure if "work" should be interpreted as 工作 or 干活 or 劳动 or some other phrase.

Perhaps it is simpler to comprehend what "work" means for the horse than it does for the 人. A 人 can work as a truck driver, or can work an animal. A 人 can work a room, or can work in a hospital.

🌎 we must remember the concept of the "Shabbas goy". It is work to turn on a light switch, and it is work to ask a 人 to turn on a light switch, but it is not work to hint about it to them.

Is it "work" to do what you love? Is it work to clean a soiled child? Is it more "work"-like to write with a pen or with chalk?

In the time of Jesus, the local Jewish authorities took a stricter view of the rules of the Sabbath. Today, even the ultra-orthodox agree that it is lawful to work on the Sabbath in order to save a human life.

💡 one of the benefits of a "blog" over a "newslettr" is that the minimum amount of information required per post is lower.

⚔️ well, actually, is that a benefit? surely to an author who has a word-count requirement it would be a benefit. but, perhaps, sometimes, "not writing" is better.

The Commonwealth Games may or may not be canceled.

Recently, the 2026 hosts (a variety of cities [other than Melbourne] in Victoria, Australia) decided to break their hosting contract. (ref) Now the question is: who will put up the billions of dollars to host the event?

🌎 it would be heresy to suggest that perhaps there is less of a market for international archery and table-tennis tournaments than certain egregores demand.

Perhaps the better question is: why is there a British Commonwealth? It was created as part of the process of decolonization. But that is ancient history now. Does it serve a purpose today other than creating expensive boondoggles of sport and politics?

🔥 it has the same purpose that the United Nations has: to puff up the importance of "small states", so they can be bought off by the US and China as "rotten boroughs"

💡 but perhaps we should ignore that as 鬼话. The real purpose must be the obvious one: an organization to improve relations between Britain and India. Canada and Australia are along for the ride. Everybody else is window dressing and legerdemain.

⚙️ 鬼话 (普通话 GUI3HUA4), literally "ghost words", translated as "nonsense".

Everything surrounding the Tour de France is kind of ridiculous.

💡 Why does one organize a three-week long bike race? For the attention. So, everybody becomes slightly surreal; a parody of their former self.

The paramount proponent of the theory of 米人大火 on the NBC-produced broadcast was Chris Horner. But he was unceremoniously relieved of his duties.

⚔️ well, actually, they probably did put on something of a ceremony ...

Now Horner can focus on his YouTube channel. Where his lexicon can diverge further from that of normal society.

This year, his new tic is to refer to his "chesterfield". Every day, he is sitting "on the chesterfield".

⚙️ "chesterfield" 不是内自行车，是沙发。

Horner's trademark insult is "knucklehead". But he uses it too often to refer to "any rider that demonstrates agency towards a secondary goal". As the schoolyard tyrants have always said: "I know you are, but what am I?"

Phil Liggett is still on the broadcasts, after nearly half a century.

💬 Phil Liggett is so old, during his first Tour as a broadcaster the riders didn't even wear helmets!

⚔️ well, actually: Phil Liggett's first year as a TV journalist was 1978. Helmets were not made completely mandatory in the Tour de France until 2003. Or 2005.

💡 there are conflicting reports. The confusion is caused by changes in which specific rule requires helmets. After the death of Andrey Kivilev in 2003, it became taboo to not wear a helmet; whether the rules prohibiting it might have had loopholes 是旧死了.

Phil Liggett has gone old. On a recent stage, he spent a good 15 seconds describing how the riders were going into a pitch-black tunnel, and that they would be unable to see until they reached the end. At that point, the camera angle changed, making the well-lit tunnel more visible.

Christian Van de Velde is still on the broadcast team. This year, he is banished to the back of the motorcycle.

💡 I would assume that, if one had the physical capacity to do both, one would much prefer riding the Tour on a bicycle.

Like most cyclists of the 1995-2010 timeframe, there is "suspicion of performance-enhancing drug use" in his past.

🔥 but perhaps, the 2020s are the decade of accepting "better living through chemistry". The preliminary indications are that the new generation of anti-obesity drugs (semaglutide etc.) do not have the harmful side-effects of previous drugs.

🌎 and one of the dark secrets of the "trans" movement is that, according to all accounts, hormones are intensely pleasurable, in the sense that a recreational drug would be.

I am leaving Substack.

💡 but not in the immediate register.

Their tools are clumsy and getting worse. They do not have "always schedule send" as a feature, or if they do, they have hidden it from me in my scans through "all of the settings".

It has been a sour week.

💡 that is not necessarily bad. A series of minor inconveniences, ultimately, is still only a minor inconvenience. But it does tend to leave one in a sour mood.

📣 a prayer: May all our inconveniences be minor.

⚙️ 我们现在表明祈祷和经怎么不一样.

🔥 the map is not the territory

In Euclid's Elements, there are "axioms" and "common notions".

Here, we note a different distinction, which shall become fully apparent later on. It is the distinction between laws and parables.

Today's parable:

The grocery store can reduce the cost of a cheesecake by 75%, but it can't reduce the calories by 75%.

There is no 智慧 in that statement. It is almighty logic. The doubting schoolboy should not be asked to 相信 me, he should work it out for himself.

⚙️ 智慧 (普通话 ZHI4 HUI4) meaning wisdom, particularly as acquired through experience. 相信 (普通话 XIANG1 XIN1) meaning believe.