An official review of Unidentified Flying Objects, now called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena by the Pentagon, has been released.
The declassified report has stirred varied reactions because it is inconclusive on the key point, which is whether these objects are being operated by aliens from outer space and, if so, whether our government and others have hidden the truth from the rest of us.
Most disturbing is that the report fails to address the question of why an alien race with superior intelligence would spend hundreds of years and the equivalent of trillions of dollars sending interstellar vehicles to our planet instead of destroying it or taking it over as we might when encountering a species we considered inferior or inconsequential.
The obvious answer: Reality programming.
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Our own earliest interactions with different species are recorded on cave walls, much to the delight of viewing audiences on History Channel today. Imagine how delighted an advanced alien race, say on the distant planet Kepler-442b, might be watching the antics of our ancestors as they tried to figure out not only what spaceships were, but the simplest of scientific advances such as fire.
It’s obvious we would be an instant hit on the equivalent of the Comedy Channel on Kepler.
Haven’t we all spent hours watching our own scientists studying insects on a forest floor, monkeys in the wild or those sweet dolphins trying to communicate with a more intelligent human race.
Well, that’s what’s going on here.
I can imagine an alien race introducing a concept such as a sharpened stick. Just to see how we, these creatures here on Earth, might use it as tool.
For days, nothing happens. Then suddenly one of the creatures pokes another in the eye. To the horror of alien scientists, but to the joy of viewing audiences throughout galaxy and beyond, there is a massive escalation of violence as sticks on Earth are sharpened and turned into spears and arrows.
Seeking a better understanding of this behavior, the Kepler Education Channel then launches an expedition to track the movements and habits of the natives of Earth by inserting devices into their bodies.
These are completely painless procedures. Specimens are captured and beamed up to research vessels, where the tracking devices and tiny cameras are inserted.
Then, in an early experiment, giant rocks are dumped in an ancient field in a random pattern.
Hundreds of Earthlings gather round and begin to chant. Some begin to kill animals and place them on the rocks as a form of tribute. Getting no response, someone suggests bashing fellow tribal members in the head and hilarity ensues.
Kepler-442b soon undergoes something of a social evolution as ratings for its Education Channel triple and the demand for stories about the Earthlings surpasses every other type of programming, including its version of The Bachelor.
You can imagine animal rights groups on Kepler raising concerns about the mistreatment of less intelligent life forms and the masses ignoring their pleas, just as we do here on Earth.
Kepler TV producers next introduce a simple sphere into Earthling culture. This generates obsession bordering on madness as the Earthlings kick it into nets, throw it at each other at amazing rates of speed, and design machine tools to hit tiny balls into holes.
The Earthlings invent a prolate spheroid and violently bash into each other while wearing armor. They are filled with joy. They paint their faces in tribal colors and consume vast quantities of alcoholic beverages.
For reasons that baffle and mystify the viewers on Kepler, there are constant wars on the planet Earth. Humans of different shades of skin color murder each other for no obvious reason. Some humans murder each other in self-declared efforts to save the souls of their enemies.
A Kepler government committee determines that termination of the alien creatures is best for the salvation of Earth’s environment and other animal life forms nearing extinction, especially the panda bear, which is much beloved on Kepler-442B.
But there is a backlash. Loyal reality show viewers demand the Earthlings be spared because of their “entertainment value.”
Our antics remain an intergalactic sensation. And so, we survive.
Scarlett Johansson has had quite a bit of time to think about a ” Black Widow ” movie. After all, she’s played the character in seven movies spanning 10 years.
Yet unlike many of her fellow Avengers who got grand introductions in movies and sequels bearing their names on the marquee, she built the enigmatic Natasha Romanoff as a sideline scene stealer beginning with her introduction in 2010’s “Iron Man 2” through her exit in “Avengers: Endgame.”
By the time her name was called for a coveted standalone, she knew that, above all, she wanted Black Widow’s film to be unexpected. And as the first lead actor to serve as a producer on a Marvel film, she actually had a say.
The character, introduced in the comics in 1964, is inextricably tied to a Soviet-era spy aesthetic fitting of James Bond. But that seemed like the easy route.
“I didn’t want it to be an espionage film,” Johansson said. “I think we avoided that.”
Instead, “Black Widow” helps peel back the layers on a hard-to-grasp character, with a little bit of an origin story, a little bit of a coda and the introduction of people outside of the Avengers who mean something to her. Johansson also personally recruited Australian indie director Cate Shortland, another unexpected and inspired choice, to helm.
Marvel veteran Eric Pearson had the task of writing the script and took advantage of the fact that the character seemed to change and become more emotionally vulnerable between “Civil War” and “Infinity War”/”Endgame,” which is when “Black Widow” is set.
“We’re looking at what happened there,” Pearson said. “What happened when she went back and confronted her past that unlocked her heart and kind of opened her up to the world and eventually led her to make that all-time sacrifice at the end of ‘Endgame.'”
Part of that involved introducing a sort-of sister character in Yelena Belova, played as an adult by Florence Pugh, who also had the traumatic experience of being trained in the “Red Room” as a child.
This image released by Marvel Studios shows Scarlett Johansson (left) and Florence Pugh in a scene from “Black Widow.” AP
“Florence is so vibrant and interesting to watch that you think, ‘OK… there’s going to be life here,'” Johansson said.
Despite not really knowing one another beforehand, they quickly connected on set, partly due to a natural chemistry between the two and partly due to the extreme nature of filming a big budget action thriller.
“Our Day One was me throwing her against a cabinet and we both had our hands in each other’s armpits. And it was in that moment that I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I have a sweaty armpit. And Scarlett Johansson is touching me,'” Pugh said. “Once that ice is broken, you know, best mates. Weird first day, though, to start with.”
It was a fittingly epic endeavor, shooting over 87 days in London, Norway, Budapest, Morocco and Atlanta, with showstopping fights, motorcycle stunts, car chases and even a skydiving sequence. For Pugh, who is more known for slightly less spectacle driven films like “Midsommar” and “Little Women,” it was an eye-opening experience.
“It was just so impressive to see so many departments doing so many things. And you were completely involved into the process and the creating of it. And I just really appreciated how much you were expected to be there for the whole journey,” Pugh said. “It only made then waiting and watching the film a year later just even more exciting because you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, that took so many days to shoot and there we are flying through the air on a bike.'”
“Black Widow” has the distinction of being the first Marvel movie debuting day-and-date on a streaming platform, after being delayed over a year due to the pandemic. Like a handful of Disney releases over the past year, it’ll be available Friday in theaters globally and to rent on Disney+ for $30.
The film isn’t just a tribute and a goodbye to a beloved character, though. It also kicks off “Phase Four” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after an unplanned two-year gap in Marvel theatrical releases following “Avengers: Endgame” (and, technically, “Spider-Man: Far From Home.”)
The stakes for big budget Marvel movies are always high, but “Black Widow” will also be a litmus test not just because of the unconventional release strategy, but also as a gauge for audience interest in the cinematic juggernaut going forward.
After the 23-film build to “Endgame,” which currently holds the title of second-highest grossing film of all time after a re-release of “Avatar” during the pandemic, Marvel is going into unchartered territory with new characters in films like “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” set for September, and “Eternals” in November. But Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige isn’t stressing much about that. This new phase, he said, is one of “new beginnings” moving forward.
“Within our movies, there’s this big shared experience that all the characters had with this, what we call the blip. Now, in real life, we all, as human beings on earth, have had the shared experience of this pandemic, of this lockdown. So there is an interesting parallel that we’re that we were playing on in our stories,” he said. “It’s been two years since we’ve had a film in theaters and we are ready. I hope the fans are ready.”
Won’t stop on Chicago’s South Side where Republicans shot 104 people over the weekend.
The lucky Crystal Lake ice cream shop where Biden will stop?
No official word from the White House yet about which of about a half-dozen ice cream shops located in and around suburban Crystal Lake he’ll visit.
No official word that he’ll stop at an ice cream shop, but I’ll lay odds that he does, because that’s what Biden does.
Nothing against Crystal Lake, former home of the former outstanding Illinois legislator, Cal Skinner. But isn’t it, well, noteworthy that Biden chose to stop in the peaceful suburb some 35 miles northwest of Chicago rather than Chicago’s blood-soaked West or South sides.
Gang wars, revenge shootings, infants and kids killed and wounded in the crossfire. Police handcuffed and disrespected. Cops retiring without sufficient replacements. Structural violence.
And yet, unless I’m wrong, Biden will be shown licking an ice cream cone. Disgraceful. Rome burned while Nero fiddled. Chicago weeps while Biden licks. Perfect.
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For the one in six kids living with sensory processing disorder, finding clothes that are both comfortable and stylish is no small task. Fortunately, those kids — and the adults responsible for making sure they don’t run around naked in public — have River North mom Dina Lewis looking out for them. “Every morning used to start with a meltdown,” says Lewis, whose 9-year-old daughter refuses to wear socks, long sleeves, or pants that press too hard on her skin.
“So I said, ‘Let’s make something cool. Kick-ass kids’ clothes that are easy on the senses.’ ” Enter: Minor Details, a line of sensory-friendly, gender-neutral clothing that’s designed and tested by kids (check out the Scribble Tee, which looks like something Jackson Pollock could have sold for a million bucks). Each garment is tag-free and made with flat seams and ultrasoft fabric, which keeps itches to a minimum. For those who prefer loose-fitting clothes, the tie-dyed slouch pants offer plenty of leg room. Or if feeling snug is your kid’s thing, try out a comforting weighted cardigan with hidden interior pockets that Lewis points out are “perfect for a stash of raisins.” minordetailskids.com
I moved to Chicago from the south suburbs in 1986. I have diverse interests, but I love writing about what I’m interested in. Whether it’s a personal interest or part of my career, the correct words to get the idea across are important to me. I love words and languages — French and Scottish words enrich my American English. My career has included years as a journalist and years working in museums, and the two phases were united by telling stories. I’m serious about words and stories. So here I am, ready to tell stories about words and their languages.
July 6, 1971. Fifty years ago today, The Allman Brothers Band released their classic album “At Fillmore East.” At that time it was considered one of the greatest live albums ever recorded.
The main piece of controversy to the album was the length of some of the songs. Record executives felt that tunes such as “You Don’t Love Me” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” wouldn’t hold listeners interests because their running time was nineteen and thirteen minutes. Even worse was their legendary song “Whipping Post.” First released on their debut studio album, it ran for a little more than five minutes. On “At Fillmore East”, they stretched it out to twenty-two minutes and forty seconds.
The Allmans fought back against the record executives because they felt these live performances captured what they were as a band more than their previous studio recordings.
After lackluster sales of their first two albums, this was the recording that put the band on the map. “At Fillmore East” was the record that led to a more than four decade career as a recording and performing band. Sadly, it wasn’t long after the release of the album that guitarist Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident and the Fillmore East closed down. This live album captures both the artist and the venue at their best.
But back to “Whipping Post”….fifty years ago, most of us baby boomers who were listening to and buying this album were in our late-teens to mid-twenties. We cherished long tunes with multiple solos, featuring the different instrumentalists from a band. Staying with a twenty-plus minute song took some work, but often it was well worth the time invested.
Fifty years later, I don’t have anywhere close to the attention span that I did back in 1971. I haven’t heard the live version of “Whipping Post” in many years. I’m more likely to listen “Statesboro Blues” and “Trouble No More”, both of which clock in at under five minutes. I’m not sure I can deal with a song that last more than a third of an hour. It’s time to find out…..
I was hyped up for the first ten minutes. They lost me for a short time when the band slowed down the pace. Maybe they felt the audience needed a break because they knew the best was coming up. They wanted us to be all-in for that….and I was. For a five minute period, the guitars were soaring. I had my hands in the air and had a chill running through my chest. If this was the reaction you get listening to a YouTube video on a computer, you can only imagine what it felt to hear this band live, in their heyday.
So the answer to the question in the title is yes….even now the lengthy version of “Whipping Post” still rocks. It’s still a great song fifty years later. Maybe it’s not something you’d listen to every day, but there aren’t many songs in that category. And yes, the album “At Fillmore East” still sounds great. It still holds its spot as one of the best, if the not the greatest live album ever recorded.
Today, on its fiftieth anniversary, here’s to “At Fillmore East” and the Allman Brothers Band. May we tied to the whipping post for another fifty years.
My so called friends think it’s time to edit this section. After four years, they may be right, but don’t tell them that. I’ll deny it until they die!
I can’t believe I’ve been writing this blog for four years.
It started as a health/wellness thing and over the years has morphed to include so many things that I don’t know how to describe it anymore.
I really thought this was going to be the final year of the blog but then Donald Trump came along. It looks like we’re good for four more years..God help us all!
Oh yeah…the biographical stuff. I’m not 60 anymore. The rest you can read about in the blog.
Brotherhood, meet sisterhood. Those who know clarinetist, composer, and self-described “sonic archaeologist” Angel Bat Dawid from the incisive October release LIVE likely associate her with her stalwart seven-piece band, Tha Brotherhood, which backs her on that album. It was recorded during a fraught, frustrating 2019 European tour, but when the pandemic shuttered venues and stilled plane engines, Dawid turned her sights to more intimate musical ventures. So far they’ve included a duo act with galaxy-brained synth wizard Oui Ennui (cleverly christened Daoui), a one-shot spring 2021 release on Australian label Longform Editions, and, on Juneteenth, the astonishing Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1: Doxology, which in its scale comes as close to 2019’s single-handed The Oracle as anything in her discography thus far. During the same time span, she also convened Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty, a gorgeously generative trio with pianist-vocalist Anaiet Sivad (who makes music under her first name) and bassist Brooklynn Skye Scott. So far the trio have mostly streamed their performances (under the auspices of Chicago presenters Elastic Arts and Fulcrum Point, New York’s Kaufman Center, and others), and those online sets showcase a languid, sumptuous sound. Anaiet lays out a plush foundation behind the keyboard, and her velvety vocals make a satisfying foil to Dawid’s full-throated, huskier singing. Whether walking or riffing, Scott’s bass is dusky, alluring, and quietly probing. The Sistazz performed live at Oak Park art space Compound Yellow last month, and later this summer they’ll open for the Sun Ra Arkestra in Central Park. This Hideout show is the Sistazz’ first in-person-only outing in the city since COVID–if you catch them now, you can say you saw them before all New York’s jazz cats knew their name. v
In the deadliest and most violent weekend this year in Chicago, over 100 people were shot over the long Fourth of July weekend, 19 of them killed.
Among the wounded were at least 13 children and two Chicago police supervisors. Five of the kids were shot within nine hours Sunday evening through early Monday.
Both the number of fatal shootings and the number of shootings overall are highs for 2021, according to a Chicago Sun-Times database of shootings.
Through July 4, the most recent city data available, 2,019 people have been shot in Chicago this year, an increase of almost 13 percent compared to the year before, and a 58 percent increase in shootings compared with 2019.
In one of the weekend attacks, a 15-year-old boy was critically hurt in a drive-by shooting Monday evening at 5:50 p.m. when a dark-colored car drove by and someone from inside pulled out a gun and fired shots in the 6600 block of South Langley Avenue in Woodlawn, police said.
About a half-hour earlier, a 48-year-old was arguing with a person in a home about 5:20 p.m. in the 8600 block of South Aberdeen Street when he was shot and killed, police said.
That followed an attack when two people were killed and four wounded, including a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy in Washington Park on the South Side.
That happened around the same time that a 6-year-old girl and a woman were shot in West Pullman and about four hours after an 11-year-old boy and a man were shot in Brainerd on the South Side. And late Sunday afternoon, a 5-year-old girl was shot in a leg, also in West Pullman.
The Washington Park shooting happened around 1:05 a.m. Monday in the 6100 block of South Wabash Avenue, where a large group of kids and adults gathered outside in a parking lot outside an apartment building to socialize and light off fireworks. Someone inside a car that drove by a group of people there started shooting, according to the police.
A 21-year-old man, shot twice in the head, and a 26-year-old man, shot in the torso, were pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
The 12-year-old was struck in the buttocks and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, according to the police, who said the 13-year-old was shot in a hand and also taken to Comer to be treated.
A woman, 29, was struck in the elbow and taken to the hospital in good condition, and the sixth victim, a 34-year-old woman, suffered two graze wounds, according to the police.
“I wish that whatever this madness is going on, I wish that it would stop,” said Toni Watkins, who lives in an apartment complex that overlooks the parking lot where the shooting was and has lived in the area for seven years. “Usually, I feel safe around here. But now this has me questioning it because it’s close to home right now.”
Blood stains the parking lot next to an apartment building in the 6100 block of South Wabash Avenue where six people were shot, two of them fatally.Brian Rich / Sun-Times
She said she’s fearful for her own 16-year-old daughter.
“I tell her every day, ‘If you’re going out or going to work, please be careful, and come back home to me. Stay away from those knuckleheads,’ ” Watkins said.
Watkins said she cried when she heard about an earlier shooting in which a 1-month-old baby was shot last week while in a car. She said she’s distraught over kids being shot: “They didn’t ask to be hurt. I just pray and hope that the kids are OK that got hurt.”
The parking lot next to an apartment building in the 6100 block of South Wabash Avenue where six people were shot, two of them killed.Brian Rich / Sun-Times
Several people who live near the parking lot where the shootings happened said groups of 100 or more people often gather there.
A 27-year-old man who said he has lived on that block for 15 years said that “street beefs” mean “everything revolves around retaliation.” But what he said he can’t understand is, “You see a whole bunch of kids, something should click in your head saying not to shoot.”
Shelley Childs recently moved with her 9-year-old son into a lower-level apartment that overlooks the parking lot.
“We’re sitting up there, having a good time, enjoying ourselves, celebrating Fourth of July, and you’re out [there] plotting to kill people,” Childs said of whoever was behind the shootings. “That’s why I’m getting my son and myself away.”
Childs, 25, said she had left the neighborhood Sunday, and, “Something told me don’t come home, it’s so crazy.”
Childs said the violence is “becoming normal.” She said someone was shot and killed about a month ago outside her mother’s house in Hyde Park.
“I saw the body,” her son said.
The 9-year-old said that he tried “to stay calm, think of something else and think of something peaceful.”
“It’s scary,” said his mother, who’s working toward a nursing degree. “I feel like I need to carry a gun, and I don’t want to. But it’s been a trend of kids and women being shot more and more and more around here. And it’s scary. I cannot wait to leave.”
Police commander, sergeant shot on West Side
A Chicago police commander and a sergeant were shot and wounded early Monday after the police disperse a crowd on the West Side.
The commander was struck in the foot, and the sergeant was grazed in the leg, according to police.
Driver fatally shot in Little Village
A man was killed while driving Monday in Little Village on the Southwest Side.
He was driving a gray SUV about 9:15 a.m. in the 3400 block of West 26th Street when someone fired shots at his vehicle, striking him multiple times, police said.
The 34-year-old crashed into a parked car after the shooting, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
1 killed, 1 hurt in Lawndale shooting
A man was killed and another man wounded in a shooting Monday morning in Lawndale on the West Side.
The men were outside just after 2 a.m. in the 1800 block of South Kildare Avenue when they were struck by gunfire, police said.
One man, about 30 years old, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the body and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to police. He has not yet been identified. The other man, 62, suffered a gunshot wound to the knee and was taken to the same hospital where his condition was stabilized, police said.
Woman shot to death in Austin
One person was killed and three others wounded in a shooting Sunday night in Austin on the West Side.
About 10:45 p.m., two men and a woman were standing in an alley in the first block of North Menard Avenue when a 33-year-old man began shooting at them, police said.
A woman, 30, suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
A man, 32, was struck multiple times in the body and taken to Stroger Hospital where his condition was stabilized, police said.
Another man, 49, suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks and was taken to the same hospital where his condition was also stabilized, police said.
A 49-year-old man, who was a concealed carry license holder, witnessed the incident and shot at the offender, according to police.
The offender, a 33-year-old man, was struck in the arm and hip, police said. He was placed into custody and taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition.
Old Town fatal shooting
Just after 6 a.m. Sunday, a man was walking across the street in the 200 block of West Division Street when someone approached him and the two exchanged words, police said. The other person then began firing several shots towards the man, striking him in the torso, police said.
He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he later died, police said.
Teen killed on Near West Side
A 19-year-old man was killed while riding in a vehicle late Saturday on the Near West Side.
Just after 11 p.m., the teen was riding as a passenger in a vehicle in the 2600 block of West Van Buren Street when someone fired several shots, police said.
He suffered five gunshot wounds throughout his body and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Another teen fatally shot in West Pullman
A 17-year-old boy died after he was shot Saturday night at a West Pullman neighborhood home on the Far South Side.
About 9:30 p.m., the teenager was in the basement of the home in the 12000 block of South Yale Avenue with several others when someone opened fire, police said. He was shot twice the head and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
The teen, identified as Amari Brown, was pronounced dead at 7:50 a.m. Sunday at the hospital, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Little Village shooting
A man was killed and two others wounded in a shooting Saturday evening in Little Village on the Southwest Side.
About 7 p.m., a concerned citizen called in a tip about a vehicle driving slowly and bumping against a curb, police said. Responding officers found the man, thought to be about 20 years old, inside the vehicle in the 4200 block of South Cicero Avenue with three gunshot wounds to the torso, police said.
He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. His name hasn’t been released.
Two other men, 32 and 27, were struck in the arm and taken to the same hospital, where they were listed in good condition, police said.
Teen shot to death in Belmont Cragin
A member of the National Guard and aspiring Chicago police officer was found shot to death early Saturday in Belmont Cragin on the Northwest Side.
Chrys Carvajal, of Portage Park, had attended a house party Friday night with his girlfriend and at one point went to get something from his car, his sister Jennifer Ramirez said.
About 1:25 a.m., officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 2200 block of North Lockwood Avenue and found Carvajal, 19, lying unresponsive on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen, police said. He was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
Carvajal was found early Saturday lying unresponsive on the sidewalk in the 2200 block of North Lockwood Avenue with gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen, police said. He was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
“We are all very upset and we’re heartbroken,” Ramirez said Sunday. “My mom, she’s really devastated, too. She’s been crying. She has a sore throat because of all the crying, she’s just heartbroken.”
Ramirez said it’s hard to imagine life without her brother, whom she’ll remember as a man with a “big loving heart” who was always willing to help others. She pleaded for anyone with information to come forward.
“We just want people to help. If they saw something, if they know something to help, because if it was their family member, and we saw something, and my family saw something or witnessed something, we would speak up,” she said. “That’s the right thing to do.”
Amid the notoriously violent weekend, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition on Sunday hosted a Fourth of July cookout and party at the Concordia Place Apartments on the Far South Side.
At the event, Jackson urged people to put down their guns and called on city officials, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, to actively work together to tamp down gun violence.
“The finger-pointing must end,” Jackson said.
He later added that, “We need better and we deserve better.”
Jackson’s comments come two days after City Council members spent six hours interrogating Brown over his plans to curb the latest surge in summertime gun violence.
“We urge people… to put down their guns, stop the violence. Of course, when they see violence — [an] attempt to overthrow our government and they’re treated with kid gloves, it decreases the message: If you pick up a gun and shoot somebody, you’re not walking away,” Jackson said. “We deserve a better America.”
SALT LAKE CITY — The skin stretches taught, veins pouring in tributaries over the linear lines of the carpals and metacarpals.
The phalanges fall into line like a picket fence with boards of varying lengths, the knuckles unknobby. They’re long, yet not spindly, even muscular — if fingers can be muscular.
The palms are proportional, powerful like mini car compactors. The fingernails are closely cropped, tips arching in unblemished partial ellipses.
The cue is in the cuticles, chalky halos announcing these are the hands of a climber.
Flip over Kyra Condie’s appendages and find more proof: calluses not quite on the fingertips, not quite centered on the final pad of each digit.
“Honestly, my hands are less ugly than people would think they are,” said Condie, one of four American climbers headed to the Tokyo Olympics. “People picture like torn apart, bloodied everywhere. That does happen, but it’s not like a daily occurrence.”
Baseball players need bats and gloves, tennis players racquets, golfers their clubs.
Climbers’ instruments are their hands.
Hands are the main contact point to the only obstacle in the sport, a sheer wall freckled with holds set at an array of angles, some no wider than a fingertip.
Strength, in muscle and skin, is paramount. A breakdown in either is disastrous.
“The hands are our main tool,” U.S. Olympian Nathaniel Coleman said. “Every little muscle in our forearms, in our hands are essential for using our entire body to climb.”
Serious climbing is a constant full-body workout hinged at the fingers.
Those pullups most of us struggle to do more than a couple? Climbers do it from their fingertips, sometimes one handed — over and over again.
They practice on hang boards bolted to walls, dangling by nothing but their fingers. Rest during a climb constitutes clinging to holds with hands and feet.
Climbing’s Olympic debut in Tokyo this month will include three disciplines: lead, bouldering and speed.
All three will take walnut-cracking hand strength.
“Almost more important than anything else is your hands being able to have good finger strength, healthy fingers so you don’t pop a tendon or anything like that,” American Olympic climber Collin Duffy said. “Every single time you’re on the wall, you’re using your hands in some fashion.”
The minutes and hours between those times on the wall are spent making sure their hands aren’t too battered to do it again.
A football or basketball player might be able to tape up an injured digit and keep playing.
Climbers don’t have that luxury. A skin breakdown could mean the end of a competition, a finger pulley injury up to a year on the shelf.
No wonder climbers treat their hands like they have a pair of priceless vases at the end of their arms.
“Imagine if you were an F1 driver and didn’t get to choose your tires, so next time you go out, you have completely burned out tires for the next race,” Condie said. “That’s kind of like what skin is. It’s like, OK, this time the track is wet, but you have no control over it at all.”
Sweat is every climber’s enemy, so they coat their hands in chalk before every climb to prevent slippage. Some take it a step further, bringing battery-operated fans to dry their hands before attacking the wall.
The problem: All the drying can lead to cracking.
Lotions, balms and salves are essential to most climbers’ hand-care toolkits, but there is a fine line. Too soft and the callouses break down, maybe even break off.
Adam Ondra, of the Czech Republic, climbs during the men’s boulder finals at the climbing World Cup in Salt Lake City, in this May 22, 2021, file photoAP
Soaking in water has the same effect, so climbers do dishes wearing rubber gloves or, better yet, leave it to someone else. Climbers have been known to wear rubber gloves in the shower before climbing. Find yourself soaking in a hot tub with a group of climbers and you’ll likely be the only person whose hands are in the water.
Files, razors and sandpaper also are essential.
Not for the nails. For the callouses.
An imperfection on a callous can catch on a crystal in the rock or a sharp edge, so those have to be sanded down or trimmed off. Files and sandpaper can prevent cuts from opening up. Razors are good for trimming because fresh skin heals faster than callouses.
Some climbers walk around with rocks in their pocket to try making their skin hard. One climber supposedly burned his fingertips on a hot tea kettle to make his skin harder.
There are even reports of climbers immersing their hands in water and running an electrical current to cut down on excessive sweating.
“People try control it as much as possible,” Condie said. “There are some interesting methods out there, but whatever it takes.”
Those hands are a precious commodity in the climbing world.
President Joe Biden’s take on American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson’s one-month suspension for marijuana use was similar to hers and correct as far as it went. “Rules are rules,” he said on Saturday, and “everybody knows what the rules are going in.”
Biden added that “whether that should remain the rule is a different issue.”
But as the collapse of pot prohibition continues apace in the United States, that issue is unavoidable: Now that 44% of Americans live in states that treat marijuana like alcohol, the lingering distinction between these two intoxicants makes less sense than ever before.
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Richardson, who tested positive for an inactive THC metabolite during U.S. Olympic Team Trials on June 19, said she used marijuana in Oregon, where voters approved legalization in 2014, after learning about her biological mother’s death. Had she reacted by having a drink or two, that choice would have had no impact on her athletic career.
But under the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code, which the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) enforces, THC is considered a “substance of abuse,” so designated because it is “frequently abused in society outside of the context of sport.” Although the same obviously could be said of alcohol, that drug is not considered a “substance of abuse.”
Counterintuitively, Richardson’s infraction had nothing to do with “doping” as it is usually understood, since the USADA concedes that her marijuana use was “unrelated to sport performance.” Nor does her positive test result indicate that she was under the influence of marijuana during competition, since the THC metabolite cited by the USADA can be detected in a cannabis consumer’s urine for days or weeks after the last dose.
Richardson’s cannabis consumption nevertheless had severe consequences. It nullified her first-place finish in the 100-meter trials, making her ineligible for that event at this summer’s Olympics, where she had a good shot at winning a gold medal.
The 21-year-old runner responded to this crushing disappointment with remarkable grace. “As much as I’m disappointed, I know that when I step on the track I represent not only myself, I represent a community that has shown great support, great love,” she said on NBC’s Today show. “I apologize for the fact that I didn’t know how to control my emotions or deal with my emotions during that time.”
The USADA said Richardson’s suspension was reduced from three months to one “because her use of cannabis occurred out of competition and was unrelated to sport performance, and because she successfully completed a counseling program regarding her use of cannabis.” The idea that Richardson needed “counseling” because of her perfectly understandable response to her mother’s death, as if that decision revealed her as an incipient drug addict, is irrational and more than a little insulting.
Other athletic organizations have recognized that arbitrary rules like the USADA’s can no longer be justified (if they ever could). In 2019 the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball stopped testing players for marijuana.
Businesses also are adapting to the new reality of widely legal cannabis. Last month Amazon, the nation’s second-largest private employer, announced that it would no longer test job applicants for marijuana and would instead treat cannabis consumption “the same as alcohol use.”
The Biden administration initially indicated that it also would take a more tolerant approach, saying in February that it would allow people with a “limited” history of marijuana use — a description that encompasses at least half of American adults — to work in the executive office of the president. A month later, however, The Daily Beastreported that “dozens of young White House staffers have been suspended, asked to resign, or placed in a remote work program due to past marijuana use.”
Repealing the federal ban on marijuana would greatly simplify decisions like these. But since Biden opposes that change and Democratic legislators who favor legalization are not making a serious effort to attract Republican support, it seems unlikely that will happen anytime soon.
Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine.
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