Frazz by Jef Mallett for February 20, 2021

If I don’t cheat as I get older, how can I expect to win?

Nicely twisted. Swimming in a wet suit is, imo, “swimming” the same way that dancing in work boots is “dancing”.

Uh-oh. When those young kids learn treachery also, we’re in trouble.

It isn’t learned. It is genetic. Example: very early on, they are able to manipulate their environment with just one long, loud cry in the wee hours. After that, the skill develops with practice, because they won’t tolerate make do answers from adults. Then there is adolescence, followed by the dreaded teen angst. As adults that we learn to mask that particular trait, but sometimes not very well.

And Penicillin is for sissies!

And if you put that wet suit in salt water, it becomes so easy that even I could swim.

Every spring when I trade the winter bike for my time trial Cervelo, and pump the tires to 150 psi, it doesn’t even feel like cycling, but flying low over the ground.

I’m just in it for the smiles. Good job, Jeff. You help me think and laugh at the same time.

Huh?

I don’t see that there’s a functional difference between “mak[ing] it easier” and “go[ing] farther and faster for the same effort.” If one refuses to do anything to make it easier, all use of even the simplest tools would be eschewed.

Age and treachery however, will triumph.

But clearing the driveway in a snowstorm is real shoveling. Wanna grab a shovel instead of just kibbitzing, kid?

Try swimming the English Channel without a wetsuit.

Reminds me of the avid cyclists who show disdain for those who ride bikeshare bikes. Riding those heavy beasts for weekday transportation allowed me to increase my average speed on weekend recreational rides by about 1 mph. (And taking those bikes up one big hill was a more exhausting workout than a 30-mile ride on a road bike.)

Frazz’s fault is a sort of personal moral superiority in his choices of activities – and particularly their merit in exercise. That is a choice – but not a moral one and his excuses about convenience expose it. But heck – we all are flawed in some way or another, I don’t hold it against him.

Close. Age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill.

Experience and treachery always overcomes youthful enthusiasm

I prefer wearing my skin only in swimming. Amazing how fast you become without clothes getting in the way.