Collected Miscellany (Micro)

In a sort of a reverse Lent, decided to stop looking at Facebook and start using Micro.blog again. Update on running: Carmel Marathon on April 18. Last long run of training plan last Saturday and started my taper this week. Long run of 12 today. Feeling good. 🏃🏻‍♂️

Inspirational piece in New York Times about Jeff Galloway and his attempt to run a marathon in eight consecutive decades. At 55 I’ve only run a marathon in one decade 😊🏃

Latest “friends of the library sale” finds. I get such a kick out of find books in great condition like this. Now to find time to read them… 📚

Feel like there is a story of how this grocery traveled miles from any grocery store to a corner downtown… 📸

Brown was the color of my true love’s drink Dark was the color of her eyes I know she couldn’t save me from myself But I love to watch her try

The Center of the World: The center of the world is in the monastery, in the cathedral, in the tabernacle, at the corner of 73rd and Park Avenue, high on the Llano Estacado, high in the Himalayas or here in these mountains, cold today and lightly sugared with snow—the center of the world is where we find it. The cathedral …

political liberalism has pushed the envelope: In our time, political liberalism has pushed the envelope on individual liberties (around drugs and gambling and suicide, as well as sex and sexual identity) at exactly the same moment that technological progress has given us radical new means for exploiting and amplifying addictive behaviors. The …

Fun run club tonight. Solomon Aero Glide 3 GRVL were great for snow and ice. Nice to see lights. Columbus is pretty at night. 🏃

Predicted storm actually happened 😄 no school, 20 minutes to dig car out, nearly 90 minute commute… 📸

Two runs, very different feel/pace. Saturday was longer & slower w/ Hoka Clifton 9 GTX. Tonight was shorter & faster in TYR Maverick V1s. Hoka = warm, TYR = speedy 🏃🏽‍➡️

Nice round number for YTD miles… 🏃

Sunrise to start December 📸

Organized my road running shoes 🏃

Orange at Franklin Park Conservatory 📸

Joan Didion’s Thanksgiving: Dinner for 75, Reams of Notes // I find Didion fascinating. Recently read the Library of American volume Didion: The 1960s & 70s

What I am listening to: Standard Stoppages by Third Coast Percussion. Was lucky enough to meet these guys and have my son work with them at a Music & Arts camp at Denison University.

Fall turns to winter. Also, meant hour plus commute… 📸

Great time at Scioto Trail Race Series #2 this morning. Wanted to pick up the pace but what I gained on first lap I gave back on the second. Still farthest I have run on any surface except 2 marathons. 🏃

Not sure how many warm evening runs are left this year. Warm if windy last night for local club run but enjoyed still running in t-shirt and shorts. 22 miles on Saturday. 🏃

Currently reading: In the Heat of the Night by John Ball 📚 // picked this up a library sale

Beautiful fall evening for run club. 🏃needed lights but skyline was pretty.

Signed up for a couple gravel races. Two races came with a pair of Solomon Aero Glide 3 GRVL shoes. Race #1 was 10/25 & roughly 11 miles (photo). Saturday is #2 and 22+ miles. Looking forward to it. 🏃

I am going to give micro.blog one more push. Plan is to encourage/beg a bunch of friends to join which will allow me to fully abandon social media… ;-)

Why run a marathon? The ups and downs of deciding to go for the big 26.2 🏃

How I became a “shoe guy” - but am trying to get better… 🏃😄

Focused on reading 📚 in the latest Substack. Specifically returning to favorite fiction series.

Unexpectedly becoming a “runner."🏃 Running is solitary AND about community

Finished reading: Charity by Len Deighton 📚

Currently reading: Charity by Len Deighton 📚 // kinda sad this is the last book in the series

A list of my running 🏃 shoes after my wife remarked on how many I had and maybe I should donate some 😊 @mroutley

An experiment in winter running 🏃🥶😊

Finished reading: Faith by Len Deighton 📚 // really enjoying reading these Bernard Samson novels which I read in college.

Wednesday means run club. Marathon training plan is ramping up. Six miles tonight (in two parts) and 12 on Saturday. 🏃

Once more into the breach: Remember when I started a Substack and then completely stopped publishing it after just a few posts? A confession. For those of you not on Substack. I am going to try and re-start Running & Reading despite a history of not following through…

Two more volumes added to my Everyman’s Library collection in the past week.

Currently reading: Faith by Len Deighton 📚

Thoughts on Running Advent and winter running. Plus, a book I’m reading and one I recommend

Doing Running Advent this month: Run .5 mile on 12/1 add .5 everyday until you get to 6 miles, then subtract down .5 every day until you get to 12/23. You must run the correct miles everyday. You can run more - you can’t run less! You can’t bank miles or make up miles. 🏃

I have decided to start a newsletter on Substack called Running and Reading if you are into those sort of things…

Fun run last night in Columbus. ASICS was featuring their GlideRide Max and offering $50 off. Plus, got a free hat.

First run since Saturday’s half marathon. Felt good. Run club is always fun. Wednesdays are for 🏃 running like the shirt says.

Stunning start to Zanesville Half Marathon on Saturday with beautiful sunrise and a rainbow. Enjoyed the run and happy to get under 2 hours even with a hillier course than I am used to.

Thinking of restarting this blog and calling it “Reading and Running,” the two things I spend most of my free time on… Not sure how big of an overlap there is between the two topics.

Added some great volumes to my Everyman’s Library and Library of America collection lately. I have 60 or so and close to 70 if you count Modern Library. A joy to read and see on the shelf.

The Tribal, and Philosophical, Basis of the Left and Right in American Politics - Great review of a book that I think more people should read and wrestle with these days.📚

Currently reading: Bicycle by Jonathan Maskit 📚

Currently reading: And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness 📚

Skipped my normal 8:30am Saturday run and glad I did. Warmer with bright sunshine this afternoon. 🏃

Snow day here in Granville which made my son very happy. ❄️ 📸

“There is a lot of craziness out there, but it’s hard to persuade people they need renewal, even repentance, if the primary thing they hear from you is that they are wicked, crazy, or stupid.” Micah Watson

Wonderful set off photos from Jay Nordlinger of Cincinnati. He notes the amount of murals, something I have also noticed and enjoyed about the Queen City. Not a fan of their sports teams but I do love to visit.

Who gets up on a cold and windy Saturday morning? Um, me, it seems. Somewhere along the line I became the runner guy… But the training for a 22K in February goes on. 🏃

“But what if that’s not how virtue works? What if after having cast out every unclean thing you can find you just end up in the foul rag and bone shop of your own heart? What then?” - @ayjay The Next Turn of the Wheel

Currently reading: How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization by Mary Beard 📚

The Perks of Slow Running 🏃

Started off 2024 with a 5K. Was trying to push my pace. Was fine for first mile or two but died on last mile. Needed to eat better more before race. Would have been happy with that pace a years ago but can run faster now. Lots of races to go in 2024 (5,10,15,22Ks)🏃

Finished reading: The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman 📚 / ended 2023 with novella, started 2024 with one 😄

Jonah Goldberg on being ideologically and philosophically a modernist and temperamentally and aesthetically a Tolkienist or Chestertonian.

Finished reading: The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson 📚 // great Christmas novella that can be read in one sitting. First half set up, second half dark twist.

Currently reading: The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson 📚

Did a Running Advent this December. Starting on 12/1 you run .5mi and then add .5 each day until you reach 6, then reverse the process ending on 12/23. I ran every day for 23 days. Most consecutive days I have ever run and most miles. 🏃

Got an invite to Bluesky so I got that going for me.. @kholtsberry.bsky.social

Ohio Statehouse 📸

Finished reading: My Darling Detective by Howard Norman 📚 // I have read a decent amount of Howard Norman, and am usually a big fan, but this one didn’t really grab me. I don’t know if it was the odd sort of Canadian Noir style or the characters or what. Enjoyed it but didn’t love …

Finished reading: The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe 📚 // left me wanting more, great world building and characters

Fun run 🏃 on Sunday as part of the ASICS Novoblast Tour in Columbus. Got to demo Superblasts and get a picture at Columbus Commons Christmas tree. Afterwards found out shoes are $200… 😬

Currently reading: The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe 📚

Book Review: Into Siberia: Finished reading: Into Siberia by Gregory J. Wallance 📚 // A fascinating account of George Kennan’s travels in Siberia, his lectures afterwards and its impact on American-Russian relations. It is hard to imagine what Kennan went through during his travels and even harder to imagine the …

The world could use more jerks - Megan McArdle

Can really tell how running farther has impacted my leg strength and speed. Ran 5K last night and this morning and both were faster than I ran the Turkey Trot last year. 🏃🦃

I don’t want to put a sign in my yard. I don’t want to wear a ribbon or t-shirt or march in a parade or protest.: “If you don’t really want to “go along, to get along” but you don’t want to argue and fight either, you can feel untethered in some ways. I don’t want to put a sign in my yard. I don’t want to wear a ribbon or t-shirt or march in a parade or protest. But I also am not comfortable with the …

It’s difficult to overstate how completely young intellectuals have been betrayed by their education.: “It’s difficult to overstate how completely young intellectuals have been betrayed by their education. They think of themselves as politically knowledgable and committed, but their political vocabulary, and indeed the entire conceptual structure associated with it, could be written on an index …

Chilly but fun Hot Chocolate 10K on Sunday. PR for me despite Apple Watch accuracy issues. Steelers gear brought no luck for the game unfortunately 🏃

Finished reading: LaserWriter II by Tamara Shopsin 📚

Finished reading: Effective Data Storytelling by Brent Dykes 📚 // useful and practical guide to a skill that is increasingly important in all walks of life and fields of work.

Currently reading: Thank You. I’m Sorry. Tell Me More. by Rod Wilson 📚

Finished reading: Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher 📚

I’m running the Columbus Hot Chocolate race on Sunday (10K) so decided to get one last 10K in today. Sunshine and 50. Going to to be colder Sunday with 7:30am start… 🏃

Thinking about: Can a focus on social mobility save higher education? Some experts say yes

Curled up for a nap 📸

Drinking Elliotsville Brewing Company Salted Carmel Coldspreso (ale brewed with Nicaraguan coffee). The salted caramel is stronger than the coffee. If you drink cold and sweet coffee drinks this would be along those lines. None of the bitterness or bite of expresso/coffee. Pretty drinkable …

After yesterday’s trail adventure, took it easy for today’s group run in terms of miles and pace. Brisk but sunny this morning. 🏃

Gorgeous fall day and day off from work so hit the trails. Turned a 5k into over 10K by mixing up directions and doubling up on a loop 🤷‍♂️ 🏃

Sunset last night at Bryn Du Mansion, Granville, Ohio 📸

Do you ever run just slightly less than 10K and get annoyed because Strava/Apple won’t give you credit for the 10K? No? Me neither… 🏃😊

“Atheism does not bother me even a little bit. Stupidity does. Laziness does. Treating cultures and civilizations as though history began last Thursday—or some weekend 40 years ago when teen-aged you decided you didn’t feel like going to church with your parents—does.” - Kevin Williamson

Nice 10K at the Len Fisher Bridge Run in Delaware, Ohio. Happy with my pace despite a late night and a beer watching a buddy play music at the local watering hole. Beautiful sunrise 🏃

My Apple Watch died the last two times I ran, including last night’s club run, so decided to run in today’s beautiful sunshine. Running a 10K on Saturday. 🏃

My coworker is soaking in the sunshine ☀️

Finished reading: Final Spin by Jocko Willink 📚 // grabbed this at the library yesterday and finished it last night. Quick engaging read, which is what I needed.

In ‘Buyer’s Market,’ Tuition Increases Haven’t Outpaced Inflation

I started my book blog, Collected Miscellany, twenty years ago. Now I don’t know what to do with it. Any ideas?

Pet peeve of mine: every time I buy something getting an email survey 😞

My run club had our Halloween run last night people had trouble guessing my costume but it was easy to run 🏃in 😄

Gorgeous sunrise this morning

“The idea that there’s just tens of millions of Americans who want a woman to have a baby then don’t support the government making it easier to raise that child finds no support in this data.” - Ryan Burge

Thanks for the sticker @jean

Ran my first official half marathon on Sunday. Had a great experience and was pleased with my time. 🏃 13.1

Currently reading: Effective Data Storytelling by Brent Dykes 📚

Finished reading: The Road by Cormac McCarthy 📚 // A hard book to rate and review. The language was spare and at times beautiful. It was full of powerful emotions and thoughts of how all easy answers breakdown at the extremes. But I was also left wondering what it was all about exactly? Just the …

“We’re all Cotton Mather in the long term, and we’re Hunter Biden in the short term.” - Kevin Williamson

Nerd alert! Picked up this bundle from Liberty Fund. Now just need to find time to read them…

Finished reading: King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green 📚 // I enjoyed reading this version after having read The Once and Future King. This seemed more in the romance-in the older sense-category that T.H. White.

Book Banning and a Sane World: “In a sane world, the term “ban” would be reserved for books whose sale and circulation are illegal in some given place, and “censorship” would refer to the removal, by some legal or commercial authority, of certain portions of a text or film or recording. (I say “commercial” authority because …

Celebrating Ohio Pint Day 2023 🍺

Want to read: The Road by Cormac McCarthy 📚

“Sen. Lee knows the U.S. flag when he sees it. If he knows U.S. interests when he sees them, then he should grow up and act like it. The world has enough Twitter trolls already.” - Kevin Williamson

Sorry, I can’t seem to find how to easily cross post to WordPress. Can you point me to something? @help

I love how easy it is to blog using micro.blog but there is one small problem… I don’t really think I have an audience at this point. Only traffic at collectedmiscellany.com is random Google searches.

Finished reading: Musical Tables by Billy Collins 📚

Currently reading: Why the Bible Began by Jacob L. Wright 📚

Finished reading: Evil Things by Katja Ivar 📚// Scandinavia Noir frustrates me, and yet I keep reading… 🤷‍♂️

Another Saturday = Just Another Ten Mile Run. Five weeks until my half marathon 🏃

Finished reading: Fifty Places to Run Before You Die by Chris Santella 📚// if you enjoy running and travel, this book is for you. Even if it is only aspirational, it is fun to dream of running around the world in these famous events and unique locales.

Currently reading: Evil Things by Katja Ivar 📚

Currently reading: Fifty Places to Run Before You Die by Chris Santella 📚

Currently reading: Forgiveness by Matthew Ichihashi Potts 📚

Finished reading: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne 📚 / still wrestling with and thinking about this one…

“Thinking about the Holocaust is like staring into an abyss and hoping it will not stare back. It is the ultimate extreme case, a black hole of history that not only challenges our facile assumptions about modernity and progress but questions our very sense of what it means to be human.” — Robert S. …

America

Currently reading: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne 📚

Finished reading: A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul 📚 // I absolutely adore Everyman’s Library Editions. I have collected dozens of them and find they such a joy to read. Beautifully crafted with a built in bookmark. But I have to admit this does not make me a close student of classic literature. …

Using the Nike Run Club app to train for a half marathon in October. Did intervals on Monday based on 5K pace. Probably a little fast at first but pretty accurate by the end. 🏃

Currently reading: A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul 📚 // bought this on a recent trip to Washington, DC. I adore the Everyman’s Library collection so when I saw this on discount I needed to add it to the bookshelf…

Football season is upon us! I updated my running gear to reflect this. 🏃

American Utopia by David Byrne My rating: 2 of 5 stars I was so excited the local library was open for walking in browsing that I visited and grabbed a bunch of books just for the enjoyment of being in the library again. This was one of the books I grabbed because I was curious what it was about. I …

Jesus Christ asked forgiveness for those who were nailing him to a cross. Do we think we have it tougher than that? Or will? If we were to give a seriously biblical and genuinely Christian answer to the question of how we might prepare for some future disaster, we would have to say: By doing what …

Epistemology is social. We decide what to believe by deciding who to believe. When we believe the wrong people, bad things happen. On race relations, for example, the wrong people have tremendous influence in academia, and this has spilled out into schools of education, corporate human resource …

Currently reading: A Glorious Liberty: Frederick Douglass and the Fight for an Antislavery Constitution by Root, Damon 📚

Last year I posted my excitement about reading Breaking Bread With The Dead by @ayjay. Then took a break from Micro.blog. In between, I had my review published: Mental Anchors for Information Overload

A Prayer of Confession : “God of wisdom and truth, you call us to listen and follow your word to us, but we confess that too often we only hear what we want to hear and see what we want to see. We look for answers that reinforce what we already believe and do and we don’t notice how Jesus loved those who were difficult to …

“Who’s to blame? Well, a perfectly reasonable explanation is that the public has lost all trust in the elites and their institutions, and its frequent eruptions express anger over failure at the top. In other words, it’s the elites who are to blame.” – Martin Gurri

In case you need something to make you smile, Indigo says hello

Helpful two minute video on dealing with frustration

Can’t wait to dig into the timely book from @ayjay

One of the benefits of #WFH is being able to go to the local coffee shop and spend a few minutes enjoying a beautiful day in the Village of #Granville

“Instead of clear rules, rationally conceived and universally applied, the new rules are opaque, emotionally conceived and subjectively applied. If we lived under some fickle absolutist king, who arbitrarily decided what was offensive, outrageous, or even criminal, we’d all recognize the …