Friday It Is!

It being Friday, Cranky Fitness prepares for the weekend in the traditional way: throwing a bunch of unrelated junk into a post and hoping you can find something in there worth reading. Good luck!

Play Ball!
In a recent Danish study (no, not of the pastries, though Crabby would very much like to volunteer for that Danish study), researchers found that soccer beat out jogging as exercise, and was more fun to boot! (Sorry). A bunch of guys in their early thirties were sent out to either run, play soccer, or do nothing in particular 3 times a week for about an hour. After three months, the soccer players had more muscle, less fat, and a lot more fun than the joggers or the couch potatoes. The joggers were in better shape than the spuds, but found their routines fairly miserable. However, like this was apparently the old-fashioned kind of jogging that involves slogging along at an even pace, not the new fancier kind with lots of intervals and variety. And hey--plenty of Cranky Fitness readers are Big Time runners who aren't the least bit whiny about it!

Overloaded
According to this USA Today article, many Americans are getting too big for their cars. Cars actually do have weight limits, in order to ensure tire safety, and it's not that difficult for heavier folks these day to top these limits in certain cars, especially two-seaters. For example, some Miatas and Corvettes aren't supposed to carry two 200-pound adults. And many five-passenger vehicles max out if their occupants average more than 170 pounds apiece.

Is this really anything to worry about? Well, possibly, yes! Overloading is considered a factor in tire failure (very, very bad; you really don't want this going on underneath you while zooming down the freeway). And guess what else? If you exceed the weight limit of your car, automakers may be able to claim they don't have any responsibility for a part that fails causing you to you crash. Yikes.

Spin This Any Way You Want
Via the always awesome Fitness Fixation, did you know there's now such a phenomenon as Spin Rage? Well at least according to the attorney for a Wall Street Broker with some serious anger management issues. Apparently Broker became enraged at Hedge Fund Manager pedaling next to him (can't you just picture this gym?) because of all his grunting and hooting. Words were exchanged, then Broker proceeded to pick up Fund Manager and his bike, and hurled them into a wall. So, are you looking for a good excuse to skip your spin class and can't think of any new ones? You're welcome.

Not a Very Nice Way to Wake Up...
At your own autopsy. With a scalpel cutting into your face. The guy's fine though, and still quite handsome despite the car accident, the being declared dead and all, and the rude awakening in the morgue.

Tick Tick Tick
Crabby had never come across this weirdly addictive world time clock before, but our friend Dr. J. just brought it to her attention. Check it out! (Though the site was down once on a recent visit; seems to be back up now.) Once you start watching all the numbers roll by and grasp the ramifications of some of them, you can start to feel a bit... well, freaky.

After The Stork Flies Away...
Moms, want a refreshing dose of reality about women's bodies, post-pregnancy? Many of you may have probably found this site already, but if you haven't, check out The Shape of A Mother. (After you read the introduction, click "enter" and you will be taken to photos readers have sent in of their bodies both during and after pregnancy. There are (gasp) stretch marks on view! It's sweet and real and a nice place to get a sense of perspective back about what's natural.

Okay, warning, now we're gonna get decidedly weirder...

Don't Do it, Steve!
So were we just speaking of new mothers and their unique physiology? Here's a somewhat related blog post that's part of the series Steve, Don't Eat That! But Don't Click Just Yet, Caution is strongly advised as some may find this distasteful and possibly offensive. And yet Crabby nonetheless found it quite amusing. OK, have at it if you dare.

And our final bit of silliness?

More Gratuitous Animal Exercise Videos!
So last time Crabby tried to embed a video it broke her feed! So this time, those of you with time on your hands may want click these links to watch this little guy or this big gal do their respective things.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Unscheduled Rant

Today's post was supposed to be about teen suicide, since the alarming news is that there is suddenly a lot more of it happening, especially among girls.

No one knows whether this is just an anomalous blip or an actual trend. (Fortunately, it's still very rare; rates are about 1/100,000). The experts didn't seem to offer any convincing theories, either, about why the rates went up, other than the usual "life is hard for teens now" sort of thing.

Crabby was going to chime in and say, somewhat predictably, that life has never been easy and each generation going back through time has had some Pretty Intense Stuff to deal with. But then Crabby realized she really doesn't have much of a clue and should probably just shut up about it, especially since (a) suicide is a very complicated problem and (b) she doesn't have any teens herself to know what they're actually dealing with.

However, we can still talk about teen suicide in the Comments, as some of you may have some more actual info, theories, or observations about this that could help Crabby understand better what might be up with that.

The main reason the suicide post got interrupted, however, was that Crabby found herself so flustered and mad she couldn't concentrate and had to get a little rant out of the way.

Yesterday morning, for the second time in two weeks, she was nearly killed while crossing the street, in the designated crosswalk, with the right of way, by a car eager to make a left-hand turn on top of her.

Note: neither of these were fake crosswalks, the kind put in optimistically mid-block or at uncontrolled intersections, where theoretically the pedestrian might have the right away but no pedestrian is foolish enough to rely upon it. These were both real crosswalks at actual controlled intersections.

In both cases, Crabby was already well into the crosswalk before either car started to make their turn. So she was smack in front of these drivers when they not only turned, but then decided to head right for her and speed up in order to force her to run the rest of the way across. In neither case was there an oncoming car that the left-hand turner was trying to avoid colliding with. And had Crabby not sprinted either of these times, she would have been hit. No lie. Both these cars were so sure of Crabby's willingness to run to avoid being hit that they were going too fast to be able to stop.

This is a situation in which people are prone to exaggerate, but Crabby truly feared for her life each time. Had she tripped and stumbled or decided to stubbornly keep walking a normal speed, she would be writing this post from a hospital bed.

Or perhaps not writing it at all.

Crabby is not sure this has ever happened to her before--at least not in such a terrifying way, and certainly not twice in two weeks! She was actually warned by a Smart Reader about D.C. drivers, but except for these two bizarre instances, she has not noticed the driving being any worse here than other major metropolitan areas. Many drivers here are actually quite considerate!

And having lived in Manhattan for two years, Crabby knows something about aggressive driving. She knows that "the right of way" and "who really gets to go now" are two different concepts. She also knows that when a pedestrian wants to cross the street and a driver wants to make a turn, there are competing interests and a certain amount of strategizing goes on--a pedestrian who has just taken a few steps of the curb, for instance, knows she may need to stop her progress if a car decides to turn right in front of her.

But damn it, if you are a driver wanting to make a left turn and the pedestrian is now right smack in front of you, GAME OVER. You lost that one. Sorry, now you have to wait, as painful as that is for you. You do not Proceed Anyway and try to Hit the Pedestrian! If you are in such a F*cking Hurry, keep in mind that a mangled body on the hood of your car is going to take up quite a bit of your morning, and perhaps even the rest of your life, to sort out!

Is this some sort of horrible new trend? Or just an unlucky coincidence? Do people suddenly think they are starring in their own Hollywood Action films or video games when they get behind the wheel and that there will be no real life consequences when they do crazy reckless things? (Hmm... the teen suicide statistics... a theory begins to take form...)

Anyway, at least there is a semi-satisfying epilogue:

In yesterday morning's incident, Crabby actually discovered the vehicle pulled over a few blocks away. It was some sort of government-looking thing (probably local), all white with some red stars or something on it, and the woman driving it was wearing a blue uniform. Crabby actually got the license number, and discovered there was a "How's My Driving?" bumper sticker on the back of the car! But unfortunately, the number didn't have a handy acronym like 1-800-WTF-LADY??!! or anything, and the driver saw Crabby staring at the back of her car, recognized her, and pulled away before Crabby could attempt to memorize the phone number.

Crabby may never find out what agency or company this woman worked for (any D.C. folks have any suspects? This was in Georgetown, if it makes any difference). But she does have the license number and the date and time in case she ever does figure it out. And even better? Crabby had the satisfaction of watching this woman, who nearly hit her, realize that the person she tried to mow down was now attempting to Rat Her Out. Perhaps she even worried about it a bit, and took a bit less menacing approach towards the next annoying pedestrian who had the nerve to be in a crosswalk in front of her.

So drive safe, folks, and look both ways before crossing the street, and even if you do, be prepared to sprint through intersections away from insanely reckless drivers!