The View from the Saddle

A few weeks ago while riding my bike up the Corte Madera grade, a deer casually walked out of the woods, stopped by the side of the road, watched me ride by, then, I kid you not, looked the other way before walking across the street.


I chuckled to myself about this human-like behavior then got to thinking about all of the unusual sights I've seen while riding my bike.

First, the animals. I've seen many deer and the occasional racoon, which usually flee when they hear me coming. The turkeys, however, do not. They aren't afraid of cyclists. Problem is they travel in groups. They'll move out of one's way, but take their sweet time doing so. I've nearly hit turkeys several times, which can be pretty scary when you're going downhill at 30 miles per hour.


By the way: do you know that the term for a group of turkeys is "rafter" or "gang"? Gang seems especially appropriate for the turkeys around here - they walk around like they own the place.

On the stretch of Shoreline Highway between Muir Beach and the Panoramic Highway junction, I often see Red Tailed Hawks, Owls and other predatory birds roosting on the utility lines or soaring above the valley.


Very cool, especially during the spring, when you can see lots of young Red Tails learning to fly and hunt.

Most unusual animal sightings were the Bobcat, which bolted into the woods after I startled it, and the red fox which darted across the road in front of me. The fox sighting was so unexpected that I googled them when I got home. As I suspected, this is not a native species. Was I seeing things? Then, a couple of weeks later, I saw it again.


Unmistakeably a red fox. So, how did it get here?

Ridgecrest Boulevard between Rock Springs and Bolinas-Fairfax road on Mt Tam is a very popular spot for filming car commercials. While on my rides, I've stumbled upon film crews three times; once while filming a Dodge Magnum commercial and twice for different Acura models, the RDX and the TSX


I also see a lot of cars and car clubs that are just out for fun. The roads I chose to ride are hilly and winding. Good workout going up, a blast coming down. Very little car normal car traffic, but lots of cars whose drivers are attracted to the thrill of driving twisting roads.

Among the cars I've seen are a rare Delorean, which you may recognize from the "Back to the Future" movies. This was a weird car built in Ireland with the engine in the middle, not the front, butterfly doors which open upward like wings and an unpainted body made of stainless steel.


I saw a group of five climbing the road above Alpine Lake.

Another time a metallic blue Ferrari F40 came screaming down the road in the opposite direction. I heard this car long before I saw it.


As it passed me, I got a good look at the driver. It was multiple Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, who lived in Tiburon at the time.


Makes sense that fast runners like fast cars.

Once, a racy looking red car that I'd never seen before passed me just outside of Mill Valley.


It turned out to be an Infiniti G35 coupe, which had not yet been released for sale. It was being road tested by Car & Driver magazine. I later saw the article, along with photos unmistakeably taken in Marin, in which the writer described the test route "on Highway One, north of San Francisco".

One of the first cars that allowed its buyers to customize the way it looked with special paint, wheels and stripes was the Mini Cooper. In order to advertise this and to show the car off before making available for sale, Mini got a group of drivers to go on a coast to coast tour. I encountered this tour, 18 Minis, all customized differently, between Muir and Stinson beaches.


The most memorable and unusual car encounter I had was in 2004, when Lamborghini, an Italian manufacturer of "supercars" introduced a new model called the Gallardo. The Gallardo sells for a mere $200,000, or about the same as 20 Honda Civics. To celebrate the introduction of the Gallardo, and the 40th birthday of the company, Lamborghini invited all Lamborghini owners in the Bay Area to join a couple of Gallardos for a drive. 128 Lamborghinis showed up.


They passed me on the road between Olema and Point Reyes. Loud, beautiful, fast.

Finally, there are the unusual people I've encountered. There was the guy celebrating his 70th birthday, blowing past me on the way up Mt. Tam, and the guy, bombing down the mountain, screaming "YEE HAAAA!", a camera phone taped to his helmet.


Then there were the skateboaders. I encountered three skateboarders racing down a long downhill near Alpine Lake at about 25 miles per hour.


As I pulled alongside one of them, he glanced at me and said, "What's up dude?"

Weight Obsession

One of the nice little things that happened when my family sat down for our Thanksgiving meal (at a restaurant in Carmel) was that my sister ordered, and ate, a steak and everything that came with it, including potatos, a salad and dessert. It told me that my sister is finally happy with the way she looks.


My sister has never been overweight. In fact, she always been on the thin side. But, for as long as I can remember, she's been on a diet. When we were kids and our family went out to eat, she would order a salad for her main course because it was low in calories. The salads she'd order were so small and so low cal that she'd pick at everyone else's food, she was so hungry. So, I was glad to see her eat at Thanksgiving not only for her sake, but for mine, for it meant I got to eat my whole meal too!

Unfortunately, the next day I heard one of my nieces ask the dreaded question: "does this make me look fat?"

First of all, she is nowhere close to looking fat. Secondly, she's 10 years old, which means that she should be gaining weight, for she is growing. Rapid and sudden weight gain at this age is normal and should not be interpreted to mean that one is "getting fat".

Our society places way too much importance on the way a person looks. This overemphasis on appearance leads to people being overly concerned about their weight.

On the other hand, obesity among young people is a problem in this country. This is basically the result of too much of the wrong kind of food and not enough exercise.


The simple solution: eat sensibly, that is, don't eat too much sweet or fatty foods and get regular exercise.


Good news: the people of Marin County are thought to be the "skinniest" in California because of the way we eat and the amount of exercise we get.

So, do you want to know where you stand? Are you part of the obesity epidemic or are you unnecessarily worried about your weight? I've added a gadget to the sidebar which can help you figure it out. It's called a Body Mass Index Calculator (BMI).

To use it, simply enter your height and weight in the appropriate boxes, then click on the Body Mass Indicator box at the bottom and you will get your BMI. Then, compare your BMI to the range shown in the box below the calculator. Most of you will be happy with what you see, for in my experience with fitness testing at Park School, I've found only one or two students each year who have a BMI in the overweight range.

Please note that BMI is only a estimate of fitness and not perfect. For example my BMI is 24.9. According to the adult BMI scale, that means that I'm overweight. I'm not. My BMI is high because I have big leg muscles from riding my bike so much. Muscle weighs more than fat which causes my BMI to be high. So, while BMI is helpful, it isn't the final word.

Revolution Foods Pt II - Your Chance to be Heard

I've been told that representatives from representatives from Revolution Foods will soon be coming to Park School to gather feedback on their meals. Here's your chance to voice your opinion!

Remember, the object here is to help them make their food more appealing, so be constructive and be specific. Just saying "I don't like the pizza" doesn't help. Explain what it is about the pizza, or whatever meal you want to talk about, that you don't like. If you can, tell them what you like about their food, too. This will give them a wider range of information from which they can get ideas to make the food better.

Have fun!

How Far We've Come

Three weeks after an amazing national election, another American institution did something that was unimaginable only a few years ago: A major league baseball team, the Seattle Mariners, made a Japanese-American man, Don Wakamatsu, its manager.


You kids probably don't think this is a big deal. That is a good thing, for the truth is, you shouldn't. But, it is a pretty big deal to me. Not Barack Obama big, but big enough, for it is another indication of America's growing acceptance of people of color.

This was not always the case.

You probably know that the first African-Americans arrived here against their will as slaves. Slavery was legal in the United States from 1654 to 1865. When America declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776 by saying that "all men are created equal" and that everyone was entitled to "life, liberty (freedom) and the pursuit of happiness", they didn't include slaves. Slaves weren't freed until after the long, bloody American Civil War.


Once freed, African Americans weren't treated equally. They couldn't hold the same jobs, go the same schools, or use the same businesses as Caucasian Americans. This is called racial discrimination.

Not only that, they were only allowed to live in certain areas of most cities and towns. This is called segregation.


You may not believe this now, but all of this was legal until the Civil Rights Movement of 1955-1968 fought against and succeeded in ending all of these unfair practices.


The relations between African Americans by Caucasian Americans have been slowly but steadily improving ever since.

African Americans were not the only ethnic group subjected to racial discrimination.

When the US was building the Transcontinental Railroad, many Chinese immigrated to the United States to help build it.


Fearful that the Chinese would take jobs from others, the US government created a law called The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1883.


This law prevented most Chinese people from moving to the United States. After the law was enacted, very few Chinese were allowed into the country. In the 30 years between 1910 and 1940, only 56,113 Chinese were allowed to enter the US, an average of 1,870 per year. By comparison, 1,004,756 Europeans were allowed to enter the US in 1907 alone.

The law wasn't repealed (canceled) until 1943. Even today, if one were to look at the United States Code (the book of US law), one would find that Chapter 7 of Title 8 is entitled "Exclusion of Chinese." Of the 15 chapters in Title 8 (Aliens and Nationality), it is the only one that is completely focused on a specific nationality or ethnic group.

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1942, the United States government decided that all Japanese living in the US were threats to national security.


All Japanese living in the US were moved into places called "internment camps" which were really prisons in remote, unpopulated areas of the country.


By being forced to move, all of these people lost their jobs, their homes and their businesses.


The funny thing was, America was also at war with Germany, but no Germans were placed in internment camps.

So why were the Japanese moved? For that matter, why exclude only Chinese immigrants and segregate the African American population? Simple answer: they were all visibly different from the Caucasian majority because of the color of their skin.

Today, I marvel at how much has changed.

In a sport where African Americans were once excluded from participation, Tiger Woods is regarded as the greatest player of all time.



Ang Lee, a Chinese man, won an Oscar for Best Director (Brokeback Mountain).



A Japanese man is such a big star in baseball, America's game, that he is known only by his first name, Ichiro.



And an African American man has been elected President of the United States of America.


Best of all, most of you don't think much of any of this. To me, that is the best indicator of how far we've come as a nation.

Big Man on Campus

I keep hearing students talk about the "popular people". My question is: what makes them popular? They exclude others, they make fun of the less fortunate and hang out only with themselves. To me, their "popularity" is a figment of their own imaginations.

Here's the story of a guy who was genuinely popular; liked, admired and respected by everyone he met.

My first high school coaching job was at San Rafael High School, where I coached freshman girls, then JV girls and was varsity assistant. While I was there, the undisputed Big Man on Campus was a boy named Will.

The term "Big Man on Campus" (BMOC) usually refers to the most popular and famous athlete at a school. This is not an elected position. It isn't even a formal or real position. It is really just a reflection of how a school's population views a particular student.

Will's dad, Max, was a major league baseball player. Will was a basketball star. You might think that a kid with this kind of background and ability would be arrogant, or self-centered or a bully, but Will was none of these things. He was, in fact, one of the nicest kids I've ever met.


Whenever our paths crossed at school, he'd nod at me and say: "Hey, Coach," even though we'd never really met. He'd also say "hi" to the girls on my team (one of my girls practically fainted after he said hi to her. "Will knows my name!" she cried). If his teammates on the varsity team started to make fun of the kids on the lower level teams, he's just shake his head and say, "c'mon guys, just leave 'em alone."

During this time, there was another student at school named Ryan. Ryan was on the Cross Country team. Ryan wasn't very good, for he had Cerebral Palsy, a brain disorder in which a person cannot fully control his body.

Cross country practice consisted of running many, many laps around the school's track. Ryan was very slow, so he ran alone, far behind the rest of the team.

Will would also run laps to get into shape for basketball. One day, he saw Ryan running alone, so he decided to run with Ryan.

Soon, each day, Will would run a half lap with Ryan, then continue on his way.

After that, whenever Will saw Ryan at school, Will would give Ryan a little punch on the shoulder and say: "Hey Ryan, how's it going, man?"

Later that year a banquet was held for all of the school's basketball players. While the boy's coach was talking about his team, Ryan's dad suddenly stood up and interrupted him.

"No matter what kind of player Will is," he said, "he is alright by me. He is my son's friend. Because of that, my boy looks forward to going to school everyday, and that wasn't always true. If Will were to run for mayor today, he'd have my vote."

Will was a great player. He became well known because of his basketball skill, but he was genuinely popular because of the kind of person he was.

Will was such a good player that several colleges offered him scholarships (where the school pays for the player's education) in the hope that he would play basketball for them. Instead, true to his character, Will chose to go to Princeton, one of the most difficult schools in the country to get into and a school that didn't offer scholarships.

"I've always wanted to go to an Ivy League school," he said at the time.

While there, Will became a star basketball player, leading his team to an NCAA tournament appearance. He also played for the Princeton baseball team. Baseball was Will's second sport, but he worked as hard at it as he did at everything else.

Today, Will is an outfielder for the San Diego Padres.

The Power of the People

This week the people of the United States elected a president who ran a campaign unlike any seen before. While his opponent ran a campaign based on fear, Barack Obama ran a campaign based on the ideas of inclusion, cooperation, communication and hope. He ran a campaign in which he made every American feel that they had a voice, then did everything he could to insure that every American expressed that voice by making sure they registered to vote.

Everywhere he went, 10s of thousands of people came to hear him speak, because he made them feel included and important. When he was elected many of these people cried tears of joy.

When he appeared in Chicago to address the huge crowd gathered there, he said:

"This is your victory."

Instead of bragging or thumping his chest, he said:

"Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same ... pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long."

To his opponents, he said:

"And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too."

And, to the American people, he said:

"But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you."

The President of the United States of America is often viewed as "the most powerful man in the free world." Everything he's done so far shows that president-elect Obama understands the responsibility that comes with so much power. He also knows the true source of his power: it is the power of the people. All people, not just his people.

Obama wants to make America a country others aspire to be, a place which is admired and respected, not a country which is feared and hated.

We can all learn a lesson from this.

Halloween 2008