Odds & Ends: November 13, 2026

Bolde “All-Steel” Shaker Bottle. Microplastics, and the variety of ills they may cause from hormone disruption to cancer, have been getting a lot of attention these last few years. There’s no avoiding plastic altogether, but if there are easy ways to swap it out of my life, I try to do so. A while back, I got thinking about the plastic shaker bottle I use to mix up my favorite preworkout. I didn’t love the idea of drinking out of that plastic vessel every day, so I went looking for an entirely non-plastic alternative. They don’t exist. There are ones out there where the bottom is steel, but the whole top is still plastic. The Bolde bottle gets you closer than that, though it’s still not 100% plastic free. While it bills itself as “the only all-steel shaker,” and most of the top is made of steel, the outside and lip of the drinking spout are still plastic. But it seems like it’s a pro to not have the liquid sitting in a plastic vessel, and especially not to have a shaker ball bouncing around inside one, potentially rubbing off the material. The mostly stainless steel construction also prevents odors. There are other bonuses: the shaker “ball” is built into the top, so it shakes silently. And the top fits more tightly than on my plastic bottles, which often suffered from a slight misalignment when screwed on, resulting in liquid flying everywhere when the bottle was shaken. But there are cons too: the bottle is heavy (naturally), and pricey ($55!). I don’t love this bottle, but I like it a little better than my plastic one, which it’s permanently replaced.

40-Somethings Are Having a Really Hard Time Admitting They Can No Longer See. According to this WSJ article, a lot of people in their 40s keep putting off reading glasses well after they’ve started needing them. I’m one of them. Or was one of them. For a while now, I’ve noticed that I’m having a harder time reading small print, especially in low light, like the directions for a medication. I’d usually bust out my smartphone and put the camera on it to magnify the writing on my screen. A few weeks ago, I had dinner with my sister and her family at a restaurant that was pretty dark. I was having a hard time reading the menu, so I asked my 50-year-old sister if I could borrow her pink-colored readers. I decided I should probably get my own pair, because, well, I’m at that stage of life now. So I bought a pair. Need to get an eyeglass chain so I can keep them around my neck for easy access and really lean into middle-age-dom. 

Bear Brawl by Jon Finkel. Way back in the day, Jon Finkel wrote some guest articles for AoM, such as “Manly Rules for Naming Man’s Best Friend.” Since then, he’s written several sports biographies, including Macho Man, “Mean” Joe Greene, and Jocks in Chief. His latest book, out this week, is his first novel, and it’s about a guy who fights a bear. Brick Bridger, a former college wrestling champ who won eight UFC fights before retiring, heads into the Arkansas woods to go after the rogue black bear that killed his mother and put his brother in a wheelchair. And he plans to take revenge by fighting it. It’s a really fun read. Like a Jack Reacher novel, but the bad guy is a bear instead of an arms dealer. Also, be sure to check out Jon’s newsletter Books & Biceps where he talks books and pumping iron. It’s one of my favorites. 

“Social Courtesy.” I love old etiquette and “social guidance” films from the 1950s. Back in 2013, we put together a list of 12 of these vintage instructional films worth watching. Since compiling the list, I came across another that deserves a spot on it: “Social Courtesy.” In it, a moody teenager named Bill has been invited to a costume party at Martha’s house and dreads taking his date, Carol. Over the course of the party, he learns that when he acts courteously toward people, they act courteously back, and everybody ends up happier. Coronet, the studio behind it, was founded by David Smart, who also co-founded Esquire. Is it cheesy? You bet. But I’m an unabashed fan of these old-school films. I appreciate their earnestness in a time of tiresome irony. They even inspired the instructional AoM videos we used to do, where the narrator talks to our own hapless Bill.

On our Dying Breed newsletter, we published Are We Too Involved in Our Kids’ Lives? and Sunday Firesides: Never Past Feeling.

Quote of the Week

‘Restless’: this is the word that concerns us. Restlessness is the characteristic distinguishing human beings from animals. Restlessness is the power that creates history and culture. Restlessness is the root of every spirit that uplifts itself toward morality; restlessness is—let us go ahead and say it—the most profound meaning and the lifeblood of all religion. Restlessness—not in any transitory human sense, in which all we find is nervousness and impatience—no, restlessness in the direction of the eternal.

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer