Larry Meets Lynne!

I feel like I just died and went to heaven. Fifteen minutes ago I was
chatting with Lynne Cox. What an absolutely wonderful and amazing
person. She actually asked me if I had any advice about how to further
push limits in cold water swimming, which gave me a wonderful
opportunity to hold forth in my classic, know-it-all, professorial
manner on the virtues of the mitochondria in brown adipose tissue and
their role in thermoregulation. Gave her a recent (2005) review paper
on the subject of the energetic costs of maintaining body temperature
in a cold environment. Chatted about Lewis Gordon Pugh, who was
credited with "breaking" her Antarctic swimming record (he swam
slightly further south than Lynne did, but only went HALF as far and
spent only HALF as much time in the water). Also chatted about my 92
y.o. Dad and the value of swimming with respect to vigorous longevity.
I even got so carried away that I found myself relating my own exploits
in the winter waters off Seal Beach. She was so nice; she didn't roll
her eyes once. Of course, I asked if I could have my picture taken with
her, so here it is:

http://weisenthal.org/swimming/larry_meets_lynne.jpg