We did this on Saturday:
That's not my sign, but it should have been.
There were an astonishing number of people:
Over 5,000, easily, in a part of the state that leans fairly conservative.
This is the kind of thing I'd normally never do, because--as Groucho Marx so famously said--I'd never join a club that would have me as a member. But these are not normal times.
Leading off this week, an amazing collection: 11,000 public domain photographs of America's forgotten roadside attractions.
A long read about a serial romance scammer (the subject of a Prime Video documentary coming out next week): The Many Faces of Jason Porter.
Absolutely fabulous: A nasogenital tale A bizarre theory (and a gory surgery) in fin-de-siècle Vienna help us get a grip on how science and medicine actually work.
Detailed and terrific: How Pakistan fell in love with sushi.
This is a tremendous, painful read: My mother was a famous feminist writer known for her candour and wit. But she was also a fantasist who couldn’t be bothered to spend time raising me.
Amazing: 650-foot mega-tsunami sends seismic waves around the world, and satellites captured the action.
We shaped the past to suit our colonial needs: Archaeologists uncover massive 1,000-year-old Native American fields in Northern Michigan that defy limits of farming.
What a fantastic project: Cambridge mapping project solves a medieval murder.
Incredible: Scientists built a badminton-playing robot with AI-powered skills.
From Wally, and it's an excellent read: Why the Goodyear Blimp Hasn’t Been Replaced by Drones. I'd be willing to watch some of these: 10 Cancelled Sci-Fi Shows That Deserve a Reboot. This entire popcorn bucket craze is very strange: AMC Unveils Galactus-Themed Popcorn Bucket For The Fantastic Four: First Steps — and It's Huge. Lots of speculation here, but provocative: Could time travel tourism be the next space tourism? (op-ed).
Tim H. sent in a video about a man making an entire cabin by himself in the late 1960s. In Alaska!: Alone in the Wilderness, the story of Dick Proenneke.
From Chris M., a thoughtful and interesting essay: Why am I filled with nostalgia for a pre-internet age I never knew?
These were all taken from the course:
Eli 23.10 finished the 24k race in five hours (I can't remember the exact time). There were two climbs of over 3,000 feet, snow up to his knees in places, treacherous terrain in general, and he loved it all.
An interesting data point he shared: his threshold heart rate is 190 (the rate beyond which lactic acid starts to form). One, it's ridiculous that his threshold is so high, but also, his heart rate was at 188 for an hour and fourteen minutes of the race. Hard, in other words.
Norway is on my bucket list, and I hope we go together someday.
When Eli 23.10 was playing 16U hockey at the AAA level, he had a teammate, a defenseman.
The kid was tall, solid, and a great skater. He had an "advisor." He was selected to play in the Nations Cup (roughly equivalent to the youth version of the Four Nations Face-Off). His parents expected him to be drafted.
Aa a 16-year-old, he signed with Michigan State. He was the first on the team to commit to a college, and it was a big deal. At least three kids on Eli's team committed to Michigan State.
After 16U, he went to the USHL (Eli tried out for USHL and NAHL teams, but didn't make it. Goalies were set before tryouts, and the other goalies were basically practice dummies). He played in the USHL for four years. FOUR YEARS. Michigan State kept telling him to stay in the USHL for one more season.
By the time he started college, at twenty, he'd already been away from home for most of his teenage years.
He didn't start college at Michigan State. No, they burned him, and burned a slew of other kids who'd committed to them as well. He did get another Division One offer, from Miami of Ohio. It wasn't ideal, but it was still Division One, so he went.
He played, but the team was bad. 18-78-10 over three years bad. He played in fewer games each season ,too. It didn't seem like much fun. Still, though, Division One hockey player. That was always the dream.
This coming season, he's a senior.
The coach cut almost everyone on the team. Including him.
He'll graduate from college when he's 24. He retired from hockey. His body hurts all the time, every day.
Eli wanted to play in Division One very, very much. A few programs had interest in him, but it was never sustained interest.
He had to give up his dream. It was crushing. Then he turned it into the best thing that ever happened to him.
Went to the University of Michigan. Played in the highest level intramural league and had a blast. Went to Oxford. Had the year of his life. Came back and graduated, then returned to Oxford for grad school. This upcoming season will be his fourth (and last). It's not the same level of hockey as Division One--not even close--but he loves playing (and his teammates). He's been in epic games he'll never forget, having moments of a lifetime.
He's still 23 and has his master's degree. He'll have a doctorate at 26.
He reminds me of David Booth.
David Booth never played a game in the NBA, even though he attended multiple training camps over the years and was often the last player cut. He wound up playing in the CBA.
Oh, and France, Venezuela, Italy, the Philippines, Greece, and Japan.
In the foreign leagues he was a star, the best player on every team. It wasn't the NBA, but it was an incredible life experience.
Eli's played in England, Austria, and Switzerland during his time at Oxford. He's been MVP of his team all three years. He's had the best time of his life, even though it wasn't the life he expected.
This is a long-winded (sorry) way of saying we should all remember that our dreams aren't static. They evolve, and with hard work, they can be better, happier dreams than the ones we started with.
I want to be the way Eli is with his dreams. I'm not, but I'm trying.
Leading off this week, a wonderful and touching story of an 8-year-old boy who built his own arcade: Caine's Arcade.
This is a long and fascinating read: The curse of Toumaï: an ancient skull, a disputed femur and a bitter feud over humanity’s origins.
A bizarre story: How the Nazis' top interrogator was hired to work on Disney theme parks.
This explains so much of our current political climate: Greed is costly.
An excellent read: An 80,000-year history of the tomato.
It's important reading: Why incels take the “Blackpill”—and why we should care.
A professional soccer (non-soccer) player. What a story: Carlos Kaiser (footballer).
I can't begin to describe how satisfying it is to watch this video: Watch this pro build a cabin in the woods from scratch.
Only one of hundreds of examples: Millions of People Depend on the Great Lakes’ Water Supply. Trump Decimated the Lab Protecting It.
This is the second of an impeccable four-part series on the Digital Antiquarian (it's easy to navigate to the other episodes if you wish): The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 2: The Scandal.
A follow-up in reference to a post I made last week: Scientists decode the universal language pattern in 40,000 stories.
From Wally, and it's delightful: What I learned from reading Harlan Ellison. This show has a surprising amount of support: Wheel of Time fans band together to save show after cancellation – petition gets over 50,000 signatures.
From Jonathon W., the trailer to a Scottish Samurai movie (you read that right): Tornado - Official Trailer.
One of the things I do to maximize my step count each day is to park as far away from retail locations as possible.
Today, I'd had a walk, but parked in a Meijer (essentially, Target but with more groceries) parking lot so I'd have to walk a half a mile to Jimmy John's for a sandwich.
On the way, I passed an Arby's (huge parking lot--almost empty) and a Fazoli's (fast Italian--huge parking lot, almost empty).
There are thousands and thousands of fast food parking lots that size across the country. Burger King's parking lots, in particular, are so large it's comical.
No one goes to fast food places to eat inside anymore.
A few do (particularly at McDonald's and Chic-fil-A), but mostly, everyone uses the drive-through. The current fast food hotness in terms of franchise design is economical indoor footprints (Jimmy John's, Tropical Smoothie, etc.). How do these older companies unwind the ownership of thousands of restaurant locations with huge square footage? It can't be cheap to own them, but who would want them?
In a Sim City sense, all this land has been zoned commercial, but now there's far too much commercial zoning. Yet, you can't use the dying commercial spaces for housing. Unless, I guess, you get someone to build high-density housing (multi-story apartments).
It could take decades or longer to handle this. It's an urban mess.
Sneaky and brilliant: A Young Cooper’s Hawk Learned to Use a Crosswalk Signal to Launch Surprise Attacks on Other Birds.
A terrific long read about a prolific bank robber: The Hold-Up Artist.
And here's one about a prolific grifter who still hasn't been punished: All That Glitters.
From Max W., and of course Nietzsche was warped about this, too: Empathy can take a toll – but 2 philosophers explain why we should see it as a strength.
This is a moving read: ‘You can let go now’: inside the hospital where staff treat fear of death as well as physical pain.
An excellent profile of Magnus Carlsen: The Freestylist.
Stories told in film (DQ Film Advisor Ben Ormand alert!):Our narrative prison: The three-act ‘hero’s journey’ has long been the most prominent kind of story. What other tales are there to tell?
This is thought-provoking: Maximalisma: A professor endeavors to separate treasure from trash—before her children have to do it for her.
We clearly didn't pay attention: A deadly mission: how Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira tried to warn the world about the Amazon’s destruction.
We might be back to nine: Astronomers find evidence suggesting that our solar system has nine planets again.
From Wally, on the increasingly invasive world of book marketing: None of Your Business: Why Writers Shouldn’t Feel Obligated to Share Too Much. Not a surprise, but it's still embarrassing: Authors Are Accidentally Leaving AI Prompts In their Novels. If you ever wanted to be a moderator, here are some tips: A call for moderation (of panels). Boy, this is the truth: Why Silicon Valley’s Most Powerful People Are So Obsessed With Hobbits: Tech power players and the global far-right are learning all the wrong lessons from “The Lord of the Rings.”
