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​Friday Inspiration 532​
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AS YOU MIGHT BE AWARE: I created an online writing course called How To Tell One Story, and every few months, I open up 25 spots. It is a do-it-at-your-own-pace, e-mail course, with 12 lessons delivered over the span of 6 weeks. Each email is a 3- to 5-minute read, with an illustration, a quick video, and a short writing exercise at the end. More than 225 people have now completed the course, and the next registration window is open as of this morning, so if you're interested, read more and/or grab one of the remaining spots here. (The registration period runs April 17-25, or until the spots are full)

Here's a little graphic I made about the course:

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This film has been around for a couple years, but when YouTube fed me the title, “The Granny Grommets,” I thought, “Well, with a title like that, this film is guaranteed to go in tomorrow’s newsletter unless it’s a real piece of shit.” I am happy to report that it is in fact quite wonderful (and happens to be filmed in Albany, Australia, where my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were married in 2018). (video)

Were you aware that there are “pilot-to-ground” text messages? I was not until yesterday, when I read this Defector article, which includes several pilot-to-ground texts, including this one: “HI. PLZ BE AWARE CM AND FA REPORTING SWEATY SOCK SMELL IN CABIN. RQST NEXT STEPS OVER TWO FLIGHTS STILL PERSISTANT MANY THANKS” [GIFT LINK]​

My friend Brian sent me this piece about a new biography of Larry McMurtry last week, remembering that I had recently mentioned that I finally read McMurtry’s famous book, the 864-page Lonesome Dove. The book, Western Star: The Life and Legends of Larry McMurtryby David Streitfeld, sounds pretty interesting,but my favorite part of the article was this two-sentence snippet: "Self-mockingly sporting a sweatshirt emblazoned with 'Minor Regional Novelist,' he tended to belittle the merits of his own award-winning writing. As late as 2009, he was concluding, 'Little of my work in fiction is pedestrian, but, on the other hand, none of it is really great.'"

In other book news, Raziq Rauf’s new book, A Celebration of the World of Running, Exploring the Culture, History, Brands, Races and People Behind It, just came out. Raz thinks and writes a lot about running culture around the world, and I think maybe his past life as a music journalist informs that—more “what does it mean?” than “what kind of shoes should we buy?” Also, my favorite phrase he’s written might be “Capitalism is not culture,” which, if I interpret it correctly, means we should look past what the big companies/big dollars tell us is important and look for the soul in the things we do. Anyway, the book is really pretty, with a ton of great photos sprinkled among Raz’s essays.

Steve Kamb mentioned this essay in the comments of last week’s Friday Inspiration, and as I subscribe to Steve’s very excellent newsletter and generally respect his taste in written things, I figured it might be worth checking out. It’s titled “The Art of Giving Up,” and it is not as nihilistic as you might imagine—more about how it’s sensible to change our perspective as we get older, and how “giving up” can actually point us in a better direction.

I am just barely aware of the trend of “Looksmaxxing” but I think this idea of “looksmidding” is much more sensible.

Artist Maarten Baas recorded more than 1,000 volunteers coordinated to move as a giant clock’s hands over a 12-hour period (including one person who was the second hand), and now the video functions as a real clock at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

When Zoë and I seek out guests to interview on The Trailhead podcast, I’d like to think we try to find interesting people who happen to also run ultramarathons—at least that was the case with our interview with Rochelle Bilow, who writes romance novels and is a longtime food writer (for Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Serious Eats, etc.). We went deep on Vitamix blenders and toaster ovens, what makes a good romance novel, and also talked about running.

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