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You’ve probably heard some version of the oft-quoted saying, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now." Well, if you want to up your game a little bit, maybe the second-best time to plant a Miyawaki forest (or a “pocket forest”) is now. (via Kottke)
A few years ago I read Brad Balukjian’s book The Wax Pack, in which he opens a 29-year-old pack of baseball cards and tracked down each of the 15 players represented on the cards to find out how they’re doing—which is just a brilliant idea for a book. So when I saw this story about a 1998 baseball card with two rookies on it, one of which was seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday, and the other a guy who never played a Major League game, my interest was of course piqued. [GIFT LINK]
My friend Alex sent me this Atlantic story titled “I Found It: The Best Free Restaurant Bread in America” and I could probably bestow upon it one of many descriptives saying it’s great writing that is exhaustively researched, but I will just say it is the funniest goddamn thing I have read in a long time, and I get the feeling that Caity Weaver probably had as much fun writing some of these sentences as I had reading them. [GIFT LINK]
I loved this thoughtful illustrated essay on cars and youth and scars and aging and machines, especially the last page (thanks, Hilary).
Legendary photographer and verified nice guy Mikey Schaefer is giving away free prints of a few of his iconic photos of Dean Potter to raise money for The Access Fund and Friends of YOSAR (the bigger your donation, the bigger your print) until May 12th or until he gets overwhelmed.
This was a fun and touching thread of replies to scroll through: People responded to the prompt “Question: how rich are you? You can’t mention money.”
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Next month is Pride Month, and if you'd like to donate to your local LGBTQ+ organization, that's a wonderful idea. If you'd like to indirectly donate to MY local LGBTQ+ center, you can do that by purchasing one of these t-shirts—100 percent of the profits are donated to The Center in Missoula:
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Writer, artist, filmmaker, columnist for Outside Magazine. My newsletter about creativity, adventure, and enthusiasm goes out to 15,000+ subscribers every week.
Friday Inspiration 538 Fred Again.. uploaded the audio from every concert on his USB002 tour (October 3 2025-February 27 2026), and at 108 hours, it is probably the longest YouTube “video” in history (there’s no real video, just a static image). I am only about five hours into it but have told more than one friend that it it my favorite live album ever. (video) My friend Anna sent me this: A website that takes the current weather conditions of where you live (or whatever city you enter in the...
How Do We Feel About Waving At Other Runners? A few weeks ago, while running on the multi-use asphalt path near our house, as another runner approached from the opposite direction, I decided to wave at them. They waved back, we both kept on running, and a few minutes after that, I decided I was going to be A Person Who Waves At Fellow Runners. Surely, there are only two types of runners in this world, right? I live in what is categorized as a Small City, population about 75,000 people. It’s...
Friday Inspiration 537 Who among us has not wondered, “Can my friends and I carry an entire spaghetti dinner into this Major League Baseball stadium in ziploc bags?” Thanks to Hannah sending me this video, I know the answer. (video) [Related: The story about this video in the Milwaukee Record.] [Also related: These people looked up the carry-in policies for every Major League Baseball stadium] [Also related: The New York Times wrote about all of this [GIFT LINK] If you watched and loved the...