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​Friday Inspiration 536​

MY BOOK ULTRA-SOMETHING turned two years old on Thursday, so to celebrate that, I’m making the ebook $2 for two days (actually, two and a half days). You can buy it at Gumroad for $2 through 5 p.m. MST Sunday, May 17 at this link.

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I don’t know how the algorithm decided to deliver this to me, but I deeply appreciate whatever equations guessed that I would like to listen to Tracy Morgan delivering a very unhinged breakdown of what goes on in The Empire Strikes Back, over clips from the movie (video)

I have maybe a 3 or 4/10 love for Costco, far below that of my dad, who probably has more of a 7/10 score for his love for Costco, and my friend Skander, who is a 10/10 guy (or at least 9/10). I found out about this essay about Costco via Lyz Lenz’s Men Yell At Me newsletter, in which she said, “He writes about it with a removed detachment like he thinks he's better than the thing he is. Sir, love your hot dog like the rest of them! You aren't better." I’ll just say I enjoyed the writing, which includes bangers like this: “Every phase of life can be shopped for at Costco. Where else can you purchase a wedding ring, a baby carrier, and a casket?”

Newsletter sponsor Precision Fuel and Hydration scored a pretty big proof of concept this past week when Rachel Entrekin won the Cocodona 250 outright, beating everyone in the field (and ending up all over the news including Good Morning America). They’re celebrating by making commemorative t-shirts, party shirts, and sun hoodies—which are the exact same sun hoody she was wearing when she crossed the finish line, with a crown graphic on the back. I have no illusions that the sun hoody will help me run anywhere near as fast as Rachel Entrekin, but I pre-ordered one anyway.

My friend Anna Brones (who is a guest on an upcoming episode of My Favorite Things) wrote this newsletter about her mom, Britta, who shared 11 pieces of creative advice from her lifelong practice of making art (including "Perfect is boring" and "Make your whole house your creative studio”).

I check Threads every Thursday to see if I can find anything quickly digestible and worth sharing in this newsletter, and within a couple minutes yesterday I found this gem by Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal), which you absolutely must scroll through to the end to see the last photo or you will not experience anywhere near the amount of joy I did.

​This statue is called Electricitate, and is a monument to electricity atop the Vidraru Dam in Romania, and it is a) 60+ years old and b) rad. Also, the website for it (translated to English by Google Translate) says “The statue is one of the most important tourist attractions in Muntenia.”

I’m sure this McSweeney’s piece, “Math Problems For Moms,” was timed for Mother’s Day, but I just read it it yesterday and as a dad (of only one kid!), I laughed several times. People describe kids as “innocent,” and I think that can be accurate, but sometimes I say to Hilary, “Can you imagine living with absolutely no concept of time?”

I had a conversation with my friend Jonathan a couple years ago during which he said something like “Why does everything have to be ‘tactical’?” And joked about a “tactical sweater,” which, sure enough, on the phone with him, I googled, and found that one (or more?) existed. So I appreciated this piece in the New York Times Magazine about the use of the word (overuse?) in marketing everything to men (or, I guess anyone who's really into tactics?). [GIFT LINK]

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