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​Friday Inspiration 543​

I don’t know how the algorithm served this guy’s videos to me, but they’re almost all about 60 seconds long and it’s extremely refreshing to watch something aesthetic and contemplative, compared to all the 60-second social videos that I usually see. (video)

Boy did I get sucked into this story in which a guy living in a pretty nice neighborhood notices a woman living in her car across the street and decides to go talk to her and see how she’s doing. It keeps getting better, in my opinion. (via Kottke)

I attended TrailCon in Tahoe last week, and while I was standing in line at Coffeebar waiting to order, Rachel Entrekin, overall winner and course record holder of the Cocodona 250 and now very famous ultrarunner, made my week by recognizing me as “the guy who draws all those comics.” I almost retired, but instead made some semi-awkward conversation in which I said something like, “Congratulations on, you know, everything.” (I mean, she was on Good Morning America a few weeks ago). Like this newsletter, Rachel is also sponsored by Precision Fuel & Hydration, which just launched a new watermelon flavored chew, which is, if I understand correctly, created for Rachel. I do not think the watermelon chews will enable me to run 250 miles in just over 56 hours and look fresh as a daisy crossing the finish line, but they are pretty tasty [this link will give you 15% off your first PFH order of 2026].

We interviewed Dillon Osleger on The Trailhead podcast a couple weeks ago, and we talked about lots of things, including his new book Trail Work: Restoring the Paths and Stories of America's Public Lands. One of my favorite parts of the interview was asking him to tell us about how he is able to figure out the date of a piece of old barbed-wire fencing by matching it to a barbed-wire pattern in the barbed-wire fencing patent book, which I find endearingly nerdy and phenomenally interesting. Of course that’s only one of the interesting things in his book, which is also a real treat for map geeks like myself.

I know Father’s Day was almost two weeks ago, which was when this McSweeney’s piece, Unsung Heroes Of Fatherhood, came out, but it’s still hilarious no matter what time of year it is.

I am not caught up to be ready to watch the final season of The Bear, but I loved reading this Eater piece on What ‘The Bear’ Did Right, According to Industry Experts—i.e. “restaurants can be chaotic, but they’re not always THAT chaotic.”

Sometimes I read artist statements in which the artist says that a particular piece of work is intended to encourage the viewer to question something deeper, or that the work represents the human relationship to something, or something like that, and they’re always interesting. But sometimes I think, “Yeah, and also, it’s just fun to say, ‘Hear me out: what if we built a replica of a corner store and put it in the lake?’” And then they do it.

It’s crazy to think that the show Jackass is 25+ years old now. I’ve never looked back on it and thought about it too much—I just thought it was a fun show about guys doing dumb stunts that was perfect entertainment for me when I was in my early 20s. But I read this piece about the making of the new movie Jackass: Best and Last, and now I’m thinking maybe there was something more to it all along—like maybe part of what people loved about it was that these guys had a real friendship. As Alan Siegel writes, “It is the 21st century’s purest depiction of American male friendship. These idiots so clearly love one another, even when they’re smacking each other in the face with a giant hand."

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I was hustling into the bread section of our local grocery store a couple weeks ago and I almost ran smack into a guy wearing this shirt, which was the first time I'd ever seen one in the wild. I just pointed at it and said, "I designed that shirt," and we had a nice little conversation. (I believe the shirt can also be a conversation starter even if you did not design it)

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