💪Finkel's Fast Five 122 - May 29, 2020

Welcome to Finkel's Fast Five #122. Thanks for reading and subscribing!

 ONE

 DOCUMENTARIES - I am completely and totally fascinated by big wave surfing. The idea that there are six-foot-tall athletes who travel the world in search of 40 and 50-foot waves that they can ride on their 8' or 10' fiberglass boards is ludicrous. And the fact that they live to tell about it is even more insane.  My new favorite documentary on the subject is White Rhinos, which won every single surf film award last year. It follows Bruce Irons, Nathan Fletcher, Mark Healey and some of the other big wave riders as they criss cross the world in search of swells that produce wave anomalies so massive and scary they may never occur again. They call these waves, White Rhinos. If you want to see what humans are capable of on the water with nothing but guts and grit, you'll love this.

TWO

 FITNESS - From a surfing documentary about guys who feel indestructible... to those of us with tricky backs who know we're one quick sock pull or toy pick-up from tweaking our back and being in pain for a week. Something like 80% of adults over 40 experience regular or intermittent lower-back issues. They suck.  I had a minor twinge last week from, of all things, picking up a hose outside. It weighed nothing. But that doesn't matter... I tried all of my usual stretches, routines, poses, whatever and nothing was undoing the back ding. Of course, once I started searching on Google a zillion products popped up in my feed and on a whim I tried one. And... I can't even believe I'm typing this... But it worked. Really. It's a simple apparatus for like $30 called SolidBack. Lie on it 5 minutes twice a day. I don't know if it's a cure, but it got me over this ding in one day. My wife is tired of hearing me talk about it, so now I can pass it on to you. Here it is.

THREE

BASEBALL - I'm a sucker for trick shots or goofy sports feats of any kind, really... And when those tricks are done in a sport by someone considered one of the best IN that sport, I'm even more of a sucker.  Like the time Ichiro stood four baseball bats up on home plate and from second base threw four straight balls (I guess they'd be strikes) that knocked down each bat one at a time. It's an awesome 15 second highlight which I ran into this week and reminded me that there was a time when I loved baseball and stars like Ichiro. What a rocket he had. Check it out. And then, honestly, think about how hard that has to actually be to go four-for-four and not miss a single bat.

FOUR

 WRITING - Did you know that very recently the entire internet was almost destroyed by a virus and one person, a 22-year-old kid, all by himself, stopped the largest cyber attack the world had ever seen? Then he got arrested by the FBI.  I know next to nothing about the coding and software and HTML and C++ and the dark web and everything else that runs behind Amazon and Twitter and e-mail and the entire online ecosystem. But there are people... not many... who have a complete mastery of the entire system and how it works. And this kid, a genius and prodigy, Marcus Hutchins, is one of them. And he seems to have saved 'online' for all of us. Terrific story here by Andy Greenberg for Wired Magazine.  FIVE

 A solid quote about geniuses:  “When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."  – Jonathan Swift  SUPER, SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: To make sure you keep getting the FF5, please add [email protected] to your address book or whitelist us.  AND DON'T FORGET TO FORWARD TO A FRIEND: FORWARD TO A FRIEND HERE.   WAS THIS E-MAIL FORWARDED TO YOU? SIGN-UP HERE

BONUS TRiCK SHOT

Check out the ridiculous trick shot I hit on my driveway this week that my son's goofy brain came up with... Dribble the basketball with a shovel and then take an overhead, backwards shot with the shovel. Of course... I still hit it. Watch the amazing feat here.

Also, many of you enjoyed my Meathead Movie Home Workouts. I combined all four of them into this really cool e-book PDF that you can download for free right here.

THE PERFECT FATHER'S DAY PRESENT:  Your dad or husband probably likes sports. And they probably like US History.  And they've probably wondered which president was the most athletic.   So they'd love the book I wrote breaking down every single president's athletic ability, from Washington to Taft to Trump. 44 Essays. 1 Winner.  It's called JOCKS IN CHIEF: The Ultimate Countdown Ranking the Most Athletic Presidents, from the Fight Crazy to the Spectacularly Lazy  You can buy it right here.

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