💪Finkel's Fast Five 124 - June 12, 2020

Welcome to Finkel's Fast Five #124. Thanks for reading and subscribing!

 ONE

 BOOKS - I love the phrase 'one of one' when describing people because in the history of modern culture, there are so few humans who break through and resonate forever. Houdini was one of one. Babe Ruth was one of one. Muhammad Ali was one of one. And Bruce Lee was one of one.  I thought the new '30 for 30' documentary, Be Water, on Lee was decent, but not great, which is why I ordered Matthew Polly's definitive biography of Lee while I was watching it. When I was writing for Muscle & Fitness we put out 12 new issues a year but we used to joke that we really only put out ten, because two covers a year were reserved for Arnold (definitely a one of one) and Bruce Lee. Lee covers were always popular. His fighting. His fitness. His philosophy. His tragedy. It's compelling stuff and so far, this biography is too.

TWO

 FITNESS - One of the more fascinating aspects of being a parent is following the mini-obsessions your kids take up seemingly out of nowhere. My son is currently in the midst of a full-blown love affair with track and field, despite the fact that we've never been to a meet and he's never run on a team and he's too young to have ever really watched an Olympics. Buuut, we have YouTube.  And lately my guy could watch 100 meter and 200 meter races all day. Not surprisingly, he loves Usain Bolt and we've watched this video of him scorching the field with a 9.58 100 meter a dozen times. Because of this, I surprised my son and bought him some relay batons and I gotta say, the results have been great. Asking your kid to go for a run? No shot. Ask him to run some sprints where you hand off a baton? He's in. I wish I thought of this before. If you're looking for a new thing to do to get exercise with your kids, I highly recommend getting some batons. I got these for twelve bucks. Just be prepared for a lot of, "Dad, can we run relays now?"

THREE

SPORTSWRITING - Back when Sports Illustrated was a big deal (a whopping ten years ago) Jeff Pearlman was one of their featured writers. He's also written a half-dozen New York Times bestselling books, including Gunslinger (about Brett Favre), Sweetness (on Walter Payton), Showtime (on the 80s Lakers) and Football for a Buck about the USFL.  For those new to this e-mail (and welcome!) I host a show called Lunch Break with Art Eddy on Facebook Live every Monday at 1pm Central. This week we had Pearlman on to talk about his upcoming book, Three Ring Circus, which is about the Shaq, Kobe, Phil Jackson Lakers, as well as writing, fatherhood, and vintage jerseys. We had a good time and I think you'll enjoy it.

FOUR

 GOOFY - If you close your eyes right now and I asked you to remember the original Super Mario Brothers theme music, could you? There's no age or demo limit on this. My son knows it because Mario is still a big part of the NES universe and I know it (and likely so do you) because it was a seminal theme song of our childhood.   What if I told you that a world class violinist decided to learn the theme song and play it while standing next to the original demo of Super Mario Bros.? Is that something you'd be interested in? The whole thing is 33-seconds but it is whimsical and delightful and I promise will put a little smile on your face. Especially the jumping sound and the smashing mushrooms sound. Here it is.

FIVE

 A quote about the benefit of walking, something everyone is doing A LOT more of lately:  “Walk out your troubles. There is no malady of mind or body that you can't walk away... Inaction gives you the blues and a poor stomach. The two together make bad nerves, bad tempers and bad characters. Walking will cure all."  – Edward Payson Weston   SUPER, SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: To make sure you keep getting the FF5, please add [email protected] to your address book or whitelist us.  P.S. - HERE'S A GREAT FATHER'S DAY BOOK SPECIAL:  Don't forget to order JOCKS IN CHIEF for the sports fan / U.S. history buff in your life. It's 10% off on Amazon right now!  AND DON'T FORGET TO FORWARD TO A FRIEND: FORWARD TO A FRIEND HERE.   WAS THIS E-MAIL FORWARDED TO YOU? SIGN-UP HERE

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