💪Finkel's Fast Five 128 - July 10, 2020

Welcome to Finkel's Fast Five #128. Thanks for reading and subscribing!

 ONE

 SPORTS - What are sports? Good question. They're these live athletic competitions that humans used to compete in before 2020. They were fun. There are big, mainstream sports like football and basketball, but there are also really cool, totally unique sports like...  The ones featured in my new favorite short series, Home Games on Netflix. Each episode of home games does a deep dive into sports that are totally unique to certain areas of the world, like the Highland Games, Freediving, and my new favorite sport, Makepung Lampit, where dudes race on water buffaloes through floods of rice. Yup, it's kinda awesome. We didn't get an NBA Finals (and likely won't) but you can watch this.

TWO

 CRIME - I love it when a real-life crime story is better than anything in a movie (and will probably be turned into a movie). The latest piece I came across is courtesy of my friend, Steve Grad, one of the world's foremost authenticators of sports memorabilia, signatures and all kinds of cool stuff.  This story takes place in a huge barn outside of Detroit, involves millions of dollars of counterfeit paintings as well as fake sports memorabilia from Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig and more. The guy had a lathe and all the tools to create fake "used" bats from baseball legends and the whole thing is incredible. Check it out.

THREE

BOOKS - I recommended the Bruce Lee biography a few weeks ago and I've gone down a bit of a Bruce Lee rabbit hole. I'm absolutely fascinated with the guy and I found this interesting book that puts all of his teachings and thoughts in one place.  It's called Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living. The book is very basic, but it's got about 1,000 of Bruce Lee's quotes in it and if you read the biography and want some extra reading, or if you've decided to skip the bio and just want some of his wisdom, I highly recommend the book.

FOUR

 LOW TECH - My daughter is in what should now be called the pre-phone age, rather than the pre-teen age. She's 9 and wants a phone, but since there is zero reason whatsoever why she should have one, she's not getting one. BUT, we've wanted to give her some more latitude with walking the dog around the neighborhood and short bike rides...  ...and it would be nice if there was a solution where she could get in touch with us at any time, but also not need an iPhone 10. So, I went back in time and ordered $20 walkie-talkies this week and they have been a revelation. The kids love to play with them... And it allows us to let them take local walks/rides while staying in touch. Genius! These bad boys run on AAA batteries, work great and have a 3-mile radius.

FIVE

 A great quote about teaching:  “A teacher is never a giver of truth... he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst.”   – Bruce Lee

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