Finkel's Fast Five - Issue #27

August 3rd, 2018

I am about to enter a state of mind I like to call BookMode (or #BookMode if you're one of the cool kids) as I gear up for research, writing and interviews for my next big project. Excited to announce that this week we finalized a deal with Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, to publish the official Life of Dad book to be in stores next Father's Day. As many of you know, I co-host the Life of Dad Show twice a week on Facebook Live with my pal Art Eddy. We've been working behind the scenes to make this book a reality since early spring and, as Penny Lane would say, it's all happening. We have some HUGE names involved and many more details to come, but wanted to share the news with you guys first. Now on to the Five (and here's a video of the triple lindy because it's awesome)  Whether you're a super fan of The Office, a casual fan of The Office, or you're just starting to watch it on Netflix, you should buy this: Conference Room, Five Minutes: Ten Illustrated Essays About The Office by Shea Serrano (with amazing drawings by Arturo Torres). For those of you who are Shea fans or members of his FOH Army, this needs no introduction... If not, Serrano is a writer for The Ringer, a two-time New York Bestselling author and the foremost expert on pop culture minutiae (his words). This book is worth it for the section on Prison Mike alone, but Chapter 4: The Dwight Club was my personal favorite. The first rule about Dwight Club: You Do Not Talk About Dwight Club. It's only available for two more weeks, so get it now.  This guy is my new favorite follow on instagram BY FAR: His name is Mike Holston but he calls himself The Real Tarzan and he has every right to. Check out this video of him boxing with a real jaguar in a pool... Or this one where he lets a porcupine (yeah, a porcupine) crawl all over him. I could do this all day. Go to the guy's Instagram account and kill ten minutes. He's knowledgable and cool and his star is clearly rising.  The headline to this feature story is almost impossible not to click, so I did it for you and it's as good as advertised: The title: How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald's Monopoly Game and Stole Millions. See, I told you? How do you not click on that? The story was written by Jeff Maysh and the people involved, who feel like made up characters but are real (Geraldo Constantino was one preferred pseudonym), are impossible to resist. This could easily be an Aaron Sorkin movie one day and I can't recommend reading it enough. And in case you're wondering how many millions - it's $24 million in cash and prizes. Read it right here.  Sometimes, simplicity is best and for some reason this image has made me laugh all week: This is a photo Allen Iverson posted of his kids blasting him with silly string. Yes, THE Allen Iverson. The Answer... One of my favorite NBA Players of all time. Iverson feels like the LAST person on earth who would ever enjoy silly string, care about silly string or put up with the stringy stuff being sprayed in his face. The photo says it all.  A tremendously odd and absurd few sentences I read that is from a real scientific paper from the University of Oxford that explains what the paper is about: "What if the entire Earth was instantaneously replaced with an equal volume of closely packed, but uncompressed blueberries?" Answer: The Earth turns into "big, thick-skinned highbush blueberries" and not "wild, thin-skinned blueberries." - Rafi Letzter, Live Science.com  Have a great weekend and may you all live in a world with thick-skinned high bush blueberries and not the wild, thin-skinned kind!  Would you mind sharing this newsletter with some friends who you think will enjoy it? Thanks!

- Jon