Finkel's Fast Five - Issue #3

February 16th, 2018

Thanks for opening! Let's get started:

Abraham Lincoln's birthday was this week and I've been fascinated with this photo of the items he had in his pockets when he was assassinated courtesy of Michael Beschloss (@beschlossDC). Two pairs of glasses, a pocket knife and all kinds of other regular stuff from 153 years ago. He was carrying the $5 bill around for ID, obviously. (That's a joke. The first $5 note had Alexander Hamilton on it. Lincoln didn't make it onto the bill until 1914).

Do you know where the largest casino in the world is? Any guesses? Well, I had the pleasure of playing blackjack and craps there this past weekend and if you guessed it's in the town of Thackerville, Oklahoma you'd be correct.. It's called the Winstar and it's bigger than any casino in Vegas, Atlantic City, Europe or anywhere else with 600,000 square feet of gaming. Who knew? They have a saying regarding going to other casinos after the Winstar: Once you go Thackerville, you never go back-erville. (No, they don't but if they want to use it they can have it for free.)  My former co-author and 3x NBA Slam Dunk Contest Champion, Nate Robinson appeared on one of my favorite podcasts, the FatPacks, this week to talk about the contest this upcoming Saturday night. He also discussed what it was like being Mr. Basketball and Mr. Football as a senior in high school in the state of Washington, what it felt like to throw down over Dwight Howard, block Yao Ming, and of course, inside info on the NBA Dunk Contest. Also, here's video of 5'7" Nate blocking 7'2" Yao.

I love omelettes and I love making omelettes and I came across this write-up of a 10-egg omelette masterpiece called The Maserati. The article is from dinedelish.com and it's worth a few seconds to check out the near dozen-egg beast that must weigh about 4 pounds. I occasionally make 5-egg omelettes and they'd look like, well, Nate Robinson standing next to Yao Ming (Ming being the Maserati in this analogy).   Once a month or so I like to try the Navy SEAL fitness requirements test as a single workout. I'm not a SEAL and don't think I could have been, but trying to perform the test is an interesting baseline for where I am compared to some of the best athletes in our military. There are minimum requirements, but those don't guarantee entry to the SEALS because competition is so tight. Minimum is the following, performed back-to-back: 500-yard swim in 12.5 minutes, 50 push-ups in 2 minutes, 50-curl ups in 2 minutes, 10 pull-ups in two minutes and a 1.5 mile run in 10.5 minutes.  That's more than doable. The 'Optimum Standards' are not: 500 yard swim in 8.5 minutes, 100 push ups in 2 minutes, 100 curl ups in 2 minutes, 20 pull ups in 2 minutes, 1.5 mile run in 8:50...all done back-to-back. Got it? Good. Go for it!  Have a great weekend and forget about basic, be optimal!  You can read previous FF5 Issues HERE  - Jon