ISSUE #68 - May 17th, 2019

ONE

FITNESS - The man who plays The Mountain in Game of Thrones is 6'9" 380 pounds. And now there's a new bodybuilder/strongman/actor who makes him look like a hill.  Introducing my new favorite follow on Instagram, Olivier Richters, AKA, the Dutch Giant, who is 7'2" tall, weighs 330 pounds and is flat out jacked. His feed is filled with him flexing next to other "giant dudes" like Mr. Olympias and boxers and making them look like a 5th grader who wandered into an NFL locker room. Here's the shot of him next to The Mountain.

TWO

 JOURNALISM - Jackie MacMullan is one of my all-time favorite sportswriters. I grew up reading her in the Boston Globe and she's one of the most well-respected, well-liked writers we have. She was also a solid college hoops player, has a great sense of humor and tells phenomenal stories.  Louisa Thomas recently made Jackie the subject of The New Yorker Interview and it was a truly enjoyable read, including several cool anecdotes about some of the biggest names in hoops and personal stories about Chauncey Billups, her thoughts on Josh Beckett and more. A terrific interview on a terrific subject that you can read here.

THREE

STUFF - The final end caps at grocery stores and 7-11s and convenience stores were built for me. I am the ultimate "oh this is only $2 I'll try it" guy when it comes to gum, mints, candy, snacks... You name it and I'll impulse buy it.  This week I grabbed a cool-looking pack of mints because the mints looked to be the size of a quarter and they even had someone's head emblazoned on them. Also, they're from a really old company that I'd never heard of, which is a very high-ranking feature on the impulse buy attractiveness scale. They're called Wilhelmina Mints. They've been around since 1892, they were originally made for the Dutch Royal family and you'll feel like a king when you chew one. Not really. But they are good and HUGE. Like 8 times the size of a Tic Tac or something.

FOUR

NOSTALGIA - There is a lot of talk lately about athletic "unicorns"...and it's usually about an NBA star who seemingly is more athletic and more skilled than anyone who has come before him. Soon-to-be #1 overall NBA Draft pick, Zion Williamson is one dude. Kevin Durant was another. The Greak Freak is another.  For me, the first guy who ever felt like he was just too big and too strong and too talented for anyone to guard him was The Admiral, David Robinson. Robinson was 7'1", moved and ran like a guard and was also built like Bruce Lee. He was what a sports laboratory would have created if they were designing NBA players. I did a little searching and I found this highlight video on YouTube. The full speed dunk on Michael Ansley at the 28-second mark says it all. 

FIVE

A TREMENDOUS QUOTE THAT SIMPLIFIES LIFE:  “All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us." - J.R.R. Tolkien  This quote is so short and so plain and yet it is brilliant. It really is everything. You've got time on this earth. What are you going to do with it?