ISSUE #61 - March 29th, 2019

FF5 MUG WINNERS!: Thank you to everyone who forwarded the FF5 last week and congratulations to our winners... Yes, I said winners, plural. The participation was awesome so I decided to draw two names out of my 15-year-old Red Sox hat: Mark S. and Marlin C... You win! I will be in touch this week. You'll be sipping delicious warm beverages out of your FF5 mug in no time. On to the FF5...

ONE

COMEDY - Hollywood writer Ed Solomon took to Twitter on the 3rd anniversary of Garry Shandling's death to share a 25-year-old inside joke between them that is brilliant and wonderful.  Solomon wrote Men in Black, the Bill and Ted movies and worked with Shandling on several of his projects. I read this early in the week and it stuck with me and I'm tempted to steal some of the best lines here to tease it but you know what, if you love comedy and you got how brilliant Shandling was, you won't want to miss reading this. It's perfect.

TWO

 PROTEIN - Last week in the FF5 I wrote about lunch habits and mentioned how I love PB&J (read it here) and lo and behold, one of my favorite supplement companies just released a PB&J protein bar and it's spectacular.  Chef Robert Irvine is not only one of the most jacked 53-year-olds you'll ever see and the host of Restaurant: Impossible, he also has a line of protein products that are usually insanely good. They teased a new flavor of their bar about a month ago and just revealed the flavor is PB&J. The bars came this week and, well, they honestly taste just like a PB&J, but packed with 30 grams of protein. Love these things.

THREE

MUSIC - I'll let the title of this next one speak for itself, I Watched DMX Perform at a Steakhouse in my Local Mall and it was Everything I Hoped It Would Be and More:  Clemin Durant is a podcaster and blogger for Barstool Sports and this first-person piece is a nice little trip down the DMX rabbit hole of fame, nostalgia, absurdity and not knowing for hours on end whether or not X will, in fact, give it to ya. I think you need to be at least an 8 out of 10 on the scale of DMX fandom to truly appreciate this piece, and since I'm on the high side of that and I know how it's goin' down, I loved it.

FOUR

BOOKS - Not only is The Library Book by Susan Orlean the most perfectly named and cleverly-named book of the last ten years, it's also one of the best.  My introduction to Orlean came from the uniquely excellent movie Adaptation, starring Nic Cage playing Charlie Kaufman (and his twin) as a screenwriter trying to adopt Orlean's book The Orchid Thief into a movie. I picked up Orlean's new book because I loved the title and in about 10 pages I found myself totally fascinated and invested in the inner workings of a library, which is no small feat. Also, she's a towering literary talent and easily one of the best writers we have right now. I won't try to explain the book other than to say just give it five pages and you'll be in.

FIVE

A TREMENDOUS QUOTE ABOUT JOURNALISM (SIDE NOTE: I met with journalism students at TCU this week in their Bob Schieffer School of Journalism and they have a great entryway dedicated to Mr. Schieffer's accomplishments. Never knew much about him, but he's lived quite a life. This quote was on the wall):  "Independently gathered, accurate information that citizens can compare to the government's version of events is as necessaray to democracy as the right to vote.”  - Bob Schieffer, on the wall of the entrance into the Bob Schieffer School of Journalism at TCU

As always, e-mail me (reply to this e-mail) or hit me on Twitter HERE with any questions, comments or ideas for the FF5!  AND HUGE NEWS!!!  Mark Cuban has agreed to endorse our upcoming Life of Dad book... So, you know, we've got the Dallas Mavericks and Shark Tank crew behind us, which is amazing. Check out his endorsement blurb below and please, PRE-ORDER THE BOOK by CLICKING ON THE IMAGE: