Reading recos (and one movie) for frantic relaxation as summer ends
Like it or not, the real world is creepin’ up on you. Enjoy what little remains.
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All work and no play ...
You’re not alone if you just looked at your calendar and realize summer’s almost over, and all you’ve done is stare at Team Sync Zooms where that jackass Chet launders intern ideas. God Chet sucks.
Grim. But we can help.
Next week when you call out sick in a frantic bid to cram in all the relaxing you haven’t done, poke through this list of totally non-work related stuff to take your mind of Chet. What a tool, that guy.
1. Nothing gold can stay
Here’s how a hotbed of innovation stands at the brink of Office Space-like self parody.
"Google has 175,000+ capable and well-compensated employees who get very little done quarter over quarter, year over year.
Like mice, they are trapped in a maze of approvals, launch processes, legal reviews, performance reviews, exec reviews, documents, meetings, bug reports, triage, OKRs, H1 plans followed by H2 plans, all-hands summits, and inevitable reorgs.
The mice are regularly fed their “cheese” (promotions, bonuses, fancy food, fancier perks) and despite many wanting to experience personal satisfaction and impact from their work, the system trains them to quell these inappropriate desires and learn what it actually means to be “Googley” — just don’t rock the boat."
2. Nothing gold can stay, Part II
Once upon a time Hipstimatic was a BFD. Ever wonder why it fell apart? Wonder no more.
"If Lucas Buick’s company Hipstamatic is on the verge of bankruptcy, you couldn’t tell by the dinner spread. It’s mid-September and we’re at the Isola restaurant in the Mondrian Soho, an expensive hotel-cum-lounge where you’re never quite sure you’re wearing the right style of Warby Parkers. Under the airy space’s glass ceiling and sparkling chandeliers, Buick and “director of fun” Mario Estrada knock back espresso martinis and old-fashioneds, while digging into tuna and pine nut crudos and fennel sausage pizza with herbed ricotta–delicious fare just begging to be photographed, filtered, and shared with friends.
This is it. We’re clearly falling apart,” says Buick, laughing. “If this is the last supper, then I wish we had a bigger table.”
3. This is what happens in hell, probably
It's a race are tough that in the first 25 years they were held, only 10 runners finished. And it's almost impossible to get into.
4. We’re big in Zimbabwe
One of the most popular exports to sub-Saharan Africa is American country music. This piece explains why.
In early July, a Twitter account called The Zimbabwean posted a thread highlighting the popularity of country music across Africa. The posts included videos – mostly phone footage from bars and weddings – that persuasively made the case for the claim. A man in a cowboy hat moonwalking to Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler; a group of women blissfully line-dancing to Kenyan country star Sir Elvis covering Wagon Wheel, a 2013 hit for Darius Rucker.
These snapshots of country music woven into the fabric of everyday African life sparked a nearly unanimous response: surprise and delight.
5. This is Crowe, Crowe good
Here’s everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Fleetwood Mac, straight from the source by the undisputed king of rock journalism.
"A fully booked fall tour was canceled, and there, while films like Squirm and Dick City played next door, Fleetwood Mac started the mixing process. As the songs took shape, the album began to sound like True Confessions: the band’s three writers – Christine McVie, Nicks and Buckingham – were all writing about their crumbled relationships."
6. The Hamptons’ creepiest neighbor ever
Listen to this before you complain about the guys in the rental next door blaring DMB while doing keg stands.
"Veteran journalist Joe Nocera’s neighbor in the Hamptons was a therapist named Ike. Ike counted celebrities and Manhattan elites as his patients. He’d host star-studded parties at his eccentric vacation house. But one summer, Joe discovered that Ike was gone and everything he’d thought he’d known about his neighbor -- and the house next door -- was wrong."
7. 'The best TV show that’s ever been’
That’s Amy Poehler’s verdict on Cheers. This oral history of the show is filled with gems like this recollection from Kirstie Alley:
"It was a boys' club, and I do well in boys' clubs. Woody and I instantly hit it off. I was married, but he would show up at my house sometimes and stay over. One night he brought this girl to bang, and then in the middle of the night he decided he didn't want to, so he was knocking on my bedroom door: "Kirs? Kirs? Can you talk to me a minute? I'm just not into this chick." I said, "Woody, you have to take responsibility. I can't coach you into sleeping with her, but you need to go back there, dude." I think she was in the bedroom crying while we were chatting about this."
8. Bridge in troubled water
An inside look at a cheating scandal that shook the world of professional contract bridge. Yes, that’s a thing.
"“Boye had balls as big as church bells to be doing what he was doing.” And Brogeland wasn’t finished. Within a few weeks, what began as a single accusation had grown into a major scandal, involving the highest levels of international play."
9. You want the tooth? You can’t handle the tooth
Step inside the world of an NHL team dentist. It’s pretty intense. You’ve been warned.
"As a member of the gnarliest and most peculiar fraternity in sports, Gil Rivera has seen it all during his 17 years practicing dentistry in the NHL … Still, as MacDonald sat in Rivera's chair the next morning, the anatomy inside the player's mouth -- monstrously swollen gums, shredded tongue and Tic Tac nubs instead of teeth -- was unrecognizable."
10. Gotta love an eccentric English adventurer
Enjoy the epic true story of a war hero, his rescued dog, and their improbable quest to find a living brontosaurus in the Congo.
"With his faithful war dog and a trunk full of weapons, Leicester Stevens was hunting for a creature that was thought to have been extinct since the late Jurassic age, which ended 145 million years ago. There had been a flurry of reported sightings in the Congo of a huge monster, which witnesses had identified as a brontosaurus. In an impossibly intriguing quest, Leicester and Laddie were setting off to hunt for a dinosaur."
11. Hey Chet, my boy George Takei wants to tell you something
Here’s a story about comeuppance in the workplace that will take the sting out of Tuesday’s return to the real world when you have to face the life’s inevitable Chets.\
"In Schenectady, New York, a school maintenance man named Steve Raucci works his way up the ranks for 30 years, until finally he's in charge of the maintenance department. That's when he starts messing with his employees. Teasing them at meetings. Punishing them with crummy work assignments. Or worse things, like secretly slashing their tires in the middle of the night."