Well, here we are, the first Friday Inspiration post of 2023. I am typing this from a hotel room in Sheridan, Wyoming, driving home to Montana from Iowa, where we spent the holidays. The roads and the weather have been pretty terrible—I-90 was shut down in South Dakota yesterday, and we’ve seen dozens of cars and semi trucks stuck in snow on the side of the road so far. Today was our second day of a three-day drive and had its share of white-knuckling and tense moments of questioning the actual friction of all-weather tires on polished ice, and with about an hour to go, our little guy was pretty cranky after a long day of being strapped into his car seat. I was too. He had started fussing, and was working his way up to crying and a full-on 6-month-old meltdown, and we just couldn’t stop and soothe him out of it because it was getting dark and I really didn’t want to drive more in the dark than we had to. So I turned on Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” and let John Bonham’s drumming distract him for a few minutes, and it seemed to work, so we did a second lap. And then a few more Zeppelin songs. We all survived, and stayed sane long enough for me to put this post together in the dark while the little guy slept in a Pack ‘n Play ten feet away, so I hope something in this week’s post helps you through your Friday, or your weekend.
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Sometimes I just search YouTube for covers of songs I like, and for some reason this week I wanted to hear people covering MGMT’s “Kids,” and this young gentleman on the street in Dublin just did it for me. (video)
Choco Tacos were discontinued this year, and this person is selling one on eBay for a minimum bid of $25,000
Please join me in lusting after this “Library House” in a forest in Sweden
To resuscitate Barnes & Noble, a bookstore, some would argue that caring about books would be a good first step. Sounds like a strategy that’s been employed by independent bookstores for a long time? I don’t know. I am all for Barnes & Noble surviving, alongside all our favorite non-chain bookstores.
If you laugh at this comic, I think we would probably get along
The beginning of this story here is that the Augusta National Golf Club didn’t check the address of the guy they wanted to invite to a little golf tournament they put on called “the Masters”
This whole podcast episode is great, but my favorite part is El Peatonito, the guy who dresses up in a luchador mask and superhero cape to battle L.A. drivers who are inconsiderate to pedestrians.
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—Brendan