When The Secret Life of Walter Mitty came out in 2013, I loved it, and I remember for some reason looking up the New York Times review of the movie, which was not so positive, and I thought, “I am not going to let that affect my enjoyment of the movie as I rewatch it for the next decade-plus.” So when I saw the title of this short YouTube film, “when film critics clearly just do not get the movie,” and the thumbnail was a shot from Walter Mitty, I had to watch it, with a little voice inside me screaming VALIDATE MY OPINION, CINEMASTIX. (video)
I forgot to share this a few weeks ago when it came out, but Amy Woodyatt, a CNN reporter, had reached out and asked to interview me about the insane 2024 achievements of endurance athletes. I kind of assumed she would be talking to a bunch of other people and I’d have a one-sentence quote somewhere very far down in her story, but it ended up being a bit more than that (and included a plug for my book, which was quite gracious). I was familiar with most of the athletes featured in the article and the stuff they’d done in 2024, but I did learn that Jasmin Paris received an MBE from the Prince of Wales in October, which she believes was at least partly for her becoming the first-ever woman finisher of the Barkley Marathons last April.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Precision Fuel & Hydration, a company who is also an ongoing partner in my war against muscle cramps. It’s been kind of a revelation for me over the past couple years that I can, and probably should, take in more sodium instead of less sodium (as most Americans are advised to do). Like I don’t usually refer to myself as an “athlete,” but I do exercise several hours per week, sometimes multiple hours at a time, which means I sweat, which means I should replace electrolytes + sodium. Which I was not really doing in 2023, but I was regularly waking up at night with cramps in various muscles in my legs and feet. PFH is great about explaining all kinds of things on their website, including salt and hydration. If that sounds like you too, here are two pieces that might be of interest: “Salt and the high blood pressure hypothesis” and “Why sodium is crucial to athletes performing at their best.” Also: Here’s a link to 15% off your first purchase on PrecisionHydration.com if you’d like to do some shopping there.
Maybe at some point in your life, you have also found yourself in Astoria, Oregon, wondering, “Damn this place is great. Why do only 10,000 people live here?” The answer is … well, I won’t ruin it for you but here’s a fun short read about it (or YouTube video if you prefer).
This letter Dalton Trumbo wrote to his oldest daughter in 1957 has some fantastic travel advice in it, and further down, some advice for anybody who’s ever been or parented a first child.
If you’ve been feeling helpless watching all the coverage of the fires in Los Angeles, this is an incredible resource: A list of GoFundMe pages for people who have lost their homes, most of which are less than 20% to their GoFundMe goal.
So Dune, which has a very interesting and convoluted history, was at one point in the mid-1970s apparently going to be a 10- to 15-hour movie with a soundtrack by Pink Floyd, and starring Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, David Carradine, and Orson Welles. Director Alejandro Jodorowsky hired a couple legendary artists to produce The Dune Bible, containing tons of drawings of costumes, spacecrafts, sets, and storyboards, to try to get financial backing for the movie. They were unsuccessful, but about 20 copies of The Dune Bible were produced, and one of them was auctioned off in December for about $340,000. Some photos are here, and if you click through to the Christie’s listing, you’ll see some really cool ones. Also: How do we petition for a mass-produced edition of this?
This piece for NPR’s All Things Considered, “Always Go To The Funeral,” is almost 20 years old, and I must have read it for the first time eight or 10 years ago (and maybe even shared it in this newsletter?). But I still think of it often—I just mentioned it to my dad a few weeks ago—and upon digging it up and re-reading it, it 100% is still relevant and has some incredible lines, including: “In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn’t been good versus evil. It’s hardly so epic. Most days, my real battle is doing good versus doing nothing.”
—
