Hello fellow internet explorers,
It’s March Madness week, and I’ve been scouring the internet looking for the best, most insightful voices to help me fill out my bracket. I was hoping to share my findings with you all but unfortunately, I haven’t found one that truly exceeds my expectations. If anyone out there reading this has a guru they trust, reply to this email and let me know.
Before the insanity tips off on Thursday, here’s all the stuff you should be reading, watching and following. I call them my weekly “conversation starters,” a wrap-up of the best, most interesting and most entertaining content on the internet. Enjoy!
What’s the coolest story or thing you found on the internet this week? Reply to this email and shoot me a link. Would love to hear from you!
This week’s Long Read of the Week is the wild, twisted tale of a group of young people began squatting in a massive Beverly Hills mansion, throwing massive nightly parties, and the neighbors (including actors, producers, and Lebron James) fighting like hell to get them booted. Welcome to the new California dream!
Speaking of squatters, apparently there’s a handyman in L.A. named — get this — Flash Shelton who offers to move in WITH the people squatting in your house, and bug them until they leave. He calls himself the “Squatter Hunter.” There are more funny details in this story than I can count.
Ok this is truly insane. At a veterinary clinic in Virginia, a baby red fox is being nursed to health, but in order to maximize its chance of being effectively released to the wild, the vets are limiting their speaking and wearing fox masks while caring for the animal. Unironically!
You may have heard that the House of Representatives passed a bill to essentially ban TikTok in the U.S. (if it passes the Senate), due to the threat of Chinese interference. I’ve been on the side of banning, but I have to admit this anti-ban opinion essay from TechDirt did make me question whether we’re creating precedent for a very slippery slope.
I feel bad for the guy (or girl, but let’s be honest probably a guy) who has 1,370,044 McDonald's loyalty points in its app, 400,000 more than the next highest person. The value would be well over $3,000! Can you imagine how much McDonald’s one needs to buy to earn $3,000 in rewards?
Fanny packs, shopping bags, pillows and blankets. People have been stretching the two carry-on bag rule for years. But now airlines are cracking down on carry-on bags, reports the Wall Street Journal, at the same time many are raising checked-bag prices. Anyone who has witnesses public misbehavior on airplanes and in airports knows exactly how well this news will be received.
Roger Federer sat for a rare tell-all interview with GQ’s Zach Baron to talk about his life two years after retirement, and how tennis (and the world) is moving on without him. Fascinating peek behind the curtain of a true icon.
While we’re talking tennis, did you see the insane bee attack during this week’s tournament in Indian Wells? Play had to be suspended after thousands of bees swarmed the court! Then a heroic beekeeper went out and cleared them all (without kililng them)…without even wearing a bee suit!
New segment: Personal Passions Corner. As a huge Bob Dylan fan, I’m psyched to see they’ve officially started filming the long-gestating Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet, which, if done well, could be a career defining role for a guy who has already played Willy Wonka AND Paul Atreides. I trust director James Mangold (Ford v. Ferrari, Logan), and based on the first look photo, the movie is going to focus on Dylan’s early days in Greenwich Village.
Thanks for reading and sharing! On Friday we’re talking Love Lies Bleeding and a sprinkling of TV shows!