A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Hello everybody! Welcome to Volume 154 of Dovi’s Digest.
There are few better things in life than a cold glass of water. Especially after a run. Even more so on a hot day. It’s probably close what nirvana feels like.
And that’s just tap water. I like the tap water in Johannesburg. A few (read: 15) years ago, it was apparently rated the second best tap water in the world after Zurich. How true that is I don’t know, but it’s a nice thing to quote when friends come from overseas and ask if they can drink from the tap here.
As a result, I’m probably a little spoiled when it comes to water. To me, Evian is terrible, and Voss not much better. Turns out, it’s not only me who feels that way. This week, I dived into the world of water sommeliers, and the next level of water tasting. These people curate their collections, carefully selecting bottles like fine wine, aware of every micro imperfection or even “hardness” (yes, water can be hard). You can quench your thirst by reading more in this week’s headline article.
King Philip of France (1116–1131) died two years into his reign when his horse tripped over a pig in Paris, causing him to be thrown from its back onto his head. The French, naturally, put the story in just about every history book for 400 years. Your added extra this week is a thread of the some of the art that depicts this. Frankly, its hilarious.
In addition, due to a very wet winter, California is experiencing a “superbloom”, where wild flowers are blooming in massive numbers. In fact, you can even see it from space! Check out some pictures here.
The Dovi’s Digest Instagram page is up and running and will keep you sated between editions, with all new content! To see our page, scan the QR code or just click it if you’re on mobile.
We also have Facebook and Twitter, which you can check out at the links below (and where you’ll also get some memes).
Do you enjoy the Digest? Would you like it to get better? Then please consider sharing it, as the more articles I’m sent, the better it is. It only takes a few seconds, and all you need to do is click here 👇. Thank you!
There were THREE correct answers to last week’s brainteaser. Well done to Chaim Ehrlich, Josh Hazan and Hazel Levine! The answer and this week’s puzzle are below.
Not thirsty? Then you can read about the man who beat roulette (the game that’s impossible to predict), the history of emojis in legal cases, why everything looks the same these days, what cellphones have done do our brains (and if it’s good or not), what goes into making an authentic kimono (which can cost upwards of $30,000), and how an influencer deals with getting back to a normal life when they no longer wants to influence. Enjoy!
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming.
Have a great week,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
Inside the Very Real (and Very Complicated) World of Luxury Water Collectors
Water sommeliers taste and collect expensive bottled water as if they’re fine wines. What does it mean to elevate water to this level of luxury?
The Gambler Who Beat Roulette
For decades, casinos scoffed as mathematicians and physicists devised elaborate systems to take down the house. Then an unassuming Croatian’s winning strategy forever changed the game.
The Poop Emoji: A Legal History
As emoji use grows, judges have to get special trainings.
The Age of Average
Everything these days is starting to look the same, from kitchens to cars, architecture to art. Why?
How Mobile Phones Have Changed Our Brains
The first handheld cellphone call was made 50 years ago, and since then these devices have become an essential multi-tool that helps us run our lives. But are they also altering the way our brains work?
The Enduring Haute Couture of a 466-Year Old Kimono House
How Chiso, a relatively obscure Japanese textile firm, keeps an age-old craft fresh.
Is There Life After Influencing?
The internet personality Lee From America wanted to see what life was like as plain old Lee Tilghman. She’s not alone. But leaving behind lucrative brand partnerships and high follower counts is harder than it looks.
Quote of the Week:
“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” – Otto von Bismarck
Facts of the Week:
Pickpockets in 17th century Russia used sharpened coins to slice open their victims’ purse.
The Bitcoin network uses more power than the whole of Siberia.
The Serbian equivalent of saying “bless you” to a sneeze is “go away, kitten.”
Looking at photos of puppies and kittens helps you concentrate.
A type of wasp called Paper Wasps know every other wasp in their colony by sight.
The record distance for throwing a paper plane is 69.14 metres.
Truman Capote took six paperweights with him wherever he went.
The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things is based in Kansas.
Cartoon of the Week:
(Courtesy of David Greenway)
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Each of the sentences below is written according to a different constraint, i.e. a mathematical rule such as, say, “all words the same length”, or “no ‘e’s’ allowed”. Can you deduce what each constraint is?
1) I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting.
2) Pert Pete wrote “QWERTY”. Wry Rory wept. Quiet Tori quit.
3) Dennis, Nell, Edna, Leon, Anita, Rolf, Nora, Alice, Carol, Lora, Cecil, Aaron, Flora, Tina, Noel and Ellen sinned.
4) Shimmering, gleaming, glistening glow
Winter reigns, splendiferous snow!
Won’t this sight, this stainless scene,
Endlessly yield days supreme?
Eying ground, deep piled, delights
Skiers scaling garish heights.
(Note: these six lines are an excerpt from Winter Reigns, a poem written by Mary Youngquist, the first woman to get a PhD in organic chemistry from MIT, and later editor of the US National Puzzlers’ League newsletter. It hides a very simple constraint. )
Last Week’s Brainteaser and Answer:
Below are five sentences with the vowels and spaces taken out. Your task is to reinsert the vowels and spaces to recreate the sentences. Each sentence uses one vowel only. The five vowels – A, E, I, O and U – each have a sentence. To make it easier, each sentence has the name of a pop star and a famous artist, and could feasibly be a headline in this newspaper.
a) C H R G T S V R M R S K T C H
b) D M B S T R C K L L S C F F S M N C H
c) L D Y G G B G S C H G L L
d) S N P D G G S H W S T W R T H K W R K S
e) W L L S M T H S G N S H S K L M T P R N T
Answer:
a) Cher gets Vermeer sketch
b) Dumbstruck Lulu scuffs Munch
c) Lady Gaga bags a Chagall
d) Snoop Dogg shows two Rothko works
e) Will Smith signs his Klimt print