A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Hello all! Welcome to Volume 190 of Dovi’s Digest.
Before I say anything else, a YUGE thank you to Tanya for stepping into the breach when I was man down last week. At the literal 11th hour, I might add. She’s a top notch copywriter (as her actual job), and you don’t need my recommendation to use her, all you need to do is read last week’s intro.
A smaller, but also important thank you to the many of you who messaged to see how I was. I picked up a pretty bad bug but am thankfully on the mend.
A few years ago, I watched a lecture by a Buddhist monk. He walked up to the board and wrote “EVERYONE WANTS TO SAVE THE WORLD, BUT NO ONE WANTS TO HELP MOM DO THE DISHES.” Everyone in the lecture hall laughed, but he went on to say:
“Statistically, it’s highly unlikely that any of you will ever have the opportunity to run into a burning orphanage to save a baby. But, in the smallest gestures of kindness – a warm smile, holding the door for the person behind you, helping an elderly person with their shopping – you have committed an act of immeasurable profundity, because to each of us our life is our universe.”
This past year has been a tough one for many people (me included), and at times it can seem like the light at the end of the tunnel is far away and flickering. But my hope for you in the new year is that by your smallest acts of kindness, you will save another’s world.
Seeing as I didn’t publish last week (the first time in the nearly four year history of the Digest), this week will be a pastiche of the traditional last and first edition of each year. Get ready for some best of lists as well as things to look forward to in 2024 (of which there are many).
In this week’s added extras:
I have mentioned this before, but yearcompass is a great way to take stock of the last year, and set intentions for the new year. It’s totally free and has worked for more than a million people.
Ever wondered how concert world tours manage to move from place to place within just a few days? Well this video goes through the absurd logistics of concerts.
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 FIVE correct answers to last week’s brainteaser, Well done to Ayelet Garber, Ariel Subotzky, Chaim Ehrlich, Steven Kaplan, and Hazel Levine! The answer and this week’s puzzle are below.
The articles are pretty self explanatory this week, so enjoy reading about scientific breakthroughs, some really easy tips for 2024, misbehaved tourists, the best places to visit for 2024 (and to not misbehave), what words we’re all mispronouncing, and what we were all Googling in 2023.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming.
Have a great weekend,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
20 Things That Made the World a Better Place in 2023
(Courtesy of Josh Hovsha)
From the falling costs of renewable energy to new treatments for a whole host of diseases, 2023 wasn’t all doom and gloom.
This Was a Terrible Year, and Also Maybe the Best One Yet for Humanity
Amid the suffering in 2023, humans still made remarkable progress.
Let's Kick off the New Year Right—Here Are 55 New Year's Resolution Ideas for 2024
These goals for the new year are attainable and fun.
The Worst-Behaved Tourists of 2023
Stripping off from the waist down at a sacred site. Driving a car across a mediaeval bridge, as fragile as it is famous. Carving your name into a world icon, and going on a punishing hike to take illegal drugs are just some of the things tourists have got up to in 2023.
The Cool List 2024: The 30 Most Exciting Destinations to Visit in 2024
From Argentina to Australia and Norway to Nova Scotia, these places chosen by National Geographic Traveller (UK) will be making headlines in the year ahead.
The Most Mispronounced Words Of 2023, Revealed
It’s not just you. Everyone had a hard time pronouncing these words over the past year.
The Year in Search 2023
See what Google Trends reveal about the questions we shared, the people who inspired us, and the moments that captured the world’s attention each year.
Quote of the Week:
“Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.” – Leo Tolstoy
Word of the Week Year:
Rizz
/ rɪz /
Noun (Colloquial)
Attractiveness, charm, or skill in flirtation that allows one to easily attract romantic or sexual partners.
Etymologically, the term is believed to be a shortened form of the word ‘charisma’, taken from the middle part of the word, which is an unusual word formation pattern. Other examples of this word formation pattern include ‘fridge’ (from ‘refrigerator’) and ‘flu’ (from ‘influenza’). ‘rizz’ can also be used as a verb, in phrases such as ‘to rizz up’, which means ‘to attract, seduce, or chat up (a person)’. Expansions into other parts of speech like this can indicate that a word is becoming more prominent in the language.
More about why Oxford University Press picked Rizz as its word of the year here.
Facts of the Week:
The Guinness brewery is 259 years into its 9000 year lease.
Lager is Irish for “weakness” or “depression”, and láger means beer.
Seelenklempner, the German for psychiatrist, literally translates as “soul plumber”.
The 93rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century was Edwin Boring.
The shortest published scientific paper, “An unsuccessful self treatment of a case of writer’s block” contains no words.
Mark Twain’s uncensored autobiography, published 100 years after his death, made him a best selling author in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
The expressions PIN number and ATM machine are examples of Redundant Acronyms Syndrome syndrome.
A “murdermonger” is a writer of murder mysteries.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Last Week’s Brainteaser and Answer:
Each pair of hints below relates to two words. One of the words is the other one spelled backward. What are the word pairs?
Example clue: married, moisture
Answer: wed, dew
1. dwell, wicked
2. portion, catching device
3. prize, furniture compartment
4. drinking aid, skin blemishes
5. stopper, big swallow
6. implement, stolen goods
7. precinct, illustrate
Answer
Live, evil
Part, trap
Reward, drawer
Straw, warts
Plug, gulp
Tool, loot
Ward, draw
Thanks for reading Dovi’s Digest!