Dovi's Digest Volume 194
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Hello all! Welcome to Volume 194 of Dovi’s Digest.
When I was 18, I left home for two years to study at a rabbinical seminary in Israel. I hadn’t spent that much time away before, and naturally was quite nervous. A new place, new people, a different language – it’s a lot for an 18-year old to take in. I was lucky though: I knew I could come home if I wanted to (and it was only eight hours away), I was going with friends, and I had close family friends to whom I knew I could turn.
The one lifeline that I clung to the most was my cellphone. It was before instant messaging, before most phones even had internet. But I was able to call my parents whenever I wanted. This was in stark contrast to when my parents were at university, and wrote letters home, having to wait for answers and their own letters. To phone long distance was a luxury.
That phone helped me through some serious bouts of homesickness, keeping me connected with my loved ones. That connection was a privilege which we take for granted these days. With the rise of WhatsApp, I text daily with my friend in Sydney, and am also in daily contact with one in Dublin. These are great, but one of the biggest changes has been the advent of the group chat.
We use them for everything: work wouldn’t run without them, the family can all stay informed via one channel, and a meetup with multiple friends doesn’t take a fortune of back and forth. They’ve become ubiquitous. One could even say that to a degree they’ve taken over the world. Which is exactly what this week’s headline article is about.
There are more books on the recommendation list, from gripping stories to blood curdling histories. Check out the sheet here.
You can also submit a book (no vetting), so if you would like to contribute, you can either use the form here, or you can edit the sheet directly at the link above.
Do you know a word you think others should know about? Submit it here!
In this week’s added extras:
These entrancing maps capture where the world’s rivers go.
Typeshift is a new word puzzle game that only takes a couple minutes and is very addictive. A new one comes out daily. There are also other great daily puzzles on Puzzmo.
How Big Tobacco Intentionally Made Snacks Addictive
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 was ONE correct answer to last week’s brainteaser, Well done to Chaim Ehrlich! The answer and this week’s puzzle are below.
Aside from group chats, you can read about the man who is shaking up the running world again, learn how to dance without looking awkward (a perennial problem for me), the murky world of before and after pics for plastic surgery, a history of song titles, the man behind the eponymous Rubik’s cube, and a woman’s journey to find someone to complete her (spoiler, she don’t need no man). Enjoy!
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming.
Have a great weekend,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
How Group Chats Rule the World
They quietly became the de facto spaces to share dumb jokes, grief or even plans for an insurrection.
The Mastermind Behind Your Favourite Shoes Is About to Disrupt the Shoe Industry. Again.
Jean-Luc Diard, cofounder of Hoka, has been innovating in the outdoor world for decades, and he’s not done yet.
How to Dance Casually Without Looking Like an Awkward Goofball
Life is too short to be a wallflower. Here's how to get out on the dance floor without looking (too) awkward.
Inside Plastic Surgery’s Epidemic of Shady Before-and-After Photography
Surgeons get real about the rise in misleading post-op pictures — and reveal how to spot fakery.
tHiS is a p0$t ABOUT Song t!tl3s
Nobody would let me write a history of song titles. So, I wrote it here.
“First Of All You Must Be Patient, Then You Need Spatial Memory”: The Man Behind the Puzzle That 99% Can't Solve
On this day in 1975, the Hungarian academic Ernő Rubik applied for a patent on his invention. Little did he know that his ingenious teaching tool would become an iconic global phenomenon.
The Road to Becoming Enough
I began, if not to turn away from the mythical notion of a man to “complete” me, to accept that there was no love out there for me. I chose mountains instead.
Quote of the Week:
“The less you know the better you sleep.” – Russian proverb
Word of the Week:
(Courtesy of Meghan D)
Hullabaloo
/ˌhʌləbəˈluː/huh·luh·buh·loo
Noun
a commotion; a fuss.
"Remember all the hullabaloo over the golf ball?"
2. : a loud, continued noise or mixture of noises.
“Somebody heard the splash and they raised an awful hullabaloo. 'He's gone! Lower the boats! …’”
Facts of the Week:
Director David Fincher had a stuntman fall down stairs 12 times for one scene in Fight Club, and then used the first take.
The word “slapstick” comes from a stick used in 16th-century Italian comedy to make a slapping noise without hurting another actor.
Billiards was once played with “maces”, or sticks with blocks on one end. Cues developed from players getting better scores by using the wrong end of the stick.
Billiards was the first sport to have a world championship.
In 1863, a hot-air balloon equipped with a billiard table, photographic workshop, a lavatory, and a refreshment room successfully flew 400 miles.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is banned from advertising in Germany.
In Brooklyn, you can enjoy spaghetti Bolognese doughnuts.
Slouching can help you solve maths problems.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
(Courtesy of Josh H)
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
(Courtesy of Simon A)
The Scrabblegram is a form of constrained writing in which you must write a piece of text that uses all 100 tiles in an English Scrabble set, and no other letters. The blank tiles must be used, and as per the rules can be any letter.
This example by David Cohen is considered one of the best examples in the genre:
It is a remarkable piece of text because not only does it make sense and paint an amusing picture, but it also flows beautifully, rhymes and has the correct number of syllables for a limerick. (A billfold is North American for wallet.)
Cohen wrote the above Scrabblegram in 1997. It was the winning entry in a competition organised by GAMES Magazine to tell a story using all the tiles of a Scrabble set. After a hiatus of about 2 decades, Cohen began a few years ago to start writing Scrabblegrams again: he has since written more than 400 including one which puzzle guru Alex Bellos has nominated as the greatest wordplay puzzle of all time.
Take a breath. The clues below are a Scrabblegram. They are quick crossword clues, and come with word lengths (the numbers in brackets.) Your task is to find the answers – which are also a Scrabblegram.
Last Week’s Brainteaser and Answer:
What letter should replace the question mark below?
‘Asia’ is H
‘Cuffs’ is S
‘Ender’ is I
‘Redness’ is F
‘Fuchsia’ is ?
Answer:
A. The entire thing is one long palindrome.
Thanks for reading Dovi’s Digest!