Dovi’s Digest Volume 53
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual and physical needs
Hey everyone! Welcome to Volume 53 of Dovi’s Digest.
Firstly, thank you to everyone who sent me emails wishing me happy birthday/congratulations. It really made me feel good. As I mentioned last week, I enjoy putting together the Digest and would do it regardless. But hearing kind words is always appreciated.
In this week’s headline article, I have put something that is very dear to my heart. I of course am talking about Mike Myers’ and Eddie Murphy’s magnum opus “Shrek”. I’m not quite sure why there are so many people who love it, but for me it was because Shrek is the first movie where I started to get the little easter egg jokes thrown in for the parents. I watched it a few times as I got older and began to enjoy it even more. More jokes landed, the little inside trivia fascinated me (Lord Farquaad is based on Disney’s Michael Eisenberg who fired DreamWorks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. There was no love lost between them. Don’t believe me? Say Farquaad’s name slowly in an Australian accent), and the writers’ ability to tackle big issues became clearer.
It’s of course not perfect. The third and fourth instalments were weak (two was a banger though), the soundtrack wasn’t long enough, and they killed off Fiona’s father (voiced my John Cleese) too quickly.
I know I’m waxing lyrical about it, so I’ll stop. However, in addition to the article below, if you want to do a real deep dive, Polygon’s page on it is just brilliant. If you’ve ever wanted to know how it was to play a gingerbread man drowned in milk, why Princess Fiona is the best Princess, or even why (and this one even I seriously question) Shrek didn’t chicken out on Donkey-Dragon sex, I can’t recommend having a look at this enough.
There is also a call back to an article from a few months ago on the crisis that was the bucatini pasta shortage. This is addressed to a degree in this week’s article.
Aside from the above nerd out, there are articles about secretive swiss banks, scary fruit, and why Starbucks is brilliant at short term funding (it’s a fascinating article, even though it may not sound like it). There of course are the usual collection of facts, headlines, brainteasers and cartoons.
There were TWO correct answer to last week’s brainteaser, well done to David Greenway and Ori Tobias!!! The answer and this week’s riddle are below.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
All the best
Dovi
And now, the articles:
The Internet’s Shrek Obsession Will Live on Forever
Twenty years after “Shrek” hit theatres, the titular character remains popular meme fodder—and a bizarrely ubiquitous online fixation for Millennials and Gen Z alike. Why has the curmudgeonly ogre’s cultural relevance endured?
Inside Pictet, the Secretive Swiss Bank for the World’s Richest People
A 215-year-old firm rooted firmly in the past finds tension adapting to the modern world.
Hot Rod Charlie and His Five Best Human Friends Have Big Kentucky Derby Dreams
The five friends met on the Brown football team and decided to invest in the racehorse that now has the fourth-best odds of winning one of the most prestigious competitions in horse racing.
Starbucks, Monetary Superpower
(Courtesy of Isaac Lipschitz)
And you thought working capital management wasn’t exciting?
Why the Tomato Was Feared in Europe for More Than 200 Years
(Courtesy of Elliot Djebreel)
How the fruit got a bad rap from the beginning.
De Cecco Finally Reveals What the Heck Is Going On With Its Bucatini
“It’s always a good thing to know who your enemies are.”
Ari Emanuel Takes on the World
Hollywood’s most tenacious agent tries to remake himself as a mogul.
Quote of the Week:
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.”
—Mark Twain
Facts of the Week:
Van Gogh’s Olive Trees has a dead grasshopper embedded in the paint.
It is compulsory for Dutch schoolchildren to visit Rembrandt's paintings.
As a schoolboy, legendary wrestler André the Giant was driven to school by his neighbour, the playwright Samuel Beckett.
Samuel Pepys went to performance of Twelfth Night on Twelfth Night 1663, and thought it was “a silly play and not related at all to the name or day”.
The West End has fewer theatres than London’s private schools.
In 1907, a riot broke out in New York over a play in which a woman drank a glass of beer.
Beer mats were originally placed on top of glasses to keep the dust out.
Headline of the Week:
(Courtesy of Ori Tobias)
Cartoon of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
What number should replace the question mark?
143 - - - 22
26 - - - 4
104 - - - 16
65 - - - ?
Last week’s Brainteaser and answer:
Find the words hinted at using their initial letters to solve the following ditloids. Each one is a common phrase, trivia fact or familiar title. For example, 52 W in a Y = 52 weeks in a year, nudge nudge, wink wink.
For a winning submission, string together the 2nd letter from each underlined word to reveal the hidden message!
1) 64 S on a C B
2) 54 C in a D (with the J)
3) 3x108 m/s is A the S of L in a V
4) 2 4 6 8, W D W A
5) 8 P in our S S (excluding P)
6) A Z is -273.15 D C
7) 88 K on a P
8) 32 D F at which W F
9) 13 S on the A F
10) 46 P of C in H DNA
11) 2001 a S O
12) 200 for P G in M
13) 8 B in a B
14) 8 E on a S S
15) 12 S of the Z
16) 6 B in an O
17) 3 B M, S H T R
18) 1 P I W 1000 W
19) 12 S P for A
20) 7 D S
21) J B, S A 007
22) 29 D in F (in a L Y)
23) 42 I the A to the U Q of L, the U and E
24) 3 S and Y O
Answer:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOVIS DIGEST
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