Dovi’s Digest Volume 62
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Konnichi wa readers! Welcome to Volume 62 of Dovi’s Digest.
Today at 11:00 GMT, I will be parking myself on the couch, and barely move for the next two weeks (this is hyperbolic for those who are worried). The TV will go on, and I’ll settle in to watch the opening ceremony of the 2020 (not 2021, the name stuck) Tokyo Olympics.
I’m not an amateur when it comes to the Olympics. When it was in Rio, I would stay up till 2am every night for a week watching the athletics finals. When it was in Beijing, I would wake up at 5am to catch the rowing and the archery. And when it was London, well, my sleep schedule stayed the same because it’s effectively the same time zone as me.
I consume Olympic content the way a 1980s banker consumes cocaine: quickly, messily, and with much abandon. Therefore, my laptop will have a second stream running, and I’ll be following live text on my phone. Over the next few weeks, I’ll critique a horse’s canter in dressage, will opine on the relative strengths of an epee and a sabre, and still wonder how on earth the modern pentathlon came up with the events (in actuality, they’re apparently based on the skills infantry need when behind enemy lines. [For those of you wondering and too lazy to Google, the events are: fencing, swimming, show jumping, and combined cross country running and shooting.])
I’ve never made any bones about my fascination with the Olympics. I’m not sure why it grabs me; it could be the fact my parents went to the 1984 Games in Los Angeles (on the epic trip mentioned in DD Volume 58), the watch I got with the Atlanta 1996 logo, or it could also be the competition, the stories, and the indomitability of the human spirit are so bound up in our psyche that it pervades much of our pop culture. Although honestly, I think it’s the watch.
In this week’s edition we have, unsurprisingly, a rather heavy-handed approach to the Olympics and fitness in general. Whether you’re looking for a swimmer who’d never seen a full-size pool, Peloton’s rise as an entertainment powerhouse, a multimillion-dollar deli, or how to run a marathon in a suit, it’ll be here.
There were TWO correct answers to last week’s brainteaser, well done to Steven Kaplan and Ori Tobias!!! The answer and this week’s riddle are below.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
Have a great week,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
The Ten Greatest Olympic Moments: From Usain Bolt to the Black Power Salute
(Courtesy of Josh Hovsha)
From Eric the Eel making a splash to Usain Bolt’s electrifying speed, these are the most unforgettable scenes from the Olympic Games.
Tripping in LSD's Birthplace: A Story for "Bicycle Day"
After consuming magic mushrooms in Basel, Switzerland, I ran into Albert Hofmann, the chemist who catalysed the psychedelic era.
“The Netflix of Wellness”: Inside the Hollywoodization of Peloton
The bike company has become a global content brand via rigorous scripting of classes, canny promotion of instructors and entertainment industry partnerships.
Does CrossFit Have a Future?
After the pandemic and accusations of racism almost destroyed the gym brand, a new owner tries to bring it back.
The Mystery of the $113 Million Deli
It made headlines around the world: a New Jersey sandwich shop with a soaring stock price. Was it just speculation, or something stranger?
The Subtle Art of Running a Marathon in a Three-Piece Suit
Matt Whitaker, the new world-record holder, shares his secrets.
The Endgame of the Olympics
What if the Olympic Games never come back?
Quote of the Week:
“It's not about winning at the Olympic Games. It's about trying to win. The motto is ‘faster, higher, stronger’, not ‘fastest, highest, strongest’. Sometimes it's the trying that matters.” – Bronte Barratt, swimmer and gold medallist (2008)
Facts of the Week:
Socrates enjoyed dancing.
Aristotle had a lisp.
Karl Marx spent more than half his life in England.
Thomas Young, the first person to decipher the Rosetta Stone, had read the Bible twice by the age of four.
The Bible has no mention of purgatory.
Utah has a prison called the Purgatory Correctional Facility.
Prisoners in Brazil can have their sentences reduced by knitting.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
(Courtesy of Elliot Djebreel)
Brainteaser of the Week:
A 400-metre-long train, travelling at 30 kph, enters a one-mile-long tunnel.
How many seconds will elapse between the moment the front of the train enters the tunnel and the moment the end of the train clears the tunnel?
Last week’s Brainteaser and answer:
Four sweet items are written here in code. What are they?
RMDDCC AMMIGC NMNAMPL DSBEC
Answer:
Toffee, cookie, popcorn, fudge. Each letter has been replaced by the letter two places before it in the alphabet.