Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 36
A very lucky man, El Paso vs. Texas, Bill Self's lifetime contract, 45's Easter message, Style Icon of the Week, St. Vincent, Recipe Corner, & more.
Hello, and welcome to Micah’s Read of the Week.
This is a newsletter filled with things Micah Wiener finds interesting.
Check out the introduction post here and the entire archive of previous newsletters here.
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Luckiest guy of the Week
Here’s a story to make you smile. Lost and found: $1M lottery ticket recovered in parking lot:
A Tennessee man was able to turn his luck around after finding his missing $1 million winning lottery ticket in a parking lot — remaining where he dropped it even on a blustery afternoon.
Sparta resident Nick Slatten learned on March 11 that he won a drawing with all matching numbers on a ticket worth $1,178,746, the Tennessee Education Lottery said in a statement.
“I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it,” said Slatten, who bought the winning ticket at a local grocery store March 10 after a day of laying tile.
Slatten rushed to his fiancée’s workplace to share the news, then continued running errands, including taking his brother to buy a car part, followed by a stop for lunch.
Within an hour, Slatten went from ecstatic to panicked when he realized he didn’t have the ticket anymore.
Uh oh.
So Slatten immediately began retracing his steps, eventually leading him back to the auto parts store where he saw the ticket lying in the parking lot.
“It’s a million-dollar ticket, and someone stepped right over it,” Slatten said.
He was able to retrieve the ticket — which somehow didn’t get blown away — and claim his prize.
Texas (Western) Forever
Baylor faces Gonzaga tonight for the National Championship. According to this story from Texas Monthly, it seems as though many people in El Paso won’t be rooting for the Bears from Waco. From “I Pray for Them to Lose”:
With five Black starters, the ’66 Miners team beat top-ranked—and all-white—University of Kentucky for the 1966 NCAA championship. The shrine’s wall is covered with a photographic mural featuring Willie Worsley, David Lattin, Orsten Artis, Harry Flournoy, and their Hall of Fame coach, Don Haskins. Atop of it all, a headline—a variation of which ran in newspapers across the country—“Texas Western Stuns Kentucky 72-65.”
As soon as that game ended, El Pasoans celebrated. Trash cans were set on fire. Dynamite was set off. The El Paso Times said the city hadn’t felt that level of excitement since the end of World War II. When the team returned home, riot squads, bonfires, and orange-colored bunting greeted the players throughout the city.
As big as Texas is, that team, banner, trophy, and glory only exist in El Paso. UTEP is the only Texas school to have ever won an NCAA title in men’s basketball. It’s why, during this time of year, when golden poppies bloom in this desert corner of the state, as soon as March Madness begins, some El Pasoans cheer against every team from Texas.
“I pray for them to lose,” Joe John Valadez says. He doesn’t chuckle when he says it. It’s easy to imagine him, each night before he sleeps, praying for health, for serenity, and for every Texas team in the men’s bracket to lose. “I don’t want them to have a national championship ever. Because, knowing the way marketing is with other Texas big schools, they’ll probably gloat and then overlap what we have accomplished.”
Go Zags.
Lede of the Week
SI’s Pat Forde writes some words about the lifetime contract the University of Kansas just bestowed upon its basketball coach, Bill Self. He comes out hot:
We like to win.
That was the loud, clear, unmistakable message from Kansas on Friday. We like to win, we don’t care how, we don’t care what NCAA sanctions may come, we don’t care about anything but continuing to win. Thus, Bill Self is Coach For Life.
Rock, Chalk, Scofflawhawk!
In the throes of an infractions process that has resulted in major allegations from NCAA enforcement, which could lead to huge penalties, Kansas has up and given Self—who is personally charged with a Level I violation—a lifetime contract. It’s a rolling five-year deal that specifically states he cannot be fired for cause due to NCAA sanctions. It is impressively brazen, and also extremely on-brand for the school that claimed victimhood in the federal corruption scandal, sued Jim Gatto, broke out the money cannons for Midnight Madness, and then complained that the scandal has hurt recruiting.
Forde isn’t soft on the close, either.
Yes, it’s good to be Bill Self. Not only is he not getting fired for potential major NCAA sanctions, he’s being rewarded with extended job security. Kansas likes to win, and Kansas doesn’t care how desperately obvious that is to the rest of America.
Happy Easter!
Did you wonder what message the 45th President wanted to share with the nation on the holiest day of the Christian calendar?
Me neither.
But here it is:
Shouts to the CRAZIES. And speaking of crazies…
Idiot of the Week
Get fucked, loser.
The grammar displayed in these posts is almost as offensive as the sentiment. Enjoy prison.
Style Icon of the Week
This story is about an 82-year-old woman who dresses to the nines each Sunday for virtual church. Her selfies have become legendary.
Seriously, check out the drip.
I love St. Vincent
The caption pretty much says it all. Annie Clark killed it this week on SNL. Just wait for the slide guitar solo.
Recipe Corner
I love coleslaw. Last week, I wrote that I’m working to move more salads into my weekly meal planning. Slaw is perfect for this. It stays good for several days (maybe even getting better over time) and it can be added to other salads for crunch.
Yesterday we had the family over for Easter. We picked up meat from Franklin Barbecue. It was superb. It really does live up to the hype. But anyway, the sides from there are mundane. So I decided to make some myself.
The fiance doesn’t like mayo or mustard, which makes potato salad a very difficult proposition. It didn’t stop me tho. I took some baby potatoes and boiled them. Then I chopped them up and tossed them into a bowl with some onion, a couple of stalks of celery, a bunch of dill, and several heaping tablespoons of some leftover pesto. I added some red wine vinegar and s&p, and we had a Caitlin-friendly tater salad. Delightful.
For the slaw, I made a simple recipe from another legendary barbecue destination. It was quite good, and v refreshing with the bounty of smoked meat.
SALT LICK COLESLAW
1 head cabbage, shredded
1/8 cup vegetable oil
Pinch celery seed
2 1/2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (see Note)
1/8 cup Salt Lick Vinegar Mix (recipe follows)
Place cabbage in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle oil over top and mix thoroughly. Sprinkle celery seed and sesame seeds over cabbage and mix thoroughly. Add Salt Lick Vinegar Mix and combine well. Place in a serving bowl; scrape all remaining seeds and dressing from mixing bowl and add to serving bowl. Serve immediately, while cabbage is crisp and crunchy.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Salt Lick Vinegar Mix: Place 1 1/2 cups white vinegar in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. While vinegar is boiling, slowly add 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 2 tablespoons salt, stirring constantly until dissolved. Turn off heat. Place 1/8 teaspoon white pepper in a mixing bowl. Slowly pour vinegar mixture into white pepper while whisking, and mix well. Cover. Makes about 1 cup.
Strawberry Fool With Raspberries
How about something sweet? Here’s an easy recipe that only requires a blender, some frozen berries, sugar, lemon juice, and cream.
10 ounces (285 grams) frozen strawberries
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup (240 milliliters) heavy cream
Fresh raspberries, for serving (optional)
Let the strawberries defrost on the counter for about 30 minutes. In a pitcher of a blender, combine the strawberries with 1/4 cup (50 grams) of sugar and the lemon juice and puree until everything is fairly smooth and well blended.
In a medium bowl, using a handheld mixer or a whisk, beat the cream with the remaining 1/4 cup (50 grams) of sugar just until it holds stiff peaks. Gently fold in the strawberry mixture, stopping when there are still faint streaks of pink and white.
Scoop the mixture into six (6-ounce) cups or glasses, filling each most of the way. Serve, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours. Top each serving with raspberries, if desired.
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