Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 8
A wild story about a strange neighbor, a billionaire's quest to give away ALL his money, Chinese mystery seeds, Andy Reid, the Van Gundy brothers, and more.
Hello, and welcome to Micah’s Read of the Week.
Sunday wasn’t easy, but, we still dem boyz…
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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Micah’s Read of the Week
A neighbor asked for a tomato. This is where the story gets weird.
This is a beautifully written first-person account of a seemingly mundane interaction with a neighbor.
“My name is Seth,” he said. “I’m a neighbor, and I see you walking your big brown dog, and sometimes a cat is with you.” All true. He had established his bona fides. “My mother just died, and she loved cooking green tomatoes.” He nodded toward my small tomato garden. “Could I take a tomato, in her honor?”
He seemed winningly earnest. “You can’t take a tomato,” I said, “but you can take five or six. Just help yourself.”
A couple of days later I met him in the street. He was still maskless, but this time was also shirtless. He reminded me who he was and wanted to thank me again for the tomato plants.
Plants?
“I came back at night and took another one.”
Silence. He indignantly asked me to thank him for thanking me for the plants.
“You stole a plant,” I said.
The ending is unbelievable. You can read the story now, but I’d suggest you listen to me read it on Mind of Micah. Trust, you won’t see it coming.
Read of the Week, Pt. 2
The Billionaire Who Wanted To Die Broke Is Now Officially Broke
I’d never heard the name Chuck Feeney before I saw this piece. Apparently Forbes had previously called him the “James Bond of Philanthropy” as he’s donated more than $8 billion to charities, and gone to great lengths to keep all his gifts secret.
Feeney gave big money to big problems—whether bringing peace to Northern Ireland, modernizing Vietnam’s health care system, or spending $350 million to turn New York’s long-neglected Roosevelt Island into a technology hub. He didn’t wait to grant gifts after death or set up a legacy fund that annually tosses pennies at a $10 problem. He hunted for causes where he can have a dramatic impact and went all-in.
“I see little reason to delay giving when so much good can be achieved through supporting worthwhile causes. Besides, it’s a lot more fun to give while you live than give while you're dead.”
Who knew? And how did he make all this money?
He cofounded airport retailer Duty Free Shoppers in 1960. The man who amassed a fortune selling luxury goods to tourists, and later launched private equity powerhouse General Atlantic, lives in an apartment in San Francisco that has the austerity of a freshman dorm room.
I won’t forget the name Chuck Feeney. It may be hard to find, but there is good news in this world.
Christian McCaffrey is interesting
He also may regret taking these photos for GQ.
There’s quite a few more. I imagine his teammates had some fun with these.
Anyway, I find his approach to the game of football and his physical performance interesting.
“The misconception about training is ‘We have to work into the ground. We have to make it extremely hard for you. You should be dead tired after.’ [But] you're actually detraining when you're working on a fatigue system. The goal is to be full speed neurally. You shouldn't play tired. You shouldn't train tired. Otherwise you're training a depleted system with poor mechanics.”
An entertaining profile written by Drew Magary. Check out the whole thing and all of those photos.
UPDATE: McCaffery was hurt Sunday, and according to early reports, may miss several weeks. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Remember those Chinese mystery seeds?
Apparently, Hundreds of Americans Planted 'Chinese Mystery Seeds'
In late July, America was briefly enthralled with “Unsolicited Seeds from China,” which started showing up in mailboxes in all 50 states. These mystery seeds prompted warnings from the USDA, which said people should not plant them, and should instead alert their state agricultural authority and mail them to the USDA or their local officials.
Many Americans heeded this advice. Many more decidedly did not.
Based on documents obtained through FOIA requests, the scale of the mystery seed operation was much larger than was originally reported. Conservatively, it is safe to say that tens of thousands of Americans received what they perceived to be Chinese mystery seeds in July. Some states, like North Carolina, had more than 1,000 people contact the department of agriculture having received unsolicited seeds. Many of these seed receivers, regardless of location, panicked.
This is mildly interesting. Of course, there’s no way to know who sent these seeds why they were sent. But, the best part of this piece is this actual communication between “seed receivers” and their state’s departments of agriculture.
"About a month ago, I did receive seeds from China. I guess China because it looks like Chinese writing. I thought, 'Oh cool, maybe Burgess seeds or one of the seed companies sent me some seeds.' And, umm, like a dumbass, I planted them, not knowing there was a problem," a woman in New Mexico said in a voicemail left with the state's department of agriculture in late July. "And now, I've been battling this for a couple weeks. Now, where I planted them, and I remember where I planted them, everything that's in the garden where I planted them are having a hard time and are starting to die … I really don't know what to do at this point, so could somebody call me back and give me a little bit of direction about this? I know I'm a dumbass."
As always, reading emails from strangers is fun. This conclusion was good too:
Communication from the general public is concerning. People planted seeds even when expressly told not to. Hundreds of people had no idea whether they had ever ordered seeds, or how to check. Some people called 911. Others ate the seeds. Others ordered something specific, got what they ordered from who they ordered it from, then still panicked. Others were furious they had to pay for postage to send the seeds to the government.
One decision can change everything
Andy Reid is the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. His team beat the LA Chargers Sunday. It’s his 12th win in 13 games against the Chargers as the coach of the Chiefs.
Back in 2013, Reid was fired after 14 years in Philadelphia. The Chiefs hired him. They just won their first Super Bowl in 50 years with Reid as coach. He’s a very good coach.
What’s interesting here, is that the Chargers (then in San Diego) wanted to interview Reid in 2013. The Chiefs talked to him first, and the rest is history. The fate of two billion dollar businesses changed forever when Reid agreed to coach in Kansas City.
They’ve beaten the Chargers in four stadiums, at Arrowhead and Qualcomm and the StubHub Center (primarily a soccer stadium now known as Dignity Health Sports Park) and Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
In that time, they’ve beaten them on Saturday and Sunday and Monday (though not on a Thursday) and beaten them every which way.
This piece was published before Sunday’s game. Reid has now beaten the Chargers in a fifth stadium, ruining the first Chargers home game in the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Big Red knows what he’s doing.
The Van Gundy brothers seem fun
Here’s a charming story about two brothers who have been stuck in the NBA Bubble, Stan and Jeff Van Gundy. Both have been successful NBA head coaches, and now both are broadcasters.
How are they passing the time in the ‘bub? Lots of walking and talking.
Still, their schedules are odd here. Their nights are consumed by basketball. If one of them is working a game, that means the other is back at the hotel, watching his brother on TV. In other words, they have not been able to share many dinners. But they are free most mornings, so they have taken advantage of that window — by walking, slowly.
“Some days, it’s heavy talk about the future of the world,” Jeff said. “Other times, we’re talking about referees’ calls. We talk about everything and solve nothing.”
I’d like to join them. As we discussed last week, walking is wonderful.
Meatball Salad?
Pork Meatballs and Cucumber Salad
If you find yourself with an abundance of cucumbers (or simply a craving for them), this salad taps into their cooling crunch without making a watery mess. The trick is to salt, drain, and squeeze out any excess liquid before dressing them—and to turn them into a full meal by adding simple oven-baked meatballs studded with briny green olives and sweet golden raisins.
Come on! Recipe looks simple, but has a lot of ingredients, so I won’t list the whole thing here. Click the link above for more. Enjoy.
Tweet of the Week
I could not agree more. Shame to ATL. Zero credit to the Cowboys. More hot takes coming today on my sports podcasts, Back Door Cover and Too Much Dip.
Mean Tweet of the Week
Some background: Michael Quinn Sullivan has long been widely considered the most powerful non-elected person in Texas politics. Here’s an article from 7 1/2 years ago. His influence has only grown since then.
Often referred to as a “hardline conservative,” MQS is a bully and a trickster. He runs Empower Texans, the most powerful lobbying group in the state. It’s mostly funded by West Texas billionaires, but Sullivan is the Austin face of the organization.
Last year, he made waves by secretly recording a conversation between himself and Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen. As if the entrapment wasn’t sleazy enough, he first refused to release the tape, then played portions of it to loyal lawmakers he’d helped get elected, who then leaked damaging information about Bonnen to the press.
It was so egregious that even Lt. Governor Dan Patrick claimed Sullivan was destroying the party:
MQS is an asshole.
So back to this week’s mean tweet. MQS’s twitter strategy is interesting. Unlike many of his underlings, he has not blocked me on twitter. Thanks? Also, he never replies to tweets, but often invites replies.
Sunday afternoon he tweeted this:
To which I felt compelled to reply:
Seriously tho, what kind of person spends their Sunday afternoons watching Hallmark Christmas specials?
Just spend your Sunday afternoons like the rest of us, watching football, working on your newsletter, and fighting your crippling anxiety about tomorrow’s return to work.
Or maybe that’s just me and @sunday.scaries.
I lied to you
Last week I reported that I made the frozen avocado cake recipe featured as Dessert of the Week. I planned to make the dessert Sunday, but I didn’t get around to it until Monday. And I screwed it up. I also reported it was easy. That was also untrue. At least for me.
When making the crust, I added two cans of sweetened condensed milk instead of the 1/3 of a cup called for in the recipe. This created something totally different. Instead of an avocado cake, I ended up with a graham cracker flavored pie with a graham cracker crust. It was fine. I didn’t take a picture because I was too ashamed.
I won’t lie to you again. My apologies.
Where else can I find Micah content?
Podcasts: Mind of Micah, Back Door Cover, Too Much Dip
Twitter: @micahwiener & @producermicah (Why two twitters? It’s a long story)
Instagram: @micahwiener
LinkedIn: @micahwiener
Peloton: #badboysofpelly @micahwiener
He does it again. Another solid week