Five Bullets 3.14.25

Mickey 17, Mensun Bound, Walking & more.

Good morning and happy Friday friends.

From The Art and Making of Mickey 17. Source.

This morning is cloudy and cool here in New York City. Temperatures have been around the mid 50s this week which makes for a nice crisp start to spring.

This morning I’m sharing the second part of my series on the Endurance with a post on Mensun Bound’s book The Ship Beneath The Ice which I read back in January. I could go on writing about the Endurance and Shackleton but I think this post will conclude the series (for now anyway!).

Next week I’ll be posting another blog to keep up with my twice-a-week schedule as discussed last week.

Here’s five bullets which captured my attention this week:

• Books: I’m bouncing between a few books this week but when I started reading Frederic Gros’s A Philosophy of Walking it felt like it was written just for me. Following in the footsteps of philosophers and writers including Thoreau, Nietzsche, and Rousseau, Gros offers contemplative insights into “how you think about walking and how you walk while you are thinking”. I really enjoy when a writer takes the time to do an in-depth exploration of a topic, really getting to the heart of the topic and highlighting details we might not have considered. This book will be a constant companion for me on my walks this spring.

• Essay: Lawrence Wright covers The Nuns Trying to Save the Women on Texas’s Death Row. Wright meets the women on death row and the nuns offering them spiritual guidance as they await execution. This is a long look at faith, forgiveness, and the Texas criminal-justice system.

• Movies: Science-fiction flick Mickey 17 from director Bong Joon Ho takes a frightening premise - printable human clones - and creates a humorous portrayal of humans attempting to colonize an icy planet. The film is based on Edward Ashton’s book Mickey7. Sci-fi invites us to look at our present-day world in a new light but it’s fun when instead of being all doomsday about it we can have a few laughs too.

• New York City: By 1899 there were 100 Electrobats operating in Manhattan. The electric cars could reach speeds up to 15 MPH, travel a 25-mile distance and ran on an electric battery that could be swapped out in three minutes. Here’s the forgotten history of New York’s first electric taxi fleet.

• History: Continuing last week’s blog post on Shackleton’s List, this week I wrote about lessons from Mensun Bound, the maritime archaeologist who found the Endurance.

  The Search for Shackelton's Ship.

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That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading. I really enjoy getting this newsletter out each Friday. It gives me reason to dive into my interests, learn more, and share it with you.

Have a great weekend,

Keith.