RatLinks: April 2019 - Issue #4
Weezer | College Bribes | The Htoo Twins
Ariana Grande’s tattoo mishap garnered a lot of response.
Therefore I wanted to use this space to highlight another celeb’s body art.
Did you know Drake of the hit TV show Degrassi has a bottle of Drakkar Noir inked on his arm?
Quick house keeping note: Thanks to everyone who has expressed interest in the RatLinks Quarterly. It is still in progress, we have room for one or two more submissions. Email me if you are interested in learning more.
Preamble
It’s April already.
Make sure you have an umbrella. April is famously known for its showers, which eventually bring May flowers.
In other news, if you are unaware. I am a white male.
To prove this statement, I went to a Weezer concert this month.
If you have never heard of Weezer, they are an alternative rock band formed in 1993 and their recent hit “Can’t Knock The Hustle” made the New York Times Magazine 25 Songs That Matter In 2019.
In 2018, Weezer released a cover of Toto’s Africa, which reached #1 on the Billboard Alternative charts and was the first #1 hit for Weezer, since 2008. Over the summer, I was eating lunch at La Esquina, a taqueria and overheard a group next to me discussing this song. One woman said “I like it for karaoke, but it’s just so white.” I really didn’t know what she was talking about until I heard Weezer play the song live. As 30,000 people sung along, I realized that random lady was right. Toto Africa appeared to be peak whiteness, or should I say was peak until Weezer played an acoustic cover of TLC’s “No Scrubs”.
To further prove the above statement, I watched Camden Riviere the world’s #1 court tennis player (a bizarre indoor version of tennis) play a doubles match. I have never played court tennis and don’t think I am going to start, but if you are a member of a country club looking for sub-par golfers or outdoor tennis players. Let me know.
Other things of note that happened this month:
Rich parents bribed people to get their kids into college.
John Stamos’ ex Lori “Aunt Becky” Loughlin and her current husband Mossimo V spent a night in jail after being arrested for paying to get her daughter Olivia Jade in to USC. Olivia Jade, reportedly had no interest in attending the college, because it wouldn’t help grow her “brand”. Felicity Huffman was also charged yet surprisingly her husband William H. Macy wasn’t implicated. Did he snitch? Potentially. That guy is shameless.
Doomsday is coming for New Jersey rail riders.
The Hudson River Tunnel the connects almost all rail traffic between NJ & NY is crumbling. If just one of the tunnels goes down, traffic would go from 24 trains an hour to six
The Hudson River Tunnel connects 20% of America’s GDP. If it couldn’t run, America would lose $100 million every day, according to the Northeast Corridor Commission. At the broadest level, the national economy would lose $16 billion over a four-year span, equivalent to the loss of 33,000 jobs a year. If you are a New Jersey homeowner, a tunnel failure will cost the state $22 billion in property values.
Books
This month I am reading The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. A dense book filled with vignettes about famous historical individuals and what you can learn from their behavior. I would recommend the chapters on Coco Chanel and Michael Eisner.
You can see all the books I am reading here.
Links
Purl | Pixar SparkShorts - YouTube
A Pixar short about a new hire at a firm called B.R.O Capital. I highly recommend this short film.
Purl, directed by Kristen Lester and produced by Gillian Libbert-Duncan, features an earnest ball of yarn named Purl who gets a job in a fast-paced, high energy, bro-tastic start-up. Yarny hijinks ensue as she tries to fit in, but how far is she willing to go to get the acceptance she yearns for, an
Not Caring: A Unique and Powerful Skill – Collaborative Fund
To quote the immortal film Frozen “Let it Go”
Jiddu Krishnamurti was an Indian philosopher. His message became more candid as he aged. In one famous moment during a talk, he asked the audience if they wanted to know his secret.
To Win a Sports Bet, Don't Think Too Much - Scientific American
Not only don’t think, just follow what Vegas does. For full disclosure this tactic allowed me to win my NFL pick'em league and currently lead a March Madness pool
Blackstone's Byron Wien Discusses Lessons Learned in His First 80 Years - Blackstone –
Byron Wien is a legend in the investing world and his lessons are a worthwhile read at any age.
Post Script
Recently it has come to my attention there is a ton of stuff I don’t know about. Some of these things RatLinks readers may also be interested in.
My process for learning something new is as follows:
Start with a big concept
Work your way through it until you can narrow your focus into something that is easily explainable.
This led me to
Asia
Wars in Asia
Child Warriors in Asia
Where are they now - Child Warriors Edition
Beginning in the late 1940s, the Karen people, who comprise 7% of 5 million total people in Burma, and the Burmese army were at war. In the early 1990s, the Burmese army launched a major operation to secure the route of an oil pipeline through the area.
In March 1997, a local pastor brought the two illiterate nine-year-olds, twin brothers Johnny and Luther Htoo (Too), to the local military chief and said the Lord had spoken to them and they would save the Karen people.
A new rebel group called God’s Army of the Holy Mountain, or God’s Army for short, was formed on the border of Burma and Thailand under the nominal leadership of the Htoo twins.
Various legends claimed that the brothers had numerous magical powers, including invulnerability to bullets and mines, and that they could hand out magical bullets. Supposedly, they could kill by pointing a rifle at the ground and concentrating. One tale claims that Johnny turned himself into an old man and back when bathing in a river. The legend of the boys was embraced by locals who viewed the existing Karen National Union as corrupt and ineffective.
The Htoo twins are are mostly remembered from this photo
For the sake of brevity. Burma today is now known as Myanmar, mostly thanks in part to John Rambo. I believe this is true, but again my narrowed focus was on the Htoo twins, so you may want to fact check me here.
It is also worth pointing out, that President Donald Trump has honored John Rambo’s efforts by immortalizing him on the 20 Dollar Bill.
With a clever tweak, the image on a $20 bill transforms into Rambo
To come full circle, the Htoo twins were defeated handily by the Thai army in 2001 and famously reunited in 2013. Johnny remains at an unofficial refugee camp in Thailand, not far from where the brothers were sent after they surrendered to Thai authorities. Luther lives in Sweden, listens to Weezer and is an avid court tennis player.