Carson the Magnificent by Bill Zehme. Bill Zehme spent decades working on this biography of Johnny Carson but died before he could finish it. Mike Thomas stepped in to complete it. Zehme’s writing crackles. He has a gift for highlighting small details of his subjects (which you can see in another book of his I enjoyed about Sinatra) that seem like they shouldn’t matter, but when taken together paint a full picture of the person. He does this masterfully in this Carson bio. Carson was the most famous introvert in television history. He was genuinely warm on camera, but completely unknowable off it. Carson was ambitious, and that ambition cost him a healthy family life. He was married four times, and the divorces were caused by his alcohol-fueled cruelty. He could be a real son-of-a-bitch to the people closest to him. Besides getting a view of Carson the man, Zehme lets readers see what television and the entertainment world was like in the 20th century — which was certainly a lot more glamorous than it is today.
Garmin Forerunner 55. I wore an Apple Watch as daily wear for years, then stopped (getting notifications bugged me). But I’d still strap it on for Zone 2 cardio and HIIT sessions to track my heart rate. Its battery life is abysmal, though, so I had to remember to charge it the day before each session. I usually forgot, so no watch to track my heart rate. I wanted something that monitored heart rate but didn’t require me to babysit the battery. The Garmin Forerunner 55 solved that. If you’re not using the smartwatch mode or GPS, the battery lasts for a few weeks. I like that it’s not packed with a crazy overabundance of features, and as to the features it does have, I can’t speak to them, as I don’t use them. I just use it for heart rate monitoring, and it seems accurate and gets the job done. It’s reliable too; Kate’s been using one daily for several years and hasn’t had any problems with it.
“Lonely Town” by Brandon Flowers. The Killers’ frontman put out a solo album back in 2015 called The Desired Effect. It’s one of my favorite albums. The whole thing is great, but my favorite track is “Lonely Town.” It’s a nostalgia-infused rock/synth gem that sounds like it was part of a John Hughes soundtrack. Pet Shop Boys producer Stuart Price had a hand in it, and you can hear that influence all over it. If you’ve only known Flowers through the Killers’ bigger hits, give this one a listen. It’s a song that sounds both timeless and like a specific era all at once.
Pat Riley thinks a suit makes a more effective leader. He might be right. Last week, Pat Riley was honored with a statue outside the Crypto.com Arena (now there’s a catchy name) in Los Angeles, and he used the occasion to make a plea: NBA coaches need to go back to wearing coats and ties on the sideline. Riley was famous for his game day style. Always a sharp Armani suit. And it wasn’t just vanity that caused him to dress sharp. It gave him confidence. Research backs him up. A 2015 study found that wearing formal clothes shifts people toward abstract, big-picture thinking — the type of thinking leaders need to be good at. Another study found that employees who dressed up more than usual saw boosts in self-esteem and performance. “Look the part, be the part,” as Prop Joe memorably put it in The Wire. Of course, the pandemic-era athleisure quarter-zip has become so entrenched that when coaches were polled, over 80 percent preferred staying casual. Comfortable, yes. But the look does not mean business.
On our Dying Breed newsletter, we published Why Aren’t the Young People Dancing Anymore? and Sunday Firesides: Despise Not the Thing That Would Save You.
Quote of the Week
Character, greatly as it is to be desired, is NOT a thing in itself but a product of sanity and right living. It is founded and maintained only by constant performance. There is no way to hurry it. It is useless to try to cultivate it as such for when you do you are likely to end a prig. Character of the real sort is quite like health and happiness. It should need and get very little DIRECT attention but appear like the fragrance of a flower in the process of normal, vigorous, wholesome, purposeful living, doing.
—Frank H. Cheley
