Alfred Hitchcock Presents. If you’re looking for a television show that breaks away from the samey-samey feel of contemporary Netflix fare and offers a slice of midcentury style and suspense, queue up Alfred Hitchcock Presents. From 1955 to 1962, the famous filmmaker brought the ethos of his movies to the small screen. You don’t have to commit to a full season or storyline; just drop in anywhere and enjoy each 25-minute, self-contained tale, which often ends with a satisfying twist. The feel is kind of like The Twilight Zone, but without the supernatural element, and whereas Rod Serling intended his storylines to be morality fables, Hitchcock’s narratives have a darker and more sinister vibe. (Hitchcock embodies this same vibe himself — there’s honestly something disquieting about the guy.)
Men Who Don’t Use Soap, Explained. Michael Sebastian at Esquire explores the growing number of men who’ve sworn off soap. The premise, popularized by physician and writer James Hamblin, is that your skin’s bacteria form a natural ecosystem, and constantly scrubbing it with soap wrecks the balance. Give your body time, the theory goes, and it’ll recalibrate: you won’t smell like sandalwood or citrus, but you won’t reek either — you’ll just smell like a human being. I’m not sure if I buy the “you won’t smell if you don’t use soap” thing. I knew a guy in Vermont who didn’t use soap or wear deodorant, and the dude smelled like an oniony BK Whopper all the time.
Tracksmith Van Cortlandt Shorts. These shorts have recently been getting some attention, as the singer Harry Styles wore them when he ran a sub-three-hour marathon. But I’ve been wearing them for a few years now, and not for running — for my regular weightlifting workouts. They remind me of 70s-era bodybuilder shorts. The short 4″ inseam may not be for everyone (especially those not working out at home), but I really like the comfortable range of motion the shortness provides. I also really like the material — a soft, lightweight, flexible mesh that’s much nicer-feeling than the stiff thickness of other technical fabrics. Kate also swears by these shorts both for running and her weightlifting workouts.
“Compensation” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This essay by Emerson isn’t as well-known as his one on self-reliance, but it’s definitely worth a read. Emerson argues that everything in nature operates by a universal law of balance; every action has a consequence. Every good (other than pure virtue) comes with a penalty; every crime gets punished, if not externally, then in the deterioration of the nature of the person who commits it. People try to separate out the inextricable parts of things — the cause and effect, the seed and the fruit, the sweet and the bitter — but you can’t pick up one end of the stick without picking up the other.
On our Dying Breed newsletter, we published Sunday Firesides: Forget Me Not and Patrick Hutchison on What Restoring a Cabin in the Woods Taught Him About Confidence and Contentment.
Quote of the Week
To every man there openeth
A Way, and Ways, and a Way,
And the High Soul climbs the High Way,
And the Low Soul gropes the Low,
And in between on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth
A High Way and a Low,
And every man decideth
The Way his soul shall go.—John Oxenham
