Quaker Oatmeal Category: Brown Sugar. As I mentioned in last week’s article on what I eat in a day, my mid-morning meal is usually a big bowl of Fage yogurt and blueberries mixed with some kashi or oatmeal. The store was out of Kashi the other day, so I picked up a box of these on a lark. He never had it before. They’ve turned into Bob Ross’ happy accident. love em. Taste is hard to pin down. It tastes like waffle. They also contain a good amount of fiber, which my gut appreciates. I’m going to ride with oatmeal squares as cereal in my yogurt bowl for a while.
Life of a salesman. I love reading features about how people work. I enjoy them even more when they’re about jobs that have almost disappeared. This LIFE photo essay by Cornel Capa is one of them. inspired by death of a salesmanHaving arrived a year earlier, Capa spent four weeks shadowing Robert Brooks, a real-life salesman who sold umbrellas to carts out of Long Island through Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit. Brooks covered his own expenses and only made money when he closed a sale, and buyers were spending a lot of money that year. No wonder Willy Loman was such an unhappy man; The life of a traveling salesman was hard. Brooks’s loneliness is reflected in the photographs.
1994 Interview with Eugene Sledge. If you haven’t heard my interview with Henry Sledge about his father Eugene’s brutal war memoir, with the old breedI highly recommend you do so. After reading the book and talking to Henry, I went down some Pacific WWII YouTube rabbit holes and found this 1994 interview with Eugene about his experience on Peleliu. It was nice to see the man himself talking about his experience. One thing that impressed me was how concerned he was not to let his fellow Marines down. He had a deep sense of manly honor.
survival in the executive jungle By Chester Burger. While searching for old books on the Internet Archive, I came across this (i enjoy reading old stories). Published in 1964, this book feels like the Machiavelli of the Mad Men era. This includes things like how to handle your boss, your coworkers, and your ambition. Much of the advice is out of date (the world of the gray flannel suit is over), but a good deal still remains. My favorite chapter was “Time Worshipers and Clock Watchers.” It’s a good lesson to put things first by separating the work that really matters from the busy work you do in order to look busy. You can read the whole thing for free at the Internet Archive.
on our Dying Breed Newsletterwe published 5 less examined consequences of declining birth rates And Sunday Firesides: Dying of Embarrassment.
quote of the week
Facts that are not faced firmly have a habit of stabbing us in the back.
-Sir Harold Bowden
This article was originally published on The art of manhood.
