How is everyone’s weekend going? Thanks for spending part of it with the Six.
Anyone watching golf, specifically the Masters? For me it starts and stops with Tiger Woods.
He is arguably the most compelling sports figure in our lifetimes. For a quarter century, Woods has been a celebrity. We’ve seen him go from hot shot phenom, the 21-year-old who won the 1997 Masters (I was there by the way…that story is a deep dive post), to the best golfer in the world, to the epic fall in his personal life, to climbing back to win the 2019 Masters with his kids by his side, to the near fatal car crash last year, to the latest inflection point…his participation in this year’s Masters.
I don’t know of any other modern athlete who’s life and career has been covered and picked apart to the extent of Woods. Taken in the context of his life story, his presence this weekend in Augusta is compelling beyond the competition itself.
I’ll be watching.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
Elon Musk Shakes Up Twitter, Staffers Nervous Over Jobs.
I wrote about Musk and his burgeoning relationship with Twitter earlier this week on TKR. I think it’s an important story and hope it leads to changes within the social media giant. Apparently a group of employees at Twitter do not have the same viewpoint on Musk’s involvement. Business Insider has details, first reported by The Washington Post, on anxieties within the ranks over the billionaire’s role and how it could effect worker culture, and their jobs, at Twitter. Keep shaking things up, Elon.
The Death Spiral Of An American Family.
An emotionally crushing look at the rapidly declining American middle class, as told through a 39-year-old Michigan man’s reckoning that his father, who died of a heart attack at the age of 70, with his cellphone and a bill from a collections agency by his side, had left behind an estate of “inconsequential value.” Writes the author via The Washington Post: “Like a record 23 percent of Americans who’ve died in the past five years, the ultimate financial worth of his father’s life was nothing—a number somewhere below zero.” A longer read but worth the time.
Augusta Couple Won’t Sell Their Home. They Turned Down Millions.
The area around Augusta National Golf Club, site of the Masters in the state of Georgia, is mostly covered by residential properties and ubiquitous fast food chains (I lived across the street from the course for about a year in the late 90’s). Over the past two decades, the club has been buying up property around the golf course. They’ve been successful in convincing owners to sell – offering millions of dollars as incentive – with one exception. Insider has the story of an elderly couple that has repeatedly turned down seven-figure offers for their 1,900-square foot house located a long three-wood shot away from Augusta National.
The Collapse of The American Teacher.
Teaching was a hard profession before Covid, exasperated by events the past two years. That’s the argument presented in this piece from BuzzFeed News. The author, Rosie Gray, interviewed dozens of teachers across the country, finding that “the breakdown of teaching…has been accelerating in plain sight from well before the virus hit.” Removing the Covid-related matters from the article, it’s a good piece on the hyper-bureaucracy of the education industry and the obstacles preventing teachers from doing what most of them initially go into the profession for – to help kids.
Bruce Willis Retires From Acting Due To Cognitive Decline.
By now we’ve all probably read something or seen the grocery check out line magazines on the racks – the news that Bruce Willis was retiring from acting due to health issues. For almost four decades, Willis has been a working actor and movie star – most famously as the action hero John McClane in the “Die Hard” movie franchise. I had no idea Willis, now in his late 60’s, was mostly relegated to video-on-demand movie roles of late. This LA Times article provides details on Willis’s cognitive decline and how it was a dirty little secret within the film industry for years.
Man Finds Snake Nestled Inside House Furniture.
The Six is back with another wacko animal tale…although this is a bit more benign than other stories we’ve shared (no bears attacking cyclists, for instance). A California man lifted the seat cushion on his couch and found an unexpected visitor – a 7-foot rat snake. “I literally lift the cushion and there this giant 7-foot Vietnamese blue beauty rat snake is just coiled up right behind the cushion,” Trejo told area local television station KGTV. Of course, the man whipped out his cell phone camera and took a video of the encounter…which is what I’ve linked to here, posted on Instagram. Watch the whole video, a few seconds in, the guy picks up the snake and it tries to bite him. That’s one long reptile.
Thanks for reading everybody and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for the Sunday Six? Send email to jon@jonjkerr.com