By Lindsay Bell
Welcome to the 76th edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss – from Howie Goldfarb (Blue Star Strategic Marketing), Joe Cardillo (Visual.ly), and yours truly.
For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t subscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.
Today we explore pig-headed men, how to prime yourself for creative greatness, and Australia’s incredible assortment of long extinct megafauna.
Howie on Being Tired of Gross Men Hating Women and Families. My wife and I just had a baby in February. We had a home birth, and I spent four hours in a tub with her, supporting her efforts to give birth. It was AMAZING. I can’t imagine not being there for her and my son for more than a few days.
As the article above mentions, “New father and Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy is the latest parental punching bag after three New York sportscasters mocked him for skipping the team’s first two games to be with his wife and son — but experts and parents say the ballplayer was right to take the paternity leave, help his wife, bond with his kid and then get back to work.”
For men who have self esteem issues – but LOVE sports – to be so crass blows my mind. This isn’t the GOP war on women theme. This is men not being sensitive to women and kids. And I am really tired of it.
I know many of you have a strong opinion on issues like this, and if you come to Spin Sucks most likely you are supportive of smart strong ladies (as you should be – or I will come with my can of whup’a$$!).
But Boomer Esiason had the nerve to tell a husband and father he should make his wife have a C section just to make opening day. Someone who will play in thousands of games in his career (hopefully), but only have a few days to experience the wonder of childbirth with his wife, lover, and partner? Egads.
Joe on Creativity and Believing in Yourself. I think most people are aware that the Twitter co-founders all engage in a bit of hubris – if you haven’t read Hatching Twitter, it’s highly recommended.
This piece by Biz Stone is actually pretty interesting. He speaks eloquently about what it takes to get to genius level creativity. I personally don’t have it, and probably won’t arrive there anytime soon, if ever. But having a clear idea of what you want to learn, and how you want to grow and develop, these things are what give you belief that you are good enough to create amazing things. The glory and accolades, if they exist, are just window dressing for genius level creation.
‘Like a Demon in a Medieval Book’: Is This How the Marsupial Lion Killed Prey?
Lindsay on Australia and its Long Extinct Megafauna. From last week’s 500 pound killer chicken, to today’s contribution. I’m sorry. I just can’t help myself!
Australia fascinates me, and has always been on my list of places to see before I die. That is, it was, until I learned they have spiders the size of dinner plates there. Still, its history, as a totally secluded continent for hundreds of thousands of years, and the resulting evolutionary surprises, is a dream to a science geek such as myself (and Laura Petrolino!).
Consider this quote from the above article: “…the spiny anteater the size of a pig; a relative of the wombat the size of a rhinoceros; a marsupial tapir as big as a horse; a ten-foot kangaroo; a horned tortoise eight feet long and a monitor lizard bigger than the Nile crocodile. The lost Australian megafauna looks like a science fiction film directed by an acid casualty.”
So, my friends, prepare to discover an ancient kangaroo killer – the marsupial lion. You’re welcome.
Now it’s your turn. Is there a book, podcast, article, TV show, blog post, or story we should read?