THEY'RE NOT FOR EVERYONE

How's it going? Did you have a decent weekend? Get up to anything fun or interesting? Or was it more of a "ugh, I really need to clean the house" kinda deal? Either way, only five days until we get another crack at the whole "weekend" thing, so don't despair if it didn't go precisely as planned!

While we're both marking time until next weekend, let's celebrate some random lesser holidays! First up, Happy Stick Out Your Tongue Day! Why anyone went to the trouble of registering a day for this is beyond me, but it seemed a fitting enough occasion to showcase our opossum pal up top.

Keep that tongue wagging all the way to today's libation of choice, as we're also celebrating National Daiquiri Day! Legend has it that the daiquiri was invented by an American mining engineer named Jennings Cox while he was working at an iron mine near the village of Daiquiri, Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Given its geographic origins it comes as no surprise that the main ingredient in daiquiris is rum. However, one of the nice things about daiquiris is that they're one of the easier cocktails to make alcohol-free, so if you abstain, rejoice!

You guys look pretty young. You sure there's no rum mixed with that watermelon? I'm gonna need to see some I.D.

*****

Before we delve into this week's community Q&A, let's celebrate some notable July 19th birthdays! We have a lot today, so I've grouped them thusly:

• Sci-Fi/Fantasy Heartthrobs: Benedict Cumberbatch (1976) and Jared Padalecki (1982)

• Guitar Gods: Brian May of the band Queen, born this day in 1947! He also moonlights as an astrophysicist. Smart cookie!

• Empowered Women: Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland (1970) and Lizzie Borden, alleged hatchet handler extraordinaire (1860).

• Today is also the 173rd anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention (1848), where suffragettes Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott gathered social justice sympathizers to discuss methods of securing greater social, civil, and religious rights for women.

OK! Assuming I don't die before then, I'll be back in your inbox on Wednesday morning with links to fun distractions! Before that, though, scroll down and learn all about fellow Boredwalk fan Paul C.! As usual, if you'd like to be featured in an upcoming email, reply to this and let me know! Until next time...

Peace, love, and daiquiris,

Matt

Paul reveling in contrariness in his Everything Popular Is Wrong tee!!

1. What's your day job and what's your dream job?

I am a film editor. Sometimes documentaries, sometimes music videos, but usually features. I also wrote a novel; supposed to be coming out this year, but we’ll see.

My dream job would be running a wildlife sanctuary. With deer! And lambs! When I was a kid, being in Devo would have been the dream job.

 2. What's your biggest pet peeve?

Leaf blowers! (Ed. note: yeah, they're pretty aggravating. Be quiet and use a rake, or live with some leaves! Some of us are sleeping!)

3. What's the most useful piece of advice you've ever received?

I was told to buy BitCoin back when it was 50 cents per coin. I didn’t listen to that advice. The most useful advice I actually listened to was: don’t get married before you’re 30.

4. What experience do you most want to cross off your bucket list?

Some day I would really love to see the sun rise over the Egyptian pyramids, everything silent, the desert awakening with the rosy-fingered dawn. It might be mystical. It might be a dud.

5. If you could have any super power what would it be and why?

For a super power, frying somebody with your mind (a la Scanners) would be pretty great, but on a less homicidal note I’d choose the ability to teleport. Not only would that solve one of LA’s biggest problems (i.e., the morning commute) but I could literally travel anywhere, even the moon!

6. You can curse your nemesis with a minor annoyance for eternity; what do you choose?

I don’t have a nemesis, but I would curse Sean Hannity to have to be Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's student for eternity, and each day she’d educate him just a little bit more until he was an actual human. Or Adam Schiff gets to punch him in the face everyday.

7. Clear up a misconception (about your job, where you are from, some other topic you know a lot about).

It’s time everyone realized that when the Magic: The Gathering cards say “For ages 13 & Up”, they really mean the “& Up” part!

8. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

If you’re up early you’ll find me out cycling through the hills around La Crescenta. Hopefully soon you’ll find me out at some live music shows!