🌶️ It's more tingly than hot

🏔️ You hear they climbed Everest? They didn’t. Once you summit Mount Everest, there’s not much someone can tell you you can’t do. If you reach the highest point on earth, limits on your self-belief cease to exist.

I wouldn’t know. Hell. Nah. I’ll be here where the oxygen is plentiful and the only Sherpa I need is Google Maps. But not everyone possesses the courage, bravery, and adventurous spirit of Shayna Under and Scott Lehman. They scaled Everest earlier this year, and now they want to share from their overflowing tank of self-belief.

Climbing the mountain is impressive enough, but the Maryland couple became the first deaf American climbers to accomplish the feat, bringing the deaf community to the top of the world. The expedition required months of preparation with Sherpas to establish gestures and means of communication before setting out on a journey that tempts death in the best of conditions.

They plan to scale the tallest mountains on each continent, but it’s at lower altitudes that the real work begins.

The pair frequently visits schools to speak to deaf students about their experiences. Their achievements totally reframe the students’ understanding of what’s possible for deaf individuals, arming them with a newfound sense of confidence and excitement for an unbounded future. When they learn deaf people can conquer Everest, they’re learning that the literal sky is the limit.

I’d typically think you’d have to be nuts to try climbing Everest, but in Under and Lehman’s case, that’s a pretty amazing reason.

🌧️ It’s raining miracles. Weather talk and the office water cooler go together like a very cringeworthy peanut butter and jelly. It’s like our factory settings default to “retroactive meteorologist” when the well of conversation topics runs dry.

You know what isn’t running dry? California’s reservoirs. Please pardon us - this is the rare case of a worthwhile Monday morning weather chat.

In what’s been termed “a miracle year,” the state experienced enough rain and snow to fill its reservoirs to 128% of their historical average. In a state where the primary source of precipitation for the last several years has been Stephen Curry shooting threes, that’s welcome news. Extreme drought had previously drained reservoir levels to dangerous lows, facing residents and businesses with water restrictions and species of fish with threat of further endangerment.

The banner year for precipitation likely played a role in a less tumultuous wildfire season. To date in 2023, 476 square miles have burned from wildfire. The five year average is 2,031. Consider the number of homes spared by an unseasonably dreary year - that’s huge!

Weather catastrophe rears its ugly head far too often, so we’ll take the rare W wherever we can find it, even if it means rainy days in the Golden State on days when the Warriors aren’t even playing.

🦟 The ultimate fly swatter. In 2021, malaria killed a staggering 619,000 people. Despite the jarring numbers, the disease is typically quite preventable and treatable, but it wreaks destruction on impoverished areas. A vaccine for malaria, a longtime dream of the medical community, has actually existed for two years. However, it’s expensive and difficult to manufacture at scale, limiting its impact in fighting the disease.

That’s all about to change.

The University of Oxford has developed a new vaccine which recently received recommendation for use by the World Health Organization. The vaccine is not only easier to manufacture, but doses cost only half as much as the existing solution. Already, a manufacturer is prepared to produce more than 100 million doses a year.

In total, only 18 million doses of the existing vaccine have ever been produced. That bottleneck created a severe imbalance between supply of vaccines and demand for them, an imbalance which is set to dissipate with the new production. This is a potential game-changer for prevention of a disease that needlessly plagues so many, especially children.

Some great news with massive global impact.

🌭 Hot diggity dog. Very few things have the power to thaw the frigid grip of a bad day faster than the warmth of a dog’s greeting.

Imagine, then, the sunlight radiating from 80 dogs thrilled by the sight of your face.

For Niall Harbison, that’s just another day. Harbison makes a habit of feeding Thailand’s street dogs, earning their affection and friendship one sausage at a time. After a week’s absence, Harbison documented his return to see his many furry friends, and the footage demonstrates the strength of a bond that stretches beyond food.

By reliably and consistently showing up for “the gang,” he’s fostered an environment where both parties - dog and human - bask in the warmth of friendship. Doesn’t take much: some treats, a friendly face, and a kind spirit.

The next step for Harbison? Helping to get these lovely dogs adopted.

☎️ New phone, who dis? On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell called his friend Thomas Watson to see if he wanted to hit the tavern for a few ciders. Before the lads could figure out where to pregame, though, they had to demonstrate that this newfangled invention - the telephone - actually worked.

See, that was actually the first “long-distance” two-way telephone conversation in history. Today, the power to inexpensively video call anybody anywhere in the world rests in the palm of our hands, so our definition of long-distance differs ever so slightly from Bell’s. In 1876, “long-distance” referred to the gap between Boston and Cambridgeport….about two miles.

But the incredible ease with which we communicate today started somewhere, and that somewhere was Boston on October 9th of 1876. Also, I made up the part about the topic of the call, but if you don’t think the fellas went out for a few pints to celebrate the first two-way telephone conversation in history….then you don’t know the fellas very well.

🚛 Keep on truckin’. It gets damn hot in Houston, Texas. So when you’re fighting rush hour traffic and your car breaks down, the side of the road is not a cool place to sort out your troubles. A suboptimal situation becomes cause for meltdown when you have your infant in tow.

The Mizell family was terrified in the scorching heat until their knight in shining armor arrived. This knight wasn’t riding a horse, though. His steed was an H-E-B truck.

Mark Sellers has driven a truck for the company for over 14 years, and colleagues tout his willingness to help others. Right on brand, when Mark spotted the Mizells on the side of the road, he pulled over to assist, inviting the family to cool off in the truck while they called for help.

Sellers was recently celebrated for his actions, becoming an honorary deputy. Jam-packed as they are with traffic, the roads can still be a lonely place, especially when things go wrong. It’s reassuring to know that some of their most frequent travelers are silent guardians like Mark Sellers.

🌶️ Seasons don’t fear the reaper. Neither does Mike Jack. How do you fare with spice? Most people bow out after some jalapeño. Others can stomach the sweet sting of habaneros. But Canadian Mike Jack is built different.

He recently ate 50 Carolina Reapers in just 6 minutes and 49 seconds. That sick feat notches a new world record. You know what they say about Carolina Reapers though. Betcha can’t eat just 50! 

Once he finished, he ate 85 more. The 135 pepper total is the second highest number of Reapers eaten in one sitting.

Anytime you have to break out the Scoville scale, a measure of pepper hotness, you know things are getting serious. According to that scale, a Carolina Reaper is hundreds of times hotter than a jalapeño.

It kind of makes you wonder if the celebrities that go on Hot Ones are being - gasp! - a little dramatic?!

Eating that many peppers in such a short period is not a task to be trifled with. Harry and Lloyd tricked Mr. Mentalino into doing it, and it killed him!

Anyways, would love to see Tom Haverford take on the Reaper challenge. Piece of cake.

This is how you eat it!

🏠 Kevin Mac Allister, not Home Alone. Ten years ago, Alexis Mac Allister and his unfortunately named brother Kevin were playing youth soccer for their hometown club, Argentinos Juniors, dreaming of superstardom in Europe. Their careers have taken the brothers on different paths, Alexis to England with Liverpool and Kevin to Belgium with Union St. Gilloise.

Last week, the Mac Allister family realized an incredible dream, as Liverpool and Union St. Gilloise met in the Europa League and the brothers Mac Allister took to the pitch as opponents. The occasion was filled with wholesome brotherly moments for two men thousands of miles from home, but exactly where they’re supposed to be.

Buzz and Kevin McAllister could never…

🏈 Kicking off middle-age. Matt Ganyard tried out to be the placekicker for the University of Virginia Cavaliers in 2009, his sophomore year of college. He didn’t make the team. For most, that would be the end of the story. For Matt, the rejection letter became the lock screen on his iPad.

After UVA, Ganyard spent 10 years in the marine corps, but he brought a football and a tee with him everywhere, staying sharp for some unknown future. Eventually, at age 34, he wound up back in Charlottesville to pursue his MBA. What awaited him there was an extra year of NCAA eligibility, a spot on the roster, and nicknames from his teammates like “Pop Pop,” “Grandpa,” and “Uncle Matt.”

Rightfully so. Nobody this old has attempted participation in collegiate extracurriculars since Blue pledged Lambda Epsilon Omega. And we all know how that ended.

Luckily, Matt should be safe and sound as a placekicker. Given how utterly debilitating hangovers are at age 34 though, he might want to skip the postgame parties. Frank-the-Tank was a fictional character, and those vibes don’t really play in 2023. Then again, if he kicks a game winner, he has to fill up the funnel at least once, even if he’s got a big Sunday with the fam planned at Home Depot.

Don’t pronounce your dreams dead too soon. Ganyard is living proof that those dreams just might be deferred to a future when they’ll make for a far funnier story.

⚾️ When life hands you lemons, turn to the knuckleball. A week ago, we lost Tim Wakefield, beloved Red Sox pitcher, to brain cancer. Stories of Wake all inevitably arrive at the same conclusion: the man was the epitome of class.

Whether you’re a baseball fan or not, we all have much to learn from Wakefield’s career. Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates to play first base, Wakefield struggled in the minor leagues, leading one scout to remark that he wouldn’t make it past Double-A playing the position. So he re-invented himself in pretty much the quirkiest way a professional athlete possibly could.

He became a knuckleball pitcher.

Having developed the pitch with his dad as a child, he revisited a weapon chosen by the smallest minority of professional ballplayers. It’s a pitch hitters struggle to hit and catchers struggle to catch, a floating mystery with a destination even the pitcher himself can’t predict. He found near-immediate success as a knuckleball pitcher with the Pirates, pitching them to a World Series before ultimately losing his feel for the pitch entirely.

He was demoted then eventually released. But he wasn’t done.

He sought the guidance of former knuckleballing greats, something an ego would prevent many players from doing. With a retooled approach, he caught on with the Red Sox and played an astonishing 17 successful seasons, winning two World Series and endearing himself to a city forever.

R.I.P. Wake. Among so many other lessons about being a great teammate and a philanthropic patron, thanks for teaching us that we can reinvent ourselves in ways many would think impossible.