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Find out why over thousands of entrepreneurs love Business Brainstorms - the free weekly 3-minute report is packed with under-the-radar trends, business ideas, and actionable frameworks. By Jakob Greenfeld · Over 16,000 subscribersNo thanks“Jakob's idea generation is top notch!” “Fun because you never know what is going to pop up in Brainstorms. Stretch your mind a little.” ncG1vNJzZmiaopa2r7%2FTqKmmq16owqO%2F05qapGaTpLpw

I’ll never forget watching The Little Mermaid for the first time as a parent, eagerly sliding the DVD into the machine and promising my little kids the “best movie ever.” And in my adolescence, it was. A beautiful mermaid falls in love with a handsome prince. A tyrannical dad determined to keep his daughter chained to the sea floor. Ursula, the dark wielder of the sea offering to give Ariel what she wants for a simple price.

Bob Ross is a bit of a legend. He’s an iconic artist with an unusually broad appeal, despite, or perhaps because of, producing the kind of paint-by-numbers landscape paintings that you might find in an op shop and buy for the frame. His work has been criticised as trite and unoriginal, but people all over the world are more likely to say “Oh, I LOVE Bob Ross” than to critique his artwork.

The poem I’m sharing tomorrow with paid subscribers was inspired by Craig Seymour’s excellent biography Luther: The Life and Longing of Luther Vandross. If you’re a fan of Luther and music history, in general, I can’t recommend that book enough. In this voice note, I talk about some of the complicated nuances of Luther’s life and career. In a way, Luther was an early music stan. He was such a huge fan of the Supremes that when they broke up so Diana could go solo, his grades at school suffered because he was so upset.

A couple of years ago I was researching butter molds, looking to make a butter-shaped bunny or lamb for an Easter lunch to accompany hot cross buns (if you’re in Toronto, Robinson Bread’s are the best). I ended up coming across an image of a case full of butter lambs, abandoned any idea of making my own and instead drove to Buffalo, NY. Malczewski Butter Lamb (what I like to call Butter Lamb HQ) is located in the bustling Broadway Market in Buffalo, NY.

Hello! Hello! I’ve heard from so many of you about the restorative pleasures baking brings you. About the way making something with your hands centers you. Those of you who have baked with me for years know how important the hand-work part of the craft is to me. I’ve written about it often and I return to it in my final column for The New York Times (by subscription). In those moments when we are in the kitchen, when we’re focused on a recipe, transforming basic ingredients into something that we can share, the noise from the outside world subsides and it’s a respite.

I bought the iPad Pro M1 chip in hopes of a lightweight, fast, multi-purpose device that I could also code on. It delivered in almost all areas. The #1 reason I started to consider buying an iPad a few years ago was for one thing, and one thing only: to read coding books. I have a kindle and I love it, but for coding books it is terrible. The large color screen especially comes in handy with code snippets as well as for color syntax highlighting.

General John J Pershing famously stated that “Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars”, which may seem like an odd quote to choose from when it comes to performance clothing, but it’s highly appropriate when it comes to the business of getting shit done in the mountains, where heroics mean nothing once you run out of gas. Another bit of military wisdom is that you can win every battle, but still lose a war, that strategic thinking trumps tactical thinking.

My name is Helena, and as of this writing I’m a 23-year-old woman who, as a teenager, believed I was transgender. In the years since detransitioning (stopping testosterone treatment and no longer seeing myself as transgender), I’ve become interested in exploring why, in the last decade, nearly every English-speaking country has seen a meteoric rise in adolescents believing they are transgender and pursuing cosmetic medical and surgical interventions. Here, I’d like to go over how and why I came to see myself as transgender, the process of transitioning, and the events leading up to and following my detransition.