Work In Progress Newsletter
Edition 12 | August 8, 2022

WRITE THIS WAY…
Edition No. 12 of the Work In Progress newsletter is coming in hot. Very hot. So nice to see you today. I’m your better news barista Ryan McCrary. I grew up on James Bond movies and all of them are playing free right now on Prime Video. I have been binging on them like a grizzly bear at the Bellagio buffet. One of the most celebrated plot devices in the franchise is Bond never following the directions of Q whenever he is given a new piece of equipment. 

I will confess that reading the instructions is not an area I always excel. Sometimes the instructions make no sense. Anyone who has ever had parts left over after assembling something from Ikea can relate. But, ignoring the details altogether can cause even more grief. So, before you toss the instructions to your Lotus supercar that converts into a submarine, reviewing the instruction manual would be a wise first step before preparing to dive. As always, your results may vary.

For those curious, my top-five Bond movies: 1.) From Russia With Love 2.) Skyfall 3.) Thunderball 4.) Casino Royale 5.) Goldeneye

THREE DOTS… GOOD NEWS ONLY
Oh Captain! My Captain!… Meet Holly and Keely Petitt who made history last week as the first mother daughter pilots for Southwest Airlines… Holly started as a flight attendant before beginning pilot training as a young mother of two… Massiah Browne was hailed as a hero as the seven-year old noticed a toddler at the bottom of the pool. Browne dove in and grabbed the three-year old’s arm and pulled him to the surface where medics transported him to the hospital. Browne is the son of Olympian boxer Marcus Browne… Even Father Time can’t prevent Johnnie Bell from completing his appointed rounds… The 93-year old Bell is the longest tenured letter carrier in US Postal Service and just celebrated his 70th year of service in Oklahoma City… Dwayne Johnson demonstrates proper cheat meal preparation for superheroes… The artist formerly known as “The Rock” sampled In-N-Out for the first time and he gave it a thumbs up…  

PASSAGES
One of the most iconic voices of my lifetime passed away last week at 94 years old. Vin Scully provided the soundtrack to my life during hours spent in miserable SoCal traffic while I was working at Pepperdine. While I never embraced the Dodgers, Mr. Scully made baseball real in a way few people can. When I covered the San Francisco Giants for a wire service, I got the chance to meet Mr. Scully. He was strolling along the tunnels deep in the bowels of what was then AT&T Park in San Francisco. I was late to get to the visitor’s clubhouse, but that went out the window when I saw the voice of baseball. He was wearing a powder blue sports coat and a perfectly knotted tie. I introduced myself and told him I was a Tigers fan and loved his work in “For Love of the Game”. He could not have been nicer and it was a pleasant 10 minutes I will always remember. One of the best tributes to Mr. Scully: HERE.

BEST THING I SAW ON THE ‘GRAM LAST WEEK
‘Time of Your Life’ indeed… @theholdernessfamily channels its inner Green Day and shares the joys of youth sports lyrically. It all makes sense. Trust me. → HERE

BEST THING I LINKEDIN LEARNED
Special thanks to Anja Lee for sharing this gem from former U.S. Chief Data Scientist DJ Patel. Read the full post HERE.

OTD – AUGUST 8
Notable Historical Moments… President Richard Nixon announced that he would resign the presidency at 12:00 p.m. on August 9. 

Notable Divorce: Days of Thunder finally receded… Tom Cruise divorced Nicole Kidman in 2011 after 10 years. 

Famous Deaths… Legendary college football coach Bobby Bowden (b. 1929) in 2021 at 91… Bowden appeared in one of the best Burger King commercials ever captured.

Famous Birthdays… Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman (b. 1937)… 20-time Grand Slam Champion, Roger Federer (b. 1981).

Bonus Bobby Bowden Quote: “The greatest mistake is to continue to practice a mistake.”

WHAT I’M READING NOW
For Improvement: Against the World by Kerry Eggers & Dwight Jaynes

**One sentence review: It’s a revealing look at the favorite team of my childhood, the Portland Trail Blazers, as it pursued an NBA Championship that ultimately eluded them.” 

For an Escape: Indigo Slam: An Elvis Cole Novel by Robert Crais

**One sentence review: Being the self-proclaimed “World’s Greatest Detective” was much tougher before reliable cell phones and the internet, but fortunately for this family in trouble and on the run, Elvis Cole is almost as good as he thinks he is.

Embracing my inner history nerd: A History of Warfare by John Keegan

**One sentence review: A brilliant account of the history of war from antiquity to the early 1990s before the War on Terror entered the lexicon. 

WHAT I WATCHED
I went to the theater and watched Bullet Train for the first time and it was a lot to take in, honestly. The action was wall to wall and worked best when Brad Pitt was doing Brad Pitt things as a reluctant assassin embracing his commitment to self-improvement and therapy. My biggest complaints: (way) too much backstory and the movie took almost zero time to “just breathe”.  

In other news: I took my Aunt Shirl to see Top Gun Maverick and it was amazing once again. Saw this quote on an online profile and thought it was brilliant: “I thought a global pandemic or mass shootings would bring a country together, but it was Tom Cruise all along.” 

ESCAPE POD
Revisiting one of my favorite podcasts from the global shutdown: The Ron Burgundy Podcast with legendary jazz flutist Ron Burgundy. In this classic interview, Ron talks baseball with Clayton Kershaw. 

CLIP OF THE WEEK
This gave me goosebumps. Sam Cooke is one of my favorite singers and this father and son duo covered the classic song A Change is Gonna Come.

MY GIF TO YOU
Current mood as demonstrated by Ron Burgundy… Super Duper!

QUOTABLE
Legendary cellist Pablo Casals when asked why he continued to practice at age 90:
“Because I think I’m making progress.”  – Pablo Casals

THIS WAY OUT
Thanks for reading the latest edition of my Work In Progress newsletter. My goal is to spread inspiration and hope in a world that needs both more than ever. My goal is to release these newsletters each Monday – because who doesn’t need a shot of good news to start the work week? Look for a new article on my timeline later this week. Special thanks to Kim Kaupe and Terry Rice for encouraging me to launch this into the universe. As always, feedback is welcomed!