What’s in my NOW? — Todd Henion

issue #260

Todd Henion is a recently retired airline pilot now trying to fix the world one toaster at a time.

PHYSICAL

• Finite and Infinite Games – James Carse: This book has changed all the measures and time markers in my life. Understanding and identifying an infinite game radically adjusts my goals and roles. Simon Sinek has recently reworked and broadened this dichotomy into organizational psychology in his book The Infinite Game. Both categories of game are worth playing, but the rules and outcomes are dramatically different.
• JetStream Pens: There is no better smooth ballpoint pen. Pretty cheap and very reliable. Everyday ballpoint writer with stunningly gentle flow.
• 11-in-1 Klein Screwdriver: Among the highlights of my month are our local Repair Cafes. Neighbors bring in broken and damaged appliances, clothes, and all sorts of stuff. We volunteers try to repair them in collaboration with the owner. This simple multi-bit screwdriver that I carry most days, allows access to the insides of so many household items—despite different screw types—allowing me to work to understand how the machine works and how to put it right. The puzzle-solving, in partnership with the owner, is really joyful. A screwdriver can be a magic key.

DIGITAL

• Libby App: Having 10-20 good books in my pocket at all times to divert my scrolling brain into a story or concept is the fruition of childhood fantasy. And add that it is all free and very pleasant to use.
• Instapaper (Read it Later app for news and websites): “One should always have something sensational to read on the train” —Wilde

INVISIBLE

“I don’t mind what happens.” — J. Krishnamurti*

I discovered this quote many years ago and just recently (two or three years ago) started to interrogate what he might have meant and what it means to me. I find it represents both a “Yes, and…” acceptance of our very limited ability for control. And subtracts the unhealthy attachment to outcomes that we automatically generate.

“I don’t mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom. It is a timeless spiritual truth: release attachment to outcomes, deep inside yourself, you’ll feel good no matter what.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti

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The Sartorialist / Asterix and the Missing Scroll

Issue No. 124

THE SARTORIALIST – NYC STYLISH STRANGERS HAPPILY CAUGHT BY A CANDID CAMERA

The Sartorialist
by Scott Schuman
Penguin Books
2009, 512 pages, 5.2 x 7.4 x 1.6 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

Scott Schuman once worked in the fashion industry but found that the outfits that amateurs wore on the streets of New York City to be a lot more interesting than those from famous designers. He began photographing people on the street who caught his eye, and, with their permission, posted their images on his blog, The Sartorialist. His street photos had their own style, and soon fashion followers were happy to be caught by Schumans’s candid camera. Soon The Sartorialist blog became legendary in the fashion world. It was also the first of many photo blogs to feature street fashion – showcasing what people with a personal flair wore everyday. This brick of a book collects the best of The Sartorialist’s first 10 years of images. It works as a one-stop shop of hip clothing designs; it also works as a document of “what they wore” in 2010; and it also works as a cool gallery of contemporary fashion photography. It lacks the richness of the life stories in Humans of New York, but it gains something by focusing so obsessively on the design decisions of creative people. A second volume called The Sartorialist X, takes Schuman outside of New York to other cities of the world. – Kevin Kelly

THE LATEST ASTERIX BY THE NEW TEAM IS MORE INVENTIVE AND MUCH FUNNIER THAN ITS PREDECESSOR

Asterix and the Missing Scroll
by Jean-Yves Ferri (author) and Didier Conrad (illustrator)
Asterix
2015, 48 pages, 8.9 x 11.6 x 0.4 inches

Buy on Amazon

One has to sympathize with the writer-artist team of Ferri and Conrad, taking on the daunting task of creating new adventures for Asterix 56 years after the small-but-mighty Asterix the Gaul’s creation by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. The new team’s first Asterix adventure, “Asterix and the Picts” in 2013, was understandably a little stiff, both in terms of humor and art, as if the new guys didn’t want to risk disrupting so many years of tradition. This time around, however, they’ve loosened up considerably.

“Asterix and the Missing Scroll,” the 36th entry in the series, is more inventive in plot and much funnier both in script and visuals than its predecessor. The story is a riff on the WikiLeaks scandal, and a quite brilliant one at that. It turns out a journalist named – punningly, in the best Goscinny tradition – Confountheirpolitix, has secured a censored chapter from Julius Caesar’s autobiography that details the emperor’s repeated defeats at the hands of Asterix, his rotund pal Obelix, and their village of indomitable Frenchmen. The journalist wants to publish the story, so he turns to the only people Caesar can’t beat to help him with the job. Hi-jinks, of course, ensue.

Along with the light political commentary, there are the usually puns and running jokes – Obelix is flustered by his horoscope, which warns him to cut back on his favorite meal of roast boar, and complains about his fate throughout the book. There’s also a clever scene near the end that pays loving tribute to the strip’s original creators.

Conrad’s art is gorgeous. While he’s still emulating Uderzo, his line is a bit crisper and he pulls off several showstopping large panels, beautifully composed and full of rich detail. His visual storytelling is smooth and clear and he pulls off slapstick scenes without a hitch. Only the least-forgiving of Asterix purists would dislike this story, and those new to the series should be thoroughly entertained – even young children who don’t get all the subtext. It’ll be fun to see what the new team does next time around, when they’re even more comfortable filling Goscinny and Uderzo’s shoes. – John Firehammer

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

Projectiles

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 196

Best paper airplanes

The New World Champion Paper Airplane Book

How to make better paper airplanes. This is the third generation of books offering plans for the best, and these really are better. They were designed with the aid of aeronautical testing. The winning design flew a record 226 feet. Know what? The ultimate paper airplane still has not been invented. Distance isn’t everything. This book will help you invent it. — KK

Safe boomerang

Aerobie Orbiter

This lightweight boomerang won’t kill you if it happens to strike you or a passerby. It flies fast, wide, and sure. Easy to catch because of its closed shape. It does take practice to get a full no-move-from-start return, but anyone can get it to come mostly back. You’ll need a football-sized empty field for its 90-foot circle performance. Unlike a frisbee, it can be a lot of fun solo. — KK

Easy catch

FlingSock

Even the most sports-impaired among us can enjoy this well designed little toy: take a bean-bag, wrap it in grippy fabric, and add a tail: voila, the FlingSock. Better than other “flying tails”, in my opinion. It flies amazingly far (sometimes too far — be careful that it doesn’t end up on a roof). Even when it smacks me in the head, the light polyethylene pellet filled bag don’t hurt a bit. Doesn’t bounce either, so it won’t pop out of your hand or roll unexpectedly into the street. Easily sized to grab, with grippy rubberized fabric to keep it from slipping, and a fabric tail for second chance catches, as well as fabulous flinging…all in cheery, rainbow tie-dye colors. The mini size is perfect for slipping into school backpacks, flipping around in your yard, or to keep handy in the car for spontaneous flings — rolled up, it’s about the size of a small lemon. The regular size can and will go 30 yards and more — better save that one for the park! — Barbara Dace

A frisbee for clowns and kids

Beamo

A Beamo is somewhere between a flying hula hoop, a slow-motion nerf disc, and a gigantic frisbee. The doughnut design makes it easy to catch using any part of your body, and since it softly boings when it hits something, it’s super safe. Also, being large (30 inches) and slow and reversible, it’s slightly easier than a frisbee to maneuver. Perfectly sized for kids, and oodles of fun for adults, it WILL tire you out. I recently witnessed a conference of chair-bound nerds rise up and break out into sweat to play with a Beamo for hours on end. It’s hard to remain motionless when this Clown Frisbee is in the air. — KK

Simple water cannon

Stream Machine

The genius of these water cannons are their simplicity. A single moving part — a big fat piston with handle grip — squeezes a wide stream of water down and out their large diameter tubes. Filling them you reverse, sucking in water via the same orifice. When loaded (takes about 2 seconds) they gush water at least 30 feet. Impossible to clog, and nearly unbreakable, both kids and adults can operate them around pools, lakes, rafts, canoes and boats. These are the regulation-issued weapons at our place. — KK

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

Works in Progress / 100 greatest bird names / Cat water fountain

Recomendo - issue #520

If you find any value in our little hand-written, hand-crafted, mostly free newsletter, the best thing you can do for us in return is to refer Recomendo to your friends. Because our casual suggestion might not be sufficient, we have added a tangible incentive: subscriber referral rewards. When you share Recomendo with friends who sign up using your unique link (at the bottom of every email), we will reward them with our free newsletter and reward you with some special thank‑yous.

• At 4 referrals, you’ll receive an exclusive post, Things That Should Be Better Known — a curated PDF guide to our own most dependable, most used, favorite products that should be better known.
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Your personal referral link lives at the bottom of each Recomendo newsletter email. Forward the issue to anyone you think would enjoy useful recommendations every week, and suggest they sign up. If they do, we will keep track and thank you with a flourish of small favors.

Underrated new ideas

Before I edited Wired magazine, I edited the Whole Earth Review (formerly CoEvolution Quarterly). It was a magazine for conceptual news. We published new ideas. Since its demise, blogs and Substack in general have taken up that role. But starting a few years ago, a new magazine has appeared that is the closest replacement to Whole Earth. Called Works in Progress, published by the payments company Stripe, its mission is to disseminate “new and underrated ideas to improve the world.” Broadly the articles cover technology, science, building stuff, policy, and cultural innovations, but always with a slant on making progress, moving forward, a sense of optimism about what is possible. They publish new ideas. A couple of examples from recent issues: vaccinating wild animals, creating a rat-free city, using micro-bubbles to deliver drugs. Works in Progress is the only magazine I get delivered on paper; I enjoy reading its designed pages, and getting the extra bits you don’t get online. All the main articles are online for free, and also available as a Substack subscription. Their treasure trove of back issues has more new ideas per minute than anywhere else I know. — KK

100 greatest bird names of all time

Bless the bird lovers who take the time to make lists like this. Robert Francis ranked the 100 greatest bird names of all time, and my affinity for the bird kingdom keeps deepening the more I meet. They’re all so cute, and I wish I could hold them rather than scroll through them. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but based on names and cuteness combined, #96 Handsome Fruiteater beats out the rest. — CD

Stainless steel cat water fountain

My next-door neighbor has one of water fountains for pets says his cats love it. Cats seem to be naturally drawn to the sound and look of running water, and they’ll often drink from a fountain when they’d ignore a regular bowl. This one is made of stainless steel, so there are no seams or plastic crevices for bacteria to hide in, and it’s dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning. It holds 74oz, enough to keep multiple cats watered for days, and a window on the side lets you check the level without lifting the lid. The 5V pump runs quietly, and it comes with three activated-carbon filters. — MF

Webpage folk art

This is fun, and worth a few minutes glance: Creativity in the form of archived web pages from the dawn of the internet. When the web was first sprung upon the world in the 1990s, anybody could make a website themselves, but no pages had yet been made so there was no agreement on what a website should look like, then suddenly a million people created millions of websites without designers, but stuffed with colors, fonts, icons, animations, pictures, infinite scrolls, no limits. The exuberance is boundless. Someone selected the best from this wild big bang and merged it into one page. It’s our era’s folk art. — KK

Museum quality display stands

I am a crystal collector, although for legitimacy purposes I’d rather call them mineral specimens, and they deserve to be on display, not in a drawer or crowded on a shelf. Art Display Essentials is a great source for museum quality stands, with pricing comparable to other online storefronts. Highly recommend if you’re an amateur collector who wants to level up their setup. — CD

Electronics for kids

Electronics for Kids, a new book by Øyvind Nydal Dahl’s, starts with the basics — making a battery from a lemon, turning a bolt into an electromagnet — then moves into soldering real circuits, and finally into digital electronics, introducing logic gates and memory circuits before culminating in an LED reaction game that tests how fast you can catch a blinking light. The illustrations are clear throughout. Despite the title, I’d recommend it for adults as well as kids. — MF

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Book Freak: The skeptic’s guide to meditation that actually works

How Dan Harris Tamed the Voice in His Head and Found Self-Help That Actually Works

Get 10% Happier

10% Happier is a skeptic’s journey into meditation, showing how taming the voice in your head can reduce stress without losing your edge.

Core Principles

1. You Can’t Control Your Thoughts, But You Can Control Your Response

Harris discovered that mindfulness creates space between stimulus and response. You can’t stop anxious thoughts from arising — they bubble up from a mysterious void. But you can learn to observe them without being hijacked by them, choosing to respond rather than react.

2. The Voice in Your Head Is Not Your Friend

That internal narrator — the one that judges, worries, and creates endless scenarios — often works against your well-being. Harris calls this “the voice in my head” and learned that acknowledging it without obeying it is the key to peace. The voice will always chatter; you don’t have to believe everything it says.

3. Self-Compassion Beats Self-Criticism

Research shows that being kind to yourself after failures actually increases resilience. People trained in self-compassion are more likely to quit smoking, stick to diets, and bounce back from setbacks. Forgiving your mistakes doesn’t make you soft — it makes you stronger.

4. Ask Yourself: “Is This Useful?”

When you catch yourself worrying, Harris suggests this simple test: Is this worry actually useful? Will ruminating change the outcome? If not, you’re wasting mental energy on something beyond your control. This question cuts through spiraling thoughts instantly.

Try It Now

1. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Sit quietly and just notice your breath. When your mind wanders, gently return to the breath. That’s it — you’ve meditated.
2. The next time you catch yourself worrying, ask: “Is this useful?” If not, redirect your attention to something within your control.
3. After your next mistake, practice saying to yourself: “This is hard, but everyone struggles sometimes.” Notice how that feels compared to harsh self-criticism.
4. For one conversation today, practice listening fully instead of planning what you’ll say next.

Quote

“There’s no point in being unhappy about things you can’t change, and no point being unhappy about things you can.”

Book Freak is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run Recomendo, the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, and Book Freak.

Solo Travel Cities/Foreign Taxes/Canada vs. Nomads

Nomadico issue #212

Cities Popular With Solo Travelers

Going by the solo travelers who book free walking tours, the most popular cities in the world for people going it alone include Toronto, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sao Paulo, and Belgrade. Along with some oddball places that are head-scratchers. That’s because it was compiled by the walking tour company GuruWalk and sorted by the percentage of solo travelers booking tours, regardless of sheer numbers. That’s how a small city in El Salvador made the top 5. Still, if you’re traveling solo, this list might be a good starting point on where to meet others like you, especially if you’ll join a free walking tour. See the details here.

Where You Won’t Pay Local Income Taxes

The question of taxes trips up a lot of expatriates, as well as nomads who spend more than six months in one place. In some countries you owe nothing if you’re earning income abroad, in some you only pay if their rate is higher than where you’re filing, and in others you may need a really good accountant to sort out filings in two different nations. This article lays out the countries where you don’t have to worry about it unless you’re getting paid within the country. Latin America has more in this column than not, but in Europe there are only two and in Asia your best bet is The Philippines.

Canada Tightens Nomad Rules

If your remote working travels are taking you through Canada, you’d better not be doing any work for Canadian clients. A new ruling posted in May says that digital nomads now “must provide sufficient documentation to demonstrate that their income is earned entirely outside Canada and that they will be working remotely for a foreign employer or, if self‑employed, that they will be providing services exclusively to clients outside Canada.” That seems difficult to track down and sort out for an immigration officer looking at freelancer receipts from Wise, Paypal, and a bank account, but best to figure out (and reroute) any red flags before you land in Toronto.

Solar Energy Passes Coal in the USA

I reported in a 2024 issue that the UK has closed its last coal-powered electricity plant. We’re not there in the USA, but there was a big milestone this month: clean solar energy surpassed coal and became the #3 energy source nationwide. With 90% of new installations being solar, the lead will keep widening. Buried way down in the story: “States won by President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election accounted for 74% of all solar capacity installed in the first quarter, according to the SEIA report.” Take a deeper breath this month.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

What’s in my NOW? — Todd Henion