What I'm reading, downloading, watching, or thinking about this week:

Stand Up for Drummers

There aren't many people who blow me away with their talent, but Fred Armisen is consistently one of those people. His new stand-up special on Netflix has been one of the most refreshing entertainment discoveries of the past few weeks. You know something's good when you're compelled to immediately text someone, "You need to see this." I felt the same way about the premier episode of Letterman's new Netflix show featuring President Obama.

Elon Musk's Approach

Right now I'm deep into Ray Dalio's "Principles". It's no coincidence that I'm using the word "deep" in connection with this book. It's intense. I'll talk about it more in an upcoming Nightstand once I'm finished, but for anyone who is into books on success and achievement, "Principles" is next-level. With that said, Ray brings up Elon Musk as an example of a "shaper", someone who has an original vision and successfully builds it out. Though quite familiar with Musk, I've never heard this story, and it blew me away. Dalio recounts Musk's response when asked how he came to start SpaceX:

"I had gotten $180 million when my partners and I sold PayPal," he continued, "and it occurred to me that if I spent $90 million and used it to acquire some ICBMs from the former USSR and sent one to Mars, I could inspire the exploration of Mars." When I asked him about his background in rocketry, he told me he didn't have one. "I just started reading books," he said. That's how shapers think and act.

Damn.

Which brings me to...

The Tesla Semi

Once I start to really think about semi trailers, it dawns on me that for their omnipresence there has been little in the way of dramatic innovation. The semi-trailers that I remember as a child look exactly and behave exactly the same as the semi-trailers that I see today. If I brought this up inside a Love's truck stop, I'm sure I could get schooled on innovations that aren't visible to the car-driving public, but I can't think of a time in recent memory that I passed a semi and thought, "WOW. Now that's different."

Enter the Tesla Semi introduced last November. Never did I think these words would come out of my mouth, but damn, that's one sexy semi. Even sexier when you consider the Tesla claim that it can go zero-to-sixty in five seconds:

If you want to go deeper down this rabbit hole of the Tesla semi, check out this video from Business Insider where, in response to the question about how Tesla is actually going to build these, they bring up the fact that Tesla can't even build their Model 3 sedan. They go on to ask, "Why can't Tesla do a better job at [...] what should be its core competency which is building stuff?" Good question. But nothing is more fun than watching how an entity, whether a person or a company, goes about making big things happen. I love Musk's audacity and it is beyond fun to watch.

CONDIMENT OF THE WEEK (?)

So, is the Condiment of the Week supposed to be a recommendation? A revelation? A must - what's the verb for putting a condiment on something... Oh good gracious this could get us in dangerous territory... Well, you read it here first. I'm making a new word. Condimentize. Is this Condiment of the Week supposed to be a must-condimentize? (I've lost my mind. And why am I even asking these questions to begin with? I made this whole thing up.) If Condiment of the Week is supposed to be a recommendation, then this is not it. This is not a recommendation. This is the result of a taste-test. The result of an impulse buy gone wrong. But, it is in fact the condiment that I focused my attention on for this week, so now.... with a little more enthusiasm....

CONDIMENT OF THE WEEK!

I guess I could give some style points to this condiment. Longhots. Great name. I see it, and I immediately want to know what a Longhot is and what it tastes like. Well, it tastes like hot green chiles. But that's the thing - there isn't much else going on. It's just pepper and oil. And the peppers were fried (at least I assume because the name is Longhots Fried Peppers) with their skins on so there's a funny texture. Like that sliminess when you peel the skin off blackened poblanos. These might be great on a sandwich, but on a sandwich they would need some vinegar otherwise the only thing that comes through is heat. And heat isn't that original. It's the combo with heat with something else and something else. Not just heat.

HOWEVER, research of this concept of a "Longhot" led to the discovery a person who calls herself "Cayenne Diane". ARE YOU KIDDING ME. I love this person so much. According to Cayenne Diane, "A common accessory in homemade Italian comfort cooking, Italian Long Hots are generally fried while still green, or roasted with olive oil, garlic and salt and served whole, skin and seeds intact. Because they vary so much in spiciness, they are the Russian roulette of peppers."

The Russian roulette of peppers. You can't make this stuff up. Well, that's not true. Cayenne Diane did. Thank you, Diane.

To use these up I'll probably throw them into a chili, but I wouldn't use it as a condiment. Even more reason why this Condiment of the Week isn't even a Condiment of the Week. [String of expletives.]

Sad face. Longhots Fried Peppers gets a thumbs down this week. But in good news, I'm still loving and recommending Blue Top Creamy Hot Sauce. And that is a definitive recommendation. It's a must-condimentize.

Is there a condiment you love that should be Condiment of the Week? Leave a comment below!

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