That's right. He believed that the best evidence of health was shit that didn't stink. "Digestive ash," he called it, and if you didn't believe him, he sent that shit your way.

Seems ridiculous, right? No one does that today! He was wrong!

So why did everyone believe him?

It's kind of amazing. At 58 years old, he challenged college kids to fitness tests. Not just any college kids. Athletes!

Wondering why I'm skeptical of health influencers who "know the secret THEY are keeping from YOU"?

Okay, buckle up, and let me tell you about someone you've never heard of...one of the biggest health influencers of the 20th century.

Horace Fletcher, aka "The Great Masticator."

People want easy answers to complicated problems. We want to believe that Haagen-Dazs "Five" is the solution to our problems.

Five simple natural ingredients! Healthy!

That's not how it works. But someone like RFK Jr. encourages this simplistic, misguided approach.

Food manufacturers employ the very best in the business. If you focus on "artificial additives" they are going to spend millions on how to produce "natural" versions of the same food, at the same price point.

*taps earpiece* What's that? You say they're already on it?

That’s right. For decades, Americans read The Sun Also Rises, while Europeans read Fiesta. And although Fiesta no longer appears on any contemporary English printings of the novel, it is, as far as I can tell, commonly used for Spanish translations:

If you haven’t guessed, you may be surprised that not only do you know the author, you may have read the book! The British book design is stunning, but even more stunning is that throughout most of the 20th century, British editions of this classic had an entirely different name!

Still not sure? What if we look at a little more of the dust jacket flap?

“Cruel, cynical, hopeless”

“Severe economy of comment and a bitter irony of style”
“It is American; it is literature; and it is a first novel by a genius with a future.”

(The last reviewer was right!)

🚨🚨🚨 MY SUBSTACK FOR BOOK LOVERS🚨🚨🚨

My new Substack is Book Glory, all about fascinating books, the stories behind them, and how to collect them.

Here's a taste. We'll start with a mystery. Can you guess the author of this book?

If you haven’t guessed, you may be surprised that not only do you know the author, you may have read the book! The British book design is stunning, but even more stunning is that throughout most of the 20th century, British editions of this classic had an entirely different name!

Still not sure? What if we look at a little more of the dust jacket flap?

“Cruel, cynical, hopeless”

“Severe economy of comment and a bitter irony of style”

“It is American; it is literature; and it is a first novel by a genius with a future.”

(The last reviewer was right!)

Amazing farmer’s market buy, I never want to store garlic any other way. Beautiful, functional, and lasts three months.

Incredible passage in the book I’m reading. I’ve redacted it. Without looking anything up, who do you think is being described?

I've been working on a book that's (in part) about jesters, and this is the exact opposite of a jester. Jesters don't enable tyrants—they are the transgressive presence that prevents leaders from becoming tyrants. Jesters are precisely what Trump needs and can't tolerate.

My copy of Orwell's Burmese Days finally arrived, and the description on the back is...really something! I include the cover in the next photo so you know it is for real.

Well THAT was a successful visit to the liquor store. Grown-ass men crying behind me because they got there too late and the last bottle had sold. 😁

In 1993, twelve year old me wrote to Michael Crichton asking him how to become a writer. And he wrote back!

“I have no real advice to give in such an individual undertaking other than to start doing it.”