Feldman's Faves: November 27, 2023

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

First and foremost I want to once again congratulate Tara, Joanna and Brian on their admission to the partnership. You are all great lawyers and more importantly, great people and the partnership is better and stronger with you in it!

I hope those of you who celebrated US Thanksgiving have finished digesting at this point.

Finally, I want to wish Matt a very happy birthday (from yesterday).

My shameless self-promotion for this week is to invite you all to attend our joint session with Baycrest on the importance of brain health entitled, “Taking Control of Your Brain Wellness: Strategies for the Busy Professional” that is taking place this Thursday at 8 am at Goodmans. Here is a link to the session for those of you who would like to sign up - Goodmans Presents: Taking Control of Your Brain Wellness: Strategies for the Busy Professional | Goodmans LLP

WHEN THE GAME WAS WAR By: Rich Cohen – I want to thank Steve Halperin for suggesting this book – it really made my day. As he mentioned when he suggested it, this book will be of limited interest to most people unless you are obsessed with the NBA of the mid-80’s, which for me was all that I cared about during that time. Our good friend and partner, David Lederman can vouch for me on that point. Larry, Magic, Isiah and Michael. This is their story and the story of their generationally talented teams and arguably the best season in NBA history (1987-88). All the games that are mentioned I watched, usually with my dad and my high school buddies at Shoeless Joes on Eglinton. That was our place in high school. Nothing better than TWO FOR ONE BURGERS on Tuesday and 10 CENT WINGS on Thursday. It was glorious…. So this book brings back some of my greatest and fondest memories of a time when the whole world (or at least my whole world) watched the same games at the same time and bonded over these incredible games, teams and characters. One interesting approach Cohen takes is his attempt to resurrect the image of Isiah who was demonized during his career and lambasted in the LAST DANCE. Nonetheless, I will always side with Magic and MJ – sorry Zeke. As one reviewer notes, “The “incredible pool of talent” on display in the NBA’s 1987–1988 season makes it the league’s best to date, according to this exhilarating account. Focusing on how Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Isiah Thomas revolutionized the NBA, Wall Street Journal columnist Cohen recaps key games, including the Feb. 21, 1988, matchup between Thomas’s Pistons and Johnson’s Lakers, during which Thomas embodied his team’s “brutal” aggression, which Johnson countered with the Lakers’ signature “pass-drunk, run-crazy fast-break” style. Bird and Jordan, according to Cohen, represented the past and future of basketball, with Bird’s Celtics slipping out of their dynasty phase as Jordan’s Bulls became a contender. Cohen excels at wringing the human drama out of the sport, as when he portrays the ascendant Bulls’ rivalry with the powerhouse Pistons as a “schoolyard quest” to “stand up to a bully,” or draws pathos from 40-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stoically facing down the end of his basketball career: “Nothing brings fans closer to an athlete than watching him struggle with mortality.” The empathetic portraits humanize the legendary players, and the play-by-play game recreations thrill (“Just as Zeke started to release the ball, Kareem, appearing from nowhere, reached out and swatted it away. Block. Game over”). This love letter to the NBA’s golden age is an instant classic. (Sept.)” For anyone who is a fan of basketball this book captures an era that I don’t think we will ever see again. It really was special. Bonus points for anyone who knows James Edwards’ nickname (no Googling allowed). Here is a good review from Kirkus - https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rich-cohen/when-the-game-was-war/

The Next Big Idea - Achievement Culture: What It’s Doing to Our Kids—and to Us – The “nuclear arms race” that is achievement culture is getting way out of hand. It is insane to me that if a kid’s grades are in the 90’s (at least) they have a very little chance of getting into a good college. But not only that, they need to be the captain of their team, they need to lead clubs and in their spare time cure cancer. It’s just nuts and its creating a major mental health crisis among today’s kids. Parents want the best for their kids and do all they can to give them a “leg up in life” but the result is a lot of unintended consequences. I am as guilty as the resto of us in contributing to this problem. So how do we get the sanity back? It’s not easy but there are some ways to being to course correct as is discussed in this PODCAST. Here’s an excerpt from the POCAST itself, “It's no secret that we live in a ferociously competitive world. But what is the drive to always be the best doing to our kids? That's what journalist Jennifer Breheny Wallace wanted to know when she set out to write her new book, "Never Enough." The kids, she discovered, are not alright. Teenagers are battling burnout, depression, and anxiety at alarming rates. How did we let this happen, and what can we do to fix it? To answer these vexing but vital questions, we invited Jennifer to chat with Daniel Markovits. He's the author of "The Meritocracy Trap" and a professor at Yale Law School, where he's seen toxic achievement culture up close. In this episode, recorded live at Betaworks in New York City, Jennifer, Daniel, and Rufus discuss why our kids are under such unrelenting pressure, what we can do to give them some relief, and the potential role of new technologies, like AI, in creating positive solutions.: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-next-big-idea/id1482067226?i=1000635022845

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation. And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon