The Mike Platania Newsletter

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The Best Things I Wrote in 2021

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The Best Things I Wrote in 2021

Pizza! Ice cream! Bikes! The comprehensive collection of everything I know!

Mike Platania
Jan 1, 2022
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The Best Things I Wrote in 2021

mikeplatania.substack.com

One of the things I’ve had written on the white board in my room, right next to the grocery list and pinned photo booth strips from weddings, is a list of things I want to stop forgetting to do.

It includes stuff like being easier on myself, stretching everyday and getting a half-sleeve. You know, stuff that’s easy to have go by the wayside, and seeing it everyday helps keep it at the front of my mind.

That list also includes a one-word item: CELEBRATE.

We’re good at celebrating the landmark things like weddings and birthdays, but we all could do better to celebrate the smaller events that leave us stoked. In the last year I’ve celebrated: leaving it all out there at a race, despite losing; getting back from a long day of traveling; and a friend quitting a crappy job.

Celebrating helps commit to memory the good stuff that happens to us, and I don’t know about you, but looking around the world makes it easy to memorize the awful stuff. I think we ought to find more reasons to raise a glass.

The itch to celebrate is also kind of why I’ve put together this list the last few years. It’s my way of celebrating the writing I’m most proud of. Also, this is a companion piece to yesterday’s Things I Loved in 2021.

Anyway, let’s get to it:


BizSense: Downtown pizzeria owner has a Southside expansion in the oven

The coolest part of my job is getting to tell interesting folks’ stories on their behalf. Enrico was a Hall of Fame-caliber interview, and though this seems like a simple story about a pizzeria opening a second shop, it’s more about his lived human experience.


The Mike Platania Newsletter
Thoughts from the Blue Ridge
With their cross-country tours sidelined the last two summers because of, well, you know, Bike the US for MS organized a ride for alumni through Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains last month. The route was a loop departing from Roanoke heading south along the Blue Ridge Parkway before heading north through Galax and winding along t…
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2 years ago · 1 like · Mike Platania

Bike the US for MS renders me an emotional wreck, and I try to let that show through my blogs about my trips with the organization.


The Mike Platania Newsletter
In search of The Perfect Shorts
Hi y’all. Some housekeeping: if you’re subscribed and not getting emails, check your spam filter as Substack sometimes gets caught in there. Also, if you haven’t yet, please subscribe. Cheers…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · Mike Platania

I wanted to correctly set reader expectations for this newsletter early on, so for the third post ever, I decided to publish ~1,000 words about a pair of shorts.


BizSense: After peddling frozen treats from truck, local man opening shop in the Fan

Again, a news story is often only as good as its subject. Fortunately, Westray Paul is a hell of a subject.


The Mike Platania Newsletter
The time I met Justin Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack on random weeknight in Richmond
Last month Mick Jagger was in Charlotte, North Carolina for a concert. Yep, nearly six decades in, The Rolling Stones are still touring, apparently having little issue selling out stadiums all over the country, and the strangest thing about that is it’s not at all surprising…
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a year ago · 2 likes · Mike Platania

This story was, in part, about believing something magical could happen when you walk out of a bar…


The Mike Platania Newsletter
Midnight in the Museum District
A few weeks ago, my girlfriend Hannah and I went to a wedding. We somehow got through the entire evening without taking a single photo together. It’s tempting to attribute the lack of photos to us, you know, just living in the moment too much, man, and that we aren’t in the business of pausing fun for the sake of a photo. But that’s not true. We’re jus…
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a year ago · 1 like · Mike Platania

…and this is about something magical happening after I walked out of a bar, coincidentally just days after publishing the Justin Pierre story. Life is weird like that sometimes.


BizSense: Eck family lists 158 properties in the Fan as it exits real estate market

This was a fun one to write, because it was not only pretty big news for the neighborhood, but also a chance to do have a bit of a history lesson on the Fan.


The Mike Platania Newsletter
LET'S BUILD A BIKE: '01 Cannondale CAAD7
Cycling has a materialism problem. Let’s poke fun at Specialized, a company with a sterling reputation that makes the winningest bikes in the pro peloton. In the last year Specialized has both made a bike for kids who can’t even pour their own bowl of cereal that retails for $1,000, and marketed another as being a no-frills, aero-isn’t-everything appro…
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2 years ago · 1 like · Mike Platania

Building up the CAAD7 was fun, but documenting the whole process along the way was even better.


The Mike Platania Newsletter
Everything I have learned in 30 years
I turn 30 this weekend. Here’s what I’ve learned so far: Practicing apologizing feels great. I understand being genuinely contrite has been unfashionable of late, but goddamn the more we all do it, the better off we’ll all be. Dryer sheets are a scam, be wary of them and their proselytizers…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · Mike Platania

It’s been six months since I turned 30. Unfortunately I can’t think of anything else to add to the above list. Maybe by 2023?

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The Best Things I Wrote in 2021

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