🧩 The jigsaw puzzle king

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👋 Good morning. There are a lot of unspoken rules on a first date: Don’t talk about your ex too much (or your mom), be polite, and, apparently, don’t travel too long. A majority of singles (61%) said they would not travel more than 30 minutes for a first date, according to a DatingNews.com survey of 1.5k US adults. And location can ruin more than a first date — 29% said they’ve ended a relationship because distance made it too inconvenient. Stay safe and pick the restaurant around the corner?

THE BIG IDEA

The big brawl over beach shades

Before you hit the beach this summer, it might serve you to know a bit about the current climate surrounding coastlines, which have become hotbeds of controversy, thanks to one divisive beach day necessity: sun shades.

The structures, while keeping some beachgoers nice and cool, have got others hot and bothered.

The tensest battleground is perhaps the east coast — specifically, the Carolinas, where the Shibumi, a $255+ blue canopy, has become ubiquitous along the states’ coastlines, per The Wall Street Journal.

Invented by three UNC-Chapel Hill students, they’ve sold 500k+ of the four-pound wind-powered sun shades since 2016, when the trio handmade the first prototype.
Beloved by beachgoers for its easy setup and light weight, it consists of a polyester sheet and an arched aluminum pole that’s meant to be buried in the sand.

So, what’s the issue?

Surprisingly, it’s not the cost, but the fact that they’re harshing the vibes of a relaxing day by the ocean.

Local residents, including those with beachfront property, consider the sea of blue tarps an eyesore, while some beachgoers say the fabric flaps in the wind so loudly that it’s hard to have conversations.
Other critics claim their large size (~15x9 feet), which has made them popular among families and big groups, can lead to congestion, space hogging, and mounds of leftover trash.

One of the biggest issues for city officials, though, seems to be safety.

South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach, as well as a few beaches in Delaware and New Jersey, have restricted their use, citing hazards like obscuring lifeguards’ views of the water, blocking beach access for emergency responders, and tripping over guy lines and anchors.

The problem is bigger than Shibumi

Large sun shades and canopies, which have become a preferred apparatus of refuge for sun bums in recent years, have sparked outrage on beaches from the US to Australia to the UK and Spain.

As a result, a growing number of locales are now banning them and implementing fines over similar concerns (though that hasn’t stopped people from propping them up illegally, anyway).

Shibumi co-founder Dane Barnes told WSJ he now dedicates much of his time to lobbying against those bans.

But if that doesn’t work out, the company is also pushing a new canopy meant for parks and personal backyards, where the city has no say over how you choose to chill.

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KILLER CONTENT

Breaking down tricks of the rich

For that Midas-like touch for telling stories, why not steal from a literal copywriting legend?

Here are 20 proper copywriting principles, plus five books that shaped The Hustle’s voice, written by our founder Sam Parr.

We figured you’ll want some time alone with this one, to soak up his knack for making magic, or to print it out and tape it to your cubicle, whatever.

Be a better writer

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Number of professional thatchers in Britain, including just 20-30 who specialize in traditional long-straw thatching. With so few artisans trained in the archaic technique left, the roofing style, which dates back to the Bronze Age, is now a dying art. Today, ~60k thatched homes remain in England, representing just 0.2% of the country’s overall housing stock, per The New York Times.

That scarcity and the quaintness of the storybook builds, which were once associated with peasants, have made them some of the most sought-after properties in the UK, with some humble abodes now selling for millions.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced Sandra Day O’Connor as his Supreme Court nominee. She would become the first woman to serve on the US’s highest court.

🖱️ Game: Follow the mouse very carefully.

🌖 That’s interesting: How humans mapped the moon over centuries.

🚆 That’s cool: The Brennan Monorail was a train that balanced on a single rail.

💤 Aww: A sleepy emu.

SHOWER THOUGHT

Our parents used to remind us not to get too much screen time "because it will rot your brain," which is ironic because now our parents are glued to their screens with a constant stream of modern day algorithmic content that is literal brainrot. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Singdhi Sokpo.

Editing by: Sara "Feeling shady" Friedman.

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☂️ The shade monopoly