Facebook gets in your Ray-Bans: A first look at its new smart glasses

Before we start reading Harry McCracken’s very long story in Wired Magazine about Facebook’s attempt to introduce smart glasses, just remember that Google tried this too. Let me know your opinion if you would consider lwearing glasses with tons of information right on front of your eyes. —-LWH

Mark Zuckerberg has big plans for smart eyewear. Facebook’s first stab at the idea is not a huge deal—but it avoids privacy pitfalls that could come later.

BY HARRY MCCRACKEN

Mark Zuckerberg’s mind often turns to the inadequacies of smartphones—especially their disruptive clunkiness as a tool for engaging with other humans

“On the one hand, they provide so much value, so you’re not going to not use them,” explains Facebook’s CEO. “But I think the fact that we basically take this thing out of our pocket and kind of have our head stuck in it for a while is just not how we all want to interact.”

Zuckerberg has expressed variations on this sentiment when discussing Facebook’s Oculus VR headsets, its research into augmented-reality wearables, and its ambition to become “a metaverse company.” But in this particular case, he’s giving me the rationale behind Ray-Ban Stories, the new smart glasses that go on sale today, a year after he first teased them at the company’s Facebook Connect virtual conference.

A joint project between the Facebook Reality Labs hardware group and the 84-year-old Ray-Ban sunglasses brand—itself an arm of French-Italian optical-goods behemoth EssilorLuxottica—the new glasses are nowhere near as futuristic as Facebook’s other gambits to diminish the smartphone’s central place in our lives. In fact, the features they offer, starting at $299, are quite similar to products already on the market. You can use them to take photos and shoot brief videos while your phone remains in your pocket or purse—just like Snap’s Spectacles, which have been around for half a decade now. They also deliver open-ear audio for listening to music and making phone calls, as smart glasses from Amazon and Bose do.

They sport cameras, microphones, and open-ear audio playback, but they’re still recognizably Ray-Bans.

And yet Ray-Ban Stories could be more than a mere straggling addition to an existing category. Smart glasses remain a curiosity rather than a hit with the masses: Snap, for example, has always positioned Spectacles as a quirky experiment and isn’t even selling the newest version, instead doling it out for free to creators who provide sufficiently enticing pitches. That leaves the door open for a new arrival—whether it’s Facebook and Ray-Ban or someone else—to take the idea mainstream.

But because this is Facebook we’re talking about, Ray-Ban Stories unleash a Pandora’s Box of questions that Snap’s Spectacles have not generally provoked. Is Facebook going to use the glasses and the information they capture to data-mine our lives in formerly impossible ways? What does it mean for privacy when you build cameras into eyeglasses, where people might not expect them? Are we going to see users stream stuff from their glasses onto Facebook or Instagram in ways that could be inappropriate? (My colleague Jeff Beer confronted some of the other concerns about “Facebook on your face” last September when Zuckerberg revealed the plan for smart Ray-Bans.)

While Ray-Ban Stories are no epoch-shifting breakthrough in themselves, they might ratchet Facebook that much closer to its goal of creating AR glasses that blend the digital and physical worlds in ways that aren’t yet possible. That’s true both from a technological standpoint—the more the company knows about miniaturizing electronics, the better—and getting the world acclimated to eyewear that packs sensors, computing power, and connectivity.

Zuckerberg acknowledges as much, calling Ray-Ban Stories “one milestone on the path to what we envision is the long-term augmented reality glasses.” He adds that “there’s a bunch of work that still needs to be done there, but while we’re working on that long-term vision, I think it’s also helpful to kind of work our way up and say ‘What’s possible and what can we unlock for people today?’ And that’s what this product ends up being.”

After spending a week and a half with a pre-release pair of Ray-Ban Stories, I can report that what’s possible today can be fun. But it’s also immature enough that, if anything, it left me newly appreciative of how capable smartphone cameras have become.

The best news: Trying the smart sunglasses for myself did make clear that many dystopian fears about Facebook-powered eyewear do not apply here. Instead of plunging into a brave new world rife with unsettling implications, they never get anywhere close to the precipice.

RAY-BANS, ONLY SMART

Cramming all the advanced technology necessary for virtual or augmented reality into a headset remains a challenge: Putting on Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 or Microsoft’s HoloLens 2, the preeminent products in their respective categories, still feels like strapping a boat anchor to your head. By contrast, the cameras and audio components required by the Ray-Ban Stories don’t take up too much space. Which is essential, because EssilorLuxottica had one inviolate design goal: “We wanted to have a real Ray-Ban on your face, not a compromise,” says Luxottica global design and market research executive Matteo Battiston.

The eyeglasses maker started with the dimensions of a classic pair of Wayfarers—Ray-Ban’s most storied model—and increased them by just a skosh to accommodate electronics. Then it worked with Facebook to determine what was possible in that allotted space. “They really delivered in keeping up with our design expectations,” says Rocco Basilico, EssilorLuxottica’s chief wearables officer. “We were giving them boundaries.” Even the weight didn’t budge much: The Ray-Ban Stories Wayfarers are only 5 grams heavier than a standard unelectrified pair.

Examine Ray-Ban Stories closely, and you will see plenty of evidence of the added technology, from the two cameras on the front to the power switch and shutter button on the temples to the hefty carrying case, which has an embedded battery of its own for recharging the glasses. (Not so apparent: a touch surface on the right temple for tasks such as pausing video.) New accouterments aside, the overall effect remains so true to the Ray-Bay ethos that when I sauntered in the room wearing a pair for the first time, my wife simply asked me why I was wearing my sunglasses inside.

Ray-Ban Stories are available in multiple frame styles and lens options, including clear and prescription lenses.

Along with Ray-Ban’s iconic brand and look, EssilorLuxottica brought the ability to immediately scale the smart-glasses concept up into a product portfolio in a way that Facebook surely couldn’t have pulled off on its own. Ray-Ban Stories will be available in two sizes of Wayfarers as well as Meteor and Round frames, with five color choices and multiple lens types, including clear, Transitions, and prescription options. With the same technology available on so many types of Ray-Bans—20 in all—Stories might feel more like an upgrade option than a buying decision unto itself: As Basilico puts it, “for $100 more, you get a Wayfarer with superpowers.”

Facebook’s View app can apply 3D-like effects to photos (but note that it severed the guy on the left’s head).

“Superpowers” might be overselling it a bit. I don’t have to be convinced that life has plenty of moments when you might want to capture still photos or video, and a smartphone would prove unwieldy. In my case, one prime example is when I’m pedaling an e-bike around the Bay Area; for the record, Zuckerberg says that he’s been using the glasses while skiing, surfing, canoeing, and teaching his daughter to fence.

But once I’d begun using the glasses to document my bike trips and other out-and-about experiences, I learned to temper my expectations. The Ray-Ban Stories’ two 5 MP cameras don’t deliver image quality that compares with that of a serious modern smartphone, even though Facebook says that it uses AI to enhance the results. (The dual cameras allow the Facebook View app for iOS and Android to perform some cute special effects with still photos, such as turning them into mini-videos that zoom in with a two-and-a-half-dimensional effect.) Nor does the 105-degree field of view match that of the human eye; I found that I couldn’t mentally crop the image I was looking at, leading to chopped-off heads in close-up people photos.

The glasses’ photos lack the sharpness of a good smartphone snapshot, and it’s hard to precisely frame your subject.

It’s also tricky to record an exact instant in time, because the glasses’ interface for taking still photos is far from snappy. You can choose between saying “Hey, Facebook, take a photo” (using a voice input feature called the Facebook Assistant) or holding down a button, and in either case it takes a couple of seconds until the capture happens. I ended up more inclined to shoot video, which maxes out at 30 seconds per clip with 1184-by-1184 resolution but requires less precision to create something worth saving.

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Managing the glasses’ storage and battery was also a larger responsibility than I anticipated. The onboard memory can hold a maximum of 35 30-second videos or 500 photos at a time, after which you must do a phone transfer to free up space. The battery life is rated at six hours of “moderate” use, but I drained the glasses in a couple of hours on one bike jaunt. You probably want to tote the charging case even though it’s a pocket-strainer.

I don’t mean to suggest that Ray-Ban Stories are more trouble than they’re worth. If you’re buying sunglasses anyway, the audio features might be worth the price of admission by themselves. (They’re great for listening in situations where you don’t want to block out all external noise, such as walking or biking city streets.) But you’ll be happiest with the cameras if you’re pretty forgiving on image quality—and don’t try to use them as anything like a wholesale replacement for your phone’s camera, inconvenient though it can sometimes be.

DYSTOPIA AVERTED

If Ray-Ban Stories were more wildly ambitious, more items on the long list of potential concerns about a Facebook computer you wear on your face would come into play. But their features aren’t even in the same Zip Code as the AR Facebook is also working on, where technologies such as facial recognition could easily go awry if mishandled. And Facebook and Ray-Ban have also backed away from some of the potentially creepy functionality that a pair of glasses with built-in cameras could enable.

For one thing, they made it difficult to use the glasses in a truly inconspicuous, privacy-violating manner. “There is an enormous responsibility for privacy, trust, security, transparency—not only for the person who buys that product, but also for everyone around them while they’re wearing it,” says Matthew Simari, director of product for Facebook Reality Labs.

Beyond the basic fact that the two camera lenses are in no way concealed, the sound effects they make as you use them—including a classic simulated shutter click—can’t be turned off. A prominent white LED near the right lens’s Ray-Ban logo glows whenever the cameras are in use: “That’s something that I think it’s worth noting smartphones don’t even do today,” says Zuckerberg. According to Simari, this LED is designed to be visible from up to 25 feet away, and some potential frame colors got nixed on the grounds that they provided insufficient contrast with it. (Another LED on the inside of the frames reminds the user when imagery is being captured.)



The fact that these glasses have cameras is even more apparent when the LED lights up.

It’s certainly possible to take photos and videos with Ray-Ban Stories more discreetly than with a smartphone: As I roamed an outdoor antique fair, I used them to snap anything that caught my eye, and I’d be surprised if anyone noticed me touching the temple to initiate image capture. Buzzfeed’s Katie Notopoulos covered up the LED with tape and marker ink, then was told by a Facebook VP that doing so was a violation of the glasses’ terms of service. But anyone who’s set on taking covert photos for truly nefarious purposes, such as stalking or movie-theater piracy, has better options. And if the glasses sell well, they could become too familiar to be used without calling attention to themselves.

Other aspects of Ray-Ban Stories’ emphasis on privacy address the person wearing the glasses. Facebook says that it can’t see your photos or videos and doesn’t use them to target you with ads. You can shut off its ability to collect data such as the number of photos you take and the length of your videos, which it aggregates to better understand usage.The View app, which you use to manage the glasses, keeps a log of commands the Facebook Assistant heard you say; you can review them, delete them, or turn off the Assistant and control the glasses through taps, swipes, and button presses.

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People get sensitive about anything that sounds too much like Facebook jacking into your brain, but Ray-Ban Stories don’t even jack directly into Facebook itself. (On iPhones, at least, this is partially due to Apple not doing much to facilitate wireless data transfers from external devices.) You can’t stream anything directly into your Facebook account: Getting photos and videos off the glasses and into the View smartphone app via Wi-Fi is a manual process, whereupon it’s just as easy to share them to TikTok or iMessage as Facebook or Instagram. (You do need a Facebook account to use the View app.)



Facebook’s View app tries to steer users into being “good stewards” of the smart glasses.

Of course, no matter how adroitly Facebook errs on the side of sidestepping potential privacy quagmires, people won’t respond solely to the design decisions that it and EssilorLuxottica have made. They will also have an instinctive reaction to the concept of cameras embedded into a pair of glasses—and if history is any guide, many will assume the worst. (Exhibit A: Google Glass, whose negative reception helped doom it as a consumer product.)

“[T]he truth is, wearable cameras freak people out,” my colleague Mark Wilson wrote back in 2016, when he was assessing Snap’s original Spectacles. Nothing has happened in the subsequent five years to ensure that Ray-Bans Stories won’t provoke their share of freakouts—especially among those inclined to be wary of anything that carries Facebook’s imprimatur.

Zuckerberg says that as people get to try Ray-Ban Stories for themselves and—he expects—find them cool and useful, the notion of taking photos with your glasses will reach a state of normalcy it hasn’t yet attained. “Part of the deal with any technology is that you see that value,” he says. “I don’t think we inherently want to go through our lives carrying a phone around in our pocket. We do it because it creates a lot of value for us.”

It’s at least possible that smart glasses like Ray-Ban Stories will follow a trajectory similar to that of the camera phone. Almost everyone has forgotten that when the first phones with built-in cameras hit the market in the mid aughts,they made a lot of people profoundly uneasy, provoked calls for new legislation, and even inspired new technologies designed to foil their use. It was only later, after camera phones gained widespread popularity, that they became relatively uncontroversial.

Does Zuckerberg grant that Facebook’s association with Ray-Ban Stories could make them a tougher sell? Not really. “I think that there are probably people who would be skeptical of any specific company,” he told me, though he also stressed that skeptics should understand that they won’t be used for ad targeting.

Still, it’s not like Facebook is pretending that smart glasses don’t have a comfort-level hurdle to clear. Its privacy webpage for RayBan Stories lists places where you should use the power switch to turn the glasses off, from locker rooms to houses of worship; the View app includes etiquette tips such as encouraging customers to demo how the now-recording LED works before taking pictures. Such features are about nudging anyone who buys the glasses into being “a good steward and thoughtful in their behavior,” says Simari.

THE SHAPE OF GLASSES TO COME

None of the Facebook and EssilorLuxottica executives I spoke with took the bait when I gave them the chance to make predictions about how well Ray-Ban Stories will fare on the market. However, they all expressed optimism for it as a beachhead in a category that will matter: “In the near future, smart glasses will be a big part of our business,” says EssilorLuxottica wearables chief Basilico.

Zuckerberg, meanwhile, is thinking out through the early 2030s—and sees a place for the direct descendants of Ray-Ban Stories even though his ultimate goal is to build rich augmented reality into a similar form factor at the same price—with all-day battery life, yet—thereby ushering in an era when “phones are just a little less central in our lives.”

“I think it could be quite a long time before the full vision of what we talk about as augmented reality glasses becomes a $300 product,” he muses. “It may very well be that for another decade or so, there also are parallel smart glasses products. Maybe they have a display, maybe they don’t. But basically different tracks, so that the technology can be accessible to more people.”

So many impossible-to-predict developments could trip up this long-term plan. But consumer reaction to Ray-Ban Stories—good, bad, or indifferent—may tell us at least as much about its prospects as any prediction Mark Zuckerberg could make.

I walked into the city room of Fairchild Publications on September 9, 1966. Many people reading this weren’t even alive then. I was. It was one of the greatest days of my life. Fifty five years later I am still pitching away.

Never would have made it without Eliot Hess, Richard Ekstract, Bernie Lett, Frank Tricarico, Aaron Neretin, Manning Greenberg, Cathy Ciccolella, Marvin Klapper, Ed McCloughlin, S. David Feir, Warren Zorek, Stanley Hochstadt, Neil Goldstein, Gary Shapiro, John Hollands, Rob Reis, Harry Elias, Harry Fox, Maurice deHond, Frank O’Connell, Steve Greenberg, and my brother Steve Schneider who told me in the summer of 1966 that I was good for something

While most of the colleagues I started with are either gone or retired, I will be at my computer today working the press on a big financial story I am trying to place. I am also on deadline to help sell two companies, make a motivational speaker a star, help get several books published, secure profile stories for three businesses, and promote a number of new innovative products.

As long as there are individuals who want to hire me, I will still be plugging away. It takes my mind off of Trump and the Pandemic.

If you are in the need of healing, or you know someone else who needs healing, chant that person’s name during the following musical prayer. It will be one of the most healthy moments you have experienced in a long time.

The healing prayer by Rabbi Marc Philippe of Temple Emanu-El of Miami Beach and Alyssa Landry. Both are personal friends of mine.

I recorded this yesterday during the Rosh Hashanah service. There is a 20 second interruption in the recording. Stick with it. Let it play out. The ending is breathtaking.

https://youtu.be/UJbMKsufjRU

I want to invite you to a fundraiser for the Fountainhead Residency on Tuesday, September 14th, at the home of Alexa and Adam Wolman in Coco Plum, Miami.

Not to be missed. The home is one of the best examples of why Miami is now considered one of the most prominent cities for art collectors.

The media is continuously recognizing Fountainhead as a major force that has made Miami a serious international city for art education, creation, collecting, commerce and networking. Fountainhead offers a year-round residency program, flexible and affordable artists’ studios, the Miami Dade County-wide open studios event called “Artists Open,”and a series of career-focused programs.

Each month Fountainhead hosts three national/international artists at the residency so they can create, connect, engage and be inspired, infusing Miami with artistic talent from around the world. Since 2008, Fountainhead has hosted over 450 artists from 47 countries.

Meet co-founder Kathryn Mikesell

We want you to become a member. There are many different dollar levels you can join in on. One thing I can guarantee. You will meet the most interesting and fun people ever. Everyone who belongs to Fountainhead loves life and always want to explore new opportunities. Your social life will be extraordinary.

I am a board member and a networker. We just wanted to share this opportunity with you.

If you are interested, I will give you further details for the event. If you can’t make the event, join anyway. We have activities every month and you can accompany Eliot and I at any time.

Love

Lois

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Friend  $100 Join Now Yearly

• Invitation to Fountainhead year-round events
• Special reduced member pricing for all fundraising events
• Unlimited hugs and appreciation from our foundress ;-))

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Benefactor $300 ind. / $500 cpl Join Now Yearly or Monthly

• Personal introductions to visiting Residency artists (That’s 30-40 artists a YEAR!)
• Exclusive tours of local artists’ studios
• Private gallery tours where gallery owners will explain the exhibition and the works
• Curator led museum tours
• Special pricing on events and performances from our cultural partners

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Visionary   $1,250 Join Now Yearly or Monthly

• All Foundation Level benefits
• Recognition on our website
• First access to artwork made available by Residency and Studios artists
• Invitations to national and international art tours including artists’ studio visits, private museum tours, unique experiences in collectors’ home all combined with curated meals, and other cultural events.
• Private studio visits with all visiting artists enabling you to dive in and learn about each artist and their practice
• Tours of collectors’ homes
• Invitations to national and international VIP Art Fair programs
• Personal referrals to our broad database of art handlers, framers, conservators and other art service professionals
• VIP Passes for Miami Art Fair week
• Limited memberships available

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Designated Named Artist Fellowships $15,000 JOIN NOW

This is an opportunity to create a legacy while providing direct support to artists and The Fountainhead Residency. Designated fellowships are based institutionally, geographically, discipline-based and/or diversity based. For each fellowship, the team will work with you to define the designation, criteria for selection, method of outreach, and additional programming. Each fellowship includes roundtrip airfare, travel insurance for international artists, and shipping, materials and per-diem stipends for artists. Additional benefits include:

• Your name will be proudly displayed on Fountainhead website donor page, and included in our newsletters, event invites and other communications, and the artist’s page
• Private introduction to the artist upon arrival
• Opportunity to host a private meet and greet for family and friends *catering and all associated costs not included
• All benefits provided to Visionary members
• Advanced notice of all incoming Fountainhead Residency artists
• One-on-one studio visits with all Fountainhead Residency and Studios artists
• Invitation to a family dinner at Fountainhead Residency
• VIP Passes to many of the art fairs in December, nationally and internationally

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ASponsor an Open House $3,000 JOIN NOW

• Sponsor one of our monthly Open Houses or a private event of your own
• Sponsorship listed on Fountainhead website donor page, on the event page and on initial email and reminder email for the event
• Personal introductions made to each artist for sponsors and their guests
• Private tour of the Mikesell Collection led by Kathryn and Dan for your guests
• Special thank you made during the event

Board of Trustees

Alexa Wolman, President

Benjamin Wolkov, Secretary

Carole Server

David Ross

Don Savelson

Henry Zarb

Ian Krawlecki Gazes

Ibett Yanez

Jeff Flemings

Jumaane N’namdi

Leslie Weissman

Lois Whitman-Hess

Nicole Blackburn

Silvia Faidutti, Treasurer
Spring Dautel McManus

Stuart Sheldon

Teresa Enriquez

Team

Kathryn Mikesell, Foundress and Executive Director

Alex Nunez, Program Manager
Nicole Martinez, Communications and Grants

Curatorial Advisory Board

Jose Diaz, Chief Curator at The Andy Warhol Museum

Tami Katz Freiman, Independent Curator and Curator of the Israeli Pavilion Venice Biennale 2017

Dermis Leon, Independent Curator and Fountainhead Residency Alumni

Omar Lopez-Chahoud, Independent Curator and Artistic Director and Curator of Untitled Art Fair

Larry Ossei-Mensah, Independent Curator and Co-founder of ARTNOIR

Irini Miga, Fountainhead Residency Alum Artist and Curator, Co-Founder of Daily Lazy Projects, in Athens, Greece and Co-Editor of Daily Lazy Blog

Major Donors

Shepard Broad Foundation
Carlo and Micol Schejola Foundation
Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz
The de Groot Foundation
The Hillsdale Fund
The Heinz Endowments
Lois Whitman-Hess and Eliot Hess
Alexa and Adam Wolman
Hesty Leibtag and Terry Verk
Adriana and Ricardo Malfitano
Joan Quinlivan
Heather and Jay Schreibman
Leslie and Michael Weissman
Jane Wesman and Donald Savelson

Benefactor and Visionary Members

A

Alexandra Bain
Alexandra Rutten
Alison Cohen
Alison Davis
Alison Weiss
Amanda Dobin
Amy Kornik
Amy Pollack
Anne Coppenrath
Avi Bernstein
Avra Jain

B

Barbara Salk
Bill Fuller
Bruce Taub

C

Cathy Leff
Celso Gonzalez-Falla
Claire Racanelli
Carla Tobin
Carole Server
Chris Adamo
Christoper Barake

D

Danie Gómez-Ortigoza
David Black
David Lombardi
David Rosow
David Ross
David Sharp
Debi Hoffman
Debi Weschler
Diane Grob
Dina Mitrani
Donald Weiss

E

Eliot Hess
Ellie Taub
Eric Schneider

F

Fabien Castanier
Fredrick Black

G

George Dufornier
Greg Diamond
Gina Chase

H

Hesty Leibtag
Howard Krass

J

Jan Gerits
Jen Samway
Jill Stone
Joe Furst
John Barnett
John Ellis
Josh Cohen
Joyce Virga
Juan Toro

K

Karen Boyer
Kate Friedman
Kelley Johnson
Kyung Yoon

L

Laura Randall
Lee Cohen Hare
Lesley Goldwasser
Leslie Rosenzweig
Linda Diamond
Lindsey Freidman
Lisa Smith
Liza Gallardo Walton

M

Matt Landau
Marie Elena Angulo
Mark Blackburn
Mario Cader-Frech
Martine Marchand
Mary Heidrich
Matt Anderson
Matthew Lieberman
Michael Rosen
Michael Samway
Mindy Solomon
Misha Kornik
Moises Esquenazi

N

Nancy Bernstein
Nicole McAree

O

Oliver Frankel

 

P

Pauline Shender

R

Rachel Wagner Furst
Randi Wolfson
Rebecca Dinar
Renee Delaplaine
Renee Rosenberg
Rhonda Mitrani
Robert Borlenghi
Robert Shub
Robin Lipson
Roger Baumann
Rolf Coppenrath
Ron Rosenzweig
Rouslana Andriyanova
Ruth Greenberg

 

 

 

S

Scott D’Andrea
Sherry Zimand
Stephanie Bloom
Stephanie Denault
Stephanie Rosen
Stephanie Krass

T

Thais Fontenelle
Tina Tolles
Todd Friedman

V

Valentina Gutchess
Valerie Ricordi
Vanessa Grout
Vanessa Ressler
Vince Virga
Viviana Dominguez

W

Werner Grob

Z

Eliot took this photo as we were arriving in Miami. Fisher Island on the bottom of photo, the port of Miami to the left, all of the Islands where the celebrities live, Miami Beach to the right. Happy New Year to all.

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We got our booster shots yesterday. So far no reaction.

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Eliot looked out the window of our hotel, the 1 Hotel, 58th and Sixth, and shot this photo of a bride and groom who decided that this crosswalk was the beginning of their journey together, Mazel Tov!

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The minute I saw the headline above I knew I had to share this information with you. It’s so nice to know that these folks exist and it’s possible to reach these numbers. Good luck to all.

By Lia Beck for Yahoo News

If you need proof that age is just a number, look no further than the celebs listed below. These stars are 20 of the oldest celebrities still living in 2021, and they range from actors to singers to composers to heads of state. Each of these celebrities has made it into their 90s or 100s, and has shared some words of wisdom or inspired through their work along the way. From a legendary singer explaining why life passions are so important to the Queen of England sharing that she doesn’t worry about aging, there’s something to learn from each of them. Read on to find out more about these famous nonagenarians and centenarians.

Burt Bacharach, 93

Birthday: May 12, 1928

We start our list with Burt Bacharach, who is 93 years old. The composer is known particularly for his work with Dionne Warwick, including the songs “Walk on By” and “I Say a Little Prayer.” He also composed “The Look of Love,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” and many more hits. Bacharach continues to work to this day, and talked about his new music in a 2020 interview with The Washington Post.

2

Estelle Harris, 93

Birthday: Apr. 4, 1928

Estelle Harris is probably best known for playing George’s mother, Estelle Costanza, on Seinfeld. Another major role was voicing Mrs. Potato Head in three of the Toy Story movies, including 2019’s Toy Story 4, which is her most recent credit. In a 2013 interview with the Associated Press, Harris talked about watching Seinfeld become popular with younger generations. “In the last year or two, all of a sudden these youngsters recognize me as Mrs. Costanza, Estelle Costanza,” she said. “So we have a whole new age group, and I’m getting a lot of fan mail from these young people too.”

3

William Daniels, 94

Birthday: Mar. 31, 1927

Your age will determine how you best know William Daniels. The actor played Dustin Hoffman‘s character’s dad in The Graduate in the ’60s, starred as John Adams in the musical 1776 in the ’70s, was Mark on St. Elsewhere in the 1980s, and played Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World in the ’90s—a role he revived for Girl Meets World in the 2010s.

Daniels reflected on 70 years of marriage with his wife, Bonnie Bartlett, in a video for Forbes in 2021. “I think our relationship is based on mutual respect and I think she is smarter than me, better actor than me, and so I just hang on, you know, and try to get along,” he said.

4

Harry Belafonte, 94

Birthday: Mar. 1, 1927

Singer Harry Belafonte is known for bringing Calypso music out of the Caribbean with songs like “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song.” He’s also an actor and civil rights activist. In 2016, Belafonte shared some of his life wisdom on Today. “I think people who have not experienced a life passion—something that they want to get up everyday and go do—have really missed the fullest value of life,” the then-89-year-old singer said.

5

Sidney Poitier, 94

Birthday: Feb. 20, 1927

Sidney Poitier was the first Black performer to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. After a hugely successful career, he retired from acting and later became an ambassador from the Bahamas to Japan. In a 2000 interview with Oprah Winfrey, when he was 73, Poitier said of what he was looking forward to, “I’d like to write, act, teach, lecture—anything creative. I must also service my curiosity. I want to continue to wonder about things, because there is a young man inside me, and he is energetic and mentally active.”

6

Lisa Lu, 94

Birthday: Jan. 19, 1927

Lisa Lu has had successful acting careers in both Chinese and American films and TV shows. She has appeared in movies including The Last Emperor, The Joy Luck Club, and, most recently, Crazy Rich Asians. She is still acting, with two new films in the works. In a 2019 interview with That Is China, the actor was asked if she worries about aging. “I don’t worry about it,” she said, “because films require characters of all different ages. Acting isn’t just about starring as the main character … If you like acting it doesn’t matter as long as you act well in whatever role you have, then that’s fine.”

7

Tony Bennett, 95

Birthday: Aug. 3, 1926

Legendary singer Tony Bennett only just retired from stage performances at age 95. He will continue to otherwise make music and has a new album with Lady Gaga coming out in October. Bennett also has Alzheimer’s disease. His wife, Susan Benedetto, told AARP the Magazine in 2020, “There’s a lot about him that I miss, because he’s not the old Tony anymore. But when he sings, he’s the old Tony.”

8

Mel Brooks, 95

Birthday: June 28, 1926

Producer and director Mel Brooks is a comedy legend thanks to his films The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. And he’s still working. “I knew from a very early age, I knew that comedy was my thing,” Brooks told CBS Sunday Morning in 2019. “It was me. Because people would look down at my crib, I was only a few months old, and they would laugh. And I said, ‘That’s it, that’s it. That’s what I want!'”

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9

David Attenborough, 95

Birthday: May 8, 1926

Natural historian and TV host and producer David Attenborough is another member of the 95 club, and he’s most famous for the BBC documentary series Life and Planet Earth.

Attenborough has been very reflective about his long life and career, including in his film David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet. Asked about watching footage of his younger self in the doc by The Guardian, Attenborough said, “I thought, in my own mind, I haven’t changed. I feel exactly the same.”

10

Queen Elizabeth, 95

Birthday: Apr. 21, 1926

At 95, Queen Elizabeth II is both the oldest British monarch and the longest reigning. She has been queen for 69 years, beginning her reign in 1952.

In a recently resurfaced video of Queen Elizabeth sitting for a portrait for her 80th birthday, she said something about seeing herself age through artwork. When the painter asked if that upset her, she responded with a surprisingly casual “nah”, which made the video go viral.

11

Dick Van Dyke, 95

Birthday: Dec. 13, 1925

Actor Dick Van Dyke of Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Dick Van Dyke Show is 95, too. And he’s determined to make it to 100. While appearing on CBS This Morning in June 2021, he showed off his workout regimen, which includes crunches. “I’m 95, and a lot of my friends won’t do these,” he said. “So all you old guys out there, listen to me, I’m telling you: You can keep going for a long [time].”

12

Angela Lansbury, 95

Birthday: October 16, 1925

Angela Lansbury has had a lengthy career as an actor, from Oscar-nominated films during the Golden Age of Hollywood, to her starring role on Murder, She Wrote, and beyond. During an interview with Larry King in 2018, Lansbury said, “I think that I’m interested in every part of life. In other words, not just acting. But everything that is given to us as human beings to indulge ourselves in our lives, that’s what interests me. My grandchildren, my life, cooking, driving, being independent, I think is very much part of my credo.” Asked if she would ever retire, she responded, “No, I don’t think so. I’ll probably pass away with one hand on my script.”

13

Jimmy Carter, 96

Birthday: Oct. 1, 1924

The 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, is 96 years old, making him both the oldest living president and the longest-living president in history. Carter wrote a book about getting older, The Virtues of Aging, published in 1998 when he was 74. In 2013, he told The Washington Post (via Insider) of his active lifestyle, “I was an avid runner until I was 80 and my knees gave out. I have two new knees, and those have worked well. Now I swim regularly at home and when I travel. I’m active around the house, and with painting and woodworking.”

14

Eva Marie Saint, 97

Birthday: July 4, 1924

Actor Eva Marie Saint is known for roles in beloved films including North by Northwest and On the Waterfront, for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. In 2014, she had a small role in Winter’s Tale as a character over 100 years old. “Made me feel young,” she joked to Metro US. She continued of the part, “I just prefer to do roles where it’s a strong lady and she’s not ill and she’s not in a wheelchair—and that may happen, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But as long as I can portray somebody who still makes a difference in the world, that’s what I like to do.”

15

Bob Barker, 97

Birthday: December 12, 1923

Generations of game show fans know Bob Barkeras the host of The Price Is Right, wielding the mic from 1972 to 2007. In a 2015 interview with the Associated Press, Barker said, “I’m a complete success in retirement. I think it’s because I did it not too soon, not too late, but at just the right time. I’ve never regretted it.” He added with a laugh, “People ask me often what do I miss most about The Price Is Right and I answer honestly: It’s the money. That, I miss.”

16

Norman Lear, 99

Birthday: July 27, 1922

TV writer and producer Norman Lear is responsible for many classic TV shows, including All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and One Day at a Time. He still works as producer to this day, most recently on the Netflix reboot of One Day at a Timeand the documentary Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It. In July, he shared with Entertainment Weekly how he was celebrating his 99th birthday. “I’m on a plane tomorrow morning for our home in Vermont with all my kids and grandkids, which will take place at a farm we’ve owned for 35 years or so,” he said. Asked if he will ever retire, he replied, “I think I will be retired, but I will not retire.”

17

Betty White, 99

Birthday: Jan. 17, 1922

Betty White‘s career in entertainment began when she was a young girl in the ’30s. She is best known for her roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and as Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. “Best thing about being in your 90s is you’re spoiled rotten,” she said on Betty White’s Second Annual 90th Birthday Special in 2013 (via People). “Everybody spoils you like mad and they treat you with such respect because you’re old. Little do they know, you haven’t changed. You haven’t changed in [the brain]. You’re just 90 every place else.”

18

Nehemiah Persoff, 102

Birthday: Aug. 2, 1919

Character actor Nehemiah Persoff has appeared in many notable films during his lengthy career, including On the Waterfront, Some Like It Hot, Twins, and as the voice of Papa Mousekewitz in theAmerican Tail movies. He is also often remembered for playing Barbra Streisand‘s character’s father in Yentl. When Persoff retired from acting in 1999, he began focusing more on his painting. He explained in a 2014 interview with Senior Voice that he took it up after suffering a transient ischemic attackknown as a “mini stroke.”

“I would recommend to all seniors that they try painting,” he said. “They will be surprised by their ability, and the peace and calm that concentrating on the painting provides.”

19

Caren Marsh-Doll, 102

Birthday: April 6, 1919

Caren Marsh-Doll is an actor who worked in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s before retiring and becoming a dance teacher. Along with playing plenty of her own roles, Marsh Doll was Judy Garland‘s stand-in forThe Wizard of Oz and Ziegfeld Girl, and is one of few people who worked on The Wizard of Oz and are still living. Because of this, in recent years, she has attended a few Wizard of Oz festivals. “When you’re 19 and working on a film, you don’t really think it’s something that you’ll still be known as a part of when you’re 92,” she told Syracuse.com of the classic movie in 2011.

20

Marsha Hunt, 103

Birthday: October 17, 1917

At 103, Marsha Hunt is considered the oldest living actor from Hollywood’s Golden Age. She appeared in many films during her career, including Pride and Prejudice, Born to the West, and The Human Comedy. After being named on the Hollywood blacklist during the McCarthy era, she became a humanitarian focused on world hunger, and later homelessness and the support of same-sex marriage, as reported by Patch. Asked about her long life by the Associated Press in 2020, Hunt said, “I don’t think it’s long. I hope it will be long. I think I’m just very lucky. I have no enemies that I know of and I have no hatred. I go around loving people and getting along with them

This is where the world is going. Learn to embrace it now. You can’t stop progress. Some of you remind me of your parents or grandparents who thought the advent of the TV set was going to destroy the world. The metaverse may not be for you but don’t hold your kids back. The world is going hybrid. Virtual + Physical. Roll with it. LWH

Andy Serwer with Max Zahn

As the last days of summer achingly melt into … lord knows what comes next, I was thinking about how to characterize this fleeting season. Yes, there was the resurgence of COVID and ironically enough another accompanying run-up in the stock market, but I actually think this summer was marked by something else. To my mind this was the time when the Metaverse became a thing, a thing that will become bigger than COVID, or the stock market for that matter.

I will explain it all, but before I do, to those of you well-versed in the Metaverse, rolling your eyes at the Boomer and muttering “that was sooo 2020,” let me assure you the overwhelming majority of people on planet Earth have no idea what the Metaverse is, and to them I write.https://d-17384842073735750848.ampproject.net/2108192119000/frame.html

What is the Metaverse? Simply put, the Metaverse is the next mega-phase of the internet, a merging of the physical world with XR, AR and VR that is just beginning to revolutionize the way we interact, work and live.

Here’s how the Wall Street Journal describes it: “an extensive online world transcending individual tech platforms, where people exist in immersive, shared virtual spaces. Through avatars, people would be able to try on items available in stores or attend concerts with friends, just as they would offline.” (The Metaverse will also require massively more computing power as well as tools and code not yet created or written.)

On his earnings call in late July, Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg devoted significant time to expounding upon the Metaverse: “It’s a virtual environment where you can be present with people in digital spaces,” he said. “You can kind of think about this as an embodied internet that you’re inside of rather than just looking at. We believe that this is going to be the successor to the mobile internet.”https://d-17384842073735750848.ampproject.net/2108192119000/frame.html

Metaversians also talk about the Metaverse being synchronous and always live for an infinite number of participants, meaning for instance your avatar will be wandering around this digital world in real time, as seen probably through some sort of glasses, for play, yes, but also for work.

If all this sounds beyond your ken, know that instead of checking your phone first thing in the morning, at some point you will be checking into the Metaverse. Can’t imagine that. Oh, it’s coming. For what life might be like in the Metaverse age, check out “A Day In The Metaverse“by Cathy Hackl, CEO of the Futures Intelligence Group, a consultancy that helps brands with Metaverse strategies.

Does the Metaverse exist anywhere yet? The answer is yes, early versions of it. The closest approximations of it right now include the likes of digital game platform Roblox (RBLX), Second Life,which bills itself as a virtual world, not a game, and especially smash-hit game “Fortnite,” which is rapidly transforming itself into a virtual world replete with everything from commerce to Ariana Grande concerts. (More on “Fortnite” later.)

If you haven’t dropped into one of those worlds, it may be tough to wrap your brain around what’s going on here. One convenient shorthand way to understand the Metaverse is to watch the 2018 Spielberg movie “Ready Player One,” which, if you ignore the Hollywoodification, has some excellent simulation of what people are contemplating (never mind that life may end up imitating this art.) One more source: The 1992 novel, “Snow Crash,” where sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson coined the “Metaverse.”

And for the most insightful deep-dive explainer on the Metaverse, I recommend this “great” [that’s according to Mark Zuckerberg and tech writer Casey Newton] essay by Mathew Ball, a venture capitalist (and former Canadian firefighter), who has become one of the most prominent Metaverse thought leaders, from last year. In June, Ball dropped an updated, nine part(!) “primer” here.

“The internet era was defined by the computer being in the living room and the connection to the internet being occasional,” Ball says. “The shift to mobile computing meant moving the computer from the living room to the office and into your pocket, and changing access to the internet from occasional to continuous and persistent. Metaverse is the idea of computing everywhere, ubiquitous, ambient. In a simplified sense, think about the Metaverse as a series of interconnected and persistent simulations.”

Another important point is what techies call interoperability, meaning that you can move seamlessly around this virtual world on multiple devices without friction. Ditto for intellectual property. Marvel characters (say you as Black Panther) could hang with DC characters (your best friend could be Wonder Woman) without corporate overlords Disney and WarnerMedia, respectively, throwing a hissy fit.

‘The next internet, web 3.0. We don’t want to be left behind.’

“The Metaverse is a network of interconnected virtual worlds in the same way the World Wide Web is a network of interconnected website,” says Rabindra Ratan, an associate professor of media and information at Michigan State University who specializes in the interaction between people and technology. “I can jump in a web browser, cruise from one website to another. In the future, you will jump in the Metaverse browser from one virtual world to another to another.”

That ease of digital mobility is critical. “The greater degree of interoperability, the greater utility of any simulation,” says Ball. “Like how a J.Crew belt is interoperable with Gap pants; an American-bought car works in Canada and Mexico. It’s generally more efficient, better for the economy and users, and everything has more utility.”

“The second element is the extent to which interoperability enables greater competition in the marketplace,” Ball says. “If every company had proprietary belts or shoes, would it become practical for a new pants apparel company to emerge that wouldn’t work with the belts you purchased previously? No one would buy new pants if they needed to replace the belts and shoes.”

NB: And of course crypto, or some sort of digital descendent, will be the coin of this new realm. And already retailers like Ralph Lauren and others like Visa are beginning to dip their toes in the Metaverse water.

“Take a look at the internet and mobile internet. Over time it disrupted nearly every industry in nearly every geography,” Ball says. “It changed which companies consumers patronized, business models, products, behaviors. This produces an extraordinary economic opportunity overall.” Same will happen from the Metaverse, Ball says.

“Back in the 2000s, people thought we’ll never need an e-commerce team or a social media team, just have an intern start it,” says Hackl. “I see this and think there’s a little more seriousness from companies thinking ‘this is the next internet, web 3.0. We don’t want to be left behind.’ They used to say every business is a tech company. Now every company will be a Metaverse company.”

Sure the origins of the Metaverse have been kicking around for years, but what’s happened this summer is that Silicon Valley, media and the world of business are starting to not only pay attention to the incipient Metaverse, but they are beginning to transition into it.

Mark Zuckerberg spoke to his employees earlier this year about the need to make Facebook a Metaverse company, and in July, Casey Newton of the Verge did an interview with him on the subject that you should check out.

Zuckerberg’s ruminations on the Metaverse are thoughtful and illuminating and reminded me that we sometimes dismiss him as a one-dimensional CEO intent on digital domination and wholly dismissive of Facebook’s foibles. Still, Newton rightfully calls Zuckerberg’s vision of the Metaverse and Facebook’s role in it as “audacious” considering it “comes at a time when the U.S. government is attempting to break his current company up.”

In his interview with Newton, Zuck describes what meetings in the Metaverse will be like, which is to say that they will be what Zoom calls are to conference calls, (remember them?) Again you really should read the whole interview.

“A lot of the meetings that we have today, you’re looking at a grid of faces on a screen. That’s not how we process things either. We’re used to being in a room with people and having a sense of space where if you’re sitting to my right, then that means I’m also sitting to your left, so we have some shared sense of space in common. When you speak, it’s coming from my right. It’s not just all coming from the same place in front of me.

In the future, instead of just doing this over a phone call, you’ll be able to sit as a hologram on my couch, or I’ll be able to sit as a hologram on your couch, and it’ll actually feel like we’re in the same place, even if we’re in different states or hundreds of miles apart.

I already do a bunch of meetings in VR. Even though the avatars aren’t as realistic today as they will be in a few years, in a lot of ways it already feels almost more real, and more like you have a sense of space, than a Zoom call, because you have the shared sense of space….If you’re sitting in a circle, everyone can kind of remember what order people were in. There’s spatial audio. You look over to the head of the table and there could be a screen there, where people who can’t be in VR or AR can videoconference in and be a part of your meeting from outside. You can project and different people can share as many documents as they want. So it’s no more of this, “Oh, I can only share one document at a time,” because everyone, you presume, only has one screen. And in VR, people can pull up as many screens as they want so you can share as much context as you want during a meeting. You have a whiteboard, people can draw. It’s pretty wild.”

Ratan of Michigan State, (who after reading “Snow Crash” was inspired to get a PhD focused on virtual reality and avatars), says Zuck is no Johnny-come-lately here. “This has been in the works for years, ever since Zuckerberg bought Oculus in 2014,” Ratan says. “People might not have realized it then. The vision was always to create a Metaverse-like experience for people beyond gaming. Eventually the Metaverse and internet will become synonymous.” Another facet of Facebook’s journey into the Metaverse began in September 2019 when the company introduced Facebook Horizon, a virtual reality, online game.

Zuckerberg likely sees the Metaverse as mission critical. “Facebook, among the big five tech companies [also Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft], is the only one that doesn’t have an operating system,” Ball says. “It’s the only one that doesn’t have a key consumer hardware device. The Metaverse at a minimum allows them to potentially displace those who do, at a maximum it can go further. [Because] they don’t have a hardware, software platform, what they can do today is partly controlled by that problem. Business models and products Facebook wants for consumers are often blocked by Apple. They want to launch a cloud gaming experience — they can’t. They want a tipping program — they find it impractical when Apple has to take 30% first. The opportunity for economic expansion is to gain share relative to big tech companies, diversify into a platform and hardware and escape the confines of a platform ecosystem that currently defines the business.”

None of this is lost on CEOs of the other FAAMG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet’s Google) companies, who are moving forward into the Metaverse for their own objectives. Remarked Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella at his earnings call on July 27, (only days after Zuckerberg’s call), “As the digital and physical worlds converge, we are leading in a new layer of the infrastructure stack, the enterprise Metaverse.”

And there are others too, such as Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang and his comments in July about the Metaverse, saying “I believe we’re right on the cusp of it.” Nvidia has created what it calls an Omniverse, “a virtual environment the company describes as a ‘Metaverse’ for engineers,” according to Venture Beat. Huang also said the economy of the Metaverse will be larger than that of the physical world. Impossible? Not when you consider, for instance, all the work from home, designing (of everything) and leisure activities that will be done in the Metaverse.

So what companies (stocks!) are poised to benefit from the Metaverse? Guess who? The usual FAAMG suspects for starters, according to Ball, and he spells out why in his first essay. Balls also cites Unity Software as well as private companies like Valve, Ubiquity6, Singularity 6, (no relation believe it or not), Genvid and Magic Leap (the latter being almost an old school player by now).

But the granddaddy of them all is Epic Games (owner of Fortnite), which was founded by CEO Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems 30 years ago at his parents’ house in Potomac, Maryland. Now based in Cary, North Carolina, Epic released “Fortnite” just four years ago. The game now has 350 million registered players, with anywhere from six to 12 million people playing at any given time.

Some reports suggest growth at “Fortnite” may have topped out or that it is even declining (as a private company, Epic can pretty much divulge what it wants), but nonetheless it is still a juggernaut, making billions of dollars for Epic.Some business details were revealed in Epic’s recent battle royal with Apple (AAPL) over payments on Apple’s App Store. (In fact, Sweeney has become a major thorn in Apple’s side. Pretty remarkable for a little ol’ game company CEO.)

In April, Epic raised $1 billion (added to the $4 billion plus it raised previously, according to Crunchbase), and is now worth nearly $29 billion. Sweeney’s stake in the company is worth $7.4 billion, according to Forbes. Let’s just say if Epic ever went public, there would be strong investor interest.

Still with all the excitement, the Metaverse is hardly a virtual utopia. Imagine the problems of today’s internet in 3D with avatars, just for starters. Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley does a great job of laying out potential problems: 3D bullying for example and even worse.

“Think about all the data they can be tracking,” says Ratan of Michigan State. “They can identify you by nonverbal gestures and height. They can use machine algorithms to predict your sexual orientation based on the way you look at different people in the virtual world. I worry about privacy becoming even more limited in these Metaverse experiences. Technological innovation is always a double-edged sword. The Metaverse is a great example of a technology that will likely bring huge benefits to people but there will be unintended, unanticipated costs and harms.”

Right now the Metaverse has next-to-no regulations, few agreed upon industry standards and an ecosystem that is overwhelmingly male. What could possibly go wrong? It all needs addressing, that’s for sure.

“I don’t want to turn to the Metaverse to escape reality,” says Cathy Hackl. “I don’t want to have that dystopian view of it. In some ways the Metaverse is an extension of humanity and creativity, where we’re heading next.”

And paradoxically, whether that’s for the better or for the worse will in fact be up to us. Up to humanity. After all, reality is the only thing that’s real.

Andy Serwer is editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @serwer

Happy birthday Eliot

Eliot and I met artist Bisco Smith at the Williams McCall Gallery in Miami Beach. We now own some of his eye- striking art. I was startled when I read his recent Facebook post. It reminds all of us how life is so fragile. Bisco, we wish you only the best going forward. We are so happy everyone is on the mend. Stay healthy and safe.

ANOTHER ONE / not sure what is happening in our lives but it happened again. This time we got hit head on by an engine that flew out of a car flipping over in crash on the other side of the parkway. We were moving at 60 mph or so and I’m guessing the flying engine was as well. I remember sparks the sound of a crash and what I thought was a car flipping over the medium and hitting us head on. Airbags deployed, the car quickly was filling with smoke. My wife was able to open her door after waking from being unconscious I crawled in the back and together we were able to ulock our son and pass him through the airbags and open door. I crawled back upfront and out the car. Somehow we all walked away, again. Some amazing people pulled over, helped us to safety and calmed us down until the first responders arrived. 2 minutes into them being there another car came around the corner. Full speed and boom. Another crash. Thank god no one was hurt and that car didn’t flip over on us all. We left the scene in an ambulance and spent the night in the ER. Somehow we made it home we are all walking and from what I hear, so is everyone else from the other cars. My wife fractured her sternum and is a bit bruised up, our son is good, thank the universe, and so am I. We are shook up, but breathing and able. So infinitely grateful for that. I will say after the last accident 6 weeks ago when a tree fell on our car. We got this new car because of it’s safety ratings. The deciding factor was the passenger side safety ratings in a head on collision. It was better than the other car we were considering, thank god we did, that is exactly where the impact was. Trying to process and understand, but overall grateful. And really though, who has a tree fall on their car while in it with their family then 6 weeks later in their new car get hit head on by a flying engine at highway speeds and walk away from both moments. It’s unreal. I feel like I’m in a different dimension. There is another one where I am not here…. But we are, I think. The sun is brighter, the air is warmer, and I don’t ever want to drive again. Love to you all out there. And a giant thank you to all the humans who stopped to help, the EMS, fire, police, the hospital staff, and the driver that got us back home safe.