The Daily Valet. - 1/7/22, Friday

✔️ Time to Upgrade

Friday, January 7th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Scroll down for some cute puppy news.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Time to Upgrade

Doctors advise swapping to more serious masks

You don’t need me to tell you that Omicron is everywhere. I’m sure, like me, you know people who have just tested positive. Or saw that nearly every late night host has simultaneously come down with COVID. And that John Mayer just pulled out of a music festival for the same reason.

I thought with the all the traveling I did over the holiday break that there was a real possibility of my boosted ass catching it. But I wore a KN95 mask as much as possible throughout my trip (despite odd looks from lax relatives). Honestly, I was surprised more people weren’t wearing them. Two years into this, shouldn’t we all be in better masks?

Intelligencer says it’s due in large part to how public health officials have mishandled the issue—including giving mixed messages about whether to wear masks and which ones to use. But the bottom line is that the cloth masks everyone started buying in the spring of 2020 were never a great match for an airborne virus like COVID and are even less so against the more and more transmissible variants that have emerged.

The Mayo Clinic began on Thursday requiring all patients and visitors to wear medical-grade masks, N95 or KN95s. “If you really want no exposure, you have to wear the right type of mask,” one infectious disease specialist told the Wall Street Journal. The current CDC guidance still suggests doubling up your simple cloth mask, but viral experts tell NPR that just “OK” isn’t good enough.

While N95 masks are still sometimes hard to find (or expensive), the more affordable KN95, KF94 and FFP2 masks are just as effective (they’re simply certified in China, South Korea and Europe respectively). Unlike cloth masks, these are all made out of material with an electrostatic charge, which actually pulls these particles in as they’re floating around and prevents you from inhaling them. And that’s key. If you don’t inhale virus particles, they can’t multiply in your respiratory tract.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that a record 9.5 million COVID cases were tallied over the last week as the omicron variant of the coronavirus swept the planet, a 71% increase that the U.N. health agency likened to a “tsunami.” Yes, it may be less severe, but it’s not mild.

↦ On the BRIGHT-SIDE: It’s been scientifically proven that you look hot in your mask.

Dogs Distinguish Between Languages

¿Quién es un buen chico?

Here's some cool news to end the week: A new study reveals a dog's brain can detect the different speech patterns between languages.

Hungarian researchers analyzed brain scans of over a dozen different dogs listening to audio of The Little Prince in both Spanish and Hungarian (aww!), and found the secondary auditory cortex was lit up and able to distinguish between the two.

The team also played scrambled versions of these book passages to test if dogs could tell the difference between actual speech and non-speech sounds. Though, it didn't seem that the pups had a preference between one or the other.

The experiment marks the first time that a non-human brain has been demonstrated to tell the difference between different human languages. Interestingly, the older the dog was, the better their brain distinguished between the familiar and the unfamiliar language. So you might say that a dog picks up an ear for its native tongue.

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Menswear Gets Wild, Finally

It’s time to go all-in and have some fun

Menswear, typically, has been considered a game of inches. It didn't move fast and the pendulum swung slowly. And maybe it was all the extended time in sweats and house shoes, but guys are branching out and getting wild with their clothing.

Hollywood's leading men were not afraid to experiment with fashion on the red carpets this year. Nor were pro athletes, who were seen pulling up to the locker room in neon oversized sweaters, bold prints and charm necklaces.

This adult embrace of dressing like an expressive tweenager has a name: “kidcore.” And it's defined by an attitude rather than specific clothes or accessories. It's more about revisiting the way you dressed before anyone told you what was cool—when you really dressed for yourself.

I'm all for this kind of experimentation. As Jian DeLeon, former Valet. editor and current men's fashion and editorial director at Nordstrom, told Vogue: “Men are beginning to see dressing as less of a burden and more of an inherently social act … as they relax their attitudes about what they can wear, the more they can see how much fun you can have with your clothes.”

↦ Dig Deeper: Ready for flared pants, balaclavas and big collars? GQ has all the vibes you're looking for.

A Weekend Pairing

Search Party + Skins Wine

Search Party is an unconventional series that began as a comedy on TBS about a girl's journey to find a missing person. It developed a cult following, but the show evolved, becoming more of a thriller, and after moving to HBO Max, the Search Party obsession has only grown. Now it's back for its fifth and final season.

Den of Geek says the new season is a “delirious experiment that's as if Alejandro Jodorowsky, Charlie Brooker and Stephen King decided to create a sitcom together.” And the AV Club says it rarely misses with its derision of the millennial lifestyle and internet culture. The new season views these topics through the lens of tech moguls, Instagram influencers, modern-day cults and fear of an impending doomsday. So, all in all, it sounds like a good time and I'm ready for a laugh.

↦ Your Pairing:They drink a fair amount of wine on the show and this bottle of orange wine pairs perfectly with spicy foods and delirious comedy. It’s a a mix of white grapes from different vineyards that gets fermented with the skins on. The end result is a rich white-ish wine with the substance and texture of a red.

In Other News

↦ An Unwanted Novak Djokovic Is Still in Australia

↦ Spotify Makes Podcast Ads Unskippable by Sticking Them in the App

↦ Nike Sues Lululemon Over Its Mirror Home Gym Product and Apps

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Biden’s speech

The Weeknd’s new album

Rimowa’s newest color

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Their stock analysts provide investment guidance to millions of individual investors around the world. And they've got a solid reputation in the world of finance and tech because of their results and ease of use. For instance, twice every month, The Motley Fool team researches a stock and recommends it to members. But some are so good, that the analysts have to double down on it.

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Now, there's a tiny internet company showing this buy signal which sits in the middle of the advertising market—a market that's 10x bigger than the online streaming industry (think Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu). Despite this company's initial success and room to grow, most investors have still never even heard of it. Which is why these experts say now's the time to buy.

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* Returns as of 12/5/21. Note that past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Individual investment results may vary. All investing involves risk of loss.

Plan Your Financial Future

5 personal money goals for the new year

Hopefully it doesn’t happen every day, but stressing over your personal finances is simply a matter of being an adult.

There's always going to be something popping up, making you feel like you could (or should) be earning a better salary, spending less or saving more. Look, we know that money may not buy you happiness (or whatever), but it sure does come in handy for a lot of important stuff.

Everyone is different, so of course, you might have different financial goals from the next person. But there are certain goals worth setting and achieving in the new year to get you feeling on top of the money game. We asked some experts for their top five.

↦ Read It: 5 personal money goals for the new year

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