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Welcome to Minket 👋🏿!
My name is Morkeh, and I strive to connect the world through one idea, one trivia puzzle, and a few things I encounter during the week.
For those of you who are new or need a refresher, here are the puzzle rules:
Each puzzle will contain clues that are linked in some way.
To complete the puzzle, solve the individual clues and the link.
Send your answers to minketapp@gmail.com for a potential shoutout in the next puzzle if your answers are correct.
Answers will be revealed on Minket's website next Monday.
Learn something new and have fun 🧠.
In a hospital in New York City, a man was on the brink of death without realizing it.
This might seem plausible given the nature of hospitals in the late 1920s. However, with our advancements, we are still close to that reality today. Yet, this individual's life and legacy would unfold in an extraordinary manner.
This person was no ordinary man; he was one of the most famous movie stars of his time, a modern-day equivalent of a sex symbol. At 31, he had achieved cinematic feats with hits such as "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," "The Sheik," and "Blood and Sand," and he was just getting started. He had joined United Artists, the brainchild of preeminent legends Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. He had his own production company. He even had an award named after him, preceding the Academy Awards. Not bad for an Italian immigrant who was doing odd service jobs before his brush with fame. His name was Rudolph Valentino.
The most crucial aspect of this story is beauty.
We create idealized images of figures that seem incapable of the flaws that make us human, suspending them in time in their perfect form so they cannot fail us.
Picture your favorite actor or actress.
The impact of beauty on us is often beyond words, yet most of us know the feeling.
Sometimes, this beauty manifests in human form. Sometimes, it focuses on pure aesthetics, but it doesn't have to—the 'Je ne sais quoi,' as some may say. More often than not, it comes down to aesthetics.
Beneath the cultivated and seemingly permanent beauty, the impermanence of the human condition subtly and slowly takes its toll.
Beauty and the fame, adoration, and financial success it brings should make anyone happy. However, as a celebrated writer of the time, H.L. Mencken noted in a Baltimore Sun column about Valentino:
"Here was a young man living the dream of millions of other men. Here was one who was catnip to women. Here was one who had wealth and fame. And here was one who was very unhappy."
Beauty and happiness do not have to go together.
Valentino himself confided to gossip columnist Louella Parsons:
"The women I love don't love me. The others don't matter."
Despite his success as a sex symbol, he never found personal happiness in his love life.
For those who seemingly have everything, life can look very different from their perspective or even from sight unseen.
Another battle played out unnoticed until Valentino's body couldn't handle it anymore. One day, he collapsed suddenly at the Hotel Ambassador in Manhattan. Upon being checked into a local hospital, he was initially diagnosed with appendicitis and a gastric ulcer. The ulcer, or a break in the stomach wall, led to a total tear, or perforation, allowing gastrointestinal fluid to leak into the peritoneum—the space between the organs—creating a breeding ground for bacteria and causing the inflammation of the peritoneum, or peritonitis.
By day six, Valentino struggled with breathing due to inflamed lung tissue. Despite these challenges, he communicated with his team and remained forward-thinking.
By day eight, he was dead.
The underlying issue was sepsis, a life-threatening response to infection.
Several factors likely contributed to Valentino's condition: untreated ulcers, a pre-existing bacterial infection like H. pylori, and routine use of NSAIDs like ibuprofen. This progression from perforation to sepsis is rare. It depends on factors such as perforation size, bacterial and gastric contents in the abdominal cavity, timing of medical intervention, and attempts to seal the perforation.
As the infection spread through his body and took Valentino’s life, mass hysteria spread among his fans upon hearing the shocking news. Valentino, a symbol of beauty, was expected to live forever, at least as an eternal screen presence. His funeral saw suicides and riots, with 100,000 people lining the streets of Manhattan to bid him farewell.
His body was then transported cross-country to California for another funeral before being interred at the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
This entire saga gave rise to a condition aptly named Valentino's Syndrome—a beautiful name. Few would consider the image of organs perforated, leaking a mixture of their contents, or bacteria invading the bloodstream beautiful. As beauty often does, it creates an appealing wrapper over the true ugliness that can occur within the human condition.
Minket Puzzle
What link connects:
The finder of an old soccer trophy without a green thumb
Another who was shot up into orbit
A living tin that once graced the big screen
Sounds | Words | Visuals
This week's piece was written to a two-for: "Special" by Dave and Tiakola and "She's Gone, Dance On" by Disclosure
Speaking of celebrities in hospitals, this story about Alexander Morris from the Four Tops was wild. It is currently being litigated, but it is a reminder to do your homework before jumping to conclusions.
While in NYC this weekend, I did something I've neglected to do during my years there and in previous returns since: Go to the Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA. I'm sure, as with all of my museum visits, will inspire future pieces, but until then, here is the obligatory snapshot of Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.
A Moment of Reflection
Who is a famous person who holds a high status in your mind, and why?
Thank you for reading. Until next time. -M