Weekend Links 1-10-2020

Back when I was blogging on a semi-regular basis I ran a feature on Fridays of collection so stories that had caught my attention. As I ease back into a more regular writing schedule I thought it was an opportune time to revive this series. Here are a handful of items that caught my attention in recent weeks:

It's hard for me to believe that it has been 40 years since the Miracle on Ice. The U. S. Olympic Hockey team's victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Games was one of the most improbable victories in sport. Here is a terrific profile of the man who was behind the microphone for the game and coined one of the most memorable catchphrases in broadcasting history.

It's a new year which means setting goals for 2020. But in order to succeed first you need to address some common myths that inhibit achieving your goals. It also helps to align your habits to the goals you want to achieve.

By the way, if you want to become more focused in your productivity, this book is a great place to start. 

Speaking of books, this list of book towns look like great vacation destinations for a bookworm like me.

This is a pleasant surprise: vinyl records are on pace to outsell CDs for the first time in 30 years.

Baseball teams stealing signs has been in the news a lot this offseason. MLB could fix the problem very easily if they wanted to. 

Longtime baseball writer Peter Gammons is being honored by the people he covers. Definitely well deserved

Baseball history: In 1919, the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. The reasons why are fascinating. 

More baseball history; my current favorite Twitter feed is Flagstaff Films. Click on their media and fall down a worm hole of old home movies. Your welcome.

Pitchers and catchers report in 32 days. It will be spring before you know it.

Have a great weekend.

Daily Links 9-25-13

Where to find the best burgers, why men aren't singing in church, Babe Ruth getting plunked, pitfalls of modern technology, and more in today's link roundup.

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When I lived in Raleigh, North Carolina years ago I used to frequent a little dive of a burger joint that had some of the best burgers that I have ever tasted. I was happy to discover they are still in business (and still very reasonably priced). So, if you're in the Raleigh area and you want a great burger you have to visit Char-Grill. You will not be disappointed. (Hat tip: Serious Eats)

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I hadn't noticed this but I wonder if it's true that men have stopped singing in church. (Hat tip: Challies)

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A little baseball history: How Babe Ruth brushed off getting plunked.

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I am ashamed to say I can totally relate to this:

This morning I awoke to discover I had no internet access. I don’t mean that after a leisurely breakfast and shower I eventually sat down to my computer and couldn’t get online. I mean I literally “awoke to discover” it, because the first thing I did when my eyes opened was to grab the cell phone from my night stand and check my emails. My inability to do so immediately left me as agitated as a junky in need of a fix, highlighting for me just how addicted I, like countless others, have become to being perpetually connected to the outside world through my phone.

Except that it doesn’t really connect me at all; if anything, my phonedisconnects me from the outside world. Yes, it links me to a multiverse of information and distractions. But there is something about experiencing the world through the addictive central portal of a smartphone that creates a psychological and spiritual distance from the experience and from the world itself.

Read the whole thing.

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I'm not sure whether any of these tips would really be effective, but here are 25 productivity secrets of successful historical figures.

Daily Links 9-24-13

Things you won't find on a playground anymore, how to remove yourself from the internet, the war on men, and more in today's links.

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Here are a list of 11 things you don't see on the playground any more. How did we ever survive our childhood

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Want to delete your internet accounts? Just Delete Me is designed to help you how to remove yourself from the internet.

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Dr. Albert Mohler has a fascinating interview with Dr. Helen Smith about her book Men On Strike. Here's her take on why men are going on strike against college:

I have a chapter in the book called “The College Strike.” And maybe that’s almost beyond what’s happening. Because what’s happening is men are just not making it into college. Right now it’s about 57% women, 43% men, and that’s growing where they think in the next ten  years it could be as many as 60% women going to college. One of the reasons for that is younger men in the elementary school grades often having failing grades, they often don’t do well, a lot of boys can’t read or don’t do well in those areas. And they’re disconnected from schools because schools in some sense over the last forty to fifty years have become places that are much more suitable for girls than they are for boys. And we worry so much about what girls need and how we make that happen. Like if we see that girls are lagging behind in science we immediately say okay we have to do something; we have to find books that girls like to read; we have to find a way to teach girls that will make them want to go into science or make them want to understand math better. But we don’t look at boys and we don’t say okay these boys can’t read; what can we do? And a lot of boys are sitting in schools and they’re told to stay quite. We’ve taken away recess, and Christina Hoff Sommers talks about this in her book The War on Boys, she talks a lot about what young men are facing in this country and how we don’t have any competition in schools. We have done away with dodge ball, we’ve done away with recess, and boys are sort of left sitting there and being handed books written by Toni Morrison or other female writers that sometimes they really can’t connect to. The saddest thing to me is that I’ve talked to boys around the country and one of the things a 14 year old boy said to me was that he wanted to start a boy’s group in his school. And he said that not one male teacher or female teacher in his school in New York City was brave enough to help him start that club. But they just said you know we can’t do that because they didn’t want to have an all-boys club in the school, whereas there are a million all-girls clubs, a Latino club, there’s an African-American club, but they can’t have a boys’ club. And I talk about that some in the book about there was one southern school that did start a men’s law group in a law school. And they were able to successfully do that. So I talk to men in the book about how do you go about reclaiming some of that space. And some of that can be worked out, but some of it is some of the schools they just will not allow that type of thing.

Read the whole thing. Or you can listen to the podcast here.

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Now this looks tasty: how to make your own gourmet bacon. (Hat tip: Fine Dining Lovers)

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Baseball history: film of Babe Ruth's called shot



Hat tip: John Thorn