Daily Links 3-14-14

Daily links returns after an unexpected hiatus just in time for the weekend. In today's post: how the internet has changed the church, the Great Depression and Scrabble, advice from barbers, and more.

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The internet turned 25 this week. So here are 25 ways the internet has changed the local church.

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A collection of often misquoted movie quotes.

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Neat History: How one World War II pilot shot down a plane with a handgun.

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If it wasn't for the Great Depression, we wouldn't have Scrabble.

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The basics of tea:

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Four strategies for defeating busyness. I really needed to hear this advice this week.

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Advice on manhood from eight neighborhood barbers.

Daily Links 1-17-14

Here are a few links to kick off your weekend reading. In today's edition: why we need lovely films, why Citizen Kane is considered the best film ever made, how to be a gentlemen and why, and more.

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Peter Robinson weighs in on Saving Mr. Banks and calls it a lovely film. It's the kind of film that we need. I'm planning to see it this weekend.

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Why is Citizen Kane so special? Read the article to find out. For one thing, it broke all the rules of filmmaking. For another, it's simply a great story.

True story: when I was in college I once met Ruth Warrick who made her film debut in Citizen Kane as Charles Foster Kane's first wife Emily. I was acquainted with her grandson at the time and he introduced me to her. However, I had not seen the film yet and had no idea that she had such a famous professional resume. All the things I would have loved to been able to ask her about this film if I had only had the chance....

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Food for thought: six deadly enemies of marriage. This is well worth a read.

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I'm always on the lookout for books to read but this recommendation from Dr. Albert Mohler about a book about books is particularly interesting.

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This is a yummy post: 11 desserts that changed the world.

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Mark Tapson on how to be a gentleman and why:

Because being a gentleman elevates you above the mass of men around you. Not in the shallow sense that knowing how to order a drink with confidence makes you more suave than the other guys in the bar; but in the substantial sense that conducting yourself according to an honorable code of behavior sets you apart from the crowd and sets the standard for other men. It isn’t about your looks, the kind of car you drive, your financial standing, your education, or any other superficial factor; it’s about, if I may borrow from Martin Luther King Jr., the content of your character. And character, to borrow from Heraclitus, is destiny.

He also offers eight simple rules for men who want to become gentlemen. Good stuff.

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Quote of the day:

Daily Links 10-9-13

Why men should read more fiction, some amazing historical photos, advice to young boys, it's not enough to love your job, and more in today's roundup of links.

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This is an interesting article that makes the case that men should spend more time reading fiction.

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The real Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh in 1927

More really interesting historical photos here.

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Some sage advice to young men....from 1933!

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Loving your job is not enough:

Loving what you do is not enough. The love we talk about when it comes to our work is fleeting. You can fall out of love through boredom or distraction, but pride runs much deeper. Pride doesn’t come and go with how fun things are. Pride is what gets you through the tough times when you just want to quit. Pride is the understanding that what you do and how you do it is a reflection of your character.

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Stuff you may not know you can still buy.

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15 really cool kitchen hacks for store-bought foods (Hat tip Food Riot)

Weekend Links 9-14-13

Saying goodbye to the NIV, some great advice on dating, great quotes on manliness, Taps, and amazing things found buried in the desert all in this weekend's links.

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Goodbye, NIV.

The NIV Bible is no more. Alas.

The version that many grew up reading has finally ridden off into the sunset, never to return. Zondervan has phased it out, buried it, and replaced it with something else. Many people denied that a significant change had taken place, and tried to act like the Bible being sold now as the NIV is indeed the NIV they grew up with. That myth was sustainable for a while, but eventually it just didn’t work. This year many Christian schools finally dropped the NIV, and replaced it with something else. Even AWANA was forced to make the change.

I still have an original NIV Study Bible that I use often for my personal Bible study. But if I were to advise someone on what translation to buy I would have to recommend either ESV or NASB. I didn't realize that the NIV had changed so much.

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A great roundup of quotes on manliness from The Art of Manliness.

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Some great advice on dating which sounds a lot like the discussions I have had with my own daughters:

Don’t date just for the sake of dating. Sure, you can take a stroll through the park just for the sake of strolling through the park, but dating ain’t a stroll through the park. It’s a complicated and serious thing; it can also be fun, but it isn’t something you should do for pure recreation. Dating is supposed to be a means to an end. Or, maybe a better way of putting it, dating is a means to a beginning.

To put it simply: If you know for a fact that you would never marry a certain person, then you shouldn’t be in a romantic relationship with them. Knowingly staying in a relationship without a future is like riding a dying horse into the desert. It’s a slow, painful death march, and there is no chance of it working out in your favor. So go ahead and date, but date with a purpose. Date with a goal. Date with your eyes toward marriage. I know that might seem old fashioned. In fact it is old fashioned, which is why you should listen to it.

Back in those old, dark days, they didn’t have anything called “dating”; instead they had “courtship.” And courting would have looked a lot like dating, with one difference: There was a point. They had a purpose. They had a goal. They were interested in being adults and making a commitment, and the courting process would tell them whether they should or could make that commitment to each other. Marriage was the ultimate destination, and if it became apparent that this destination could not be reached, they ended the courtship and moved on with their lives. The modern dating strategy is different. You don’t have one common goal or desired destination. Instead, you spin in circles together until someone gets dizzy and jumps off. The sudden stop sends the other person hurtling into space, while you wander aimlessly away, searching desperately for another random stranger to latch onto for an indefinite period of false hopes and disappointments.

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Five Amazing Things People Buried in the Desert. No it's not treasure but interesting anyway.

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The Last 24 Notes

Tom Day is not a man given to extravagance. He thinks he’s living high on a reporter’s nickel if he orders a beef sandwich to go at the local Buona sub shop. He shops at Goodwill every Sunday, hoping to pick up bargains, like his handsome $35 suits. But if there’s one superfluity that Day especially can’t abide, it is that of empty rhetoric.

There’s been a lot of talk about “the troops” the last many years: Supporting The Troops. Hugging The Troops. Splitting A Malt With The Troops. (At least when not Forgetting The Troops, hurriedly paging past the “Faces of the Fallen” feature in your local paper to get to the movie listings.) The talk usually comes from helmet-haired cable anchors or men with soft hands who type things for a living. They use those who serve like polemical mascots, to run up the score either for or against the war of the moment. But to Tom Day, “duty .  .  . honor .  .  . sacrifice” aren’t just Memorial Day buzzwords that trigger the Pavlovian anticipation of picnic foods and mattress-outlet sales. 

They are words that actually require something of him, the dwindling resource you can’t buy more of: time. For the 73-year-old former Marine serves those who serve. Or rather, he serves those who have served. Day is the man who, both on his own and through the 7,500-plus volunteers in the organization he founded, Bugles Across America, has saved the tradition of playing live “Taps” at military funerals.

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