Weekend Links 4-6-18

A random collection of links for your weekend reading:

ICYMI: my review of Brad Meltzer's The Escape Artist is here.

This is one of my favorite stories of the week. A couple decided to open an independent book store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One of its more notable features is a typewriter in the store available for anyone to use. Those contributions have been collected and published in a book.

Uncovering the secret of Chick-Fil-A's success.

Ranking the best westerns ever made.

Once a rare sight, the C-flap is becoming more common among baseball hitters. Here's the story of how it came to be. 

Want to be a better writer? Study the habits of these famous writers.

This made me laugh out loud.

How to beat the Facebook algorithm by becoming your own curator. I don't really use Facebook for much of anything (except for friends who still want to stay in touch). It's definitely not the site to use to curate news.

Tweet of the week (watch the catcher carefully):

This is absolutely amazing. This is my buddy’s son up to bat but please watch the catcher. Let’s make this guy known! 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/M6goz7VYa1

— Tony Austin ⚾™ (@TonyAustin_10) April 1, 2018

Weekend Links 3-16-18

A roundup of interesting stuff I ran across this week:

Last weekend marked the premiere of the film version of A Wrinkle in Time. Fans of the novel have been alarmed that removal of the faith elements from the novel are going to dilute the story. Plus here's seven things to know about the novel and its author.

Fifty years ago this week, Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered. The amazing ways the film foretold the future.

Matt Chandler delivers a powerful message on biblical masculinity and its absence in our culture is at the heart of the brokenness we see today.

P. G. Wodehouse was one of the most prolific writers of all time. Here are nine of his lesser known books that are worth reading.

Productivity tip: How to Send Insights to Your Future Self.

In this brief video, Karen Swallow Prior explains why Christians should be readers.

The easy response to the news is to tune out. The much more difficult (and possibly better response) is to carefully tune in.

I love the fact that Food and Wine magazine chose a local burger chain as the nation's best. It is really good. Well worth the visit if you're ever in the neighborhood.

This is a fascinating article: How a book warehouse is changing Columbia University's Library.

I've never seen a play like this before. I am not sure how he pulled it off.

This is a fantastic idea.

Video of the week - Nutella: The Miracle of World War II. (Hat tip: Tim Challies)

Weekend Links 3-9-18

Your weekly roundup of interesting things from the web:

One of the things I love about Brad Meltzer's thrillers is the tremendous amount of research he puts into his novels. His new novel The Escape Artist was just published this week. One of the characters in the novel is a mortician at Dover Air Force base. While visiting the mortuary to do research for the book he discovered a message from 9/11 victim that was sent from beyond the grave. It's a fascinating story.

Gracy Olmstead has a terrific column on discovering community through book clubs. She also quotes P. G. Wodehouse which is an added bonus.

Productivity tip. sometimes you need a reset day.

Legendary North Carolina Tar Heels broadcaster Woody Durham passed away this week. I shared a few of my own memories of Woody here but Adam Lucas did a much better job summing up how Tar Heel fans felt about him. 

While lots of sports news outlets are facing cutbacks, The Athletic is growing by leaps and bounds. Seems like every day they are hiring more writers.

For baseball fans, the dead ball era refers to that period in history before the home run became commonplace. Most of our sights of the era have been based on photographs. However, this video shows footage from actual games of the era. 

The assassination of President James Garfield rocked the nation yet few people know the full story. Now there is a move underway to mark the site of the assassination.  If you want to learn more about the assassination, I highly recommend Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard.

One of the best ways to stay informed is to read less news.

This may seem counter intuitive but actually makes a lot of sense: I wanted to be a good mom. So I bought a gun. 

Weekend Links 3-2-18

After an unexpected week off a whole host of links for your weekend reading. I'm spending the weekend off of social media and am going book hunting. We'll see how that goes. Meanwhile, enjoy these articles.

This is fascinating: these astronauts have seen Earth from space. Here's how that experience changed them.

Odd but true: divers found an undetonated World War II bomb in Sydney harbor.

Someone decided to abandon a Boeing 737 in Bali and nobody knows why.

If you can't remember the last book you read or the last movie or television show you saw you're not alone.

Speaking of reading, here's how to read more books. I have found that I have to make time every day to read. Plus I have at least one book I am working on at any given time. Right now I am churning through about seven books a month and that feels like a pretty good pace. I also follow lots of different bookish people on Instagram and it's a treasure trove of inspiration.

Tim Challies weighs in on why men don't read books written by women. I think he's on the right track in terms of how writers target their writing for a particular audience but mostly I think it has to do with how publishers market the books.

Quote of the week: Carl Trueman on the Oscars:

I make a point of never watching the Oscars. If I want to waste four hours of my life being alternately patronized and reminded what an abject failure I am according to the criteria of contemporary society holds dear, I can always read The New Yorker.

I don't like to wade into politics here any more in large part because it has become far too toxic to discuss. However, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this column from Mona Charen. Last week she was booed off the stage at CPAC because she dared to call conservatives on their hypocrisy when it comes to sexual harassment and the chronic excusing of past behaviors of their candidates. I applaud her for her courage. I wish more conservatives had her backbone.

Guns have also been a hot topic in the aftermath of the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. But this piece by David French is very thoughtful and worth careful consideration.

Joe Carter wraps up his series on how Christians should engage with the news. In summary, consume less of it. The previous installments are here, here, and here.

A related issue that frankly has been woefully under-reported is the plague of fatherless homes. Matt Walsh has some great insights into things every boy needs to learn from his father.

Matt Szczur may have moved on from the Cubs to the Padres but he still has fond memories of the 2016 World Series. He's also quite the talented artist.

"Great people choose to do what is right no matter what." That certainly rings true for Iowa's Jordan Bohannon who missed a free throw on purpose.  A very classy move.

Weekend Links 1-26-18

A roundup of interesting stuff that I ran across this week:

I really appreciate Tim Challies' analysis of the Billy Graham Rule and its practical application. As usual, he has taken a very thoughtful approach to a thorny issue.

This is cool: Trash collectors in Turkey use abandoned books to build a library.

That time Edgar Allan Poe pranked New York City and inspired Jules Verne.

This is right on the money: America needs more gentlemen. Thank you Peggy Noonan for writing this column.

This is the first of what promises to be a fascinating series of articles: How should Christians think about "the news"?

Why this guide to "intelligent reading" should be on your to be read list. It's definitely on mine.

"Follow Your Heart" has to be without a doubt the worse advice you can give to someone. Don't believe me? Here are ten great reasons why.

Tweet of the week:

Congrats, Chipper! Enjoyed watching you play way back when. “Anybody who can't get pumped up to play in Durham needs to be kicked in the butt a couple times." #halloffamer #bullcity #durm https://t.co/WQwrSMtEoB pic.twitter.com/bMCls9H66G

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) January 25, 2018

Congratulations to the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2018! Another fun note via Jayson Stark: with Chipper Jones' election to the Hall of Fame, he becomes part of the only foursome of teammates in the Hall of Fame that spent 10 or more years with the same club (the other three are John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Greg Maddux).

This speaks to me: 12 bookstores worth traveling for. I love visiting book stores when I go to different places.

What I'm Reading: The Rubber Band and The Red Box by Rex Stout.

I first became intrigued by the Nero Wolfe mysteries watching the A&E series A Nero Wolfe Mystery some time ago. Then last fall I read Fer-de-Lance and The League of Frightened Men (the first two Wolfe novels in the canon) and was immediately impressed by how well the TV series captured the essence of the books. Rex Stout managed to create one of the most interesting detectives in the history of mystery fiction. Each book has been tremendous fun to read so far. I count this series among the many that I am thoroughly enjoying.

Daily Links 10-28-13

An always entertaining assortment of links served fresh daily. In today's post, the most famous book set in each state, giving up the news, busyness is the enemy of good, and more.

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Here's a roundup of the most famous book set in each state in the United States. What do you think of the selection from your home state? I'm not sure that I agree with the selection for Virginia. (Hat tip: Susan Wise Bauer)

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Long before we gave up cable (a story for another day) I had pretty much stopped watching the news. Part of the reason is much of the primetime programming isn't really news at all. Mostly my decision to stop watching the news came from this song by Chris Rice:

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Busyness is the enemy:

Charles Spurgeon wisely said, “Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin.” And I not so wisely have turned myself into a pretzel trying to learn Latin. Not actually read Latin, of course, just do the mental equivalent of it. It takes its toll on my energy, my spiritual growth, my relationships, and my ability to do anything well.

I don’t see life slowing down anytime in the next weeks or months. In fact, I know I’m on the threshold of what could be one of the busiest or deepest growth seasons of my life. I want to be faithful with the time, to redeem it, to rest in it, to rely on the Father through it. But this is my confession—busy is the other four-letter word for me. I hate busy. It is just as much a thief of my soul as being “fine.”

Hat tip: Blogging Theologically

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A roundup of the ten best songs about baseball players.

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A neat collection of family tradition ideas.

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Aaron Earls asks some tough and necessary questions about teenagers and social media:

A 12-year-old girl in Florida committed suicide after she was repeatedly and relentlessly bullied online by classmates. Unfortunately, these types of stories are becoming more and more frequent with too many parents being caught unaware of what their child was enduring.

As a parent of three, one of which just started middle school this year, these stories make me want to lock him in a room until he's no longer a threat to himself or others. Or even more to the point, I want to perfectly shield him from other students who seemingly fail to recognize as human those different from them. 

But I know that's not possible. Being hurt is part of living and growing. Love, on some level, requires at least the possibility of pain. Love takes risks. That goes for him as he is growing and it goes for me as a parent. Loving him means I allow him to grow and I risk letting him be hurt. 

Having said that, loving him also means I do not remain blind to avoidable dangers that lurk in front of him. He may not see them, but it's my job to spot them and protect him as needed. One of the dangers that parents seem to continually be naive to is social media, until it is too late as was the case in Florida.

So I'm going to ask parents two questions about social media. Hopefully, this steps on toes and anger some people because something needs to change or we will continue to see deadly consequences of cyber bullying.