Places long unseen often loom larger in memory than they really are. That haystack on the old farm . . . that green lane . . . that high fence in the back yard and the tree we climbed to look over it – surely they were an important part of the universe. And the old house had yawning caves in the closets, and untold mysteries in that deep cellar and up in that beckoning yet forbidding attic. Why, that house couldn’t have been as small as now it seems.

I remember these things, and they were real, and and they are real now where I keep them in remembrance.

But we can’t go back.

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The LDS Church has announced the closing of another school, this one the 49-year-old Benemerito of the Americas in Mexico City. (link) This is said to be done as the only feasible option for providing training facilities for a surge of new missionaries, but it had probably been desired for some time to close the school. A drastic, permanent loss like that isn’t allowed merely to smooth over some facilities crowding issue elsewhere.

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There’s a nice little AP article marking the nine years since Opportunity landed on Mars. In the years since, the rover has traversed 22 miles. Coincidentally, the astronauts of Apollo 17 also drove their rover 22 miles during their three days on the lunar surface forty years ago. Fender repairs using map pages, duct tape, and (very importantly) gloved hands were part of those three days. Remote probes’ computers are reprogrammed frequently to compensate for degrading systems, but it’s not quite the same thing. (more…)

Consider first Stan Ridgway’s “The Drowning Man”.

Is there anybody out there
That can save a drowning man?
He’s been out there past forever,
Left his footprints in the sand.

If you made it to 1:32 in that song video, and you’re a Latter-day Saint, the next nine seconds borrowed from Richard L. Evans greatest hit, “Man’s Search for Happiness” (3:21), may have amused you.

This is the way to peace and happiness and the fulness of everlasting life. It is your Heavenly Father’s way.

No coroner has ever really examined the corpse of an Imperial officer choked by the so-called “force.” It might take some of the shine off the mystique otherwise. Consider for example, recent million dollar lottery winner Urooj Khan who died the day after receiving his winnings. (more…)