On Thursday Ken Mattingly, the youngest man among those who ever ventured beyond low Earth orbit, turned 80. A couple others were younger than Admiral Mattingly at the time of their respective launches, but Mattingly’s mission, the next-to-last Apollo mission to the moon, was later than theirs, and he was born last. As Apollo 16’s Command Module Pilot 44 years ago, he is one of seven men to have ever been isolated by a couple thousand miles from any other person, three days orbiting the moon alone.

To repeat, the couple dozen men who have ever seen Earth from a thousand miles away are all 80 years old or older or dead, and they all did so on their way to the moon. Another decade or so left till such feats become legend.

From the Washington Post:

Leona Barnes doesn’t remember when, back around the close of World War I, she met Gladys Butler, Ruth Hammett and Bernice Underwood. Growing up in Southwest Washington, they were part of the landscape, in the same way that her house and her street and her church were.

As little girls, the four played jacks and jumped rope; later they shared gossip and danced the two-step and the Charleston. Two of them lived in the same house at one point, and three of them had babies the same year — 1933. But they could not have predicted that someday they would be poised to celebrate their 100th birthdays together.

“We all are grateful, and we thank the Lord for all of us to see 99,” Barnes said as she sat this week in Zion Baptist Church in Northwest Washington with the other three, who are members there. Slapping her thigh for emphasis, she said, “If we don’t make 100, it’s up to Him — but we made the 99.”

Political science professor Benjamin Knoll has put together an analysis of suicides among those 15-19 years old as correlated with the Mormon percentage of states’ populations. (link) There are elements of his analysis that are odd and unhelpful for understanding anything, but the one big fact at the heart of his data is interesting to me. The suicide rate for this age group in Utah is double what it was five years ago. (more…)

From Chapter Four of Joseph Conrad’s A Personal Record:

This must have been in the year ‘70. But I really believe that I am wrong. That book was not my first introduction to English literature. My first acquaintance was (or were) the “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” and that in the very MS. of my father’s translation. It was during our exile in Russia, and it must have been less than a year after my mother’s death, because I remember myself in the black blouse with a white border of my heavy mourning. We were living together, quite alone, in a small house on the outskirts of the town of T——. (more…)

I don’t expect much of politicians, and yet they never stop finding ways to disappoint:

“Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie all said or suggested they’d support women being required to enroll in Selective Service and be eligible for the draft, since female service members can now serve in combat roles. Cruz was not asked.

“‘It was striking that three different people on that stage came out in support of drafting women into combat in the military,’ Cruz said. ‘I have to admit, as I was sitting there listening to that conversation, my reaction was: Are you guys nuts?'” (link)

Tyler Cowen, an economics professor who writes at Marginal Revolution, lists “a few examples of where I have changed my mind due to economic evidence.”

“7. Mormonism, and other relatively strict religions, can have big anti-poverty effects. I wouldn’t say I ever believed the contrary, but for a long time I simply didn’t give the question much attention. I now think that Mormonism has a better anti-poverty agenda than does the Progressive Left.”

I’ve seen Cowen touch on this before. He is from New Jersey and teaches at George Mason University in Virginia and styles himself as an information omnivore who enjoys taking in lots of cultures at the ground level. I don’t know what specifically he has observed about the poor who embrace Mormonism. A week ago I took a day from work to fill my quorum’s assignment at the bishops’ storehouse near Andrews Air Force Base, a couple dozen miles from the George Mason campus.

One practice of the Latter-day Saints is to bear testimony of the gospel. In particular, one worship service each month is devoted to members bearing testimonies to their wards. Another practice is to joke about baring testimony. That is when instead of carrying an edifying message to hearers, saints lose track of their purpose at the pulpit in excessively revealing ways, sharing stories of family trips, or health concerns, or experience with sin that others may not feel at ease hearing about so intimately.

Last week I spent several hours with the first chapter of John (“In the beginning was the Word, . . .”), and a minor repeated detail of John the Baptist’s ministry was noticeable:
“John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.”
“And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.”
“And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.”

So, the homophone isn’t so wrong after all.

Steve Sailer (“Booming Utah Needs Lower Wages and More Expensive Mortgages, in the Name of Feminism”) points out a Bloomberg piece on “Why Utah Can’t Afford To Keep Its 1970s Gender Gaps.” You can read it now and then follow up tomorrow with the blog posts by Mormons who wish there were more Mormon mothers away from home and in the work force.

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Reading about a proposed 16-week paid family leave proposal for Washington, D.C., I was surprised at the notion that the tax to cover it is calculated to be only 1% of wages. A third of a year multiplied by two children means it would take over 65 years of working to cover the leave with a 1% tax. Then I started hearing the voice of that emperor that Vader is always telling us about. “In Washington, D.C. those with jobs mostly don’t bear or get children, and those who do father children mostly don’t have jobs, so the math works out.”

Encountered in an LDS building in Waukee, Iowa: (more…)

One of the hard teachings of the LDS church is that God will accommodate the weaknesses of his people. One standard example of this is Samuel ordaining Saul as king for Israel, and another is that the higher priesthood was withdrawn with Moses, leaving ministry only through the Aaronic priesthood. One can imagine being taught the gospel by the ancient apostles, embracing it and teaching it to one’s children, but ultimately unable to pass the blessings of the priesthood on to further posterity, not because of any lack of desire or seeking for them, but because the priesthood has been withdrawn from the earth until times of restoration.

This pattern allows one to fully accept the authority of the LDS church’s president to enact changes in the church’s ministry, and to believe him a prophet acting as God has directed him, and to still wonder if a given change is a good change, a further unrolling of gospel fullness, or a necessary change due to the latter-day saints’ weakness in a fallen world, much to be lamented as we correctly submit to it.

Providing the best conceivable argument for stadium subsidies, here are interviews with parents of Kansas City newborns, ten months after the Royals played in their first World Series since 1985:

“We’re thinking game six-ish,” says Eric, 33, a sales manager for a local beer distributor. That was when the Royals crushed the Giants 10-0 and forced game seven.

The Edgars, both 32, scored tickets to the 2014 American League Wild Card Game — “the best sports experience of my life,” she says.

(link)

As one having 18- and 19-year-old sons, I found this Washington Post piece pitched at my interests and needs as I work out being a father to adult children:

“That’s the one thing my mom is going to do: give me her opinion,” Washington Nationals center fielder Denard Span said.

Span isn’t alone. Several Nationals get similar help from unexpected places. Reliever Aaron Barrett receives unofficial instruction in postgame text messages from his brothers. Right fielder Bryce Harper’s father will occasionally call with swing advice. Catcher Jose Lobaton’s wife, Nina, has never played baseball or softball, but after watching his swing for years, she delivers her thoughts in person. Reliever Casey Janssen calls his parents after every appearance, good or bad.

“I joke, but I call my dad ‘The Humbler,’ ” Janssen said. “He can be very pessimistic at times. He’ll just lay it out there. ‘Hey, you’ve got to pitch a little better. You’ve got to throw more strikes. You’ve got to change speeds.’ ”

I happened to notice a piece in the local paper about two Virginia cousins playing on the state champion high school baseball team who have decided on Brigham Young University as their college (link). It’s interesting in what it says about family ties and the place of BYU as part of those ties for some families.

Just before Matt Favero pulled the trigger on his college commitment Wednesday afternoon, the Madison rising senior pitcher had to make one call.

On the other end was Pete Nielsen, his cousin and fellow Warhawks rising senior. The two had played baseball together their whole life, and with Nielsen having narrowed his own recruitment to Brigham Young and Virginia, Favero thought his close relative would be interested to hear his college choice.

“I called him and said, ‘Hey Pete, I’m about to commit to BYU,’” Favero said. “I think maybe he was waiting for me to do it; I don’t know.”

In some ways, Favero was right. Even after watching Virginia hoist its first College World Series, Nielsen still felt a stronger tug on his heartstrings from BYU, the same school for which his father, Mike, once suited up and where both his and Favero’s older brothers currently play.

“When Matt told me he was committing to BYU, I was like, ‘Sweet,’” Nielsen said.

Even the Washington Post sports section is running a piece on the sweetness of Mormon life?

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So, Elder M. Russell Ballard, one of the LDS church’s apostles, was in Santa Fe yesterday for the installation of the Catholic church’s new archbishop (link), which stirs up various thoughts. (more…)