“Emmanuel Gambiri said an educated wife in his cattle-herding Mundari tribe in South Sudan costs 50 cows, 60 goats and 30,000 Sudanese pounds ($12,000) in cash. [. . .] Gambiri recalls a time when wives cost as little as 12 cows and tribal chiefs wielded enough power to call the parents and set an affordable bride price.” (link)
Vacation travel had thinned out the ranks to the point that calling upon me to teach the quorum seemed a reasonable thing to do. A conference talk on service. But it’s July 24; that has to be worked in somehow. Ah, I’ve got it. (more…)
Frequency (2000). The most heart-warming shotgun killing ever produced by the cinematic arts. (more…)
As follow-up to recent inquiries regarding the whereabouts of known Mormon community leaders, Business Week now wants its readership to know where Mormon business leaders come from. The magazine’s answer: missions.
No doubt true, and an important stage in life for those Mormon titans of commerce of interest to a Business Week reader. I can’t help thinking, though, of that announcement four years ago marking one million missionaries called since 1830. In estimating the tally of noteworthy business leaders, how many zeros would have to be dropped from that 1,000,000? It feels a bit like wonderment that the US Army mangages to come up with so many generals.
If you encounter a Swiss on the road this month, and you’re not driving in Switzerland, please exercise appropriate caution.
Czechoslovakia:
“The man, a 33-year-old from Lucerne, was arrested after an 80 kilometre police chase. Police only succeeded in stopping him when his car ran out of petrol. [. . ] The paper said he had a mix of stimulants and other drugs in his blood, which likely caused him to be confused and dizzy when he drove his car onto the wrong lane. No one was seriously injured in the five accidents he caused along the highway, the paper said.” (link)
Line-by-line analysis of the following work:
17 MOUNT
RAINIER/IKEA
(NORTHBOUND)
HAVE A
NICE DAY
DRIVE SAFELY
(repeats)
The Social Security administration informs us that the name Elvis has dropped from the top 1,000 boys’ names for the first time since 1954. (link) The immediate post-war years were actually a bit of an anomaly in that respect. The SSA database shows that name ranking somewhere in the top 1,000 from 1909 through 1947 reaching a high at number 623 in 1922. When I was a small boy I would let people know that Elvis was my uncle whenever his name was mentioned. More precisely, he was my mother’s uncle, my grandfather’s youngest brother. At some point I caught on that the Uncle Elvis I saw at family reunions was not the same as that Presley fellow that everyone else thought that particular name referred to.
Today would be Betsey’s 10th birthday. This is what I wrote on her birthday six years ago.
I closed comments to this year’s post to keep the comments all in one place.
There are many theories about the Atonement. All are at best analogies. What Christ did matters much more than our explanations about it do. Especially on Good Friday, we should probably spend more time at the foot of the cross instead of critiquing concepts and philosophies. (more…)
Christ chose to let himself be in Satan’s power and in the power of the Romans. Its important that he chose, because it made him a willing victim. Its also important that he did not directly choose the garden agony or the cross. These were the choices of his tormentors. If he had chosen them himself, he would have been willing but not a victim. (more…)
Driving home, the interview linked below came to mind, connected somewhat with my last entry. (“Spirit of Elijah Strikes Again!”) Something about the mellowness of age looking back fondly on the extravagances of youth. Is it with satisfaction or regret that Alan White tells us, “I never wore a cape”?
“But the most striking findings revolved around parenthood and age. Whether it is a function of exhaustion, bickering over diapers or something inherently unpleasant about raising little children, the data doesn’t say, but parents under 30 are decidedly less happy than their child-free peers. Then, once parents hit 40, the relationship reverses and people with children are cheerier than those without.
“The more, the merrier, too — at least for older parents. For people under 30, happiness declines with each additional child. Young parents of two are unhappier than young parents with one, and young parents of one child are unhappier than young people with no children. But with parents between the ages of 40 and 50, the number of children has no impact. And after 50, each child brings more joy.” (“Older Parents Find More Joy in Their Bundles,” New York Times)
Belated best wishes to Ken Mattingly, who turned 75 last week. Admiral Mattingly, Command Module Pilot for Apollo 16, is the youngest lunar astronaut.
“On January 25, 2010, the National Archives announced in the Federal Register that filming, photographing, and videotaping by the public will be prohibited in all exhibition areas in the National Archives Building, Washington, DC, beginning February 25, 2010. [. . .] In spite of a more than 30-year-old regulation explicitly stating that flash photography was prohibited, prominent signs stating the policy throughout the exhibition areas, and security guards reminding the public, Archives staff estimated that the documents were subjected to approximately 50,000 flashes a year. While enforcement of this policy has always been a National Archives priority, new cameras with automatic flash have made the policy almost impossible to enforce.” (link)