Initially Published at Modern Mormon Men on June 3, 2014 ***** In 1984 Queen released I Want To Break Free along with a music video that was initially banned by MTV (… look how far MTV has evolved since then!). Though the MTV ban undoubtedly limited the popularity of this song in the US, it was a huge international hit. Thirty years later, it stands the test of time of being one of the band’s greatest hits. It therefore seems like a…
I was recently going through my phone pictures and deleting stuff because my memory was full. I guess it’s a consequence of my document everything philosophy. In the process, I came across this beauty and just couldn’t delete it. file this under ‘too short for this weight’ It’s a screenshot of my electronic health record for a new patient I was seeing about a month ago. Check out the weight and height data: there isn’t a misplaced decimal or typographical…
Originally published on May 19, 2014 at Modern Mormon Men Photo credit: Reid’s iPhone When I saw this gypsum wall panel from the Ancient Assyria exhibit at the British Museum last year I was absolutely blown away. How could you not love this guy? He’s got the full package including a flawless fauxhawk, perfectly man-scaped facial hair, exaggerated upper body musculature and a steely-eyed stare that would intimidate anyone and everything. Even his accessories are spot-on: custom robes, choker, wrist…
While visiting Vilnius, Lithuania we had a chance to attend church. By some stroke of luck we happened to be visiting on the day of District Conference. All the saints in the entire country gathered to hear from the Baltic Mission President/Matron as well as an Area Seventy from Russia. It was the best ‘in-the-flesh’ church meeting I’ve been to in many years–and most of it was translated into English from Lithuanian or Russian. It certainly didn’t take long for…
Both faith and testimony are living things that require nurture and care or else they will decline and eventually fade away. We could no more sustain our bodies by intermittently eating or drinking than we can sustain our faith and testimony with sporadic spiritual nourishment. Yet frequently we do so through laziness, distraction, pre-occupation or being over-committed. I recently got sucked into a 5-book, 3800 page series on Genghis Kahn. It’s not exactly the kind of stuff that fortifies faith, but…
Initially Published at Modern Mormon Men on May 6, 2014 AP AP AP It has happened again.* This time it’s the largest coin hoard ever discovered in the USA. A couple walking their dogs stumbled upon another coin hoard on their property in Northern California. Known as the Saddle Ridge Hoard, it contains 1427 coins in total form 1847 to 1894, with many being in mint/uncirculated condition. It may be worth up to US $10 million. Not a bad find…
Originally published April 1, 2014 at Modern Mormon Men Sometimes you run into the darndest people in this town. I don’t think it would be hard for anyone to believe that Darth Vader has moved to Vegas now that’s he has retired from his full-time position with the Dark Side. I captured the proof the other day on the way home from the dentist. I could tell from the wear on the decals on the back of his Suburban that he’s…
Illustration from Dante’s Divine Comedyby Gustave Gore First Published March 20, 2014 at Modern Mormon Men In the October 1964 General Conference, Sterling W. Sill made this bold assertion: “Certainly the greatest problem of our generation is its titanism, as shown by our enmity toward the Almighty.” I have to admit that I had never heard of titanism prior to reading his talk (which immediately made it into my General Conference Classics file). In classical Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of…
Portrait of Rudyard Kiplingby John Collier, 1891 I have posted on Rudyard Kipling before. He’s right up there with Ben Franklin on the quotability scale. On Self“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.” “Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.” “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no…
1941 Nazi propaganda poster in Lithuanian language. Top: “A Jew is your eternal enemy.”Bottom: “Stalin and Jews — one big gang of scoundrels!” I’m excited about our trip to Lithuania this Spring and having been trying to come up with a bucket list for our time in Vilnius. In doing so I read this book: The Hill, by Antanas Jonynas. It is the story of the murder of Dr. Schmidt and his family by his patients and neighbors during the Lithuanian Holocaust….