Really, Really Worth It
Lots of odds and ends this week.
I’m going to forego a main piece this week because I’m working on a doozy about Christian nationalism. You’ll get an extra-thick shake of “Totally Worth It” this week in exchange for that extra-meaty TBL next time.
If you like The Better Letter, please subscribe, share it, and forward it widely.
Thanks for reading.
Totally Worth It
Larkin Poe dropped a new album today. Here’s a taste.
Despite decades of urban legends and rumors about razor blades in apples or weed in candy, sociology and criminal justice researcher Joel Best has yet to document a single instance of children being seriously injured or killed by goodies they collected while trick or treating on Halloween.
Bruce Springsteen with The Killers on “Born to Run”? Yes, please.
The words of C.S. Lewis, who wrote about our universal condition in The Problem of Pain.
“We can rest contentedly in our sins and our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Feel free to contact me via rpseawright [at] gmail [dot] com or on Twitter (@rpseawright) and let me know what you like, what you don’t like, what you’d like to see changed, and what you’d add. Praise, condemnation, and feedback are always welcome.
Columbia Journalism Review created a site that purportedly calculates how many news stories your disappearance would generate. My number is 11 because I’m old and male. Were I a woman in my early 20s, my number would be more like 120. I’ll bet that number would be even higher were she conventionally pretty and blond, but the program doesn’t allow for those inputs.
Among college students surveyed last year, 71 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans said that they would not go out on a date with someone who voted for the opposing presidential candidate. Those numbers are higher, I’d bet, after this week’s election.
Above, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss perform When the Levee Breaks at the 2022 Glastonbury Festival. Elsewhere on YouTube you can find Robert Plant performing the song with Jimmy Page. The song was originally written and recorded by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy in 1929.
I’m glad the 23-year-old American tourist who fell into Mount Vesuvius trying to take a selfie is okay; perhaps he learned a valuable lesson.
Here’s the video.
Hasbro announced that you’ll be able to put a 3D-printed version of your own head on any of the toy company’s signature action figures. Only $59.99 (plus tax) to transform into the Red Ranger, G.I. Joe, or Princess Leia? It’s a total steal.
Although the average age of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was 44, more than a dozen of them were 35 or younger on July 4, 1776. Alexander Hamilton was 21, Aaron Burr was 20, James Madison was 25, and James Monroe was 18. Thomas Jefferson, the principal author, was 33. That this seems unfathomable today should tell us something about the consensus view on ambition, risk-taking, and our expectations for the next generation.
Please look for opportunities today to honor military veterans and to thank them for their service.
Don’t forget to subscribe and share TBL. Please.
Of course, the easiest way to share TBL is simply to forward it to a few dozen of your closest friends.
This is the best thing I read this week (this one was a very close second). The cutest. The classiest. The coolest. The sweetest. The stupidest. The silliest. The scariest (#2 is here). The most incredible. The most innovative. The most ridiculous. The most magnificent (#14 is my favorite). The most horrific. The most delightful. The least surprising. Just north of Flor-i-duh. I love me some Charles Barkley. Jack Welch counterpoint. For Sale. Dodgy refs. Amish efficiency. Racoon ownership. I probably shouldn’t have, but I laughed hard at this.
Please send me your nominations for this space to rpseawright [at] gmail [dot] com or via Twitter (@rpseawright).
What’s the fastest thing we can do with our bodies? Snap. “Using an intermediate amount of friction, not too high and not too low, a snap of the finger produces the highest rotational acceleration observed in humans, even faster than the arm of a professional baseball pitcher.”
10 non-fiction books that changed me, without comment and in no particular order (h/t Daniel Crosby): Ubiquity; The Wizard and the Prophet; Expert Political Judgment; The Master and his Emissary; The Invention of Science; When Prophecy Fails; The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; Fooled by Randomness/The Black Swan; Christianity’s Dangerous Idea; and Reverence. What book(s) changed you?
The TBL Spotify playlist, made up of the songs featured here, now includes more than 240 songs and about 17 hours of great music. I urge you to listen in, sing along, and turn up the volume.
Benediction
This week’s benediction comes from Psalm 121. It begins as follows.
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills —
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.”
Amen.
Thanks for reading.
Issue 129 (November 11, 2022)
What a rattlebag! Wunderbar. Thank you for sharing all these treasures. I couldn't help but pinch your marvellous European history animation for my own publication today - with all credit and acknowledgement of course. can't wait to read whatever you are cooking up for next week.