Whatever Wednesday

Books + Wiffle Ball Memories + Peeing on Newspaper Ads

Book Report

Lois & I are both voracious readers. Her preferred media is electronic. My favorite media remains "hard copies." Here's what I'm reading these days.

• Longmire mysteries, by Craig Johnson. "Longmire" is one of the best Netflix series I've watched. On TUE 2/6, I saw the series finale + was greatly impressed but I digress. My son Nathan clued me in that he has read Longmire mysteries & found them to be very entertaining. For my birthday he & Laura gave me the first book in the series, The Cold Dish. It was hard to put down, & I finished it pretty quickly. On SUN 2/4, I went to the Norfolk Public Library to check out the 2nd book in the series series but couldn't locate Death without Company, so I checked out & started reading the 3rd book in his series, Kindness Goes Unpunished. I'm way more of a non-fiction book reader than fiction, but it's going to be hard for me to avoid binge-reading these books like I binge-watched the Netflix series. [There are significant differences, but this is not a serious impediment.] If you like mysteries, consider these books.
• Frederick the Wise, by Sam Wellman. I bought this book at the CPH vendor's booth at the NE District LCMS Professional Workers Conference last OCT. It took awhile for it to work its way to the top of my reading list, but it was worth the wait. Non-fiction is my preferred reading interest, particularly biographies & history. I bought the book because Lutherans were celebrating the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation last OCT, & Frederick the Wise was the elector who kept Luther safe from his secular & Roman Catholic enemies. One of the things I liked about this book was how Luther was portrayed:  a man of great conviction, willing to put his life on the line for what he knew to be the truth, but also a "loose cannon" who didn't make things easy for Frederick. I recommend this book if you like biographies, history, & especially if you have an interest in Reformation history.

From My "Whatever" Clippings File

From Omaha World Herald (11/10/17):  "Clue, Wiffle Ball, paper airplane earn toy honor. The board game Clue. In the National Toy Hall of Fame. With the wiffle ball & paper airplane."  COMMENTS:  My little brother Mark & I played wiffle ball for hours in our backyard. Being older, I had to do my best to keep our games equitable, but my competitive nature too often reared its ugly head. Sorry, Mark! Thanks for the memories.

From Norfolk Daily News (12/30):  "Is Sitting the New Smoking? The news that sitting is harmful to your health is nothing new, but 2 Drexel University researchers believe it could become the newest workplace liability."  COMMENT:  Does that mean we'll soon read articles about "second hand sitting?"

OWH (1/13):  "Want a deal on a new crib? IKEA wants (weird) proof. Ikea has a new advertisement that's running in a Swedish magazine & asks women to pee on the page in order to learn about a discount. Once a woman urinates on a strip in the ad, a discount is revealed only if she is pregnant, according to a story in Ad Week."  COMMENT:  Would you seriously encourage you wife to pee on a newspaper ad? Inquiring minds want to know.

NDN (1/29):  "Tide Pod challenge gains momentum. 'If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?' This question has been asked by parents to their children for generations. But never has this been more evident than in the last several years thanks to viral internet challenges . . . The Tide Pod challenge is popular on social media showing videos & memes of teens & young adults putting laundry packets into their mouths. Calls to the nation's poison centers regarding ingestions in this age group are starting to increase . . . Ingestion of packets has caused coma, seizures, respiratory arrest & death. Manufacturers of the packets have sought to combat these ingestions by making changes to the packaging & some have added a bitter-tasting agent to the outer coating . . . "  COMMENTS:  Be suspicious if your teen volunteers to do grocery shopping for you & returns w/opened packages of detergent pods. And subsequently burps soap bubbles.