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Odds & Ends: May 2, 2024

A close-up of a vintage metal box labeled "Odds & Ends" with a blurred background, dated May 2, 2024.

Huckberry’s Mother’s Day Shop. Mother’s Day is May 12. If you’re looking for a gift for the moms in your life, check out Huckberry’s special gift shop. A few standout items amongst their curated collection include this cabana robe for moms who plan on doing a lot of lounging by the pool this summer, classic Birkenstocks for moms who wore them with their socks in 1998, and this Western blanket from Filson for pistol-packin’ mamas. 

If you need another Mother’s Day gift idea, pick Mom up a copy of Stacy Lyn Harris’ Love Language of the South. It’s a cookbook full of both tasty Southern recipes and stories from Stacy’s life and a culture of hospitality; it’s inspiringly wholesome. For a taste, check out this recipe for black pepper burgers.

Our Entire Society Is Becoming Addicted to Sports Gambling. Whenever I watch professional sports on TV, I’m always dumbfounded when I see online gambling sites as sponsors of the NFL, NBA, and MLB. If I remember my sports history correctly, we used to keep a significant distance between sports leagues and gambling to avoid scandals like the 1919 “Black Sox.” In this article, Alex Shephard argues that a partnership between professional sports and gambling has given rise to an even bigger scandal than thrown games: a huge rise in gambling addiction, particularly among young men. We’re already seeing an increase in bankruptcy and relationship problems due to online gambling. I suspect we’ll be reading more about the problems of online sports betting in the coming years. 

Discover Your Genius: How to Think Like History’s Ten Most Revolutionary Minds by Michael Gelb. I first read this book back when I was in high school and a lot of the ideas have stuck with me. Gelb takes a look at 10 “revolutionary minds” from history like Plato, Shakespeare, and Thomas Jefferson and extracts lessons from them on how to think better. He also provides exercises you can do to think like these great individuals. This is where I first learned about Jefferson’s 10 rules for life. It’s a fun book that’s also edifying. 

How Does Kodak Make Film? I’ve enjoyed the videos Destin at Smarter Every Day has made for the past 10+ years. A series that I found particularly captivating was his tour of a Kodak film factory and the complicated process that’s involved in making a roll of old-school photography film. One of my takeaways watching this series is that Kodak is more of a chemical company than a photography company. I never would have imagined the amount of chemical engineering that goes into making a roll of film. 

Quote of the Week

When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take — choose the bolder.

—Field Marshal William J. Slim

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