Odds & Ends: June 7, 2024

Society of the Snow Based on the true story of the 1972 crash of an Uruguayan plane with a rugby squad in the Andes, this intense, disturbing film is not for the faint of hearts. . . This is a true-life survival tale at its most unromantic. The story of how survivors had to eat the dead bodies of passengers in order to survive is not the only thing most people are familiar with. It's about finding meaning and strength in hardship, the bonds formed by adversity and the human capacity to endure. The film was originally in Spanish. Watch the original version with English subtitles instead of the overdubbed version.

Huckberry's father's day shop. Father's Day will be next Sunday. If you're looking to buy a gift for your dad or for someone else, check out Huckberry's shop online. They've put together a list of ideas that are suitable for any type of dad. Some standouts include:

Flint and Tinder Cotton Hemp Polo shirt As I type this, I am wearing one. I've been wearing it for the last few months. Bellroy Hide and Seek Wallet. This wallet has been my go-to for the last few years. It is thin but you can fit a lot in it. It still works well. Skeletool CX. I am always looking for new multi-tools and pocket knives. I'm going to buy the Leatherman Skeletool as my next purchase. This is a stripped-down, lightweight version of Leatherman's iconic multi-tool.

Rolf Dobelli, Stop Reading the News. This short book explains why you shouldn't read the news or follow the news on social networks. Some of the reasons are: it destroys your attention span and you can't do anything about 90%+ of what you read, so you become anxious. It can also take up all of your time. Dobelli responds to objections that people may have against ditching the newspaper, including the notion that staying up-to-date with current events is a responsibility of a citizen. In this article as well as Sunday Fireside, we've been sparing consumers of news and made similar arguments to Dobelli. The book has inspired me to abandon X/Twitter again. I was a little off the bandwagon of not reading X a few month ago and I felt myself getting dumber.

Every day, do something that won't compute. In a commencement address given at a prep school, Jeffrey Bilbro encouraged the young grads to prepare for failure by having things in their life that they do that are "beautiful and totally useless." He quotes a line from a Wendell Berry poem that can help you make sure you're not living your life only in achievement/productivity mode: "friends, every day do something / that won't compute." It's made me think of things I do or could start doing that don't compute: reading a good book for the sake of reading a good book, playing basketball with my kids, catching up with an old friend. Do more things that aren't useful.

Quote of the week

Sometimes a light dinner, a peaceful night and a beautiful morning can make a man a hero, when he would have been a coward with indigestion, an uneasy night and a rainy day.

Lord Chesterfield

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