Working.

I believe that many who find that "nothing happens" when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.

C.S. Lewis

Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter, and lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.

Jack London

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable. 

Francis Bacon

Privateness.

Pears, The Student Travels Underground, 1930

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and

retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For

expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. 

Francis Bacon, from "Of Studies"

Delivering.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the sinking and loss of all hands aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald.  Kirkus reviews John U. Bacon's latest, The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

He opens with an overview of the Great Lakes, whose waves and currents turn out to be as nasty as those in salt water. Between 1875 and 1975, they claimed at least 6,000 ships and 30,000 sailors—averaging one shipwreck a week. As Bacon writes in arresting prose, “These freighters battled waves twenty feet or more, faced eighty-mile-per-hour winds, and crashed into lighthouses, ports, piers, bridges, shoals, jagged shores, and each other. They faced fires and explosions onboard, hundreds of tons of ice weighing their ships down, water flooding into their pilothouses and cargo holds, and fog, the one element that could make even the most seasoned mariner stop in his tracks, praying for luck.” 

Narrowing his focus, Bacon describes the mines of Minnesota and Wisconsin that required massive carriers to transport their ore south to refineries in Chicago and Buffalo and points in between. The carriers were designed primarily for profit (carrying the maximum load) and to pass through narrow locks leading from Lake Superior to Lake Huron. Designers paid less attention to their ability to handle the Great Lakes on bad days. Since no crewman survived, details of the disaster are spotty, but Bacon makes the most of them, delivering biographies of crewmen, their duties, descriptions of the storm, increasingly fraught messages from the Fitzgerald before they ceased, interviews with victims’ families, and a discussion of the lessons learned. The author makes the Fitzgerald the centerpiece of a broad account of Great Lakes shipping, the careers and daily lives of the crews—and the industries, cities, and bars that feed them—and tales of other sinkings.

The book will be released Tuesday, October 7. 

Bacon discusses the book with Dave LewAllen ..

On November 4, Bacon will speak at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation.

Unsought.

Pourbus, The Younger, Francis Bacon, Lord Keeper, and afterwards, Lord Chancellor of England, 1617

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable. 

Francis Bacon

Purest.

Supplied.

Somer, The Right Honourable, The Viscount St Alban, PC, Lord High Chancellor of England, 1617

If any man think philosophy and universality to be idle studies, he doth not consider that all professions are from thence served and supplied.  And this I take to be a great cause that hath hindered the progression of learning, because these fundamental knowledges have been studied but in passage. 

Francis Bacon, from The Advancement of Learning

Unexpected.

An uncommon thought ...

Water all your plants, then watch who grows.

Leaders too often think their people are robots: They can do what they can do, they can’t do what they can’t do, and none of that will ever change. But the truth is that people can grow dramatically, and that includes leaders. Talent is not fixed, nor is maturity, grit, or leadership ability. So don’t try to predict who’s going to succeed, and who isn’t. Treat them all fairly, including the quiet ones. Water all your plants. Some will shoot right up, and others will lie dormant for years before sprouting—but they can all help your team.

And that brings us to Nate Reichwage, our third-string goalie, far behind our top two. Our second year, we had a good team, but our top two goalies were struggling. Even worse, we were about to play Grosse Pointe South, who in our last three meetings had beaten us 5-0, 7-2, and 7-0. As Nate recalls, he was “clearly the least-skilled goaltender on the team.” But he worked so hard that I was willing to give him a chance.

I still expected to get blown out that night—but Nate made save after save after save, looking like he’d been doing it his whole life. I have no idea what happened that night, but he then became our starting goalie. He earned the team’s Most Improved Player award, and the nickname Darth Nater.

At the end of our second year we played Trenton again—the same team that had crushed us 13-2 the year before. But this time it was a battle. Nate played great, and it came right down to the wire. We lost 3-2, but their fans gave our players a standing ovation.

We finished our second season with 16 wins, the second-best in school history. But we never would have gotten there without Nate Reichwage. Your people will do amazing things, too, if you just water all your plants, and watch who grows.

“Talent is not fixed, nor is maturity, grit, or leadership ability. So don’t try to predict who’s going to succeed, and who isn’t. ”

What a great word, unexpected. 

Ponder.

EVERYDAY LIFE

The great storms

are behind you now.

Back then, you didn’t ask

why you were born, where

you came from, or where you were going–

you were part of the storm,

the fire.

But you can find a way to live

in everyday life as well,

in our ordinary grey days:

plant your potatoes, rake leaves,

clear away the brush.

There is so much to ponder in this world

that one life is not enough.

After you’re done with your tasks,

you can fry up some bacon

and read Chinese poetry.

Old Laërtes hacked back the brambles

and hoed the earth around his fig trees,

letting the heroes battle it out at Troy.

Olav H. Hauge

Lesson.

John U. Bacon, a lecturer in U-M's history department and Michigan Today's sportswriter, won the 2009 Golden Apple Award, given by U-M students for great teaching. In this excerpt from his "ideal last lecture" he describes a lesson learned from—and does a spot-on impersonation of—coach Schembechler.

 

Excellent.

An excellent book ...

BACON FAT MAYONNAISE

Ingredients

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 7 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 1/4 cups rendered bacon fat
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• Freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Put the egg yolks, mustard, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the into a blender or mixing bowl. Beat on high for 2 minutes, until well blended.
2. Add the bacon fat (no need to add gradually if everything is properly chilled), continuing to beat until the mixture is thick. Depending on how thick and rich you like your mayonnaise you may or may not need the entire amount of fat.
3. Slowly blend in the remaining lemon juice, sea salt and pepper, whipping it pretty much continuously throughout. Adjust the seasoning to taste.

The mayonnaise keeps for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.

Is.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

Francis Bacon

Good.

Bacon.