Lowell Basket

Andrew Jackson called him “the father of the American Industrial Revolution,” but in England he was known as “Slater the Traitor.” Samuel Slater was born in Derbyshire, England. He became an apprentice at a cotton mill at age 14, when his father died. Within seven years he was well versed in all aspects of the Arkwright water-powered spinning frame. Slater knew this textile technology would be worth serious money in New England. There were laws against exporting technology and skilled workmen, so he memorized every detail of the Arkwright frame. He sewed his working papers into the seams of his clothing and pretended to be a country bumpkin visiting relatives in New York. Today he’d probably serve time for industrial espionage, but he died a very wealthy man. Ironically, the English court declared Arkwright’s patent invalid for lack of specificity and said that Arkwright had stolen the inventions of others when filing his patent application.

Hope of the Heart

Southern Virginia University - a liberal arts college – is a trustee of the First Freedom Center, whose mission is to protect freedom of religion and conscience. The school isn’t directly affiliated with the LDS Church, but students who choose to attend there promise to uphold the same honor code as Brigham Young University students. They agree to dress modestly and to avoid alcohol, tobacco and other forms of drug abuse; and they shun extramarital sex. Recently Nic Jensen, an openly gay student at SVU, filed a complaint against the school because he felt Provost Madison Sowell “disapproved of his lifestyle.” Last December the Office for Civil Rights ruled that the Provost’s behavior didn’t constitute sexual harassment under Title IX. It all comes down to the difference between thoughts and actions. As Sowell had explained to Jensen, sexual orientation isn’t a violation of the honor code; acting on it would be.  Disapproval is not the same thing as harassment.

Pawtucket Basket

The name Pawtucket comes from a Narragansett word that refers to waterfalls, especially those where freshwater rivers empty into bodies of salt water. I think the name of this block refers to the fourth largest city in Rhode Island, which was heavily involved in cotton spinning during the American Industrial Revolution.  Samuel Slater – I’ll tell you more about him later – built America’s first fully mechanized water-powered cotton spinning mill here in 1793. Before the Slater Mill, cotton in the U.S. was spun using horse or mule power. And before that, spinning was done by hand on spinning wheels. In the 1920’s, when production began to fall off in the northeast, a non-profit organization was founded to preserve what was left of the historic mill. Today the Slater Mill site is an educational center and a living history museum.

Lucille's Roadhouse

In the middle of Oklahoma is a tiny town named Hydro with fewer than a thousand residents. One of them built a two-story filling station (business on the ground floor, living quarters upstairs) in 1929, when Route 66 came through town. Five motel rooms had been added by the time Carl and Lucille Hamons bought the place. Wartime rationing cut into their profits, so Carl drove a truck to make ends meet. Lucille was left to manage the station on her own. She owned it outright after their divorce. Many of her customers were victims of the Great Depression heading to the west coast in search of jobs. She soon gained a reputation for giving food, lodging, gasoline or bus tickets to the hard luck cases that came her way. Her generosity earned her the nickname, “The Mother of the Mother Road.”

Indiana Star

I recently lost my head at the grocery store and bought three containers of buttermilk. I don’t drink buttermilk. No one in my family does. It was on sale for a ridiculously low price (three for the price of one!) and I just popped all three of them into my shopping cart. I completely forgot that my store frequently offers the same sale price even if you DON’T buy all three. Luckily for me, buttermilk is easy to freeze. You can pour it into an ice cube tray. Once you have solid buttermilk ice cubes, you can zip them into a freezer bag and store them in the freezer until you need them. Then you can enjoy Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Buttermilk Biscuits, Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes, Buttermilk Banana Bread, Buttermilk Peach Cobbler, Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, Buttermilk Chocolate Cake and Buttermilk Ranch Dressing even when buttermilk isn't on sale.

Pleasant Dreams

"Patterns are templates, guides, repeating steps, or paths one follows to stay aligned with God’s purpose. If followed, they will keep us humble, awake, and able to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit from those voices that distract us and lead us away. The blessing of humble prayer, offered with real intent, allows the Holy Spirit to touch our hearts and helps us to remember what we knew before we were born into this mortal experience. As we clearly understand our Heavenly Father’s plan for us, we begin to acknowledge our responsibility to help others learn and understand His plan. Closely tied to helping others remember is the way we personally live the gospel and apply it in our lives. When we actually live the gospel in the pattern taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, our ability to help others increases." -Elder Paul E. Koelliker