My wife and I took our core film production and film distribution and film bookkeeping group out to dinner last night, both for Christmas and to celebrate the near-conclusion of the dramatic-film portion of our overall Six Days in August project. (One more contract is awaiting completion. The others have been signed. And then it’s onward and upward.) Curiously, by the way, the film continues to be shown in a theater in Kaysville, Utah. So, if you’re anywhere near... Read more
Unfortunately, today’s blog entry needs to be largely devoted to the proverbial notion that a lie can travel half-way around the world before the truth can even get its boots on. (Appropriately enough, the saying is commonly but, it seems, falsely attributed to Mark Twain.). My boots are now laced up, so it’s time to go: The imminent re-opening of Paris’s landmark Notre Dame Cathedral is very much in the news, and perhaps especially so (in the United States)... Read more
Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Interpreter Radio Show — November 24, 2024, including The Book of Mormon in Context for Moroni 10 During the 24 November 2024 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Steve Densley and Scripture Central’s John Thompson hosted special guests Brant Gardner and Jeff Lindsay for a discussion of the recent book review articles that they published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship — “Trust Us, We’re Lawyers: Lucas... Read more
The following note went out to several Interpreter Foundation mailing lists yesterday: This coming Tuesday is Giving Tuesday, when the hearts of many (in the United States, at least) turn to charity or, anyway, to tax deductions. We know that there are thousands of worthy causes out there, and we hope that none of them is neglected. Still, among all of their competing claims and amidst the wonders and the pressures of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Festivus, Christmas, Boxing... Read more
We’re just back from a showing of Home Alone with our granddaughter. It was hilarious. But I’m thinking much more of the audience that were there with us in the tiny theater. There were several little kids who were about our granddaughter’s age, and they had already met this morning during an activity in which at least two of them had created stuffed baby elk — which, of course, they brought along to watch the movie with them. They... Read more
A new article appeared this afternoon in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “What Happened to Nephi at the Camp of the Broken Bow? A Book of Mormon Mystery,” written by Godfrey J. Ellis Abstract: Nephi started as the youngest son of Lehi and Sariah and ended up as the king or king-like leader of the Nephite nation. While he, in some sense, obviously grew into the role over time, there was likely some key time... Read more
I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow Americanos out there. And — why not? — I hope that all of you non-Americans have a good day, too! I published this article, entitled “The miracle of Thanksgiving pies,” in the 23 November 2017 issue of the Deseret News: “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch,” the late American astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan once quipped, “you must first invent the universe.” As Americans... Read more
I published the Thanksgiving column immediately below in the 24 November 2011 issue of the Deseret News. Perhaps you might find something in it of value: Autumn harvest festivals were and are common across Europe, and, as every American schoolchild once learned, our modern Thanksgiving celebrations descend from a meal shared between Massachusetts Pilgrims and Native Americans in 1621. It was not until Oct. 3, 1863, however, that a uniform national holiday was established by presidential proclamation. Writing well... Read more
I published the following column in the 14 November issue of the Deseret News: As we in the United States approach the national Thanksgiving holiday for 2019, it’s appropriate to consider things for which we should express our gratitude. Obviously, of course, there’s the good food that many of us will be eating. There are the family members with whom many of us will be gathering to share it. However, there is much, much more. Indeed, our reasons for gratitude are virtually... Read more
I’ve long felt that American Thanksgiving tends to be a somewhat forlorn and relatively neglected holiday. Falling between the fun of the costumes and candies and houses of horror associated with the entirely desacralized holiday of Halloween and the weeks of carols and festivities (and unrelenting commercialism) of the partially desacralized Christmas, it tends to be reduced to something of a poor relation — a day, merely, of family get-togethers and good traditional foods. Both of which, I hasten... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In