2019-12-28T15:27:04-07:00

    Both of them are genuine, passionate cinéastes, and one of their passions is bad movies.  So they had been trying for days to persuade me to go with them to see Cats.   I wasn’t interested.  I like funny-bad movies as well as the next guy.  Probably more so.  But movies that are simply bad?  Not so much.   I said No.  They persisted.   Finally, as a compromise, they suggested a really late showing last night of the... Read more

2019-12-27T16:14:41-07:00

    Two new items appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship today.  The first was written by Matthew L. Bowen:   “He Knows My Affliction: The Hill Onidah as Narrative Counterpart to the Rameumptom” Abstract: The toponym Onidah, attested as the name of a hill in Alma 32:4, most plausibly derives from Hebrew ʿŏnî /ʿōnî/ʿônî (ʿonyî, “my affliction”) + yādaʿ/yēdaʿ (“he knew,” “he knows”) — i.e., “he has acknowledged my affliction” or “he knows my affliction.” This etymology finds support in the context of the Zoramite... Read more

2019-12-27T16:16:42-07:00

    My wife and I have spent some of our time over the past few days trying to work out a little year-end business deal in such a way that any profit that it generates won’t all go to the federales.  Which, naturally, has put me in mind of a classic Beatles song — to which you can listen by means of the link given above:   Let me tell you how it will be There’s one for you,... Read more

2019-12-27T16:18:32-07:00

    As we approach the New Year, this column, which Bill Hamblin and I published in the Deseret News several years ago, might be of interest to a few:   January, the first month of the calendar year, most likely takes its name from the ancient Roman divinity Janus, who was believed to be the gatekeeper of heaven.  More generally, he was the god of doors, gateways (including city gates), and boundaries, and thus of beginnings and transitions, as... Read more

2019-12-27T16:20:41-07:00

    An extract from a conversation that occurred about two hours ago at a McDonald’s drive-through in Richmond:   Me:  And we’d also like a couple of chocolate milks. McDonald’s:  A couple? Me:  Yes.  A couple. McDonald’s:  Two?  Three?  Four?  How many? Me:  Two. McDonald’s:  Okay.  Then two. Me:  Yes.  Two.   I found the exchange fascinating, and I want to follow up with an informal and quite unscientific survey:   What does the expression a couple mean to... Read more

2019-12-27T16:22:47-07:00

    I’ve said that I’m done with Christmas for the next eleven months or so.  And I mean it.  But here’s a poem — “The Journey of the Magi,” by T. S. Eliot — that has always puzzled and intrigued me.  I first encountered T. S. Eliot in high school and was smitten with him, probably to a considerable extent because I couldn’t understand what he was talking about but suspected that it was Very Deep.  Among Eliot’s poetical... Read more

2019-12-27T16:25:19-07:00

    Now that Christmas is securely behind us, I can share a cynical poem by an American academic, poet, and translator about the extreme commercialism that, in some cases, genuinely does mar the holiday:   The Corporate Christmas Carol by Joseph S. Salemi God rest ye merry businessmen, Start markups on your trash! Remember that this holiday Is when you rake in cash! It saves you from those creditors You owe from that last crash…             Oh, tidings of bottom-lines grown... Read more

2019-12-27T16:32:43-07:00

    I’ve been pushing The Christ Child: A Nativity Story, encouraging everybody to watch it by the end of Christmas Day, today.   It’s not the only film worth watching on Christmas, of course.   One of my sons has called my attention to a new article on the Fox News website about Mr. Krueger’s Christmas, a movie that was produced in 1980 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:   “Paul Batura: Jimmy Stewart’s other Christmas... Read more

2019-12-25T11:13:29-07:00

    Someone called President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 Christmas message to my attention.  That was a president for whom I could have respect, and I love what he had to say that year:   “On Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Christ with prayer, feasting, and great merriment. But, most of all, we experience it in our hearts. For, more than just a day, Christmas is a state of mind. It is found throughout the year whenever faith overcomes doubt, hope conquers despair,... Read more

2019-12-25T21:00:47-07:00

    Merry Christmas to everybody out there!   For some reason, I’ve had a particular piece of music going through my mind for the past twenty-four hours or more.  It’s a German carol, first attested in 1622, entitled “Vom Himmel hoch, o Engel, kommt” (“From Heaven on high, O angels, come!”), but also known from its nonsense refrain as “Susani” or “Susani, Susani.”   In its original version, its first verse goes as follows:   Vom Himmel hoch, o Engel,... Read more

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