Just minutes ago, I received word from one of his daughters that Arnold H. Green, our friend since we lived in Egypt between 1978 and 1982 — he was the president of the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a professor at the American University in Cairo — passed away earlier today.   Arnie was a historian of the modern Middle East, having been trained at the University of California at Los... Read more

    One typical feature of the Nights is the use of the “frame story technique,” in which a character in one story will say something along the lines of “Beware, lest there befall you that which happened to A.”  Another character will respond curiously, “And what was that?” at which point the first speaker tells the story of A.  And perhaps, in that story, a character may ask “Do you not recall the story of B?”  Whereupon another character... Read more

    On the CNN website yesterday:   “The power is out — again — in Venezuela. It’s the fourth nationwide blackout in the South American country this year. Officials are blaming it on a hostile “electromagnetic attack,” but the exact cause of the outage remains unclear at this point. Power was restored to Caracas early this morning, the government said. The outages are exacerbating a broader political crisis that has gripped the country for years. Runaway inflation and food scarcity has crippled Venezuela,... Read more

    Films are uniquely powerful tools of communication and influence, but film-making is expensive.  The basic cost of even our Witnesses film project, according to the budget meticulously prepared by our producer (who was making every effort to keep it low), comes out to 1.2 million dollars.   I’m pleased to say that we’ve now raised $950,000 of that amount, and that we have a firm pledge that would complete that funding.  But that pledge will only materialize when we... Read more

    From the Church’s official news site:  “New Monument Connects Past Pioneers with Today’s Immigrants Looking for a Better Life: Remembering more than 650 children who died during the 19th century emigration to Utah”   I’m reminded of one of the greatest and most significant talks delivered at General Conference in my lifetime:   “Refuge from the Storm”   ***   For Pioneer Day — celebrated in Utah on 24 July — I think that I’ll share again a blog... Read more

    Continued from “The shoe on the ledge”:   Just as a social worker was supposed to do, Kimberly Clark Sharp had established a relationship of trust with Maria.  And, now, Maria wanted her to look for the shoe.  Dutifully, then, Sharp set off, more to make Maria feel better than out of any real expectation of finding it.  Even if the shoe was out on a ledge several stories above the ground, she thought to herself, how was... Read more

    The very first lines that I’ve written in a rough draft for a new project:   I was once riding on a brand new European-made commuter train in Cairo and, as we came into a station, two little Egyptian boys were waiting by the door of the train car, gazing intently at it.  Iftah ya Simsim! said one of them.  “Open Sesame!”  And, just then, the automatic door opened and they squealed with delight.  They had never seen... Read more

    Shockingly, it has been nearly a quarter of a century since we’ve visited Glacier National Park and Banff.   I do notice changes, though.  And they’re worrisome.  The sheer number of people and the crowding are much higher than I recall.  Where, on that previous visit, we could always find parking at places like the Avalanche Lake trailhead and Logan Pass, doing so this time was difficult to the point  of impossible unless we came in the late... Read more

    From one of my incomplete manuscripts:   One of the most famous of all near-death accounts was related by Kimberly Clark Sharp, who was working at the time the story unfolded as a social worker at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.[1]  She was assigned to Maria, a Hispanic migrant worker who had suffered a massive heart attack and was being cared for at Harborview when, suddenly, she “flatlined” or went into cardiac arrest.  Fortunately, the medical staff were... Read more

    My interest in geology is running high again.  One cannot drive through the West and feel no such interest.  (I, at least, find the thought inconceivable.)  I strongly endorse this article and all of the reasons given by the author:   http://www.slate.com/articles/life/classes/2015/09/geology_class_is_the_best_science_elective.html   I myself never took a course in geology, but I wish I had.  And, now, whenever I visit Hawaii or Yellowstone or wherever, I commonly buy (and use) a simple book on the local geological... Read more