When I was fairly young, I dreamed of someday being an architect.  I had visions of designing grand and glorious buildings.  The only factor that stopped me from seeking to fulfill that dream was an absolute and utter lack of even the slightest smidgin of talent — something that, I freely grant, hasn’t stopped certain others from entering the field (or even from having considerable success in it).     By the time I was sixteen or so,... Read more

    I saw this issue bubble up again the other day, so it seemed apropos to me to call attention, again, to a column that I published in the Deseret News back on 4 September 2014:   Some critics like to use a quotation attributed to Joseph Smith as a weapon against him: “I have more to boast of,” he’s reported to have said, “than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able... Read more

    Growing up in California and then adopting Utah as my new home state, I long thought that I would preferred to live in the East.  Among other things, the sophisticated and venerable universities of the Northeast fascinated me.   It’s only in recent years that I’ve discovered that I really am a Westerner by nature.  The large vistas of the West are more comfortable to me, as it turns out, than the heavily forested and relatively flat landscape... Read more

    This is a potentially very important issue:   “Asma Uddin: If we deprive Islam of its status as a religion, all religion is threatened”   “A Push to Deny Muslims Religious Freedom Gains Steam”   It can be correctly said of my own faith that it’s not just a religion.  But it is a religion, and I would resist any attempt to deny that fact in order to subject me and my fellow believers to illegitimate state power.... Read more

    Tonight, in the company of the two other couples who are with us on this trip, we had some of the best steak and some of the best shrimp cocktail that I can recall.  We enjoyed them at Casagranda’s Steakhouse, at 801 South Utah Avenue here in Butte.  I recommend this restaurant to anybody who might find himself or herself in the area.  And the prices were reasonable.   We returned to our hotel room in time to catch... Read more

    Last night, my wife and I went out for a light dinner with friends and then, with them, attended a performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Rosecrest Pavilion in Butterfield Park.  The play was produced under the auspices of the Herriman Arts Council, and it was a fine example of community theater at its best.  Our friends’ daughter was the choreographer of the production, and she plainly did her job very well.  The dancing was... Read more

    The latest installation of the biweekly Deseret News column by William J. Hamblin and Daniel C. Peterson has appeared:   “‘Greater love hath no man than this'”   ***   “President Nelson to speak at NAACP national convention on Sunday”   There’s speculation in some circles about what he might say.  For example:   “Will the Mormon president apologize to the NAACP for the church’s past racism?”   I don’t expect an apology, myself, and, if I were... Read more

    Tomorrow (Saturday, 20 July 2019) will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.  Many of us old geezers remember that day.  (Truthfully, my own memories are pretty vague.  It was California in the sixties, after all.)   Here’s a retrospective on some of the coverage of that event:   “Accolades, skepticism and science marked Science News’coverage of Apollo: Moon landings coverage focused on science, while voicing wary public frustrations”   And here are an additional pair... Read more

    Jeff Lindsay has just published a new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   “A Precious Resource with Some Gaps”   Review of The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts, eds. Robin Scott Jensen and Brian M. Hauglid (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2018), 381 pages. Abstract: The publication of high-resolution documents and carefully prepared transcripts related to the origins of the Book of Abraham in The Joseph... Read more