I really, seriously, genuinely didn’t have the time, but I wanted to go and we had tickets.  It’s quite simply one of my very favorite stories, and I’ve never tired of it.  (I also very much like the novel itself, as well as the 1982 film version featuring Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour, and Ian McKellen.)  So my wife and I took in a magnificently staged and flawlessly acted performance of the musical version of The Scarlet Pimpernel at the... Read more

    My friend Ted Vaggalis has called my attention to this important story from the world of nature:   “Police Lock Up Angry Raccoons Drunk On Crabapple Hooch Until They Sober Up”   I like to keep my readers up with the latest news from the cutting edge of zoological research.   ***   This article poses — not, of course, even remotely for the first time — a very significant question, about which opinions differ dramatically:   “Are... Read more

    As I’ve mentioned here before, I’ll be delivering the seventh Annual Religious Liberty Lecture at the University of Notre Dame Australia School of Law in Sydney later this month, on Tuesday, 27 November 2018:   https://www.notredame.edu.au/events-items/annual-religious-liberty-lecture   It now seems that, in addition to that public lecture, I’ll also be giving two Latter-day Saint firesides while I’m Down Under — one in Sydney (Sunday, 25 November) and one in Melbourne (on, I think, the night of Wednesday, 28 November).... Read more

    I’m hoping that this will encourage you to join in the great task of sharing the Gospel — in a multitude of ways, including your own very personal fashion (whatever it might be) — with the world, online.  No one person can do it, obviously, but a “royal army” of Latter-day Saints, collectively, can:   “Sharing Light with Just One Click”   At the very least, consider how you might support those who are already engaged in doing... Read more

    It’s been a good day for the arts in Utah Valley, and both of the events that I’m going to mention have links to Utah Valley University, which is located just a few blocks from my house — considerably closer than is Brigham Young University, where I work.   I think that it’s now okay to publicly mention the fact that the very large and beautiful home of our late friend (and former Relief Society president) Melanie Bastian... Read more

    New, on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   “The Church in the DR Congo: A Personal Perspective: Part 4, What Attracts People to the Church?”   ***   This is a very nice little item from the Church’s Newsroom:   “Sister Aburto Reaches Out to Navajo Latter-day Saints in the American Southwest: Relief Society leader teaches about Book of Mormon”   ***   A few of you might enjoy taking a look at the new website of BYU’s Center... Read more

    One of the courses that I’m teaching this term is a small class on the Qur’an in English.  Reading this evening in Surah 49 (“The Private Rooms”) in preparation for tomorrow morning’s class session, I came across this passage as it’s rendered by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem in his Oxford translation:   Believers, if a troublemaker brings you news, check it first, in case you wrong others unwittingly and later regret what you have done.  (Qur’an 49:6)... Read more

    “Vitamin D And Fish Oil Supplements Mostly Disappoint In Long-Awaited Research Results”   Actually, I wasn’t entirely disappointed.  That word mostly in the headline leaves out possible striking benefits with regard to heart attacks.  No small thing, that, if it pans out.   ***   In the meantime, an issue that might arise in the effort to obtain fish oil, but that is otherwise pretty completely unrelated:   “Do fish feel pain? Scientists are divided on the answer: Fish... Read more

    Here’s an item that’s just hit the news:   “LDS Church developer plans to build a 28-story office tower in downtown Salt Lake City”   There will, of course, be a chorus of howls and denunciations lamenting the “corporate church” (“LDS Inc.”) that’s led by allegedly greedy “businessmen” and that, ignoring the example of the itinerant Jesus and his penniless apostles and arrogantly turning its back on the poor, concentrates on major real estate deals in order to... Read more

    A perhaps unexpected gathering on the Provo campus of Brigham Young University:   “NCAA Common Ground IV at BYU: Asking sincere questions, finding radical hope”   ***   Although I’m obviously not a Catholic, I found this quite interesting and worthy of recommending to other non-Catholics.  It raises an issue that, in many circles today, is far too dangerous even to mention:   “What are the odds of this Catholic clergy abuse study receiving some elite ink?”  ... Read more