Yet another of my angry, vengeful columns in the Deseret News, newly appeared this morning:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865685546/The-problem-of-beauty.html     Read more

    “Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the furthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness: a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say ‘no.’ But saying ‘yes’ begins things. Saying ‘yes’ is how things grow.” Stephen Colbert   “I hate cynicism – it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere.” Conan O’Brien   “We can destroy ourselves... Read more

    I’ve just ordered a copy of this new book from Robert Boylan — via AmazonSmile, of course.  I’m looking forward to it:   https://www.amazon.com/dp/1548311804/     Read more

    I’ve long suspected precisely this:   http://www.plonialmonimormon.com/2017/07/gadiantonism-as-counterfeit-temple.html   I would have to go back, however, to see whether I’ve explicitly said as much, though, or even hinted at it, in what I’ve published thus far on the Gadianton robbers.   For links to my writings on the topic, see “Gadiantonism and Organized Crime?”     Read more

    If you’re interested in going to Israel and/or Egypt with me next May, go to the “Cruise Lady” website, and, under “Headliners,” choose my name.   Of course, if you want to do so, you can go with somebody else instead, or at another time.   On another front, I’m disappointed:  I was expecting to go to Iran in late August, to participate in a Christian/Shi‘ite dialogue.  Unfortunately, there are some politics in the region — you may... Read more

    Professional football has been catching a huge amount of flak in recent years, and this story doesn’t help:   http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/25/health/cte-nfl-players-brains-study/index.html   I’m not a particularly passionate football fan.  If a game is on television, I’ll watch it and even get into it.  As much as the next guy.  I vastly prefer it to game shows and reality TV, but then I don’t watch them, either.   However, I didn’t play high school football, and I don’t go out of... Read more

    Bruce Webster, who brings this to my attention, correctly points out that this isn’t a bad showing for Provo, Orem, and Utah County:   https://wallethub.com/edu/most-and-least-educated-cities/6656/#main-findings   And to think that, according to some exceptionally rabid critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, my adopted home state of “Utard” is largely inhabited by “Mor(m)ons.”     Read more

    Something new.   It may seem a small thing, but it’s not:   https://www.lds.org/si/objective/doctrinal-mastery/gospel-sources?lang=eng   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii     Read more

    “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)   Of course, I also expect that it will be indescribably beautiful.   On another note, I take considerable satisfaction from the fact that I was once able to meet Jorge Luis Borges, one of the great writers of the twentieth century.   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii     Read more

    This wonderful item was brought to my notice by Faisal Alzamil:   http://theanthrotorian.com/culture/2012/11/29/the-difference-between-complete-and-finished   I’m in utter awe of impromptu wit like this, if it was, as it seems to have been, off the cuff.   Two of my other favorite examples both come out of Great Britain, but, in both cases, from non-Englishmen:   1.   The Irish comedic playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan (d. 1816; author of, among other things, The Rivals and The School for Scandal)... Read more