We spent much of today in quest of humpback whales. And pretty successfully, too. It’s difficult (for non-specialists, anyway) to distinguish individual whales, but we saw at least half a dozen of them off in the distance, and at least four (including at least one mother and a calf) up very close to our boat. And we saw maybe two dozen Steller sea lions. Beautiful, clear, crisp weather and a calm sea. There are worse ways of spending... Read more
Surprise! Something has just been posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Interpreter Radio Show — July 9, 2023 In the 9 July 2023 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Martin Tanner, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen discussed Come, Follow Me New Testament lesson 32, Jeremy Runnells and John Dehlin‘s claim that “second sight” means “imagination,” and the article this week by John Gee. They were then joined by historian Ron Esplin to discuss his new Brigham... Read more
As I mentioned the other day, my wife and I recently read Prue Shaw’s Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity. Dr. Shaw studied at the University of Sydney, where she gained First Class degrees in English and in Italian, and later earned degrees at the the Universities of Oxford (B. Phil in General and Comparative Literature) and Florence (Dott. In Lett.). She taught Italian Language and Literature at the University of Cambridge, the University of London, and University... Read more
We spent the morning and into the afternoon cruising about from Ucluelet, looking (successfully) for bear. We saw four of them, eating along the shoreline at low tide, in addition to a pair of bald eagles (besides the one that we saw perched atop a tall tree in our own back yard this morning), seven sea otters, maybe a dozen Pacific harbor seals, and (I’m told, because I didn’t actually see it for myself) a porpoise. Moreover, during... Read more
Having just read two new books on the subject — Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath, by Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown, and Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture, by Janiece Johnson — I published an article in Meridian Magazine today, Friday, that appears under the title of “Searching Out the Truth about the Mountain Meadows Massacre.” You are welcome to read it. There is no charge... Read more
We were up early this morning, again — our little family group now at full strength — in order to catch the FRS Clipper from Seattle to Victoria, a favorite little trip of ours through the Salish Sea (specifically through Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca). Then we drove up to Nanaimo, where my wife had lined up a place for us on Airbnb. I’m sitting out on the veranda, writing and looking out at... Read more
It’s been a good week, thus far. On Monday morning, my wife and I read through the latest iteration of the script for the pending Interpreter Foundation Six Days in August theatrical film. I’m really liking it, and it’s improving, becoming tighter and more focused, with each set of revisions. That afternoon, we met with our three principal filmmakers — Mark Goodman, James Jordan, and Russell Richins — who were also the core of our Witnesses project and,... Read more
First of all, I wish a happy fourth of July to everybody out there and a Happy Independence Day to my fellow yanquis, and, to my English friends, I offer this chirpy little ditty from no less a personage than King George III himself. And now, that done, I want to share a few passages from Michael Guillen, Believing is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith (Carol Stream,... Read more
The following items were posted just today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Interpreter Radio Show — June 25, 2023 The discussants for the 25 June 2023 installment of the Interpreter Radio Show were Steve Densley, Mark Johnson, and John Thompson, along with special guest Matt Bowen. They discussed Come, Follow Me New Testament lesson 30, the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, and Dr. Bowen’s latest Interpreter Journal article, and those audio tracks have been separated out for... Read more
My wife and I just finished hosting our regular monthly book group, which is officially titled The Gadianton Polysophical Marching and Chowder Society. (We’re still doing virtual, online meetings.) Our book for this month was Prue Shaw’s Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity, which we really enjoyed. It’s an excellent commentary. On Friday night, our smaller reading group — just five of us — met for dinner and a discussion of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. There is really... Read more
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