I’m a really, really serious editor, and I’m really, really dedicated to proper punctuation.  Why?  Because it matters.   Fortunately, I’m not quite the only person who thinks this way.  Lynne Truss does, as well.  Here are three quotations from her:   “A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. “‘Why?’ asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The... Read more

    It would be inaccurate to say that my vote would count for nothing at Wheaton College, near Chicago.  On the contrary:  With regard to theology, my vote, coming from a Mormon, would almost certainly do substantial damage to anyone or anything receiving it.   But I do want to publicly say, for what it’s worth, that I stand with Larycia Hawkins:  Muslims, Christians, and Jews do indeed worship the same God.   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865644951/Larycia-Hawkins-6flabbergasted7-by-Wheaton7s-move-to-fire-her.html   As it happens, I also seem to... Read more

    Useful background, I think, to the standoff in Oregon:   http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/160104-oregon-protest-malheur-national-wildlife-refuge/     Read more

    I realize that this item is from way back last year, but I wanted to put it on record:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429163/new-year-2016-predictions-latino-president-conservative-correction   We’ll see how well David French does.     Read more

    This is very troubling:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429395/colognes-mass-sex-abuse-new-years-eve-part-trend   Almost as troubling, though, was the astonishingly boneheaded response of Cologne’s mayor, Henriette Reker:   http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/world/europe/cologne-mayor-henriette-reker-germany-sexual-assaults.html?_r=0     Read more

    Hmmmmm.  This raises really serious issues:   http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/05/so-now-muslims-can-be-fired-for-praying.html     Read more

      This is a very big deal:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865644972/A-massive-new-resource-for-students-of-the-Book-of-Mormon.html   And it will grow bigger still.     Read more

    There are some things (especially in the opening paragraphs) with which I would quibble, but she makes an important point:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tithi-bhattacharya/adventures-in-islam-is-th_b_8920010.html   Thanks to Jabra Ghneim for alerting me to this article.     Read more

    Some drinkers have begun a tradition of abstaining from alcohol during the month of January.  A few call it the “dryathlon”:   http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2016/jan/05/alcohol-abstain-dryathlon-dry-january-health-science-spoof     Read more

Today’s Book of Mormon reading is 1 Nephi 12.  Out of all that that chapter covers, I want to say something today about “the large and spacious building” to which allusion is made in 1 Nephi 12:18, but which was, of course, first mentioned as part of Lehi’s vision in 1 Nephi 8.   I’ve wondered for years, though I’ve done absolutely no research on the matter, whether that building might have looked something like those I feature in this entry:    ... Read more