![\"MMM](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/09\/469px-2011_MMM_Men_and_Boys_Monument_-_30_April_2014.jpg\")
<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I continue my incessant whining about the hit Netflix miniseries American Primeval<\/em> by calling attention to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune<\/em> that you may be able to access. \u00a0It was published on Sunday, and it\u2019s titled \u201cCommentary: To learn the real lessons of history in \u2018American Primeval,\u2019 we need the real story:\u00a0Reducing peoples from the past to simple caricatures won\u2019t help us answer the hard questions.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 The article was written by Janiece L. Johnson, who <\/b><\/i>is also the author of the award-winning Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture<\/i><\/a> (University of North Carolina Press, 2023) and a co-editor, with Richard L. Turley Jr. and LaJean Purcell Carruth, of the two-volume The Mountain Meadows Massacre: Complete Legal Papers<\/i><\/a> (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017). \u00a0She has some relevant knowledge.<\/p>\n On Saturday, we had a mostly potluck dinner with a large group of friends \u2014 some of them former colleagues in Brigham Young University\u2019s Arabic program \u2014 whose common denominator is one-time membership in the Latter-day Saint branch in Cairo, Egypt. \u00a0These friendships have lasted for decades. \u00a0Unfortunately, two of our number have passed on, and we all miss them very much. \u00a0We have many happy memories.<\/p>\n On Sunday morning, my wife and I hosted a couple of Finnish friends for brunch at our house, and then took them to church with us. \u00a0I\u2019ve stayed with them in their home just outside of Helsinki. \u00a0They are great people, who have been pillars of the Church there and in surrounding countries (e.g, in Russia and Estonia), as well as in Saudi Arabia (where she served as a dean in one of that country\u2019s universities). \u00a0They\u2019re not long back from a senior mission to Kuwait.<\/p>\n And this morning we had breakfast with friends who are visiting from Indiana. \u00a0Looking back, it\u2019s gratifying to think of the great experiences that we\u2019ve had and the very good friends that we\u2019ve made across a wide range of areas over the years. \u00a0I have to say it now: It\u2019s been a good life, all in all.<\/p>\n Tonight, we gathered with a relatively large group of longtime neighbors and friends for dinner at Slackwater Pizzeria<\/a> in Sandy. \u00a0I had never heard of the place before, and I had no idea what \u201cslackwater\u201d might be. \u00a0It turns out that slack tide<\/em> or slack water<\/em> is the short period in a body of tidal water when the water is completely unstressed, when the tide is turning but hasn\u2019t yet quite turned and there is no movement either way in the tidal stream. \u00a0Why they chose that name I have absolutely no idea whatever.<\/p>\n I confess that I didn\u2019t avail myself of any of the craft beers at Slackwater. \u00a0Nor, for that matter, did any of the others at our long table. \u00a0But the pizza was really quite good. \u00a0Some of the best that I\u2019ve had in quite a while. \u00a0(I\u2019ve been losing my taste for pizza for a while now, because most of what I\u2019ve had in the past couple of years hasn\u2019t been very good. \u00a0But Slackwater\u2019s was<\/em> good.) \u00a0The place was crowded tonight, perhaps a little unusually so because today was a holiday. \u00a0However, the service was good and efficient, so the crowd wasn\u2019t a problem. \u00a0If you like pizza, I recommend the place to you.<\/p>\n After the play, we all headed over to the Hale Centre Theatre for a performance of Little Women<\/em><\/a>, a musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott\u2019s novel of the same name. \u00a0It was, as we always expect of the Hale theaters, very well done.<\/p>\n Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0Interpreter Radio Show \u2014 February 9, 2025, including Doctrine and Covenants in Context: D&C 19<\/a><\/p>\n For the 9 February 2025 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, the regular discussants \u2014 Terry Hutchinson, Kevin Christensen, and Mark Johnson \u2014 were joined by special guests Grant Hardy (first hour) and Dan Peterson (second hour). They discussed Grant\u2019s book, The Annotated Book of Mormon<\/em>, and Come, Follow Me<\/em> Doctrine & Covenants lesson 10. Due to technical difficulties, only the first 20 minutes of the first hour were recorded.<\/p>\n You can listen to or download the surviving portions of \u00a0the 9 February 2025 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show at the link above. They have been edited to remove commercial breaks.<\/p>\n The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard on Sunday evenings, every week of the year, from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The loss of two-thirds of the first hour points to a challenge that we will need to address. \u00a0I actually participated during the second half of the first hour as well as in the second hour \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0and \u2014 trust me on this \u2014 my contribution was unparalleled in its depth, brilliance, and eloquence. \u00a0Unfortunately, my peerless remarks are lost forever, so you\u2019l need to take my word for their high quality.<\/p>\n And this, too, has now gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0\u201cElder Mark E. Petersen on the Creator\/Creation and the \u201cRace of God,\u201d\u201d<\/a> written by Dennis B. Horne<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>