{"id":113969,"date":"2025-12-08T20:09:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T03:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=113969"},"modified":"2025-12-08T20:09:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T03:09:53","slug":"another-place-to-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/12\/another-place-to-avoid.html","title":{"rendered":"Another place to avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"D\u00fcrer's<\/a>
Albrecht D\u00fcrer, \u201cPraying Hands\u201d (1508). \u00a0It\u2019s a little known fact that one of the producers of Hulu\u2019s Secret Lives of Mormon Wives modeled for this famous image. \u00a0The series is noted for its reverent prayerfulness. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well, at 3:30 PM ET on 27 December, the BYU football team will face Georgia Tech in the 2025 Pop-Tarts Bowl, in Orlando, Florida. \u00a0Given the name of the bowl game, it\u2019s reasonable to assume that the half-time show will be headlined by the cast of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives<\/em>. \u00a0And, after all, why not<\/em>? \u00a0They seem to be everywhere else<\/em> these days. \u00a0(See this, for example, from the New York Times<\/em> via the Salt Lake Tribune<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cMormon women are taking over our screens:\u00a0Across reality shows, social media and bestselling books, women raised in the church have increased its profile across pop culture.\u201d<\/a>).\u00a0And, from Meridian Magazine<\/em>, see this also: \u201cWhen a Reality Show Becomes a Distorted Mirror: What \u201cMormon Wives\u201d Reveals About Fame, Faith, and Misunderstanding\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Parliament,<\/a>
A view across the River Thames to Westminster Bridge and, behind it, the Houses of Parliament
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Are you looking for a unique and very memorable Christmas gift? \u00a0Let me suggest one to you: \u00a0\u201cChurch History And Great Britain With the Interpreter Foundation.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0And here\u2019s the really wonderful thing about it: Those in the tour group will be accompanied by Peter Fagg, a superb licensed English Latter-day Saint tour guide who knows British history \u2014 and, in particular, Latter-day Saint British history \u2014 like the back of his hand, and who knows how to make it come to life in a remarkable way. \u00a0(We\u2019ve traveled with him on numerous prior occasions and, if anything, he\u2019s gotten better with the passage of time.)<\/p>\n

\"Iliff<\/a>
Inside St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral, in London, looking from the choir toward the high altar.
\u00a0(Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I should, however, state upfront that our tour will not<\/em> be visiting the Shetland islands. \u00a0Absolutely not. \u00a0My wife and I like to relax late at night, to distract ourselves from the day\u2019s frenetic activity, with the occasional good British mystery video. \u00a0And you can learn a lot from such shows that you might rather have not known.<\/p>\n

Lately we\u2019ve been lulling ourselves to sleep by binging on episodes of the British murder mystery Shetland<\/em>, and I\u2019ve concluded that the place is simply too dangerous to visit. \u00a0The number of homicides there per capita \u2014 or perhaps better, per head of sheep \u2014 seems to be insanely high. \u00a0We\u2019re now adding the Shetlands to our list of places to avoid in Great Britain.<\/p>\n

There are, it\u2019s clear from our television viewing, some very, very dangerous places in Great Britain. \u00a0We\u2019ve already been acutely aware, for example, from reading and seeing stories about Agatha Christie\u2019s Miss Jane Marple that Miss Marple\u2019s home village of St. Mary Mead \u2014 located in Downshire, which is later known as Radfordshire, and which, according to the BBC, is now called Middleshire \u2014 is an extraordinarily risky place to live. \u00a0So we\u2019ve checked St. Mary Mead off the list of possible places to stay.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

And then there\u2019s the county of Midsomer, which straddles part of Berkshire and the northern portion of Hampshire. \u00a0We\u2019ve watched many episodes of the ITV series Midsomer Murders<\/em>, and we\u2019ve become quite familiar with the bizarre crimes that frequently occur in the Midsomer county town of Causton and in the picturesque villages that surround it. \u00a0Pretty, yes. \u00a0But pretty deadly, too. \u00a0No thanks.<\/p>\n

And what about Oxford? \u00a0I\u2019ve always been fascinated by the two university towns of Oxford and Cambridge, and one of my serious lifetime regrets is the fact that I never studied at either school. \u00a0Perhaps, though, it\u2019s been for the best:<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve long been fans of the Inspector Morse<\/em> detective series, and so, accordingly, we\u2019ve also watched many episodes of its spin-offs, Lewis<\/em> and Endeavour<\/em>. \u00a0Thus, we\u2019ve been appalled to learn how violent and dangerous Oxford and Oxfordshire are. \u00a0In particular, it\u2019s now clear that the faculty of the University of Oxford are an especially adulterous, fraudulent, and homicidal lot.<\/p>\n

Still, because it\u2019s just so very, very interesting, we will take our tour group to Oxford (and to Cambridge, which, if anything, I like even better than Oxford). \u00a0But we care about survival and self-preservation, too. \u00a0So, right now, I\u2019m considering safer, more serene places for future tours. \u00a0Like Detroit. \u00a0Or somewhere in the neighborhood of the University of Chicago, say, or near the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. \u00a0Places where we stand at least some chance of not being poisoned or ending up at the bottom of a medieval well.<\/p>\n

\"Corona<\/a>
A photograph, by my wife, of a sunset at Corona del Mar, very near to where I\u2019m sitting at the moment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the moment, though, we\u2019re in Southern California. \u00a0I\u2019m reminded of the words of Sir Walter Scott:<\/p>\n

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
\nWho never to himself hath said,
\nThis is my own, my native land!
\nWhose heart hath ne\u2019er within him burn\u2019d,
\nAs home his footsteps he hath turn\u2019d,
\nFrom wandering on a foreign strand!
\nIf such there breathe, go, mark him well;
\nFor him no Minstrel raptures swell;
\nHigh though his titles, proud his name,
\nBoundless his wealth as wish can claim;
\nDespite those titles, power, and pelf,
\nThe wretch, concentred all in self,
\nLiving, shall forfeit fair renown,
\nAnd, doubly dying, shall go down
\nTo the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
\nUnwept, unhonour\u2019d, and unsung.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whenever I fly into Southern California these days, I find myself thinking that this is where the members of my nuclear family lived, died, and are buried. \u00a0By far the majority of the people to whom I looked up as a child and as a young man are now gone. \u00a0They, too, are mostly buried here. \u00a0I think of all the life and experiences that I had here. \u00a0I\u2019ve never been overly nostalgic, but I think I\u2019m becoming so. \u00a0It\u2019s been, as my friend Lou Midgley likes to say of his, a charmed life. \u00a0So many memories.<\/p>\n

Growing up here, I never thought of California as being especially green. \u00a0Now, though, having lived in Utah for much of my life, with stays along the way in Jerusalem and Cairo and excursions in Anatolia and the Iranian Plateau and similar garden spots, it seems positively lush. \u00a0And even the air is different. \u00a0More humid. \u00a0More dense (because closer to sea level). \u00a0I feel it. \u00a0I feel at home here.<\/p>\n

I had my obligatory date milkshake today, at the\u00a0Shake Shack at Crystal Cove, just off the Pacific Coast Highway. \u00a0Back when the PCH was the major route from our place in the San Gabriel Valley down to see my father\u2019s brother and sister and their families in the San Diego area, date shakes were a required stop along the way. \u00a0I like them, but I have to admit that my major reason for stopping off there is, well, tradition<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Posted from Newport Beach, California<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Well, at 3:30 PM ET on 27 December, the BYU football team will face Georgia Tech in the 2025 Pop-Tarts Bowl, in Orlando, Florida. \u00a0Given the name of the bowl game, it\u2019s reasonable to assume that the half-time show will be headlined by the cast of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. \u00a0And, after all, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":41808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5445,18365,2905,788,30928,38414],"class_list":["post-113969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-peter-fagg","tag-secret-lives-of-mormon-wives"],"yoast_head":"\nAnother place to avoid<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  Well, at 3:30 PM ET on 27 December, the BYU football team will face Georgia Tech in the 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