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<\/a>I think that the creators of \u201cStar Wars\u201d must have been thinking of Times Square when they described Mos Eisley as \u201ca wretched hive of scum and villainy.\u201d Certainly there were certain aspects of the place today that suggested such a thing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this evening, the Interpreter Foundation posted the fifth in its series of short-feature \u201creels\u201d deriving from the overall Witnesses film project.\u00a0 That project is, very literally, a gift that goes on giving:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUndaunted Witnesses Episode 5: Blessings of Kirtland<\/em>\u201c<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Incidentally, in the end there will be considerably more than eighteen of these short videos.\u00a0 And we invite you to watch them and to share them, and to subscribe to the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s YouTube channel.\u00a0 Thanks to generous donors, there\u2019s no charge.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m a bit late in calling your attention to this fact, but two new articles went up yesterday (Friday) in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLiahona: \u201cPrepared of the Lord, a Compass,\u201d\u201d<\/span><\/a> by Calvin D. Tolman<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>This study assesses some of the interpretations of the name\u00a0<\/em>Liahona, which are unsatisfactory from a linguistic perspective. Since a dialect of Hebrew is the most likely underlying language of the Book\u00a0of\u00a0Mormon, the approach taken in this study parses the word\u00a0<\/em>Liahona\u00a0into three meaningful segments in Hebrew:\u00a0<\/em>l-iah-ona; a Biblical Hebrew transliteration would be\u00a0<\/em>l-Y\u0101h-\u0241\u014dn\u00e2\u0301. This name is a grammatical construction that attaches the prepositional prefix<\/em>\u00a0l-\u00a0to\u00a0<\/em>Y\u0101h, the name of \u201cthe Lord,\u201d followed by the noun\u00a0<\/em>*\u0241\u014dn\u00e2\u0301. The preposition\u00a0<\/em>l-\u00a0in this context denotes the following name as the agent or the one who is responsible for the following noun, i.e.,\u00a0<\/em>l-Y\u0101h\u00a0designates the Lord as the agent, author, or producer of the\u00a0<\/em>*\u0241\u014dn\u00e2\u0301. Languages are complex, and etymological conjectures in ancient languages are hypothetical; therefore, the explanations and justifications presented here, of necessity, are speculative in nature. Etymological explanations have to involve the complexity of linguistics and sound changes. The hoped-for result of this study is that a simple and reasonable explanation of the meaning of\u00a0<\/em>Liahona\u00a0will emerge from the complexity, and a more reasonable translation of\u00a0<\/em>Liahona\u00a0will be the result.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cInterpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>: A Prepared Vessel,\u201d<\/a> by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201cLiahona: \u2018Prepared of the Lord, a Compass\u2019<\/a>\u201d by Calvin D. Tolman in Volume 51 of\u00a0Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n An introduction to the Interpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>\u00a0series is available at\u00a0https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The Takeaway:<\/strong> Tolman presents a fresh translation of the word Liahona<\/em>, which he translates as \u201ca vessel prepared of the Lord.\u201d That translation arguably aligns with the interpretation provided in the Book of Mormon, and though parts of it aren\u2019t based in known Hebrew usage, he posits a path through which it might have been present in the Hebrew of Lehi\u2019s day.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I was late because we were very busy yesterday.\u00a0 We spent several hours on a guided-tour cruise around Manhattan and Governors Island that was narrated by a trained architect, a member of the American Institute of Architects and a native-born resident of Manhattan, and that was focused on the architecture of the area and on the challenges currently posed by climate change.\u00a0 I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I learned a great deal.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In the evening, we walked from our hotel over to a performance of The Music Man<\/em> at the Winter Garden Theater<\/a>.\u00a0 It was a really fine and energetic performance, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.\u00a0 I\u2019m not exactly a noted aficionado of dancing, but even I have to acknowledge that the choreography was exceptionally good.\u00a0 And the audience was wildly enthusiastic, interrupting the action for sustained applause at Jackman\u2019s very first appearance on stage and, yet again, at Foster\u2019s.\u00a0 There was a nice moment at the end when Jackman stepped forward and addressed the audience, indicating that nobody had known that he was going to do so.\u00a0 He announced that Sutton Foster had, earlier that day, won the Distinguished Performance Award for her work in The Music Man<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s an honor (going back to 1922) that\u2019s bestowed by a cross-section of the theater community itself \u2014 specifically, by industry professionals, producers, artists, audiences, and critics nationwide who are members of the Drama League \u2014 and it can only be won, at most, once during an actor\u2019s career.\u00a0 Jackman himself is a prior winner of the award, and he described it as a very big deal indeed.\u00a0 Responding, the cast showed what seemed to be genuine affection for her and for him.\u00a0 I liked that.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This morning, we had brunch near our hotel at the Russian Tea Room<\/a>.\u00a0 Walking in was like stepping back into what I imagine a nice restaurant must have looked like in Tsarist St. Petersburg.\u00a0 Which, given the history of the place, is probably what was intended.\u00a0 The service was extremely attentive, the food was fairly good, and the prices were really high.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n