Captain_Curmudgeon

Ditto. I used to get hit by every virus going including the common cold every year. Started walking every day and all that went away. YMMV.

The thing I really liked about this movie is that the characters were Mormons, acted like real Mormons (not Mormon stereotypes), and the movie let the chips fall where they may. No propaganda -- pro or anti -- just an enjoyable story.

I've always considered human dentition to be a complete refutation of the Argument from Design. Teeth don't fit the jaw and they are ridden with natural defects like caries, high wear, and fragility. Hey, that's my present!

And all that geology stuff I learned at BYU is crap, huh?

I remember the old days of the Internet when things used to get nasty on the newsgroups and people would start threatening each other and bragging about their prowess. Someone once summed it up by saying "Everyone is a black belt ... on the Internet." Everyone is "ALL about integrity, honesty, and good communication" ... on the Internet.

It may come as a surprise, but real naturism is both modest and chaste. Naturists are not proud of their bodies (any more than non-naturists are) nor do they necessarily like to show them. They accept them. Like our Original Parents, we try to be "naked and unashamed."Also, although Mormon doctrine makes it easier to become a naturist, Mormon culture has the opposite effect. In my experience, I've seen about the same proportion of LDS members in naturist organizations as in the general population from which they are drawn.

Some tangential thoughts. Physical bodies are essential in Mormon Doctrine, not just some sort of inferior "vessel for the soul." Because he can't have one, Satan wants to make us feel ashamed of ours. (This is one of the reasons that naturism is easier for Mormons to understand than for mainline Christians.) If you look at the bit from the King Follett discourse, it's easy to believe that all of existence has a sort of fractal quality. Our God was once a man and had His God and that spirals upwards. A man here on earth can become a God and create his own planet whose inhabitants may become Gods in turn and spiraling downwards. (That's why in my youth, Mormons of a scientific bent tended to pull for the Steady State Universe, which is currently way out of favor because of all the good work on the Big Bang Theory.)

Big deal. I saw Flash Gordon and Dr Zarkov doing this 70 years ago in "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars." And they didn't use sissy parachutes to land, either.

One: I wonder what day of the week it is. Two: There's a newspaper. Take a look at it. One: (Looks at it). No good. It's yesterday's.

Speaking for myself only, I don't think there's a wrong way. Oddly enough, Fast and Testimony Meeting came up when I met my brother for lunch yesterday. We both agreed that FTM was the most interesting, appalling, and boring meeting imaginable, with a good chance of examples of all three every time. Lots of Mormon folklore about it and I hope it never gets tame.

I'll bet you can guess which one is in use at the Mormon Nudist sites.

Interesting recent book on this topic, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. He says it all boils down to three rules: Eat food (actual food, not the manufactured stuff in the supermarket).Not too much.Mostly plants (but meat, sparingly, won't hurt you).That seems to me to be a pretty good precis of your passage.

All this discussion reminds me of a Damon Runyon quote: "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet."

Thank you for your posting, Erik. Like you, I was born to a long-time LDS family (Parley P. Pratt is one of my many pre-Utah Mormon ancestors) and it didn't take. I started as and still am a skeptic and it was extremely interesting to compare our experiences. I'm particularly interested in how LDS people wind up in other mainline religions. I think that that's fairly rare. Most "conversions" seem to be to agnosticism or atheism or, on the other hand, to other versions of Mormonism.

Lots of Old Testament evidence that JWYW used to work through lotteries. Cf Josephus and the strange lottery at Jotapata. Some opinion holds that the Urium and Thummin are some sort of lottery device (check out 1st Samuel). And what about the dreidel, traditional for Hanukkah? What that says about the Pick-Six and scratchers, I don't know.

Of course, I'd pay more attention to your NFL commentary if you'd been putting your judgment on the line every week in the LDS.net upickem group. Here's the local group.

I've been amazed all my life how few people will actually read the Word of Wisdom. And how many of them, having read it, will ignore what it says in favor of what they think it means. Best thing I've ever heard about it was said to me by a fellow grad student at BYU: "I don't want to hear about the Word of Wisdom from a 300-pound Bishop."

OK, took the test, scored 1,000,000 points. (Did you do that, mightynancy, or are you just saying?) I've been watching the show for some time and have made it to a million at least a couple of times -- the guy and his daughter (hint: Chuck Yeager). I've missed about three or four questions, all about teeth (a topic that makes me cringe). Questions do seem typical to me. I remember when I was in the 2nd grade and we had to know all the states, state capitals, and how to spell them. Of course, there were only 48 in those days. Had to know all the presidents, too, and five of them were Roosevelts. Presidents may have been sixth grade. (Hint: which president comes first: Monroe or Madison? We had a little saying.) My sis-in-law is a fifth grade teacher and her kids know all of the geological eons, eras, periods, and epochs (a place where I'm a little shaky). And I know darned well there are fifth graders smarter than I am. Think I might have been one once.

I have a 7.5 gallon container inside (so that it doesn't freeze) next to the back door. In summer, it just lives in the car trunk. Every few months, I refill it to keep it fresh.

Eating the ice cream is always a good idea. Remember: "Life is short. Eat dessert first."

Need to add a line or two about being "examples" of modesty and humility.

Looks to me like the xmas season (as opposed to Christmas) starts after Halloween and ends the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday.

Slightly off topic? Two things from my walk today: Neighbor putting his Christmas lights up. Stopped to thank him for not putting them up the day after Halloween, like everyone else in the neighborhood. A snowperson with a bra and slip.

Avalanche Reported in Providence Canyon Last Edited: Wednesday, 24 Dec 2008, 12:17 PM MST Created: Wednesday, 24 Dec 2008, 11:10 AM MST Breaking News An avalanche was reported in Providence Canyon Wednesday. Ground and air crews have been sent to area to investigate the scene and start search and rescue missions. Crews are searching for at least two people are dead. Logan Peak. (PS. Honor posted while I was fiddling around.)

I average 250 books a year. Do they have coffee at the meetings? I hope they're smart enough NOT to have pamphlets. That's like having cocktails at an AA meeting.