PolarVortex

Please call me Polar. The "LDS News" link you provided appears to be similar to the Peggy Fletcher Stack piece in the SLT, and some of the quotes from Ms. Riess appear to be identical. As pam mentioned already, the garment is supposed to be a sacred thing, and referring to it as the "Itchy and Scratchy Show" is not how I would show respect. So of course I would gently fault the LDS News article on this point. However, the author of the LDS News article (her name is given as Morgan Hampton) omitted another Riess quote that did appear in the SLT: "It delights me that there is no concept of something being irredeemably profane in my religion. ... Even underwear can be sanctified." I would expect this from the mouth of Bill Maher, or the "Book of Mormon" Broadway musical, or even the writings of some serious blogger, but not from a newspaper story. Of all the quotations available on this topic, and there must be tons, the "sanctification of underwear" was deemed the most newsworthy? In a short article? Please. The SLT is trying to titillate its readers to keep them reading and not jumping ship. But that's just my opinion. If you disagree, I think that's terrific. How else can we have fun here? And may I ask why this topic interests you at all if you are a Protestant? (I'm not being snide, I'm genuinely interested in your answer.) cheers, Polar

Well, I tried to paraphrase it politely. The article used the phrase "navigate though multiple layers of clothing." I'm fond of neatly packed precise wording, but somehow I would never think to describe the act of probing into layers of clothing as "navigation." Suum cuique.

Okay let's try this again. What is the English translation of the German word "ja"?

I see. Perhaps that explains the two young men I saw at the beach last weekend with white tank tops and black name tags. Returning to topic, I noticed this wonderful article today about the garment survey: http://www.ibtimes.com/mormon-women-speak-out-new-lds-survey-temple-garments-1800906 It contains all kinds information that I don't need, such as the nursing mother who described the search for her breast under all those layers of clothing as an "Easter egg hunt." And of course, in this story about garment surveys, they managed to get in the obligatory mentions of polygamy and blacks in the priesthood.

As promised... Vegetarian Slop (this variant with black beans and quinoa).

I really wonder if cooking is a sex-linked trait in humans. The concept of "asparagus dust" is quite fascinating, but all that work! Here's one of the most complex recipes from my portfolio: BEANS. Empty can of black or kidney beans into dish and microwave for 3 minutes. Can be eaten even if not heated uniformly throughout.

I'm using vivid hyperbole to make my point, just as Jesus said that "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple." It's not meant to be take literally. I would be quite astonished if any newspaper ever mentioned LDS garments and Victoria's Secret in the same article. :) The SLT has a long history of sensationalizing mundane LDS events and nonevents to goose its readers and fan the flames among anti-LDS simpletons, who often post really vile things in the comments section of these stories.

Defending an employee from serious accusations, or at least making sure that the employee's rights are not violated, would strike me as a perfectly valid use of a union. But we have gone totally overboard in this country. There are municipalities in some states that cannot hire new police officers without the consent of the police union, which can hardly make fair decisions if lots of current police officers are champing at the bit to work overtime.

If you make a list of things that I know how to build, please omit "doomsday bunker." How would a Frenchman say oui in English? (I hope this isn't a threadkiller...)

So how do missionaries in hot climates deal with an extra layer of clothing? Do missionaries in Florida or East Texas ride bikes and just resign themselves to being drenched in sweat all day? I can't imagine that would be very appealing to investigators. When I visited LDS Humanitarian Services last year I met an LDS couple that had spent 2 years in West Africa (Ghana, I think). She said they didn't have the problem of old clothing accumulating in their closets, because all clothing would mildew and rot away within nine months. I asked her what it was like wearing the garment in that climate, and she said "You get used to it." Behind her, and outside her field of vision, the husband gave her a "Lady, you are $#%^@ crazy!" look.

Spelling checkers and autocorrection can be endless sources of trouble. A co-worker of mine once wrote a long proposal for a client. She was a terrible speller and got into the habit of blindly accepting all the corrections that her software proposed, and she misspelled "faces" in the sentence, "your web site will attract more attention if contains many pictures of human faces." She clicked through to confirm all her spelling corrections and inadvertently accepted another word (with two E's) as the desired spelling without noticing it. The client called a few days later and said, "I got your proposal, thanks, and I have some little questions and one really big question."

Looks to me as if this survey appeared as a fairly neutral, routine thing... but then the Salt Lake Tribune, always worried about keeping its reader base energized and barking, described the survey as a bombshell event that could lead to garments appearing in Victoria's Secret catalogs.

Well, having read and heard people like Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett, I understand why many theists want to start distinguishing atheism from antitheism, and I've read a lot from new, calmer atheists who reject the bomb-throwing antics of the antitheists. I think Karen Armstrong got it right: "Atheism is parasitically dependent on the form of theism it seeks to eliminate and becomes its reverse mirror image."

I suppose I could forgive that Facebook comment if the new temple looked like an IKEA warehouse... oh, right, I am commanded to forgive everyone, drat. I've always thought Facebook was nothing but a nest of vulgarians, and here is the final proof. Besides, my business partner is an architect from MIT, and he says the Rome temple is exquisitely designed. Q.E.D. Ciao for now...

You know, about 20 years ago when the Usenet first came out, I used to scan the cooking newsgroups and browse the recipes. As a prank, a friend and I posted a spoofed recipe for a "healthy low-fat meat casserole" that intentionally used the most unhealthy ingredients we could think of. As I recall, you pressed fatty ground beef into a cookie pan, slathered a thick layer of cream cheese on it, and then pressed sticks of butter into it. Then you rolled it up and deep-fried it in lard. You covered it in a "light sauce" made from cream and egg yolks. We did the math, and each serving was like 4200 calories and had something like 350 grams of saturated fat. It was a heart attack on a plate. Sadly, our recipe is no longer online, I just Googled it. But we got a lot of comments from people who didn't realize we were joking and asked us whether we really thought it should be called a "low-fat" recipe. Cooks are kindly people.

All this talk about food preparation really mystifies me. Many times for dinner I'll have a bowl of shredded wheat and a glass of orange juice, and I'm happier than Julia Child at a caviar festival. Reminds me of that joke about restaurants for single people. There are no tables or chairs, just a lot of kitchen sinks that diners can stand at and eat over. I'll make some Vegetarian Slop tomorrow night and share the photos, but they won't be even remotely comparable to anatess's photoculinary triumphs here tonight. Good grief. When I was a kid, my grandmother sent me to school for years with a peanut-butter-and-mayonnaise sandwich on Wonder Bread. It wasn't until many years later than I found out that other people thought this was really weird.

What's your toll-free number for ordering one of these? I'm hungry and I don't feel like eating more Vegetarian Slop tonight (see recipe above).

Well, after a week of terror in which I was too frightened to return to this thread, I had a sudden burst of courage today and came back to read the remainder of everyone's comments. Thank you all, your remarks were very comforting and encouraging. Perhaps I can find my way back after all.

Wow, my experience is totally different. I know gobs and gobs of people who have switched religions, some several times, or toggled between theism and atheism, some several times as well. With the exception of a few Republicans who become libertarians (moi) or a few Democrats who become Greens, I know almost nobody who has changed political party. Your view of this is quite interesting, thanks.

I've read many books that wouldn't be any less intelligible if read backwards.

Oh, another point about Rosetta Stone: a friend of mine ordered one of their courses. It arrived by UPS or FedEx or whatever and was stolen from the lobby of his apartment building before he got home from work. After a long fight with Rosetta Stone, the credit card company, and the delivery company he finally gave up and ate the loss. It was several hundred dollars. If you order something from RS, be careful with delivery.

http://www.millennialmormons.com/breaking-pope-join-mormon-church-meeting-modern-day-apostle/ Is it true that Catholics make great Mormons? I know Fiona Givens came from the Roman Catholic Church. In a podcast I heard her suggest that native-born Mormons attend a Catholic mass before they go to the temple for the first time so they won't be startled by the rituals.

If you pick Spanish, then watching Spanish TV is also terrific. Soap operas are the best, you get to learn many lovely and lusty expressions. And if you want to be a total geek, you could learn Esperanto. A friend of mine was a linguistics major at Berkeley and he claimed he learned to speak Esperanto in one weekend. Unfortunately, Esperanto is one of the ugliest languages I've ever encountered. "Girl" is knabino, "closets" is ŝrankoj, and "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" is Eklezio de Jesuo Kristo de la Sanktuloj de la Lastaj Tagoj. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Hope it's done soon. The Rome temple is one of the most architecturally magnificent buildings I've ever seen... if the Jetsons had LDS temples, they would look like the one in Rome.

I'd say about 25% of my posts are instantaneous, 50% are sluggish, and 25% are "go make yourself a hot chocolate and come back in a few minutes to see if it's done." Seems like the slower posts occur on the longer threads. Perhaps the software is becoming exasperated by all the comments?