"At one point in his show, he said the real divide in the country was not between rich and poor, Democratic or Republican, but between 'the insane' and 'the insufferable.'"

"The insane include the people who stormed the capitol. He calls them nuts, before adding: 'but fun.' Then he grew more animated describing the insufferable by their 'NPR tote-bag energy' and 'hall monitor' tendencies.... Minhaj... repositions him[self] less as a righteous political comic than a more self-questioning, personal comic, a move he had already begun to make; this scandal may have accelerated the shift...."

Writes Jason Zinoman, in "Was a Scandal the Best Thing to Happen to Hasan Minhaj? At the Beacon, the comic took a different tack after posting a video rebutting a New Yorker article on fabrications in his work. The crowd went wild" (NYT).

Zinoman likes that Minaj isn't "playing the victim," like "seemingly everyone" these days, including Elon Musk and Taylor Swift. And Zinoman, in a sidetrack, praises the filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli, and gives a tip about a new movie I might want to see:

"In Sinema’s 2009 book... she described giving up shrill partisanship, which was making her unhappy, for a vaguely New Age ethos..."

"... that prized inner tranquillity. One chapter was called 'Letting Go of the Bear and Picking Up the Buddha,' with the bear representing fear and anger. 'Picking up the Buddha (becoming a super centered political actor) makes you a stronger, more effective you,' she wrote. 'To be your most fabulous political self, you’ll need to learn to recognize the bear and learn to let go of it in your work.' Transcending fear and anger is an excellent spiritual goal. But becoming a more centered and fabulous person is a political project only when it’s directed toward aims beyond oneself. With Sinema, it’s not remotely clear what those aims might be, or if they exist. (Another chapter in her book is 'Letting Go of Outcomes.')"

Writes Michelle Goldberg in "Kyrsten Sinema Is Right. This Is Who She’s Always Been" (NYT). 

I had to look to see if Sinema is a Buddhist. She's not, so I'm giving this post my "cultural appropriation" tag. "Picking Up the Buddha" — is that an expression, some New Age cant? Or did she come up with this image of picking up and putting down entities that are not, if real life, picked up and put down?

 

Here's a NYT article from 2012, "Politicians Who Reject Labels Based on Religion"

Although raised a Mormon, Ms. Sinema is often described as a nontheist — and that suits the activists just fine....

But a campaign spokesman rejected any simple category for Ms. Sinema. “Kyrsten believes the terms ‘nontheist,’ ‘atheist’ or ‘nonbeliever’ are not befitting of her life’s work or personal character,” the spokesman, Justin Unga, said Thursday in an e-mail. “Though Sinema was raised in a religious household, she draws her policy-making decisions from her experience as a social worker who worked with diverse communities and as a lawmaker who represented hundreds of thousands.”

Furthermore, Ms. Sinema “is a student of all cultures in her community,” Mr. Unga said, and she “believes that a secular approach is the best way to achieve this in good government.” In rejecting not only religious labels but irreligious labels, too, these politicians resemble the growing portion of Americans who feel that no particular tradition, or anti-tradition, captures how they feel about God, or the universe, or what the theologian Paul Tillich called “ultimate concern.”

"For many Mormons in Utah... the concept of being a good steward is wrapped up in a pioneer nostalgia that favors an artificial, irrigated landscape..."

"... over the natural desert environment. This Mormon version of Manifest Destiny is at the heart of why Utahns suck up so much municipal water... more municipal water than any state in the country, except for Idaho. And why the state has long supported a heavily subsidized water pricing system and zoning laws that encourage, if not flat-out demand, a yard full of well-tended grass. When trying to explain the near-religious devotion to irrigated landscapes, Mormons often quote a verse from the Old Testament (Isaiah 35:1-2) that inspired their 19th century pioneer ancestors who settled in Utah: 'The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.'... For Marlene and Emron, both professors at Brigham Young University who live in a historic, tree-lined neighborhood in Provo, 45 miles south of Salt Lake City, letting their lawn die was an expression of their faith. 'I want to be a better Christian steward of the place where I live,' says Marlene. 'Why not let the desert bloom as a desert?'"

From "For Mormons, a perfect lawn is a godly act. But the drought is catching up with them/Heavily subsidized water ‘made the desert bloom’ but the tradition is now driving Utah dry" (The Guardian).

"After Mitt Romney was photographed drinking a Diet Coke while running for president in 2012, the church posted a statement on its website clarifying its stance on caffeine, saying it 'does not prohibit the use of caffeine.'"

"The Word of Wisdom, the church’s health code, specifically bans hot caffeinated drinks, like coffee and tea. Brant Ellsworth, an associate professor at Central Penn College in Summerdale, Pa., specializes in the history of the church. He said that its clarification about caffeine did not likely spur the popularity of soda shops in Utah... 'Moms can’t function without caffeinated beverages,' said Ms. Durfey, a mother of two. 'We’re exhausted... I don’t know a single mom who cannot [sic] go through the day without some form of caffeine. I think that has definitely aided in the popularity of soda shops, because L.D.S. women can’t have coffee, they can’t drink alcohol. So their vice of getting that relaxation, that energy, and that whole kind of ritual I guess you could say — I feel like soda is their only option.'... As a nod to her hometown, Atlanta, Olivia Diaz, who is 27 and lives in Orem, Utah, likes to order Life’s a Peach — Dr Pepper with peach and vanilla syrup flavorings, and half-and-half to make it 'extra dirty.' (The term 'dirty' refers to the flavor add-ins, and its use in marketing was the basis of a 2015 trademark lawsuit, when Swig sued Sodalicious.)... Many of the dirty sodas, which come in sizes up to 44 ounces, can contain up to 1,000 calories."

From "In the Mountain West, the ‘Dirty’ Soda Rush Is On/With locations now numbering in the hundreds, regional soda-shop chains are spreading far beyond Utah, where they first found popularity" (NYT).

The second-highest-rated comment over there is: "I’m not usually a humorless scold, but this is not a good thing. Completely empty calories, mountains of probably not biodegradable waste, and cutesy names/flavors tailored to an eight year old. I’ll stick with plain old water, and a glass of wine before bed. But then, I’m a grown up. And don’t get me started on 'The Church.' Cheers."

Believe the science... of astrology.

The Salt Lake County Health Department gives us this:

Now that Mercury is not in retrograde, we're just going to leave this here...

(and yes, this is based on data) pic.twitter.com/fOxBHaDPvY

— Salt Lake Health (@SaltLakeHealth) October 19, 2021

Is that okay because it's sort of a joke or all in good fun or a possibly effective way to stimulate a competition to get your group to win? But it reinforces superstition and channels people into fantasy, and it might cause some people to become more resistant to getting the vaccination. It's easy to imagine a Scorpio identifying with a rebel image and leaning into it.

I got there via The Washington Post, which has a headline that isn't grounded in science but is perfectly supportive of astrology believers: "What does your star sign say about your covid vaccination status? One Utah county crunched the numbers. Leos are apparently most likely to be vaccinated, and Scorpios the least. An astrologer weighs in."

I know WaPo will defend itself by claiming astrology is just for fun and it's a relaxing diversion from all the sad news. And surely its readers know astrology isn't science. They can dabble in astrology and then get back to following real science. 

From WaPo:

"The Angel Moroni statue atop the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lost his trumpet in an earthquake Wednesday."

CNN reports.

The Salt Lake Temple, dedicated in 1893, was the first temple topped with Angel Moroni, according to the church. The 12-foot-5-inch statue, made of copper and gold leaf, stands on a stone ball atop the 210-foot central spire on the east side of the temple....

The church teaches that Moroni was an ancient prophet who led Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith, to the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. Moroni's horn, the church says, symbolizes spreading the message of the restoration of Christianity that Mormons believe was begun by Smith....

"Trump calls for 'war' against Mexican drug cartel 'monsters' after Americans murdered."

Fox News reports.

The Trump tweets quoted at the link read:

A wonderful family and friends from Utah got caught between two vicious drug cartels, who were shooting at each other, with the result being many great American people killed, including young children, and some missing. If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these monsters, the United States stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively. The great new President of Mexico has made this a big issue, but the cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army! This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth. We merely await a call from your great new president!

The quotes around "war" in the Fox News headline are not scare quotes. They are quote quotes. Trump said "WAR" and he means literally war. I say that because: 1. He put the word in all caps, 2. The phrase "you sometimes need an army to defeat an army," and 3. "wipe them off the face of the earth."

ADDED: The NYT has a long article about the massacre, "At Least 9 Members of Mormon Family in Mexico Are Killed in Ambush."

Members of the LeBarón family, dual Mexican and American citizens who have lived in a fundamentalist Mormon community in the border region for decades, were traveling in three separate vehicles when the gunmen attacked, several family members said. They described a terrifying scene in which one child was gunned down while running away, while others were trapped inside a burning car.

The cousin of the women is quoted: “When you know there are babies tied in a car seat that are burning because of some twisted evil that’s in this world... it’s just hard to cope with that.... We need the Mexican people to say at some point, we’ve had enough... We need accountability; we don’t have that on any level."

The NYT links to this video at Facebook, which includes this text:

I'm in the Huntsman-did-it camp.

I worked my way through the weeds over on Facebook (in a thread John started), so read this, including material linked from there.

Whatever you think of the word analysis — H's propensity to say "malign," etc. etc. — the form of his "denial" is the key. I didn't think he would lie, and he didn't. That's why he said: "Anything sent out by me would have carried my name. An early political lesson I learned: never send an anonymous op-ed." The NYT op-ed writer did send it out under his own name. The NYT knows the name. It was just published anonymously.

Show me where he denies writing the piece, and I'll relent.

"Starting at age 11, they prayed for breast cancer. So distressing were the markers of their femininity that..."

"... Kris Irvin — who identifies as a man and uses the pronouns they, them and their — would have welcomed abnormal cell growth in their 'crappy and dysfunctional body.' Irvin knew of no other remedy for the physical and emotional agony that seemed to intertwine in their breasts, as they knew of no word to describe what they were experiencing. Since they were 3 years old, Irvin said, they were certain that they were male. 'But I didn’t know the word transgender until I was 28,' said Irvin, who is now 31 and a student at Brigham Young University, a school bound so tightly to the Mormon faith that enrollment rests on evaluation by religious leaders. That requirement could place Irvin’s education in jeopardy... 'One of the reasons God made me this way,' they wrote to their bishop, 'is to help church members and leaders see and get to know queer Mormons who are trying to stay faithful. But the church definitely does not make it easy for queer Mormons to remain Mormon'...."

From "‘He made me transgender on purpose’: Breast-removal surgery could boot Mormon student from Brigham Young" by Isaac Stanley-Becker (WaPo).

"Orrin Hatch, Utah Senator, to Retire, Opening Path for Mitt Romney" — but Does Mitt Romney live in Utah?

The headline is in the NYT, which says:

Mr. Hatch, 83, was under heavy pressure from Mr. Trump to seek re-election and block Mr. Romney, who has been harshly critical of the president....

Mr. Hatch’s decision clears the way for the political resurrection of Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee who is now a Utah resident and is popular in the Mormon-heavy state. Mr. Romney has told associates he would likely run if Mr. Hatch retires.

“It would be difficult to defeat Mitt Romney if he were running here,” said David Hansen, a longtime Utah Republican strategist and chairman of Mr. Hatch’s political organization.

I associate Romney with Massachusetts, but that says he's a Utah resident. And here's a WaPo article from 2015, "Romney, ahead of 2016 run, now calls Utah home, talks openly about Mormon influence."

After losing two straight presidential races, Mitt Romney packed up his home in Massachusetts and journeyed west to Utah, building a mansion here in the foothills of the Wasatch Range that has served as his sanctuary from defeat....

“He feels very at home here,” said John Miller, a close friend in Utah who has been talking with Romney throughout his recent deliberations. “This is a very prayerful thing. . . . In the end, it’s really a decision between he [sic] and Ann and their belief system, their God. That’s the authentic Mitt.”...

In Holladay, an upscale suburb of Salt Lake City, the Romneys have built a manse complete with a “secret door” hideaway room and an outdoor spa off the master bath. They consider it their primary residence, near their son Josh and his wife and children.

Together with another family, the Romneys also bought an 8,700-square-foot ski chalet in nearby Park City. They still own a lakefront estate in Wolfeboro, N.H., and a beach home in the La Jolla area of San Diego, which made news in 2012 because of planned renovations that include a car elevator. Last year, the Romneys sold their Boston-area condo; they stay at Tagg’s Belmont, Mass., home when they visit....

ADDED:

First screenshot: 3:12 PM EST today

Second screenshot: 5:45 PM EST today

See if you can spot the difference. pic.twitter.com/OuxM7sc2cd

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 2, 2018

"We are not going to be a majority Mormon nation; we are not going to have Utah’s cultural homogeneity."

"But we could have more politicians like Lieutenant Governor Cox, and even more honest and sympathetic conversations about poverty. We could offer more, and better, help to people who need it. Why not look for more promising scripts than the ones played out across the U.S. today? With inspiration from Utah, perhaps the U.S. could inch toward Utah-level mobility — and toward the American Dream."

Writes Megan McArdle, who "went to Utah precisely because it’s weird."

I just went to Utah myself, but I didn't go because it's weird. I went to Utah because it's beautiful.

A square look at signs.

Here's yesterday's discussion of the square format in photography. I'm shuffling through the mass of photographs from our trip. I posted a few along the way as we traveled across the country and back over the last 2 weeks, but I've got many left to pick through. I'm doing a bit of that now and experimenting with cropping to a square composition.

Here are 3 that Meade stopped the car for me to take. I love roadside signs and have missed so many over the years as I've thought of stopping but barreled past anyway. But I've gotten better at seeing how important these opportunities are — much more important than big landmarks like the Delicate Arch, which are pointed out for you and photographed so often. These roadside sights are something you find for yourself. The idea that this can be a photograph is your idea. And Meade has been a great companion, who not only does nearly all the driving and drives with professional care but who turns my idea that this could be a photograph into an actual stop and who also often has the idea that this is a photograph.

Here's something we stopped for in Orderville, Utah:



I love how generic and inclusive that big sign is. And I'm fascinated by the wacky jumble of points on the red shape. Is it Googie? Anyway, I love the contrast between the complicated, exciting red structure and the simple, bland words. But it wasn't that sign that caused the stop. It was that little yellow sign. "Buffalo Elk Gator Jerky":



It was Meade who spotted that sign and insisted that we stop and I take a picture of it. It's only as I process the photo now that I see that the requisite potshots have been taken at it. I pause to Google why do people shoot at signs? and find "The Dangers and Costs of Sign Shooting" at Outdoorhub. I'm shooting the sign myself, of course, but I don't leave my impression in Orderville. I put it here on the blog.

Now, I wasn't even sure this picture was from Utah, and I don't know if I ever knew we passed through a place named Orderville. I know it's Orderville because I swiveled around and took a shot at "Food & Drug" and saw that it did have a less than completely generic name: Terry's.



I found a Yelp review — one review, 5 stars — for Terry's Food & Drug — "Small town service for a small town" — and that's where I see this is Orderville.

Orderville. We didn't explore. We only stopped for some signs that charmed us, transitorily. I muse about the motives to name a town Orderville. I think of law and order. But that's the kind of thinking of a person who blows through town and takes in the surfaces. Gator jerky! A Sinclair sign! Numbers painted on the rocks! But Orderville is something else:

Oh, New Yorker....

In the sidebar at The New Yorker at a link I opened yesterday:



Maybe this sort of thing is getting you a lot of clicks, but have some self respect and show a little depth for those of us who are not eating up junk food like this.

From the article at that link, "THE MOON JUICE GOSPEL OF SELF":

“There is a cosmic calling and powerful movement here to push us forward as a race. . . . That’s what Moon Juice really is—not just a product or a place but rather a healing force, an etheric potion, and a cosmic beacon for the evolutionary movement of seeking beauty, happiness, and longevity.”

Not long after I read that passage, it became clear that Donald Trump would win the Presidency. Coastal élites went to bed, resigned. I kept reading: about the restorative powers of mesquite and reishi, and the benefits of coconut fat. I have never felt so radiantly out of touch with America... What place would Green Shakes, “moon-dusted” with cordyceps, have in the new America?...

I think with shame of myself a few weeks back, biking home from yoga, eleven-dollar juice in the basket, willfully editing out the Trump sign on my neighbor’s lawn. As the election has taught us, personal bliss does not trickle down; it’s a pool we gaze into till we drown.

What place do New Yorker readers have "in the new America"? If only the election had gone the other way, you could have kept searching for your own personal bliss in the lightweight nonsense of food sprinkles? You could have still kept smug over ripping out other people's lawn signs? At least you admit you have a problem, and thank Trump for that.

ADDED: The author of the quoted New Yorker article is Dana Goodyear, but the author of the quote within the quote, the owner of Moon Juice, is Amanda Chantal Bacon. I'm amused that the line "a cosmic beacon for the evolutionary movement of seeking beauty, happiness, and longevity" was written by someone named Bacon. From Bacon to beacon, and maybe we need to get back from beacon to bacon.

In 2007, 78.4% of Americans were Christian, in 2014, only 70.6%.

According to the Pew's new U.S. Religious Landscape Study.

The decline appears largely in the mainline Protestant and Catholic segment of Christians, evangelicals having lost only one percentage point.

Those who name no religious affiliation have grown from 16.1% to 22.8% in this 7 year period. That segment is broken down into 3 groups: atheist, agnostic, and "nothing in particular." The "nothing in particular" people dominate. 15.8% of Americans affiliate with nothing religious, up from 12.1%. Atheists have broken through to 3.1%, up from 1.6%, but they're still trailing the agnostics, who've made it to 4.0%, up from 2.4%.

It's interesting to separate "nothing in particular" from agnostic. Is "nothing in particular" even more agnostic than agnostic? They don't even want to go out on a limb and say they don't know? Or (more likely) these are the people who feel they are spiritual or they believe in God in a way that doesn't lead them to join any organizations or they used to be something — such as mainline Protestant — but they lost the sense that membership in that group meant anything. So you can't add the nothings and the agnostics.

These "nothing in particular" people, at 15.8%, now outnumber the mainline Protestants, who are down to 14.7%, from 18.1%.

It's also interesting that Mormons — who might seem like a large and growing group — are only 1.6%, down from 1.7%. And how about Muslims? You hear so much about them, but they're only 0.9% (up from 0.4%). Buddhists hold steady at 0.7%. Hindus are up to 0.7%, from 0.3%. The biggest non-Christian religion is Judaism, and it's not declining. It's up to 1.9%, from 1.7%.

Much more at the link, including issues of age, race, region, and switching religions.

"There has never been a Catholic Republican nominee for the White House (the Mormons, interestingly, got there first), although there may be one this year..."

"... with a field that includes Rick Santorum, Chris Christie, and Jeb Bush, who converted to Catholicism, his wife’s faith, some twenty years ago. For them, the issue is not one of religious bigotry, such as John F. Kennedy faced in his 1960 campaign, with insinuations of adherence to secret Papist instructions. In a way, it’s the opposite: the very public agenda of the all too authentic Pope Francis. Early signs of trouble came in the summer of 2013, when the new Pope, speaking with reporters about gays in the Church, asked, 'Who am I to judge?' The conservative wing of the Party had relied on his predecessors to do just that...."

From "God and the G.O.P." by Amy Davidson in The New Yorker.

"The Mormon Church today announced that it will support national and local anti-discrimination laws for gays and lesbians..."

"... provided such laws also respect the rights of religious groups. Church leaders called the offer a new 'way forward' to balance religious freedom and legal protection for people in the LGBT community."

Says breaking news email from CNN.

At the CNN website: "Mormon church backs LGBT rights -- with one condition."

Is Mitt Romney running again because his feels called by his Mormon faith?

The NYT isn't just floating a theory. It has sources:

A prominent Republican delivered a direct request to Mitt Romney not long ago: He should make a third run for the presidency, not for vanity or redemption, but to answer a higher calling from his faith.

Believing that Mr. Romney, a former Mormon pastor, would be most receptive on these grounds, the Republican made the case that Mr. Romney had a duty to serve, and said Mr. Romney seemed to take his appeal under consideration....

But now as Mr. Romney mulls a new run for the White House, friends and allies said, his abiding Mormon faith is inextricably tied to his sense of service and patriotism, and a facet of his life that he is determined to embrace more openly in a possible third campaign.

So there are 2 issues here: 1. Whether Romney's religious beliefs might impel him to run a third time, and 2. Whether Romney, running for the third time, will present himself in a new way, as a man motivated by faith to serve.

We'll never really know how much Romney's decision to run (or not to run) truly rests on religious beliefs, so the second issue is actually more interesting. In 2012, the Democrats successfully painted Romney as an out-of-touch rich guy. Many Americans interpreted his demeanor and mannerisms and statements in that light. Perhaps we'd understand all the same things in a different way if he were an out-and-proud Mormon.

He'd also be a "diversity" candidate — a potential "first" — first Mormon President. I wonder what Mormonism would allow him to say. Would he claim to be a member of a persecuted minority group? He could! But would that work? Would Mormon values permit him to decide what to say based on whether it would work? If he purports to run based on Mormon values, will we the people need to study Mormon values so that we can call him on any hypocrisy?

100 years ago today: The House of Representives voted 174 to 204 against the proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.

"Woman suffrage was discussed from every point of view for more than ten hours in the House today," wrote The New York Times. "At the close of the debate the proposed constitutional amendment giving nation-wide suffrage to women was rejected by the overwhelming vote of 174 to 204."

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, President of the National Suffrage Association, said... "I am not gratified, but the vote was better than I had expected. We now have an alignment from which we can move onward. It is now a political and national question, for Congress would not take up a local or sectional matter in this way. It can never be said again that it is a local or partisan question. The National House of Representatives has discussed suffrage and has voted upon it...."

Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, President of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, said... "The deliberations of the House of Representatives today were, of course, of the greatest importance because the final vote was such as to persuade the country forever that the National Congress will not undertake to dictate to the various States what they shall do with their franchise. In my opinion today's work in the House demonstrated that from now on the wave of hysteria in which the suffragists have indulged or of which they have been the victims will be on the wane."

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Josephine Dodge founded this National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage in 1911 because she "believed that woman suffrage would decrease women’s work in communities and their ability to effect societal reforms." The NAOWS had a newsletter called Woman’s Protest (retitled Woman Patriot in 1918) that "continued to be published through the 1920s, generally opposing the work of feminists and liberal women’s groups."

Here's the Wikipedia article "Anti-suffragism," which says:

Anti-suffragism was not limited to conservative elements. The anarchist Emma Goldman opposed suffragism on the grounds that women were more inclined toward legal enforcement of morality (as in the Women's Christian Temperance Union), that it was a diversion from more important struggles, and that suffrage would ultimately not make a difference. She also said that activists ought to advocate revolution rather than seek greater privileges within an inherently unjust system. Progressives criticized suffrage in the Utah Territory as a cynical Mormon ploy....

Here's a postcard from 1915:

"After reading Monday’s front page story ("Golden retriever proposed as official ‘state domestic animal,’" Nov. 17)..."

"... telling of the harmless, well-intentioned efforts of children to determine an animal deemed worthy by Sen. Aaron Osmond and his cohorts to be Utah’s 'state domestic animal'... I am truly bewildered by the placement, column inches and content of the story, but who am I to judge what should appear on the front page of a major city’s daily newspaper?... I do hope the children being taught by Ms. Meyer are able to learn from their efforts to affect the actions of the state’s lawmakers. Keeping the state Legislature busy with such matters seems far better than letting them have time to carry out their usual lunacy. If the children involved actually learn how those governing this state operate, their quest will be eye-opening but ultimately disappointing and maddening. May I suggest an animal that represents this state far better than any dog or cat. The domestic creature most emblematic of the residents of this state is the sheep."

Letter to the editor of The Salt Lake Tribune by John K. Dallimore of Cottonwood Heights.

Ms. Meyer = Daybreak Elementary School teacher Alli Meyer, who led her 4th grade class in " just really a fun project to partner with these kids to teach them about the legislative process." Her class got the idea to influence a state senator to propose a state domestic animal after seeing that some other Utah students had successfully influenced the legislature to change the state tree from Colorado blue spruce to quaking aspen. Those students had made the persuasive political argument that a tree with "Colorado" in its name should not be the state tree of Utah. I don't know the extent to which they considered fact that "Aspen" is a city in Colorado.

"We wondered if we could do something similar. We thought of replacing the California seagull as the state bird, but didn’t think that would happen since the seagulls helped save the pioneers from crickets," Meyer said. "We noticed we didn’t have a state domestic animal," as Wisconsin does (the dairy cow). She said the students decided to pursue that. (Utah already has an official "state animal," the Rocky Mountain elk.)

10 thoughts:

1. Thanks for emulating Wisconsin, but the significance of golden retrievers to Utah scarecely parallels the significance of cows to America's dairyland.

2. It's hard to oppose dog lovers... dog lovers and 4th graders... but that's how politics works, right? What a lesson! Patch together bits of sentiment and make it harder to say no than yes.

3. What's up with picking a particular breed? It's not like Wisconsin picked the Holstein as its state domestic animal, and we have the experience of seeing those iconic black-and-white cows dotted all over the rolling green farmland. If I had photoshop skills, I'd produce an image of golden retrievers in a comparable pattern on a stark desert landscape.

4. Okay, what's the story of the crickets and the seagulls? Here's the Wikipedia entry for "Miracle of the gulls":

Although late frosts in April and May destroyed some of the crops, the pioneers seemed to be well on their way to self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, swarms of insects appeared in late May.... According to traditional accounts, legions of gulls appeared by June 9, 1848. It is said that these birds, native to the Great Salt Lake, ate mass quantities of crickets, drank some water, regurgitated, and continued eating more crickets over a two-week period. The pioneers saw the gulls' arrival as a miracle, and the story was recounted from the pulpit by church leaders such as Orson Pratt and George A. Smith (Pratt 1880, p. 275; Smith 1869, p. 83). The traditional story is that the seagulls annihilated the insects, ensuring the survival of some 4,000 Mormon pioneers who had traveled to Utah. For this reason, Seagull Monument was erected and the California gull is the state bird of Utah.

5. So "California" was in the name of the state bird, which made it look like a sitting duck of a Colorado blue spruce variety. But the children learned that the seagull had a monumental role in the history of Utah.


Credit: Intothewoods29

6. Of course, the cricket — not that they were crickets (they were some kind of katydid) — can't be the state insect of Utah. The state insect had to be the bee... as a 5th-grade class back lobbied the legislature to acknowledge: "The honey bee is significant in Utah history, as Utah was first called by its Mormon settlers, 'The Provisional State of Deseret,' a Book of Mormon word meaning honey bee."

7. Can we get an Establishment Clause lawsuit over the honey bee's status as state insect?

8. Would that there were somewhere a Provisional State of Golden Retriever!

9.  Have you heard of golden retriever politics? Neither have I. Golden retriever don't have politics.... they're very gentle... all compassion.... all compromise. We can trust the golden retriever. I'd like to become the first golden retriever politician. I'd like to, but.... I'm a golden retriever... who dreamed she was a woman, and loved it. But now the dream is over, and the golden retriever is taking another nap.

10. What happens when a golden retriever goes on "Meet the Press"? 

What if I forget my talking points? These journalists can be ruthless... hard-hitting... always looking for sound-bites, gaffes, gotcha moments.... What? My position? (Uh oh, here it comes) On what? — my position on CATS ??? Uh... well, cats are... uh, cats are...

"Mormon leaders have acknowledged for the first time that... Joseph Smith... took as many as 40 wives, some already married and one only 14 years old."

The NYT reports:

Elder Steven E. Snow, the church historian and a member of its senior leadership, said in an interview, “There is so much out there on the Internet that we felt we owed our members a safe place where they could go to get reliable, faith-promoting information that was true about some of these more difficult aspects of our history. We need to be truthful, and we need to understand our history... I believe our history is full of stories of faith and devotion and sacrifice, but these people weren’t perfect.”

The essay on “plural marriage” in the early days of the Mormon movement in Ohio and Illinois says polygamy was commanded by God, revealed to Smith and accepted by him and his followers only very reluctantly. Abraham and other Old Testament patriarchs had multiple wives, and Smith preached that his church was the “restoration” of the early, true Christian church....

Most of Smith’s wives were between the ages of 20 and 40, the essay says, but he married Helen Mar Kimball, a daughter of two close friends, “several months before her 15th birthday.” A footnote says that according to “careful estimates,” Smith had 30 to 40 wives. The biggest bombshell for some in the essays is that Smith married women who were already married, some to men who were Smith’s friends and followers....