Modern Mormon Motivational Posters 5

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by A-Dub (bio)

"This topic of judging others could actually be taught in a two-word sermon. When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following: Stop it!"
- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, April 2012 General Conference

Mormon World Records 1

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by Seattle Jon (bio)

Mention the last name Skousen in front of a mormon and there's a good chance they'll know one. There is W. Cleon Skousen, prolific mormon theologian and notable anti-communist (The Naked Communist); there is Joel Skousen, "survival retreat" and "fallout shelter" design and construction expert; there is Mark Skousen, American economist, investment analyst, newsletter editor, and author of more than 25 non-fiction books; there is Royal Skousen, BYU professor of Linguistics and English and the leading expert on the textual history of the Book of Mormon; and finally, there is Paul Skousen, author of the The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records and Other Amazing Firsts, Facts, and Feats. Wait, what?!

Yes, Paul Skousen, son of W. Cleon Skousen, wrote a book of mormon records (not to be confused with the records the Book of Mormon came from. I'm not starting the rumor that Paul, not Joseph Smith, authored the Book of Mormon). Anyway, the book, published in 2004, is a treasure trove of mormon trivia. Here is the first of what I hope to be many mormon world record installations on MMM.

Q: When and where was the largest LDS toilet flush?
A: The largest LDS toilet flush (although City Creek Center probably broke the record) occurred on January 22, 1984 (a Sunday?!) in Salt Lake City. Public utility workers were struggling to repair a broken water main when suddenly a tremendous rushing noise could be heard as air was sucked into the open pipe leading into the city system. The rushing noise lasted 2-3 minutes. Workers knew the vacuum represented a very high demand for water perfectly timed with breaks people were taking during halftime television advertising of the Super Bowl. The workers estimated that some 10,000 toilets had been simultaneously flushed.

Q: Who is mormonism's, and possibly the world's, greatest linguist?
A: John Henry Jorgensen was fluent in 15 languages when the book was written (American Sign Language, Arabic, Arabic Sign Language, Eastern and Western Armenian, English, French, Georgian, Italian, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Syrian and Turkish). At the time of his graduation from BYU, he was learning an additional five languages (Japanese, Ukranian, Mongolian, Persian and Czech) and planned to learn an additional five.

Update: According to this 2005 article, John spoke 18 languages fluently, and another 10 conversationally. And guess what ... at the time the article was written he was already learning language No. 29 – “Furbish” – the official language of Hasbro’s Furby doll. It took John a month to learn Furbish, which he says wasn’t as hard as Arabic or Japanese.

The Lord Cares What I Do For A Living

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by Dustin (bio)

I want to dispel the myth that the Lord doesn't care what I do for a living. I've made several career changes in the spirit of finding my passion and doing it for a living. Along the way, during the dark moments of confusion and self-discovery, I have often had people around me say, "I don't think the Lord cares so much what you do for a living as long as you do it well." Something about that statement rubs me wrong and it's taken some time to figure out why.

I get it. I understand what people are saying. We aren't going to arrive at the pearly gates and have the Lord shaking his head with disappointment that we were a lawyer instead of a doctor or an investment banker instead of an educator. I believe most lines of work are equal in the eyes of God. And yes, he does want us to do whatever we do with integrity. But the moment this becomes an excuse to just "eeny-meeny-miny-mo" it and pick a career, I think we are selling ourselves short. Here's my logic.

If the Lord wants me to be happy, and "men are that they might have joy," then surely He didn't intend for that to only occur before work or after hours. Certainly he wants me to find joy in my day-to-day labors ... in the activity where I spend the most time each day. In addition, I can surely find some joy in any job, but that isn't the same as "loving what you do." For that love to occur, I would argue that I need to be enjoying more than 75% of my daily labors. I need to be utilizing my strengths the majority of the time and experience the rush of energy that comes with doing so. And, if the Lord will help me find my keys when they are lost then why wouldn't he help me find the best job that most aligns with the God-given abilities and talents I've been given from Him!? He will and he has! I've experienced it and can say that if you care to ask He cares to answer. This is the parable of the talents. To each of his servants he gave them talents. One did nothing with his and was chastised. His talents were removed and given away to others. To the others he rewarded them for multiplying the gifts they had been given. "Well done," he said, for not hiding what you had been given and reserving it for Sundays only or off-work hours.

MMM Readers: Q2 2012

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"Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss." - Nora Ephron (1941-2012)

Here are selected book titles purchased through the blog from March through June.

Evertaster (Adam Glendon Sidwell) ... don't miss LJ's interview of the author
A Young People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn)
Freeing Your Child from Anxiety (Tamar Ellsas Chansky)
How Will You Measure Your Life? (Clayton M. Christensen)
Mormon Country (Wallace Stegner)
The Age of Miracles (Karen Thompson Walker)
The Fading Flower and Swallow the Sun (Mahonri Stewart) ... don't miss Scott Hales' interview of the author
The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail (Wallace Stegner)
The Giant Joshua (Maurine Whipple) ... mentioned in DanH's recent guest post
The Lonely Polygamist (Brady Udall) ... mentioned in DanH's recent guest post
The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Robert Caro)

Illustrated Mormons

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by Scott Heffernan (bio)

Modern Day Prophets: Gordon B. Hinckley, Spencer W. Kimball, David O. McKay, Thomas S. Monson.

You may recognize this style of illustration. It was developed by visual artist Julian Opie, and made famous when British band Blur asked him to design the cover of their album, Blur: The Best Of.

I'm a fan of Julian Opie's work so I thought it would be fun to render some prominent Mormon personalities in his distinct minimalist style.

Cool Mormon Women: Carol Lynn Pearson, Chieko Okazaki, Gladys Knight, Joanna Brooks.

Mormon Politicians: Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman Jr., Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch.

So far I've completed such clusters as Modern Day Prophets, Cool Mormon Women, and Mormon Politicians. I have some other batches in the works that I hope to release in the next few weeks. Here is a sneak peek.

Clustered as well as a few individual portraits available here.

Spotting the Yank

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by Topher Clark (bio)

Cheerio from London, gents. I've been here for a month, which is why I can say things like "cheerio" and "gents." I'm here with my UVU students for a month long study abroad program; this is my seventh consecutive year doing it. So I know some London! I also spent a year living nearby when I was in graduate school, which qualifies me to discuss my topic today: how to spot an American in London.

The old adage about the noisy, ugly American is actually untrue. I don't run across that many. I look for fanny packs and ball caps and people rasping "OMG" and complaining about customer service and all the other tell-tale signs, but you just don't see these people. I've heard they exist, but I don't know where. Maybe they are all at Madame Toussauds or something? I see them in Paris. All the time. But London? Not really.

So who are the Americans I can spot? Here are five examples:

1. You are some kind of vague business guy here for a few days on business. You wear a suit. You talk on your cell phone. Considering cell coverage is expensive here, you are either billing it to your vague business back in the states or totally faking that call. You go everywhere in a taxi, because you are secretly afraid of public transport.

Linger Longer 10

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Linger Longer is a series where we highlight articles that recently caught our attention. Suggest religious blogs to add or recommend your own articles in the comments. Click here for previous entries.

Bloggernacle (religious)

Tunes From My Father (Segullah)
On Loving Both FARMS and the Maxwell Institute (By Common Consent)
Gendered Unity (Times and Seasons)
An Open Response Re: Modesty Lessons For Children (Feminist Mormon Housewives)
How Do We Offer Pastoral Care? (Zelophehad's Daughters)
Response to Levi Petersen's "The Backslider" (The Low-Tech World)
Scouting (The Exponent)
The Cost of Being a Mormon (Wheat & Tares)
Youth Media – Our True Identity (Beginnings New)
To You, in the Year 2000 A.D. (Keepapitchinin)
On Parables As Literature (A Motley Vision)
New Resource for LDS Families with Gay Children Links Acceptance and Health (Religion Dispatches)
The New Church History Library Catalog (The Juvenile Instructor)
Fundanibleists and Fauxpologetics (Faith-Promoting Rumor)

Off-Bloggernacle (non-religious)
An Idea Worth At Least 40 nanoKardashians of Your Attention (My Heart's in Accra)
The Most Amazing Bowling Story Ever (D Magazine)
The Economics of All-You-Can-Eat Buffets (Forbes)
Daddy, What Were Compact Discs? (The New York Times)
Psychology Of Fraud: Why Good People Do Bad Things (NPR)
Can a Better Vibrator Inspire an Age of Great American Sex? (The Atlantic) *sexual content*
Princeton University Baccalaureate (Michael Lewis) and Class Day (Steve Carell) Graduation Remarks
Take Me Home by Ray Bradbury (The New Yorker)
The Most Radical Social Experiment in Modern History (The Atlantic)
Why Smart People Are Stupid (The New Yorker)
Cocaine Incorporated (The New York Times)
I Point To TED Talks and I Point to Kim Kardashian. That Is All. (Download the Universe)
Blade Runner: Which Predictions Have Come True? (BBC News)
The Partner: Meet Mitt Romney’s Most Trusted Adviser (The New Republic)