Oh.

I'm afraid that there are some other updates I missed. What a month.



Cody J. Barker, 17


Felix Sacco, 17


Harrison Chase Brown, 15


Alec Henrikson, 18

Interesting Weekend (UPDATED!)

See here.

Interesting Evening

After having been very whiny for the past couple of days (as is my wont), I find myself––most unexpectedly––feeling very, very grateful.

When God was assigning families, I really lucked out.

When God was arranging friendships, he was tremendously generous.

And when it seems that I haven't had a glimpse of him in far too long, I find he has left fingerprints in the most surprising places.

“I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: ‘Go down again––I dwell among the people.’”

––Blessed John Henry Newman

Interesting Weekend (UPDATED!)

And the thick plottens! Elder Packer's talk has undergone some editing between being delivered and being posted online. The changes are subtle, but (I think) significant. It was very considerate of Elder Packer (and anyone else who was involved in the changes). For more information and discussion, see here.


Alma 30:44:

“...all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it ... do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.”

Wikipedia:

Some anglerfishes employ an unusual mating method. When scientists first started capturing ceratioid anglerfish, they noticed that all of the specimens were females, and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them. It turned out that these “parasites” were highly reduced male ceratioids.

At birth, male ceratioids are already equipped with extremely well developed olfactory organs that detect scents in the water. The male ceratoid lives solely to find and mate with a female. They are significantly smaller than a female angler fish, and may have trouble finding food in the deep sea. Furthermore, the growth of the alimentary canals of some males becomes stunted, preventing them from feeding. These features necessitate his quickly finding a female anglerfish to prevent death. The sensitive olfactory organs help the male to detect the pheromones that signal the proximity of a female anglerfish. When he finds a female, he bites into her skin, and releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood-vessel level. The male then slowly atrophies, first losing his digestive organs, then his brain, heart, and eyes, and ends as nothing more than a pair of gonads, which release sperm in response to hormones in the female's bloodstream indicating egg release. Multiple males can be incorporated into a single female.

Boyd K. Packer:

“Why would our heavenly father do that to anyone?”

Why, indeed?


Billy Lucas, 15, hanged.



Seth Walsh, 13, hanged.



Tyler Clementi, 18, jumped from a bridge.



Asher Brown, 13, gunshot.



Raymond Chase, 19, hanged.

Why, indeed?

George Q. Cannon, 1897:

[A]bominable crimes are being practiced. How will these be stopped? Only by the destruction of those who practice them.

Ernest L. Wilkison, 1965:

We do not intend to admit to our campus any homosexuals.... We do not want others on this campus to be contaminated by your presence.

Boyd K. Packer, 1978:

[W]e will be able to correct this condition routinely.... the cause when found, will turn out to be a very typical form of selfishness.... It is very possible to cure it by treating selfishness.

Hartman Rector, Jr., 1983:

That’s right, brothers and sisters, I am referring to the mother of all evil, putrid, and vile sins––homosexuality. You know, Satan himself is a homosexual.

Dallin H. Oaks, 2006:

[To a hypothetical gay son or daughter:] Yes, come, but don’t expect to stay overnight. Don’t expect to be a lengthy house guest. Don’t expect us to take you out and introduce you to our friends, or to deal with you in a public situation.

Why, indeed?