I just read this article. Upshot — a former Latter-Day Saint bishop, Simon Southerton, was excommunicated by Australian church leaders for adultery. He also happens to be the seventh author from SLC-based Signature Books to be excommunicated. He published a book which posits that DNA evidence disproves key claims outlined in The Book of Mormon, especially the claim that a tribe of seafaring Israelites settled in Central America around 600 B.C.

This is hardly world or even national news, and is likely of little interest to any of you. Utah Valley will be buzzing with it for days, however, and the comments page under that article will be so full of anti-Mormon vitriol you’ll wonder what we did to make people so angry.

I have some thoughts on the matter, and they are wide-ranging.

She said it better than I could.

–Howard

I just got back from a very enjoyable dinner with Derrill, Chris, and their wives whose names I’m afraid to try to commit to print because 1) with those names you could maybe identify these people and their families, and 2) I think I may have forgotten their names…

Anyway, dinner: they treated me to Korean food at Sam Hawk on Freedom Boulevard in Provo (it’s on the 500 block in the strip-mall where Storehouse Market used to be). It was delicious. I tried to eat with moderation, but ended up feeling quite full. Thanks, guys!

It’s nice meeting readers. I never know what to expect, and as much as they may think they know about me from my writings online, I doubt they really know what to expect either. It qualifies, therefore, as an adventure. I may be a 37-year-old, computer-softened, short, balding, white guy, but I’m an ADVENTURER!

(And I roll 20s).

–Howard

We finished watching Alexander tonight, and it was incomprehensible right up to the end.

I got more drama, more emotion, more ecstasy and anguish out of 10 minutes of working my shoulder out with a giant rubber band than I got out of that entire movie.

–Howard