Book Review: Possession: A Romance

I'm not the first one to say this, but Possession: A Romance is a brilliant book. I would highly recommend it to anyone with a serious interest in literature. I started the book expecting an intellectually engaging experience (which I got, and then some), but I wasn't expecting the narrative to turn out to be as compelling as it was. It is a story, essentially, about a pair of English scholars who make an important discovery that a pair of Victorian poets (one famous and one lesser-known) had a relationship that no modern scholar had discovered. A story around the two scholars develops as they discover the story behind the relationship between the two poets. Both stories are fascinating and compelling, and Byatt proved that she has a real talent for story-telling on top of her talent for creating an intellectually-stimulating book. You wouldn't expect a book about a pair of English scholars researching a pair of Victorian poets to keep you up late at night because you can't put it down, but it did.

That's not to say that it doesn't have its lulls. The book is brimming with references to and uses of British literature and literary theory, as well as long, complicated poems and long letters and journal entries. I'm sure I only picked up on and understood a small fraction of the literary allusions in the book, and because of my poor poetry-reading skills, I skipped some of the longer poems embedded in the book. I also skimmed over some of the unearthed letters and journals when they went long. Still, trying to catch some of the many literary allusions was part of the fun (at least for me), and if I didn't have the patience for something, I had no problem skipping or skimming. As my recommendation implies, this book is not for everyone. Byatt is brilliant and erudite and she expects a lot of her readers. But underneath it all there is a truly compelling story with one of the most perfect endings that I have ever read.

Sounds of the Season

We just got back from the annual Christmas tradition of attending the Utah Chamber Artists Christmas Concert. The Utah Chamber Artists is a fantastic chamber choir and orchestra directed by Barlow Bradford, and they do several concerts a year, including a Christmas one the week after Thanksgiving. My parents get us tickets every year, and it always does a great job of kicking off the Christmas season. There's something about Christmas music that gets you in the mood for Christmas (for both the secular and spiritual aspects of it). The concert was great again this year, and I came right home and put on some Christmas music. I'm excited to break out my favorite Christmas albums: the Niel Diamond Christmas album (great Christmas music with a Jewish flare) and the John Denver and The Muppets Christmas album (brings back great memories; my parents had this on a record when I was very little). What are some of your favorite Christmas albums?

Book Review: Rouhg Stone Rollnig

I finally made it through Richrad Bushman's Biography of J Smith (I am intentionally misspelling or abbreviating names/words because I don't want a bunch of anti posts on my blog). It took me a while, but I really enjoyed it. I thought Bushman did a nice job of managing all the information out there about J Smith. Its a cultural biography, so Bushman spends some time giving some historical background to J Smith's story. Bushman's historical biography approach was a mixed blessing. Sometimes, I thought Bushman's historical background was mere apologism (I'm not sure that's a word, but you know what I mean), which I didn't especially like (i.e., talking about how many males of J Smith's time had hot tempers to explain away some of J Smith's less-than-model outbursts at people questioning his methodologies). But sometimes, I thought Bushman used the historical background to make some really interesting observations. For example, when discussing the BOM, Bushman talked about how much patriotism and pride in the United States' form of government there was at the time the BOM was being translated, especially in the northeastern states, where many residents, including J Smith, had ancestors who had fought in the Revolutionary War. Then Bushman pointed out how the governmental structures that the BOM singles out as ideal are monarchies and systems of judges, which were models following the Old Testament, and which were a far cry from the secular, republican democracy established in the United States. If the BOM were a product of J Smith's cultural heritage, instead of translation, one would expect to find, Bushman argues, more favorable discussion of democracies.

The other point I wanted to make was that, while I really enjoyed this book, it was not always easy to read. I say this as a credit to Bushman. I don't refer to the fact that it was long and dense, but rather, that Bushman does not shy away from some of the things about J Smith that are more difficult to swallow, particularly the stuff about polygmy. This book is ultimately faith-promoting, but to say it wasn't also faith-challenging at times would be, at least for me, untrue. Bushman faces these challenges head on, and ends on a very positive and uplifting note. I'm glad I read the book, and I feel that I have a fuller testimony of J Smith, the BOM, and the church for having read it. It was especially cool to be able to read a large chunk of it while I was back in Missouri and Nauvoo at the church history sites with family this past summer.

Celebrity Sightings: Looking for Lindsay Lohan

Who cares if one of the newest Nobel Lauretes lives in Utah. Our beloved State's most famous new resident is none other than Lindsay Lohan! That's right, celebrity fantasy leaguers beware, Lindsay is returning to her good girl ways, and her first step in that process is becoming a resident of Utah. She's trying to stay away from the L.A. party scene that keeps dragging her down into the depths of addiction. Here she is in her own words: "I'm staying in Utah until it's time to shoot 'Dare to Love Me,' and then I plan on returning to Utah so I can stay focused, and avoid other distractions." (see http://www.sltrib.com/ci_7127670). Musingian welcomes Lindsay to Utah and hopes she finds peace. Look for Lindsay Lohan at the next multi-stake regional dance!

Facebook Superstar

In my ongoing quest to expand my online presence, I have started a facebook account. Blogging is a great way to stay connected with people, but I have a lot of friends who facebook and don't blog, so I decided to expand my horizons too. Plus, its so hot right now. I'm still trying to figure out how to do it, but it seems pretty cool. Any tips from you experienced facebookers out there?

Mesa Falls Marathon

Many of you know that I have spent much of the summer training for a marathon. I can't say its been the funnest thing to train for--way too much running. I think its much better on you body if you mix your exercises up a bit. But the day finally came to run the marathon, and I did it. I can't imagine a more beautiful place to run a marathon. The marathon started at 6:30 am in the middle of Targhee National Forest. It was about 40 degrees outside, but it didn't feel too cold because the adrenaline was pumping. We got started, and the first nine miles of the race was on a national forest service dirt road through the forest. It was so beautiful. You would be running through thick trees and would round a corner to find a stunning mountain meadow. And to the East, the sun was rising over the Tetons. Just seeing the red sunrise over the Tetons was worth the price of admission. You would also occasionally hear a moose or wolves greeting the morning.

After the nine miles in the forest, we ran down a paved road past Lower Mesa Falls, which was also quite pretty. Just after mile 13, I was Grace and Katie, who were there cheering me on. Their cheers were needed because we then dropped down into an old railroad trail that ran along the Warm river. The views were spectacular again, but my lack of training on trails caught up to me, and my IT band flared up. My knee just killed. I quickly downed the advil that I had in my pocket, and I had to stop and walk a lot of the trail (which I didn't mind because it was so beautiful).

After the trial, we had a three mile long climb out of Bear Gulch, which was killer. My knee was still killing, so I had to alternate walking and running every five minutes or so. But after climbing out of the gulch, it was only six miles of rolling farmland to the finish. I had to stop and rest my knee fairly often, but I kept plugging away, and Katie, Grace, and my parents were there cheering me along.

We ran through the booming metropolis of Ashton, Idaho for the last mile of the race. I was feeling good, and I thought I was there. But at mile 26, with .2 miles left to go, I encountered an unexpected obstacle--a train crossing with a train beginning to cross. I was shocked. The train was being pulled along very slowly by a tractor. I looked down to see how long the trail was, and I didn't see an end to the train. At the slow speed that it was moving, I was going to have to sit and wait for five minutes for the train to pass--unless I could beat the train. I summoned all of my strength and began to sprint (not an easy feat after 26 miles. I had to veer left to make sure I had plenty of clearance, but I made it. After that, it was an easy .1 mile to the finish. What a great feeling! It was fun being cheered by family and friends.

I made a little video montage commemorating the event. Enjoy:

Nauvoo

Katie's parents were generous enough to bring us along on their trip to Nauvoo. It was so much fun. We flew into Kansas City, Missouri and saw the sites in Missouri (Independence, Liberty, Far West, and Adam Ondi Aman). Then we drove to Nauvoo and spent a few days there. My favorite part by far was the temple. It is so beautiful, both inside and out. Its such a great tribute to the early saints who built the first one. It was fun seeing all the other historic sites as well.

We also got to see plenty of musical theater, which Grace loved. She would just sit and stare at the stage, amazed, while the actors sang and danced. I've never seen her sit still for so long. It was a great trip and a great testimony builder. We took a ton of cool pictures, so I put them together in a little montage. I hope you enjoy it.

Fun in the Sun Valley

Last week, Katie, Grace, and I made our first trek up to the Utah State Bar convention in Sun Valley, Idaho. We love Sun Valley, and I got the firm to pay for enough of the trip to make it worth it to go. We had a great time. I spent the mornings in classes that were mostly boring, but I need to attend a certain number of continuing education classes to stay licensed. While I was in classes, Katie and Grace got to lounge around the hotel. When I got back from classes, we walked around town, went on some runs, ate good food, and bought some ice cream. The weather was great, and we had a great time. We had to come home a little early so that we could go to Nuavoo with Katie's family (watch for a forthcoming post on that), but we had such a fun time, we'll have to go back.

First Fruits

We planted a little vegetable garden this year, and it has really done well. I didn't expect much because I just dug up some irises that were being overgrown by grass to make the garden. I thought it would take a while to bring the soil along. I just worked in a few bags of fertilizer at the beginning of the year and have been watering with miracle grow regularly, and the vegetables have really taken off. The tomatoes are going crazy, and the zucchini is huge. The pepper plants are still a little small, but they're starting to bear fruit. We picked the first ripe cherry tomatoes yesterday, and they taste great. Can't wait to eat all the fresh summer vegetables picked fresh from our garden.

Odes to Chuck

One of the highlights of Youth Conference was hiking around the Double Arch and telling Chuck Norris facts. I heard some that I hadn't heard before, and we were all laughing pretty hard. I am guessing that you all have been enlightened by at least a few Chuck Norris fact, but just in case you haven't, I decided to dedicate a post to it. Chuck Norris facts have become an online rage and are pretty pervasive now. There are thousands and thousands of "facts" about Chuck Norris all over the internet, but I think this is the main site for them. Here are some of my favorites:

There is no chin under Chuck Norris' beard. There is only another fist.
Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
Ninjas want to grow up to be just like Chuck Norris. But usually they grow up just to be killed by Chuck Norris.
Most people have 23 pairs of chromosomes. Chuck Norris has 72... and they're all poisonous.
Someone once tried to tell Chuck Norris that roundhouse kicks aren't the best way to kick someone. This has been recorded by historians as the worst mistake anyone has ever made.
Chuck Norris is the only human being to display the Heisenberg uncertainty principle -- you can never know both exactly where and how quickly he will roundhouse-kick you in the face.
When Chuck Norris falls in water, Chuck Norris doesn't get wet. Water gets Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.
Hellen Keller's favorite color is Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris eats beef jerky and craps gunpowder. Then, he uses that gunpowder to make a bullet, which he uses to kill a cow and make more beef jerky. Some people refer to this as the "Circle of Life."
Along with his black belt, Chuck Norris often chooses to wear brown shoes. No one has DARED call him on it. Ever.
Chuck Norris can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.

And my favorite: Chuck Norris has counted to infinity. Twice.

There are tons of them and most are pretty entertaining. What are your favorites?

The Strength of Youth

I spent last weekend in south eastern Utah with the youth in our ward for Youth Conference (I am the secretary of our ward's Young Mens organization). We camped in Green River State Park, which is right on the Green River in Green River, UT. It was a nice campground. We spend one day rafting the Green (the rapids were pretty wimpy, but its always fun to spend a day on the river). And on Saturday, we drove down to Arches National Park and did an early morning hike to Delicate Arch, followed by quick hikes to Double Arch and Devils Playground.

Everyone had a great time, and I was yet again amazed at how good these kids are. All the kids got along really well with each other, they stuck together, they were grateful and helpful, and they happily did everything we asked them to do. We never had to get on them for staying up too late, for being too loud, for texting or listening to iPods while we were talking, for straying too far from the group, etc. Basically, they made it really easy on us leaders. One night, some Young Women leaders from another camp came up to us and said that they had found out that their girls were planning a midnight rendevous with some boys from another camp. We didn't even sweat it because we knew our boys wouldn't do that. And they didn't. I love being in Young Mens because I am consistently blown away by how good these kids are. They're smart, they work hard, they are kind, and they are very sensitive to spiritual things. I love it. They're great examples for me.

Catching Up on Movies

I don't know why the flu is going around in the middle of June, but it is, and I got it. It was miserable, but it did offer me an opportinity to catch up on some movies that I have been meaning to see. I sent Katie to the nearest Redbox to pick me up some movies, and we got Rocky Balboa, Casino Royale, and Stranger Than Fiction. I had heard good things about all of these movies and was excited to watch them.

I started with Rocky Balboa. I have been excited to see this one for a long time, and it didn't dissapoint. Even Katie enjoyed it. I got the sense that Stalone was trying to channel the first Rocky a little more (bringing back "little Marie," spending most of the screen time on exploring characters rather than fights, having Rocky flash back to all the good times from the first movie, having Rocky lose the bout but win the battle). I have to admit, as good as the first Rocky was, I missed the formulaic but exilerating plot where Rocky overcomes incredible odds to beat the bad guy. I didn't especially like that Rocky lost the fight in a split decision. I wanted him to knock Mason "the Line" Dixon out. I also didn't like how they tried to make Mason "the Line" Dixon a good guy. Make him a cocky, arrogant punk who needs Rocky to teach him a lesson.

Then I watched Stranger Than Fiction. I thought it was entertaining and fun. I thought Will Ferrel did a nice job making his character so likeable, which had to happen for the story to work.

Finally, I watched Casino Royal. I thought it rocked. It had great action sequences, but you didn't feel like there were so many action sequences that there wasn't any time to develop a plot (or that they were trying mask the lack of a plot). I thought Daniel Craid was an awesome James Bond, way better than Pierce Brosnan. He was everything James Bond should be: tough, cool, simmering, smart-alleckey, etc. I had a hard time believing that he actually let his guard down and fell in love with the accountant, probably because we've seen so many James Bond movies where he gets the girl but he doesn't let his guard down. Still, it was a good flick.

New Camera

Since Grace was born, our picture-taking output has increased exponentially, and I have been dying to get a new camera. We have a great little point-and-shoot camera that does a great job--and I have no room to complain when there are starving children in Africa--but it would kill me when we would miss a great picture because our camera was so slow. We would get Grace to smile for a moment, but by the time the flash geared up and the camera warmed up, the smile was long gone and Grace was looking off elsewhere. It doesn't take the clearest, most colorful pictures either. So, after much longing, much research, and much saving, I finally said goodbye to shutter lag. I bought myself a new digital SLR. I opted for the Nikon d40. And now that I have a nice camera, I imagine I will channel my inner photographer more, which means that I will probably be posting pictures more often on my blog. I hope that will be an improvement. We've tried the camera out a little over the weekend. Here are some of the results.

Curse Bush

I'm posting a link to this great article that appeared in Time magazine last week. It is really interesting and really well-written. It talks about a recent decision by a federal court of appeals (one step below the US Supreme Court). In the case, the FCC had fined a number of stations that aired a live awards show that featured Nichole Richie, among others, using profanity. But the court said that that the fines were unreasonable. In making its decision, the court looked at societal norms and determined that profanity wasn't such an uncommon thing as to warrant these large fines. But the interesting part of the decision was that, in saying that profanity wasn't such a big deal, the court cited to recent profane gaffes by President Bush and Vice President Cheney (hence my clever title to this post). Basically, the court said that if Cheney can drop the F-bomb on the Senate floor, then Nichole Richie can do so on an awards show. The article riffs on the irony of the court's decision to use this administration as an example of profanity and how we can now curse Bush, who won two elections by playing strongly to the morality/family values card, for making it possible for Nichole Richie to drop the F-bomb with impunity.

Real, China, the First Amendment, and International Diplomacy

The other day, I went with my dad to a Real Salt Lake soccer game where they played the Chinese national team. It was a fun game. The weather was a little cool but not too bad. We sat in front of a couple of really funny guys, who kept cracking jokes. Real won on a pretty cool goal (assisted by our friend Chris Brown). But what made the game really interesting was that some of the officials from the Chinese national team stopped the game midway through the second half because some hecklers were waving Tibetan and Taiwanese flags. The Chinese officials threatened to stop the game if the hecklers didn't put away their flags. The hecklers also had Chairman Mao masks and signs that read "Defect Here," but what really made the Chinese officials mad was the flags. Eventually, Real's event staff made it over and made the hecklers put away their flags, but the hecklers weren't happy about it.

It got me thinking about the interrelation between free speech, political protest, and hospitality. I think these guys were just hecklers and weren't necessarily serious about making a political statement, but lets pretend that they were protesting in earnest. Do they have a right to be protesting here? I think they might; its a private sporting event, but its on the campus of a state school (which means the First Amendment might have some teeth). But is this the appropriate forum for them to be protesting in? The Chinese national team was here as our guests. Is it part of our duty as hosts to put aside political protest while they are our guests? I get the sense that its probably bad form to invite guests and to then allow them to be berated. I can see the argument that developing strong relationships with China will allow us to gently advocate, as a friend, for causes that we feel are important and that allowing protests might disrupt that agenda. At the same time, I'm sympathetic to the political causes of Tibet and Taiwan, and I think its a legitimate cause to be protesting. If you were the philosopher-king, and someone came to you and said that some people were going to be at the Real vs. China soccer game waving Tibetan and Taiwanese flags in protest, what would you do? I don't know what I would do. I would be interested to hear from any of you that are interested. It may turn on your diplomatic philosophy.

Anyway, sorry for the stream of consciousness post, but I think this is a pretty interesting question.

Saturday Morning

I took this picture yesterday morning while we were waiting for Katie to get back from her long run (I ran Friday night). When it was about time for Katie to get home, Grace and I went out front to wait for her. Grace played on her blanket while I weeded our front garden and our lawn. Then, we just sat on the blanket and waited for Katie. It was a great morning, and Grace was excited to see Katie running home.

The Best Pizza in Salt Lake?

Thanks to the small business financing power of Keler and Mountain West Small Business Finance, we have a great new pizza shop here in Salt Lake. Word is starting to spread, and word on the street is that it is the best pizza in the city. Better than The Pie, better than Pizza Factory, better than Little Caesars. I had to try it out myself, and, as Katie is a pizza lover as well, we decided to go there for our anneversary. Its called Settebello, and it specializes in authentic Italian pizza. This review by the Salt Lake Tribune's food critic probably says it best. This is real Italian pizza. They cook the pizzas in a wood fire pizza oven that was made in Naples and cooks the pizzas in a minute or two because temperatures hover around 900 degrees. The flour used to make the pizza dough is imported from a famous Italian mill, and many of the ingredients are also imported from Italy and Europe. The dough is covered in crushed tomatoes and olive oil (not tomato sauce) and large chunks of motzarella. Don't come expecting lots of sauce and processed cheese covering every inch of the crust. If you're importing special pizza flour to make the dough, you want people to be able to taste it. I loved my Settebello pizza. It was full of flavor and quality ingredients. Katie doesn't like this kind of pizza as much and would stick with Pizza Factory. My biggest qualm with the restaurant: there's no desert menu.

So, is this the best pizza in Salt Lake? I would say that it is. But I will have to qualify that and say that if you don't like a more authentic Italian style of pizza, then you won't think this is the best. Juddy and I (and whoever else wants to come) are going to try it again on Saturday before the Jazz game, and then he will be able to lend his discerning palatte to the question of whether this is the best pizza Salt Lake has to offer. Stay tuned.

Wheeler Farm

Grandpa would be proud. With Spencer, Allison, and Owen in town, my mom had the great idea of going to Wheeler Farm on Monday night for family night, complete with picnic dinner and frozen twinkies. It was a lot of fun. The farm is a lot smaller than I remember. Grace liked most of the animals (except for the sheep) and even pet a horse. Being there brought back a lot of great memories. Here are a few pictures.

1) Having fun with dad
2) Playing with Grandpa (notice the Aggie headband)
3) Surrounded!
4) Grace loved playing in the chicken coop/playhouse.
5) Grace did not like the sheep.

Marathon Update

Marathon training is in full swing in the Davis household. We ran 10 miles yesterday. That was our first venture into double digits. I don't know how I'm going to do 16 more miles. Katie's dad dropped us off 10 miles up Immigration Canyon, and we ran down. I'm not used to running down hills, so my legs are really sore today, but it feels good. We're right on schedule. Next Saturday: 11 miles.

St. George

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Its been a little crazy around here. One of the things that's kept us so busy was a trip to St. George. It was nice and sunny and a great vacation. We borrowed my dad's camera so that we could get some good pictures, and I think we succeeded.

Book Review: The March

I just finished The March by E.L. Doctorow. I was excited to read it because Ragtime is one of my favorite books, and I really like Doctorow's style. His novels are fictional, but they are often driven by a compelling historical setting (the early 1900's in Ragtime, and end of the Civil War in The March). He has fictional characters interact with historical characters (often taking a good amount of authorial privilege in representing the historical characters in a way that fits into his fictional narrative). Historians blast him for being historically innacurate, but I never saw where he made any claims to historical authenticity. He is telling a story. He also tells the stories of a fairly large number of vastly different characters whose lives criss-cross within the backdrop of the historical setting. This technique is becoming all the rage in Hollywood right now (think Crash and Babel), but post-modern novelists like Doctorow have been doing it for decades.

Anyway, I really enjoyed The March. Good characters, good stories, interesting historical setting.

The Jackie Chiles Law Society

I wanted to give some props to a new club up at the University of Utah's law school: The Jackie Chiles Law Society. It was started this year by some second year law students, and it has taken the law school by storm. I'm just sorry it wasn't started earlier so that I could have been a part of it. Its named for Jackie Chiles, the hyper-stereotyped attorney on Seinfeld. This is the club's mission statement: "The Jackie Chiles Law Society seeks to analyze America's view of the Law based on how popular culture portrays it. To accomplish this goal, the organization engages legal students, scholars and professionals in meaningful discussion about music, television, movies, and other forms of popular culture that touch on American legal issues." Among other things, they have had criminal law professors deconstruct the trial of Crusty the Clown, they have had one professor talk about Hank Hill's philosophy of federal and administrative law, and they have had an intellectual property professor talk about what we can learn about fair use from Nirvana, Seinfeld, and Uncle Tom's Cabin. But the capstone event was their end-of-year banquet, where Phil Morris, the actor who played Jackie Chiles, was the keynote speaker!

Here's a link to the society's web site. Its actually pretty fun to peruse. They have about 20 officers, including some who are designated experts in certain areas of pop culture (Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Boston Legal, Arrested Development, music, etc.). They also have a video invitation to their end-of-year banquet that is pretty clever.

Their banquet has garnered some media attention. Here's an article about it from the Deseret News, and here's a link to an interview on KCPW (the local NPR affiliate) with the society's founder and with the faculty advisor (the interview is a about 15 minutes long, but its really interesting).

I May Have Missed My Calling in Life

Last Wednesday, Katie and I went to the bakery at Welfare Square to fill a welfare assignment. The bread had already been made earlier that morning by the employees and service missionaries, and it was up to us to slice and bag the bread. I manned the industrial slicing machine. A service missionary fed the bread loaves into the machine, and I worked the pedal that sliced the loaves. After being sliced, the loaf would fall down to me, and I would slide the bread into a bag that was being filled with air by a fan. I would then hand the bagged loaf of bread to Katie, who would make sure I hadn't punctured the bag and then put a twistie-tie on the bag. Slice, bag, pass to Katie, slice, bag, pass to Katie . . . . It was a delicate waltz, and I was Strauss.

I had to leave a little early to get to work, and as I was leaving, another volunteer approached me. He said that he had volunteered at the bakery for years and had never seen someone work the slicer machine so expertly. I may have missed my calling as an industrial machinist.

A Few Thoghts on Writing

One of my judge's favorite quotes on writing is by Elmore Leonard: "I try to leave out the parts that people skip." Its a great quote, and its great advise. I have the good fortune to spend a good portion of every day writing. I write memoranda recommending dispositions on the various cases we hear at the court, and I write drafts of opinions that we publish announcing the results of the case and explaining the law supporting those results. I feel like I have progressed as a writer in my time here at the court.

My judge is an exceptional writer, and I have learned a lot of good things about writing from him. I have learned to leave out the parts that people skip (overwrought "roadmaps"); I have learned not to start a sentence with "however" because it sounds too ponderous; I have learned not to let writing get too easy (in legal writing, there are lots of terms that are so overused that they are almost cliches, like the word "progeny"); and I have learned that it is worth your time to incorporate metaphors and tropes into your writing.

Metaphor and trope is my judge's specialty. He spends a lot of time editing our draft opinions and adding what he calls his "rhetorical flourishes." Here is an excellent example: "Arguments based on symmetry have a superficial appeal because they appear to be linked to equal treatment and thus to fundamental fairness. But more often than not, symmetry is quickly exposed as a false prophet of fairness. This is one such case." State v. Robison, 147 P.3d 448.

Here's to good writing and to all of us continuing our blogging (or starting to blog) as a continued outlet to sharpen our writing skills.

Cheney at BYU

I don't know how many of you have heard this, but Vice President Cheney called BYU and asked if he could speak at their commencement. No other school was willing to take him, but, for some reason, BYU was. I think it is a poor decision that reflects poorly on BYU and on its friends and alumni. Aside from his office, I can't imagine how Vice President Cheney--who, among other things, championed the war in Iraq under questionable terms, awarded no-bid reconstruction contracts to friends and donors, and calls anyone who questions him "unamerican"--could be considered a good commencement speaker.

If you also think that it is a bad idea to have Vice President Cheney speak at BYU's commencement, then you can sign this online petition asking the BYU administration to decline the Vice President's request to speak at commencement. I just signed it, and I was 1,099th to sign. Here was my comment that accompanied my signature: "BYU should respectfully decline Vice President Cheney's request to speak at its commencement exercises. Over the past six years, the Vice President has repeatedly demonstrated political mediocrity and moral flexibility. A commencement speaker should be an enlightening and inspirational figure. I will be sorry if the class of '07 is not afforded that opportunity."

W. Speaks on Global Warming

I'm glad the president finally came out with a statement about global warming. I was beginning to get a little tired of Al Gore's junk science and hypocritical powerpoints.

Basketball Weekend

It was a pretty good weekend of basketball. Here were the highlights for me:

Best game: Texas A&M v. Louisville. This was a real heavyweight battle that felt more like a elite eight or final four game than a second round matchup. Both of these teams were really good, and the entire game was closely contested with each team making one big, clutch play after another. Even with fifteen minutes left in the game, it felt like every shot/play was huge.

Best moment: When the little point guard from VCU, who had been getting into it a little bit with Duke's annoying point guard Greg Paulus, took over in the final few minutes and lead VCU to victory. After he hit the game-winning shot over Paulus with one second left, he just stared Paulus down. It was great seeing the Dukies go down hard.

Most disappointing game: BYU v. Xavier. BYU blew it. BYU had its best team in years, and it had several solid leads throughout the game. But it gave the game away. See Jayme's post.

My bracket: this is one of the best brackets I've had in years, probably because of the real dearth of major upsets. For the first time that I can remember, the two teams that I picked to be in the championship game are still alive, although I'm starting to second-guess my Texas A&M pick (they are playing great ball, and I really like their team, but I think they have the hardest road to the final four than anyone).

March Madness

Let the madness begin. I can't wait for tomorrow. I have carefully deliberated my bracket picks, trying to pick the right upsets and to predict the ultimate champion. Here's a brief summary:

My final four picks: Florida, Kansas, Georgetown, and Texas A&M (I have Kansas beating Texas A&M in the final).

Upset specials: in my most daring upset special, I picked Texas A&M Corpus Christie to upset Wisconsin (sorry Cblakes). I will either look like a total genius or a total idiot on this one. A&M Corpus Christie beat Northwestern State in their conference tournament final to get their bid, and I really like Northwestern State (they played Utah State really close last year, I picked them as an upset special in last year's tournament and they came through with a win over 2-seed Ohio State, and they destroyed Utah State this year). So I've got a good feeling about them. I also picked Winthrop over Notre Dame (a common pick), VCU over Duke (another common pick), and Albany over Virginia (Albany beat Utah, Utah beat Virginia, therefore Albany must beat Virginia, right?).

Helping Hippies

Sorry to post about another Utah Supreme Court opinion, but I'm pretty proud of this one. We worked pretty hard on it. It provides protection for pot smokers everywhere. You should all be proud. Its a pretty accessible opinion, so even you non-lawyer types would probably enjoy reading it. But if you don't want to wade through the opinion, here's a link to an article on the opinion from the Salt Lake Tribune.

Staying on the topic of helping hippies, I went to a pretty interesting place for lunch today. Its called One World, and its like stepping into Haight-Ashbury circa mid-1960s. The restaurant is based on two core philosophies: everybody eats and eliminate waste. There are no set prices for the food; you pay what you feel the food is worth, based on what and how much you eat. If you can't afford to pay what you feel the food is worth, then you can work for them for an hour to pay for your meal. Also, they have some rice and beans up front that is always free for whoever wants to eat it.

To eliminate waste, they don't have any serving sizes. You ask for as much as you think you will eat, and they ask that you eat it. You can always come back for more if you want more. And when you clear your dishes, you clear the food that you haven't eaten into a compost bin.

The atmosphere is also very unique. The employees--all first or second generation hippies--are extremely nice and helpful. There is a selection of soups, salads, and vegetables with ample vegan and vegetarian samplings (if there was meat on the premises, I couldn't find it). The dishes and silverware are all of the mix-matched, thrift store variety. The decor is equally eclectic and likely taken from various thrift stores. Instead of one large eating area, there are several separate rooms with comfortable seating arrangements.

The philosophy behind the place is actually really cool. I had some black bean soup. It had black beans and some other organic-looking things floating around in there. They kind of looked like the mosquito larvae that would sometimes end up in your water cup in Argentina. It was pretty bland. They should have found some organic peppers to spice it up a little. I also had a mixed green salad, and a carrot salad with some organic yeast something-or-other. It was ok. If the food weren't so bland and meatless, I would probably go there more often.

Anneversary

Musingian celebrated its one year anneversary on Saturday (March 3). Its been a fun year, and its been fun being a blogger. Here's what I love about blogging:

Interacting with family and friends on an almost daily basis
Being able to brag about Katie and Grace
Keeping a journal-like record of what's going on in my life
Discussing interesting and important social topics
Recording past memories
The self-satisfaction that comes from making a clever joke or writing a good sentence.
Keeping up my writing skills
Getting excited when a post generates good discussion
Opening my blog to find that a new comment has been posted
Linking with blogs of friends and family
Coming up with new ideas for blog posts
Seeing that people from all over the world have visited my blog
Seing my blog's readership consistently increase

Thanks for visiting my blog and for commenting often. Here's to another year of blogging.

New Vocabulary

I saw a cool special on some evening news show that was talking about the power of YouTube and how people are using it to launch themselves into stardom outside of the normal channels of distribution. It seemed like everyone was using one word to describe it: viral. I thought that was a really cool use of the word (sorry, I am a nerd and I do think about cool word usage). They used it to describe the phenomenon of how a video will get passed on from email to email and gets linked from blog to blog and will cover the world in a matter of days. So if you put a video on YouTube that becomes really popular and people get it passed to them in an email and then they pass it on themselves, then your video "goes viral," analogizing, of course, to computer viruses sent over the world through email, etc.

Here's a good example. The tv special highlighted the music group OK Go and how they used YouTube to launch their music career. They had been around for a while and had a funny video that one of the band members sisters had choreographed. That video had been somewhat popular on YouTube, but then they came out with the song "Here It Goes Again," and they got the same bandmember's sister to choreograph their video for that song. She had the idea of doing a dance on treadmills. They did it, and the video went viral. Many of you have probably already seen it. The video has almost 12 million hits on YouTube, the group performed their song and dance on the MTV Video Music Awards, they have sold tons of records, Nike has a marketing campaign using their song, and now there's a supermarket comercial copying the video using the checkout belts instead of treadmills. Anyway, I thought the use of "viral" was interesting and worthy of Musingian's attention(I'm referring to the blog, not to myself in third person).

Interesting Decision by the Utah Supreme Court

Fairly regularly, there are some really interesting and important cases up at the Utah Supreme Court. Jones v. Barlow is one of them. In the case, a lesbian couple decided to have a child together. They did everything they could to approximate the family relationship (civil union, etc.). But after a few years, the birth mother decided she didn't want to practice that lifestyle any more and removed her daughter from the situation. The non-birth mother wants visitation rights, but the birth mother doesn't want that to happen. This case is about whether the non-birth mother has standing to petition for visitation--i.e., whether the non-birth mother has a legal right to ask a court for visitation. The Utah Supreme Court held that the non-birth mother didn't have a legally-recognized relationship with the child and it declined to create such a right on its own. Chief Justice Durham dissented, arguing that the court should have created such a right on its own. Here's an article from the Salt Lake Tribune about the case. I think its a poor article. The reporter wasn't able to see through the parties' rhetoric to the actual substance of the opinion. Here's a link to the article. And if you're interested enough to read the actual opinion, here it is.

Mozzarella & Basil Stuffed Chicken

I got a few requests for the recipe for the meal I fixed for Katie for our early Valentine's. It was easy to make and quite tasty. Katie and I both highly recommend it. Thanks to the good folks at America's Test Kitchen, here's the recipe:

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup minced fresh basil [I just used dried basil]
2 T. heavy cream [I substituted milk]
1 T. lemon juice
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 T. Mayonaise
1 cup fresh bread crumbs [I choped up a couple pieces of bread in the food processor, but you could just buy the bread crumbs]
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine cheese, 2 T. of basil, cream, lemon juice, 2 tsp. garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste [adding the cream or milk to the store-bought mozzarella is supposed to bring out more of an authentic, dairy-like flavor in the cheese].
2. Cut pocket in [in the thickest part of the ] chicken breasts [because there's no marinade, the chicken gets a lot of the flavor from this stuffing, so make sure the pocket you cut goes deep into the chicken breast], stuff with cheese mixture, and seal [with toothpicks]. Transfer stuffed breasts to 13 by 9-inch baking dish and spread tops evenly with mayonnaise [the mayonnaise is just there to make the bread crumbs stick, so you don't need much].
3. Combine bread crumbs, remaining garlic, remaining 2 T. of basil, and 1 T of oil [I used a little more oil]. Sprinkle crumb mixture over chicken, pressing lightly to adhere.
4. Toss tomatoes with remaining tablespoon oil [I used more oil here, too. I think if it were summer and the tomatoes were a little more juicy, you wouldn't need as much oil because you would have more tomato juice], 1/2 tsp. salt, and pepper to taste. Arrange in baking dish around chicken. Bake until crumbs are golden brown and thickest part of chicken registered 160 degrees on instant-read thermometer, about 25 minutes [I only had two really thick chicken breasts, so I cooked the chicken for a little longer; I covered the chicken with tin foil for the first 10-15 minutes, so I wouldn't burn the bread crumbs and the tomatoes, then I took the tin foil off and baked the chicken for another 25 minutes]. Serve.

Book/Play Review: Arcadia

I got a collection of Tom Stoppard's plays for Christmas (cleverly titled 5 Plays). On Christmas night, I took the collection with me up to Katie's family cabin up at Alta, and I read the entire first play, Arcadia, the next day. It was phenomenal. Sometimes plays are hard to read, and understandably so since they are written to be seen. But this play was a delight to read. It reminded me a lot of Oscar Wilde's plays. Like Wilde, Stoppard continuously plays with words through puns, double entendre, and other wordplay. But while Wilde's plays are playful and farcical, this play is playful, farcical, and philosophical. Stoppard incorporates and plays with theories from math, history, psychology, literature, and landscape architecture to explore themes about the meaning of history, what motivates us to act, and the determinability of the present, and it is all fascinating (you would think that a play that dives into a little basic calculus would be terribly boring, but you would be wrong).

The play itself takes place in a single house/estate in England, but it switches back and forth in time from the present to the early 1800's (in the heart of the English Romanticism period). Some of the characters in the present are academics trying to uncover what happened in the early 1800's in a series of events involving Lord Byron. And in the scenes set in the early 1800's, we see what really happened. Think Possession by A.S. Byatt but funny. It is quite funny and quite brilliant.

A note on Stoppard: he has written a number of plays, many of which are supposed to be as fantastic as Arcadia, but he has also done some screenwriting. He won an Academy Award for screenwriting for Shakespeare in Love. And he is rumored to have assisted George Lukas to polish up the dialogue in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (which I could believe because the dialogue is quite good) and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (which I can't believe because the dialogue, although improved from Episode I and II, is still terrible). He is currently working on The Bourne Ultimatum.

I highly recommend picking up Arcadia or another of Stoppard's well-regarded plays.

Mesa Falls Marathon

Yes, that's right. I have resolved to run a marathon. I have always wanted to run a marathon. I remember when I was quite young my Uncle Cory was training for a marathon (I believe; my memories of my childhood are far from perfect), and I thought it was really cool. Since then, I have always admired people who ran marathons. My resolve to run one strengthened at BYU when one of my roommates ran the St. George. We lived together over the summer, so we saw how hard he trained. After the race, he couldn't stop raving about what an awesome experience it was to finish the marathon. Ever since then, I really wanted to do one, and I added it to my list of 100 things to do before I die. I did a few minor biathalons (swimming and running) while at BYU, but I have never been able to fully gear up for a marathon. I have always had a good excuse: I refused to run in the winter (I still stand by this one), I was studying for the bar, I was too busy with work and school, I didn't have an iPod, etc. But circumstances have lined up this summer in a way that has melted away all of my previous excuses: I won't have to train in the winter to run a late summer marathon, I don't have school, I have a flexible job, and I have an iPod. I figure its now or never, so lets get it on.

I decided to run the Mesa Falls Marathon. It is a small marathon, but it is supposed to be an absolutely beautiful and well-organized race. It is a late August run that is mostly downhill. It starts on a Targhee National Forrest park road and works its way down towards Ashton, Idaho. Along the way, there are amazing views of Targhee, the Tetons, the Warm River, and Lower Mesa Falls on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River. Ashton is about 40 minutes from West Yellowstone, so I am planning on spending a few days before the race exploring the area. It will be a great time (aside from the excruciating pain often suffered by marathon runners).

I am excited to run it and am recruiting other participants (one of the interns from our court's chambers has already joined with me because he is from Ashton). There is strength in numbers, so you are all welcome to join in our training. There is also a half marathon for those of you who don't want to do the full marathon. And, of course, even if you don't want to run, you can come explore Yellowstone with us and then fish or sleep or something while we are running.

To My Fellow Bloggers

More and more of my friends and family are joining the blogosphere (Chantalle being the most recent, but hopefully not the last), and I think it is awesome. It is such a great way to share pictures, to keep up to date with people's lives, to keep up on our writing skills, and to engage in witty banter among friends.

I would like to recomment Google Analytics to all of my fellow bloggers. It is a cool program that tracks the visits to your blog. The coolest feature (at least for me) is that it has a big map of the world, and it shows where the people visiting your blog are visiting from. Just this week, I got a hit from the Philipines, which was a first. I have had hits from Spain, England, Sweden, Argentina, and Mexico, along with many others from across the United States. Its amazing how easy it is to connect with people all over the world.

Google Analytics also tracks how many visits you have had in the past week (I get about 75 per week, many of which are probably my own hits). And it will tell you what search terms people have used to find your site (my post about midevil names has garnered the most search engine attention by far, with many people searching for midevil name ideas (I'm glad we offered up some good ones)).

Its really easy to install, and I think its a fun little thing to keep track of. Enjoy.

Pilgrimage

As the only member of the family (that I know of) to have made a pilgrimage to the land of our fathers, I feel an obligation to share my experiences. For those readers who are not family members, you probably already guessed this (based on my feather-light feet, my antelope-like quickness, and my keen hunting instincts), but I am part Native American. Yes, it is true. My family descends from the Indian princess Pocahontas, daughter of the great chief Powhatan. We have suffered some persecution because of this noble ancestry. When Amber told her elementary school teacher that she was related to Pocahontas, her teacher ridiculed her, and, since that scarring incident, Amber has ridiculed the rest of us for our 'foolish belief in the traditions of our fathers.' Still, many of us remain proud of our noble heritage.


A couple of summers ago, I went with Katie's family to the D.C./Williamsburg area, as Katie's dad had some meetings back there. We saw the sights in D.C. and spent a day in Williamsburg (which is one of the coolest places I've been). But we also went to Jamestown, the first successful settlement in the New World. It was there that our noble grandmother pled wither her father, the great Chief Powhatan, to spare the lives of the settlers. It is beautiful country. The marsh grass is green, and the trees are as ancient as the stars. I can only imagine how beautiful it was before the white man scarred the land with his buildings made of stone and steel. It had a familiar feeling, like a place you would go to in a vision quest. It felt like coming home, and I felt my blood running strong that day, like a herd of bison.


We heard the tour guide speak of the hardships suffered by the settlers. There was a statue of Pocahontas that had been erected in her honor. I had to laugh that the white man chose to memorialize her with cold, hard materials (the same cold, hard materials that they had used to drive the Native Americans from their native lands). Still, I appreciated the gesture of the statute, and I paid homage to these great people, my ancestors.


But what may have been most rewarding was the validation of my family's claim to being descendants of this great tribe. Next to the statue, there was a sign describing Pocahontas' life. It explains her intercession between the settlers and her father, her marriage to John Rolfe, her trip to England, her return back to America, the death of her only daughter, and the survival of her only son. The sign concludes by noting that many Americans claim to descend from Pocahontas through this son. I interpreted this to mean that my family's claim was not some romantic dream created to excite the imagination of the children in the family, but a legitimate ancestral claim.

Book/DVD Exchange for Christmas '06

Amber's book recommendation in her comment on my last post gave me this idea. Because my family didn't get to do our book exchange this year at Christmas, I would like to do one here. Every year, on my mom's side of the family, we get together on Christmas Eve (attendance has grown more and more scarce as we have married and have other families to visit, but it still generally happens). Part of our Christmas party is a spin on the white elephant game. We basically use the rules of the white elephant game, but instead of bringing a gag gift, we bring one of our favorite books or movies. It can be one or our all-time favorite books/movies or it can just be one of our favorites out of the books/movies we have read/seen in the past year. It is quite fun, and we all walk away with a cool new book/DVD and lots of other ideas for good books to read.

So, because we didn't get to do our book exchange this year, I would ask everyone to comment and suggest a few books/movies.

I will start. I would probably bring the play Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. It is absolutely brilliant! I finished it just after Christmas, and I haven't gotten around to reviewing it here yet; stay tuned for that. I might also recommend Elder Maxwell's biography, which is very interesting and well-written (a major plus, since many biographies about LDS leaders aren't very well-written, I feel). I also liked All Over But the Shoutin', which I reviewed here. As for movies, I really liked The Prestige, although I am not very qualified to give movie recommendations because I haven't seen hardly any since Grace was born.

Book Review: Cities of the Plain

If there is a better living American author out there, I would like to know about him or her. Cormac McCarthy is just so good. Cities of the Plain is the third title in his Border Trilogy and is equally good as the first two books in series, All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing. As with the first two novels, you have a story set in the Southwest, near the Mexican border, where underspoken cowboys live in a changing world that is starting to phase them out. You also have McCarthy's standards: excuisite writing, a blind sage, brutal fights, and interesting asides into philosphy. This book brings together the main characters from the first two books--John Grady Cole from All the Pretty Horses and Billy Parham from The Crossing. John Grady falls in love with a young Mexican prostitute, who he wants to marry and bring back to the United States. He must wrest her away from her Mexican owner/pimp, however, which is not a rosy proposition. The story and the dialogue are always deceptively simple but endlessly interesting. I would love to read some literary criticism on McCarthy's novels because you always get the sense that there is more there than what you can get out of it on the first read.

In related news, McCarthy just came out with a new book called The Road, which is supposed to be awesome. We got it for Spencer for Christmas, so he'll have to let us know what he thinks of it.

State v. Bradshaw

The first opinion that I did a lot of the work on, State v. Bradshaw, just got published (here's a pdf viewable online if you're interested: www.utcourts.gov/opinions/supopin/Bradshaw2122906.pdf). I wrote a couple of early drafts. Then Justice Nehring did some substantial editing. Then I did another strong edit or two, and it was ready to go (after being read and edited by the other Justices and law clerks at the court). Its a criminal case involving the Utah communications fraud statute. We had to define what a "scheme or artifice" was a little better. I have to be careful about what I say about it, so I'll just let the opinion speak for itself. Its a fairly interesting case. We've got some more interesting cases coming down the pipeline here soon, so I'll let you know when those come out.