come, listen

My favorites from last General Conference:
- Joseph B. Wirthlin talking about his daughter's blind date and how his family's sense of good humor was an important tool in raising his children (that is/was also true in my family).
- Dieter F. Uchtdorf's message about hope (one can always use a good message about hope).

How do you and your family prepare?

It's that time of year... (a rebuttal)

...when I'm grading stacks and stacks of papers and final exams about world history and not missing teaching because I'm endlessly reading the dumb stuff that college-age kids, who ought to know better, are saying. Below are a few of my favorite comments--all from one stellar paper--but let me preface them with an apology to every Canadian ever:

"From my knowledge I do not know if Canada has done anything that had a great impact in the world, in which its history should be recognized."

"Even for me, someone who knows nothing about Canada and does not know the different provinces except Toronto...."

"Me as a U.S. citizen would go;"

"By studying environmental history we can predict the future."

It's that time of year...

... where I (simultaneously) miss teaching all the time and wish I could be back in the classroom AND really don't miss that long stretch of March where the kiddos are absolutely nuts and there are few holidays in sight. Maybe that's just three career days talking!

Apparently my friends are also feeling a little introspective about the profession:
Flemsta
Ms. Houston

I am going to clean my house and craft additional entries to their lists.

Follow the Prophet...or else?

I read a lot of random stuff in graduate school. Studying the Middle East pretty much ensures that but I'm convinced that most grad students are forced to absorb bizarre, useless information regardless of their field of study. This week I stumbled upon what is perhaps my all-time favorite tidbit of random knowledge.

I am studying Spanish history right now, especially the roughly 700 years (711-1492 A.D.) when Muslims ruled portions of Iberia. My professor wanted me to read about the treatment of Muslim heretics.

This is what I learned:

"In case of necessity, some jurists allowed the killing of religious deviants and rebels and eating them."

Eating them? In case of necessity? When it is ever NECESSARY to eat a heretic? If you're the Donner Party, lost and dying of starvation in the wilderness, far be it from me to judge you for cannibalism, but eating heretics? In Spain? For real?

Here's the full reference so you know I'm not making this stuff up: Maribel Fierro, "Religious Dissension in al-Andalus," Al-Qantara 22 (2001): 475.

The lesson here: follow the Prophet.