Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 8

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_Kishkumen
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Re: Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 5

Post by _Kishkumen »

Philo Sofee wrote:Has the Interpreter given anything worthy of note to the subject of Mormon Studies as a scholarly venue? Just curious. One rarely reads about what it says from others anywhere else on the internet other than here to note its rather blase kind of thinking and repeating of wornout apologetic interpretations which have been given out for decades and is decidedly not convincing much.


OK, so, if we move past our understandable conflict with DCP, which you and I indulge in, as does he, I think it is a little unfair of us to pile on the entire Interpreter indiscriminately. I know that Don Bradley, one of the best living Mormon historians, reads the writings of LDS apologists, Interpreter folk, etc. Even if you and I completely disagree with their methodology, there can be something of value in a thoughtful and close reading of a text. Something an author says may inspire something completely different in you.

My principal objection about the classic-FARMS legacy is not its imaginative scholarship but its polemics against fellow LDS people, and unfair polemics against others.

I'm just not supportive of LDS polemics.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
_Tom
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Re: Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 5

Post by _Tom »

Let me be the first person to wish a very happy birthday to the Interpreter Foundation. Now, I've heard rumors of recent budget cuts at the Foundation due to spiraling expenses associated with supporting Royal Skousen's Critical Text Project. But tomorrow night will be a wonderful opportunity to let one's hair down at the Foundation's annual intimate gathering. Officers, volunteers, and friends of the Foundation will enjoy unlimited soup, candle salad (church-approved recipe here), and nutraloaf, as well as bottomless Tang and Postum--all within the confines of the historic annex of the Garfield County (Utah) Jail in Panguitch. After-dinner entertainment will include two scheduled three-round scraps: one between Dr. Louis Midgley and the one and only Gemli, who plans to attend as Dr. Midgley's guest, and one between Brant Gardner and Stanford Carmack (there's some serious bad blood between the two). I trust that a great time will be had by all.

In honor of the Interpreter Foundation's sixth birthday, I present some statistics for August 4, 2017-August 3, 2018 (last year's numbers are shown in parentheses):

59 (54): number of articles published in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture (IJMS) in the past year.

31 (28): number of articles written by individuals affiliated with the Interpreter Foundation. These 31 articles represent 53% (52%) of the articles published in IJMS in the past year.

12: total number of articles published in IJMS by Matthew Bowen and Jeff Lindsay in the past year. These 12 articles represent 20% of the total number of articles published in IJMS in the past year.

5 (4): number of articles published by women in IJMS in the past year. These articles represent 8% (7.4%) of the total number of articles published in the past year.

40 (35): number of authors published in IJMS in the past year.

14 (14): number of authors published in IJMS in the past year who are affiliated with the Foundation. These authors represent 35% (40%) of the authors published in the past year.

5 (4): number of authors published in IJMS in the past year who are women. This number represents 13% (11.4%) of the total number of authors published in the past year.

1: number of women who serve on the Foundation's 15-member executive board. This number represents 6.7% of the total number of executive board members.

0: number of women who serve on the Foundation's 13-member board of editors.

3: number of women who serve as contributing editors for the Foundation (out of 16 contributing editors).

Congratulations to the Foundation on another successful year!
Last edited by Guest on Sat Aug 04, 2018 7:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“A scholar said he could not read the Book of Mormon, so we shouldn’t be shocked that scholars say the papyri don’t translate and/or relate to the Book of Abraham. Doesn’t change anything. It’s ancient and historical.” ~ Hanna Seariac
_Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 6

Post by _Everybody Wang Chung »

1: number of women who serve on the Foundation's 15-member executive board. This number represents 6.7% of the total number of executive board members.

0: number of women who serve on the Foundation's 13-member board of editors.

3: number of women who serve as contributing editors for the Foundation (out of 16 contributing editors).


Thanks Tom.

Mopologists chowing down "candle salads" and the almost complete exclusion of women? The only thing that could make this party more gay would be if the Village People performed, or if Stephen Smoot was the emcee.

There's a lot of homoerotic undertones with the Interpreter lately. It's no wonder their funding is slowly being cut off.
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."

Daniel C. Peterson, 2014
_Gadianton
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Re: Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 6

Post by _Gadianton »

There's a lot of homoerotic undertones with the Interpreter lately.

Yeah no kidding. And the problem is, that the Brethren aren't getting all hot and bothered over this, and are likely to shut it down at some point.
Lou Midgley 08/20/2020: "...meat wad," and "cockroach" are pithy descriptions of human beings used by gemli? They were not fashioned by Professor Peterson.

LM 11/23/2018: one can explain away the soul of human beings...as...a Meat Unit, to use Professor Peterson's clever derogatory description of gemli's ideology.
_Tom
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Re: Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 6

Post by _Tom »

I am really looking forward to the Interpreter Foundation's birthday dinner at Chuck-A-Rama this coming Saturday evening--especially since Saturday happens to be “Italian Day” at all Chuck-A-Rama locations. Italian Day, I warmly recall, means endless plates of sumptuous spaghetti and meatballs, manicotti, and some of the best fried shrimp and fried coconut shrimp you’ve ever munched on. For $12.99, Interpreter’s officers, volunteers, and friends can also feast on such delicious regular-menu delights as acini de pepe salad (a.k.a. frog eye salad), chiffon Jello, lime Jello, sticky buns, scones (my personal favorite), hot legs, dutch oven-baked pizza, and carved turkey, ham, and roast beef. Guests will enjoy an unobstructed view of I-15 while dining.

The evening's centerpiece will undoubtedly be Dr. Peterson’s much-anticipated annual State of the Foundation address, followed by an open-mic airing of grievances toward the Maxwell Institute and feats of strength by Dr. Midgley. Also part of the celebration will be Asherah pole dancing and the recounting of additional correspondences between The Maya and the Book of Mormon by Drs. Dale ("IT'S A MIRACLE!"). Great fun.

Note: depending on the amount of applause and peer review, Dr. Peterson’s address should last 2-5 hours. Allen Wyatt is the designated survivor, so he will have to miss the party and thus will be unavailable to sign printed copies of Interpreter. Dr. Peterson is expected to invite his esteemed academic colleagues Dr. Dre, Dr. Demento, Dr. Kildare, Doc Savage, Dr. Detroit, Dr. Giggles, Dr. Hamburglar, Dr. OMG, Dr. Phil, Professor Lemming, and Professor Sham Wow to attend the dinner as his special guests.

In honor of the Interpreter Foundation's seventh birthday, here are some statistics for August 4, 2018-August 3, 2019 (last year's numbers are shown in parentheses):

56 (59): number of articles published in Interpreter in the past year.

29 (31): number of articles authored or co-authored by individuals affiliated with the Interpreter Foundation. These 29 articles represent 52% (53%) of the articles published in Interpreter in the past year. As far as I can tell, at least 50% of the articles published in Interpreter since the journal's founding have been written by Foundation affiliates (officers, board members, and other volunteers).

5: number of articles published by Matthew Bowen in the past year. These five articles represent 8.9% of the total number of articles published in Interpreter in the past year. If I'm not mistaken, Dr. Bowen has now authored or coauthored 35 articles published in Interpreter.

4 (5): number of articles authored or co-authored by women published in Interpreter in the past year. These articles represent 7% (8%) of the total number of articles published in Interpreter in the past year.

45 (40): number of authors published in Interpreter in the past year.

15 (14): number of authors published in Interpreter in the past year who are affiliated with the Foundation. These authors represent 33% (35%) of the authors published in the past year.

4 (5): number of authors published in Interpreter in the past year who are women. Women represent 8.9% (13%) of the authors published in the past year.

0: number of women who serve on the Foundation’s five-member board of trustees.

2: number of women who serve on the Foundation's "Management" level.

0: number of women who serve on the Foundation's eight-member board of advisors.

0: number of women who serve on the Foundation’s ten-member board of editors.

3: number of women who serve as contributing editors for the Foundation (out of 9 contributing editors).

Congratulations to the Foundation on a great year!
Last edited by Guest on Fri Aug 28, 2020 4:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“A scholar said he could not read the Book of Mormon, so we shouldn’t be shocked that scholars say the papyri don’t translate and/or relate to the Book of Abraham. Doesn’t change anything. It’s ancient and historical.” ~ Hanna Seariac
_Dr. Shades
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Re: Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 6

Post by _Dr. Shades »

Tom wrote:Dr. Peterson is expected to invite his esteemed academic colleagues Dr. Dre, Dr. Demento, Dr. Kildare, Doc Savage, Dr. Detroit, Dr. Giggles, Dr. Hamburglar, Dr. OMG, Dr. Phil, Professor Lemming, and Professor Sham Wow to attend the dinner as his special guests.

And I can't tell you how disappointed I am to have not made the cut.
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"

--Louis Midgley
_Tom
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Re: Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 6

Post by _Tom »

Dr. Shades wrote:
Tom wrote:Dr. Peterson is expected to invite his esteemed academic colleagues Dr. Dre, Dr. Demento, Dr. Kildare, Doc Savage, Dr. Detroit, Dr. Giggles, Dr. Hamburglar, Dr. OMG, Dr. Phil, Professor Lemming, and Professor Sham Wow to attend the dinner as his special guests.

And I can't tell you how disappointed I am to have not made the cut.

I got you. There’s an open seat at the top level of the tiered dais, directly behind Dr. Peterson. And I suspect he’ll pull up an extra chair at the head table for you during the evening’s dinner hour.
“A scholar said he could not read the Book of Mormon, so we shouldn’t be shocked that scholars say the papyri don’t translate and/or relate to the Book of Abraham. Doesn’t change anything. It’s ancient and historical.” ~ Hanna Seariac
_kairos
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Re: Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 7

Post by _kairos »

As part of the festivities Woody will don the gloves in 1 round winner take all against "poor" gemli who was invited through the yes and no blog but who will probably not show,so Woody will fight the Biggest waiter at the event- he has promised Dan he will "whip that sucker's ass" whether the waiter is male or female, gay, straight or trans. The waiter is being enticed to fight by the generous offer of a lifetime subscription to The Interpreter- so who could turn that down?

:rolleyes:

Just musin
k
_Tom
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Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 8

Post by _Tom »

It's time once again to reflect back on another year in the Interpreter Foundation's august history. With the pandemic in full force, the Foundation's many officers, volunteers, and friends were unable to gather in Utah this year to celebrate. However, I did join a Zoom party with a number of faithful volunteers and friends a few weeks ago.

The evening opened with the screening of several clips from Witnesses, including heretofore unseen clips of Martin Harris walking two or three miles in the company of Deer Jesus and Harris conversing with the Devil, whom Harris described as a very sleek-haired fellow with four feet, and a head like that of a jackass. I can report much laughter and merriment while participants watched those particular scenes.

Next, we played a festive game of bingo using cards featuring excerpts from SeN. Card entries included: "an incomplete manuscript of mine," "scientism," "scientific naturalism," "Darwinism," "This seemed to me a clear case of water witching, or divining, or 'dowsing,'" "a predominantly atheistic ex-Mormon message board," "Christopher Hitchens Memorial 'How Religion Poisons Everything' File," "I've paid very little attention to Jonathan Neville," "I continue chugging along with my manuscript on Islam for Latter-day Saints," "Cruise Lady," and "I’ve always been for full disclosure." There was one catch: every time a player marked his or her card, he or she had to do a Fresca shot.

At the end of the night, we voted for Interpreter's worst article of the past year. Not surprisingly, Susan Easton Black's book review came in first and John Gee's "Four Idolatrous Gods in the Book of Abraham" ("The odds of Joseph Smith guessing the names correctly is astronomical") came in second.

Now for the Interpreter stats for August 4, 2019-August 3, 2020, expertly collected by the Relief Society sister in Parowan:

75: number of articles published in Interpreter. This year's number was padded with some reprinted articles and a volume devoted to publishing a book by Brant Gardner in serial installments. (Note: the serial installments of Gardner's book were counted as articles for our purposes.)

35: number of articles authored or co-authored by individuals affiliated with the Interpreter Foundation. These 35 articles represent 47% of the articles published in Interpreter.

5: number of articles authored or co-authored by women. These articles represent 7% of the total number of articles published in Interpreter.

57: number of different authors published in Interpreter.

17: number of authors published in Interpreter who are affiliated with the Foundation. These authors represent 30% of the authors published in the past 12 months.

5: number of authors published in Interpreter who are women. Women represent 9% of the authors published.

Congratulations to the Interpreter Foundation on another great year!
“A scholar said he could not read the Book of Mormon, so we shouldn’t be shocked that scholars say the papyri don’t translate and/or relate to the Book of Abraham. Doesn’t change anything. It’s ancient and historical.” ~ Hanna Seariac
_Lemmie
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Re: Millstones Along the Way: Interpreter Foundation Turns 8

Post by _Lemmie »

Awesome, Tom! Obviously we missed a great party!

by the way, you should get yourself about to [Sorry, that’s my 16th century self poking through. Down committee, down!] ponderizing how to monetize this game:

Next, we played a festive game of bingo using cards featuring excerpts from Sic et Non. Card entries included: "an incomplete manuscript of mine," "scientism," "scientific naturalism," "Darwinism," "This seemed to me a clear case of water witching, or divining, or 'dowsing,'" "a predominantly atheistic ex-Mormon message board," "Christopher Hitchens Memorial 'How Religion Poisons Everything' File," "I've paid very little attention to Jonathan Neville," "I continue chugging along with my manuscript on Islam for Latter-day Saints," "Cruise Lady," and "I’ve always been for full disclosure." There was one catch: every time a player marked his or her card, he or she had to do a Fresca shot.
There’s goodly money to be made!
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