Monetize ponderize

[_Gadianton]

Ha. Well, in a certain person's defense, he has made millions of dollars with his words, and is as highly respected by non-lds ass-kissers in the business world as he is Mormons.

I assume "synergize" (spell check didn't trip) comes from "energize" and I'll admit, it has a certain ring to it and is self-explanatory. I would wear a "synergize" t-shirt in public long before I'd wear a "ponderize" t-shirt, even though it would be embarrassing to wear a "synergize" t-shirt. Ponderize doesn't sound right to me. Honestly, I don't even know what it means, it just sounds stupid. If I read the talk I'm sure I can figure it out.

Do you have any linguistic insights on this word?

[_moksha]

Intimidated by very large shrimp? You can free yourself of that anxiety by getting our new Prawnderizer mallet. Flatten out those fearful critters then simply dip them if tempura batter and fry in the wok. All necessary ingredient from your friends at the Deseret Book Emporium.

[_Manetho]

Ha. Well, in a certain person's defense, he has made millions of dollars with his words, and is as highly respected by non-lds ass-kissers in the business world as he is Mormons.

I assume "synergize" (spell check didn't trip) comes from "energize" and I'll admit, it has a certain ring to it and is self-explanatory. I would wear a "synergize" t-shirt in public long before I'd wear a "ponderize" t-shirt, even though it would be embarrassing to wear a "synergize" t-shirt. Ponderize doesn't sound right to me. Honestly, I don't even know what it means, it just sounds stupid. If I read the talk I'm sure I can figure it out.

Do you have any linguistic insights on this word?

I suppose the reason it sounds stupid is that the "-ize" suffix makes it look like a noun converted into a verb, in the same way that "synergize" and "energize," as well as many other words using the suffix, are created from nouns. "Ponder," of course, is already a verb, so the suffix just feels redundant.

Apparently the word is meant to be a portmanteau of "ponder" and "memorize." In most portmanteau words, the component words are recognizable, but that's not true with "ponderize" because the part that comes from "memorize" just reads as a common suffix.

[_Mayan Elephant]

Intimidated by very large shrimp? You can free yourself of that anxiety by getting our new Prawnderizer mallet. Flatten out those fearful critters then simply dip them if tempura batter and fry in the wok. All necessary ingredient from your friends at the Deseret Book Emporium.

in the meantime, i will ponder thighs.

[_I have a question]

on a Sunday no less!

ouch -- I didn't think about that.

There has been a massive push recently by the General Authorities of the Church to encourage members to keep the Sabbath Day more holy.

SALT LAKE CITY — In recent months, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have encouraged members to strive for more meaningful sacrament meetings and improve their overall observance of the Sabbath Day.

That theme continued in the talks of various speakers at the church's 185th Semiannual General Conference over the weekend.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8656 ... tml?pg=all

Elder Ballard emphasised the point to the members of South Utah in his recent chastisement of them.

“Because I am unable to personally meet with all of you in your 235 stakes where you are gathered in your many chapels, I'm giving to you my own epistle today to express my love and gratitude and to provide you some specific counsel,” said Elder Ballard.

He compared the Church in Utah to a heart of the Church body throughout the world. Elder Ballard said, “The Saints in Utah help pump gospel truths through the entire world — giving the members important spiritual oxygen and essential nutrients.”

These habits include daily prayer, fasting, studying the scriptures and the words of the living prophets, keeping the Sabbath day holy, partaking of the sacrament, worshiping in the temple often and reaching out to the needy, poor and lonely.

Elder Ballard then placed the General Authorities of the Church on a pedestal...

“Another concern I have is you live so close to Church headquarters that some of you may have become casual in listening to the Lord's servants,” Elder Ballard said. An effect of this attitude is choosing to miss sessions of stake and general conference, seeing that time as time-off from Church assignments.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8656 ... tml?pg=all

Well Elder Ballard, we came...we listened to The Lords Servants...and what did we see?

A General Authority using a General Conference talk specifically to market a word that he knew would facilitate commercial trading and gain on a Sunday.

It's about time the Apostles #ponderized that the problem lies not with the members, it's a bit closer to home than that.

[_I have a question]

The Good Ship #Ponderize sails on....

(KUTV) The day after an LDS church leader apologized for a venture that appeared to profit from his general conference talk challenging people to "ponderize" the scriptures, the Brigham Young University Bookstore put in an order for T-shirts with the made up slogan.

A buyer at the BYU Bookstore, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told 2News the navy-colored shirts were ordered Tuesday and arrived Wednesday.

University spokesperson Carri Jenkins, who had just learned about the shirts being sold on campus Thursday morning, confirmed the bookstore ordered a limited number of shirts from a longtime vendor not affiliated with the Durrant family.

She had no further comment.

This comes on the heels of a controversial website -- ponderize.us -- that advertised T-shirts and wristbands displaying a phrase used during conference by Devin Durrant, first counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency. The site was created by Durrant's son a week before general conference. Amid online criticism, the site was abruptly taken down Sunday night.

"That's the reason we didn't have the shirts the day after," the buyer said, noting the bookstore typically waits at least a day to place shirt orders that feature phrases from conference talks. "We didn't think it was appropriate, the fact that the talk sounded like an infomercial."

He said customers were already asking the bookstore for "ponderize" shirts on Monday.

The new t-shirts are attracting a lot of attention. the buyer said, but they aren't flying off the shelves.

"We've sold a few, but not very many," he said Thursday morning.

Rod Johnson, a BYU Bookstore customer, bought two Ponderize shirts Thursday because he thought the whole debacle is "just funny."

"I'm buying it for my girlfriend just as kind of like a gag," he said.

https://kutv.com/news/local/byu-booksto ... apologizes

[_I have a question]

And on...

PROVO, Utah -- Earlier this week, an LDS Church leader apologized for a family website that appeared to profit from a talk given during the faith's semi-annual General Conference.

Days later, "ponderize" merchandise went up for sale at the BYU Bookstore.

“I bought one for my husband for Christmas," said customer Delanie Mckendrick.

The phrase was used by Brother Devin Durrant, First Counselor in the LDS Church's Sunday School General Presidency, during a speech Sunday. However, by Monday, Durrant was facing criticism for a retail website his son had created to sell "ponderize" merchandise.

While the website was taken down and an apology was issued, a Provo based T-shirt company released shirts with the slogan Wednesday.

“It’s a way to say, 'Hey, I’m LDS: I’m proud of it,'" said Eric Speckhard, co-owner of Vision Wear International.

The company has been making T-shirts with LDS Church quotes for years. Usually, Speckhard and his wife come up with ideas based on speeches given by church leaders. Following Sunday's talk, they decided "ponderize" was a good addition to their collection.

“Those are the kinds of things we listen for," explained Kathleen Speckhard.

The couple decided to delay the release after learning of the controversy on social media Wednesday. But after waiting a day, they decided to move forward with the plan.

"I think it was just an accident, a poor decision that got blown out of proportion," said Speckhard of the Durrant's website.

While BYU did not place an official order for the shirts, they received 29 of them on consignment at their book store, meaning the school receives a piece of the profit. By Thursday, an employee said they only had a few left.

“I don’t have a problem with it. I can’t speak for everyone, but for me and my grandbaby, I think it’s cute," Mckendrick said.

The Speckhards currently have no more in stock, but will consider making more if they do well in stores.

http://fox13now.com/2015/10/08/ponderiz ... ntroversy/

[_I have a question]

And on...

I suppose one might call it “Mormonetizing.” Emphasis on the second syllable.

Over the weekend, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held its twice-yearly General Conference. Basically, it’s 10 hours of church meetings, televised over two days, to members around the globe. It features mini sermons by a couple dozen of the faith’s top leaders.

UPDATE:Devin Durrant apologizes for ’ponderize’ T-shirt sales
I always enjoy a conference weekend — and not just because it’s one of two times a year I can plop this fleshy tabernacle down on the couch and not move it for 30 consecutive hours. One youth in our congregation used to refer to General Conference as “Church on TV.” In our house, we prefer calling it “Church in Sweatpants.”

In any event, the first weekend in April and October is always a refreshing time. Often, family members will join us. We’ll cook a big meal or two, munch on snacks, and spend time together in front of the television. Sorta like a really long Super Bowl party, minus the beer and giant foam finger.

And then, “Ponderizegate” had to come along and kill the buzz.

In this past weekend’s Sunday afternoon conference session, Brigham City native and former professional basketball player Devin G. Durrant, a member of the church’s Sunday School general presidency, gave a talk encouraging church members to do what he referred to as “ponderizing.” He described it as a cross between pondering and memorizing, and it involves picking a new scripture verse each week, prominently displaying it somewhere (on the refrigerator, in the car), and then making time to “ponderize” it.

I confess. At the time, the idea seemed a bit more gimmicky than most LDS conference talks. But I suppose if it helped members with their study of the scriptures, it was harmless enough.

But then, on Monday morning, we woke to the news that some members of Durrant’s family may have been trying to cash in on his conference talk. KUTV reports that sometime after Durrant’s Sunday afternoon talk, online users noticed a new website selling T-shirts and rubber wristbands featuring the messages “Ponderize” and “What’s Your Verse?” The creators of the website — ponderize.us — were reportedly Durrant’s son and daughter-in-law.

What might be the most disturbing part of all this was that the domain was registered a week earlier, which gives the impression that someone was definitely looking to use Durrant’s upcoming sermon on the church’s biggest stage as — in the words of Ralphie from “A Christmas Story” — a crummy commercial.

Folks started to complain about these perceived “moneychangers in the temple,” and by late Sunday night the website had been taken down. Administrators on a Facebook page called “Ponderize Weekly” explained their reason for dismantlizing the website: “We have decided that it is best to take down the Ponderize.us page because of those who were offended by our idea. We ensure you that we only had good intentions and continue to believe that this would have been a great way to remember to Ponderize but we would rather shut down the site than let a wonderful message be tainted.”

Tainting the message? Yeah, that horse has pretty much exitized the barn.

Frankly, from here on out, this Mormon can’t even think about ponderizing without picturing someone in “My folks ponderized the scriptures this week and all I got was this stupid T-shirt” apparel.

Those mixed up in this incident may have had the best of intentions with their merchandising of The Word. But the fact is, members of the LDS Church have long been admonished to avoid even the appearance of evil. And, if nothing else, selling this stuff while the pulpit was still warm doesn’t look particularly good.

Of course, there are those who will ask, “How is this different from the church’s own merchandise marketing arm, Deseret Book?” I guess it’s not, really — other than perhaps degrees of subtlety. I mean, thankfully, we’ve yet to see a general authority of the church stand up in conference, raise a copy of his latest book and announce, “Critics have hailed ‘Last Day of the Month: Home Teaching for Dummies’ as, quote, ‘the best read since the Joseph Smith translation of the New Testament!’ ”

I’m not naïve enough to think that it doesn’t take money to run a religious organization. And I certainly support the American capitalist’s right to legal-tenderize just about anything. But considering the tacky timing of the ponderizing marketing campaign, it’s hard to believe so many Mormons out there are rallying to its defense.

Using an LDS General Conference talk to launch a line of apparel? Some would call that “Mormonetizing.”

Personally, I’d call it “propheteering.”

http://www.standard.net/Opinion/2015/10 ... Conference

#propheteering Ouch!

[_sock puppet]

Ponderize. LOL! What a stupid word! Who in their right mind would think it would be the next global sensation?

Everytime I try to pronounce it, I think of the Ponderosa. But, I suppose that shows my age.

[_ludwigm]

Boring but interesting thread. A weird pairing.