BYU Dictating Speakers at the May 2026 Interpreter Foundation Conference

[Dr. Shades]

As I understand it, I never got very deep into Star Wars, but wasn't Darth Vader a "rogue" agent of Palpatine?

No. He was Palpatine's personal agent.

[I Have Questions]

Instead, Holland sends a “very kind email … expressing his ‘best wishes’” to the Afore, offering a Hallmark-card-worthy platitude about how university matters must remain university matters but friendships endure. I cannot help but wonder if the Afore was stung—at least slightly—by Holland’s email.

That’s akin to a girl dumping her boyfriend but trying to soften the blow by saying “we can still be friends”.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Boy, D. Carl Peterson really has his long johns in a twist over the board noticing his utter contempt for vegetables. In his latest travel blog entry he can’t stop talking about it.

“Only Everybody Wang Chung could vex me with a pie reference … I swear, I will go to my grave thinking of my ministalker’s peach cobbler.” - A Storm of Hor d’Oeuvres by George RR MariNara

In today’s travel blog post he moans, once again, that we notice he’s stuffing his gullet after he made a public post about stuffing his gullet. Weird how that works.

[Doctor Scratch]

Remember that scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Vader is required to make contact with the Emperor, and he kneels down on that pad and says, "What is thy bidding, my master?" Yeah: it's easy to envision the relationship being in the same vein as that.

This is exactly right. As I understand it, I never got very deep into Star Wars, but wasn't Darth Vader a "rogue" agent of Palpatine?

Not quite--as Dr. Shades indicated, Vader is more like Palpatine's "right-hand man." But there are other interesting parallels: the way that Palpatine ultimately lures Vader over to the dark side is by promising him access to eternal life. Vader/Anakin Skywalker is ultimately willing to commit horrible and depraved acts out of a belief that he'll ultimately gain a special power that will enable him to cheat death.

And wasn't he a "mystic" of sorts? He distrusted science -- "Don't be so proud of your technological terror" he said once to an Admiral. And he was quite paranoid, and ruthlessly protected his relationship to Palpatine but here's the thing -- Vader was a mere tool, a "loose cannon" for the Emperor to use at his will. The Emperor manipulated Vader into thinking he was the favorite but held no loyalty to him whatsoever nor was he very fond of him.

This is correct. The Afore is convinced that he's on the Brethren's "good side," but what's his evidence for that? Any time he brings up the topic he very vaguely alludes to some thing or another that some shadowy member of the 15 has said, but he never provides actual quotes or full context or anything like that. And has he really been all that great at reading the tea leaves when it comes to high-level Church decision-making? My recollection is that, as he was getting shafted at the Maxwell Institute, he said something to the effect of, "I've been checkmated and didn't even realize I was playing chess!" This is also somebody who *thought* he actually saw a "2nd Watson Letter," so maybe he ought to re-think how well he understands the situation.

Indeed, he's backpedaling furiously now:

Incidentally, did you have any difficulty when reading yesterday’s blog entry in recognizing that Elder Matthew S. Holland’s supposed anecdote about his father’s deathbed instruction regarding me was a joke?

LOL. Yeah--now it's a "supposed anecdote." (Not a real one anymore, eh?) Like I said: *maybe* it was a joke. Even the younger Holland said that he wasn't sure what Holland Senior actually meant, and here is the Afore, 100% certain that it was a "joke." Here's a question for you: how well has that self-assured arrogance worked out in the past for him? The thing is: I bet the people in the audience at the Interpreter conference laughed heartily at that comment from Holland. Oh, yes: I'm sure they laughed very hard indeed. I would have, too.

[Physics Guy]

An irrelevant point of pedantry: the remedy for a loose cannon is not plugging it, but tying it down. The "loose cannon" is one of the many English figures of speech drawn from sailing ships—in this case, warships carrying muzzle-loading cannon.

A cannon could weigh up to something like 7000 pounds, and it would be mounted on a wheeled carriage to allow it to recoil, when fired, without tearing up the deck. Every cannon was supposed to be kept securely tied down until it needed to be fired, because if one of these massive things got loose and started rolling around on the tilting deck of a ship at sea, it could easily kill people and destroy stuff, or perhaps even break through the wooden hull and fall out into the sea.

The concern with a loose cannon is not uncontrolled firing. It's just that it's a big, heavy thing rolling around on a ship.

[Gadianton]

A well-fed Cannon?

[I Have Questions]

I think it would be interesting to know which conference sessions the President of the headline sponsor attended in full. Which he only attended partially. And which he didn’t attend at all. I suspect he has full attendance at all the breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners that were available - but I’m happy to be corrected on that.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

An irrelevant point of pedantry: the remedy for a loose cannon is not plugging it, but tying it down. The "loose cannon" is one of the many English figures of speech drawn from sailing ships—in this case, warships carrying muzzle-loading cannon.

A cannon could weigh up to something like 7000 pounds, and it would be mounted on a wheeled carriage to allow it to recoil, when fired, without tearing up the deck. Every cannon was supposed to be kept securely tied down until it needed to be fired, because if one of these massive things got loose and started rolling around on the tilting deck of a ship at sea, it could easily kill people and destroy stuff, or perhaps even break through the wooden hull and fall out into the sea.

The concern with a loose cannon is not uncontrolled firing. It's just that it's a big, heavy thing rolling around on a ship.

I’ll be referring to D. Carl Peterson as a loose cannon from now on.