My spouse regularly organizes dinners and events for his business. It's part of his job.
On the other hand, this is Dan Peterson:
...Every year, my wife has coordinated a dinner for our invited guests (leadership, volunteers, and major donors). She has recently undergone significant surgery, though, and she won’t even be able to attend the event this year. So we’ve simplified things, and we’ll have only light refreshments.
(Did you seriously expect me to organize a dinner?
It would be catastrophic.) After all, the program and (especially for a largely virtual organization whose donors, volunteers, and leaders are widely scattered nationally and internationally) the mingling are the most important elements of the night.
[bolding added to emphasize the absurdity of the Afore's sexism.]
This is why women leave the lds church. Also, how the Afore garners attention, along with plagiarism. Seems a high price to pay.
Last edited by Marcus on Thu Aug 06, 2026 3:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
Since the Afore’s life revolves entirely around food and he is essentially just a massive digestive tract in search of his next greasy snack, organizing a dinner would show some real leadership and help rehabilitate his ruined public image.
It’s too bad the Afore feels this is beneath him. Folks, you really can’t make this stuff up.
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."
Wasn't it also revealed that she executes on all the travel plans: pricing and arranging hotels and flights?
Am I reading this right that what he's saying is instead of calling up Panda Express and ordering a pre-built party bundle for x number of people, he's decided that after that major surgery, she can still manage to get into the kitchen and at least fix up a light desert for everyone?
"if you can't admire Joe Biden as a person then it's probably, you got a problem." -- Lindsey Graham
Is the Afore incapable of phoning Bruce Webster to request that he prepare and provide the traditional meal of pulled pork and beef brisket for 105 people? Is the Afore similarly incapable of ordering, or asking Ed Snow to order, sides of fruit kebabs, funeral potatoes, green jello, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, and salad, and a dessert consisting of peach cobbler and ice cream?
Given these developments, I anticipate that the Relief Society Sister in Parowan, the Old High Priest in Ogden, and the Little Old Lady from Pasadena Ward will cancel their annual pilgrimage to Orem for the Interpreter Foundation’s birthday party. I know that the Relief Society Sister donates a tenth of her Social Security check each month to the Interpreter Foundation. Rolling out “light refreshments” is a slap in her face and in the faces of dozens of faithful major donors, including our own Dr. Moore.
I am tempted to attend this Saturday’s “festivities” to witness a sad day in the Interpreter Foundation’s history. If I get a chance, I will ask the Afore directly why he plagiarized Mike Dash’s article about Queen Victoria and the Great Famine in Ireland.
Last edited by Tom on Thu Aug 06, 2026 3:25 pm, edited 6 times in total.
Wasn't it also revealed that she executes on all the travel plans: pricing and arranging hotels and flights?
Am I reading this right that what he's saying is instead of calling up Panda Express and ordering a pre-built party bundle for x number of people, he's decided that after that major surgery, she can still manage to get into the kitchen and at least fix up a light desert for everyone?
Lol. We're sitting here watching the end of the Yankees / Cardinals game, and I read my OP and the responses to my never-mo spouse.
My spouse regularly organizes dinners and events for his business. It's part of his job.
On the other hand, this is Dan Peterson:
...Every year, my wife has coordinated a dinner for our invited guests (leadership, volunteers, and major donors). She has recently undergone significant surgery, though, and she won’t even be able to attend the event this year. So we’ve simplified things, and we’ll have only light refreshments.
(Did you seriously expect me to organize a dinner?
It would be catastrophic.) After all, the program and (especially for a largely virtual organization whose donors, volunteers, and leaders are widely scattered nationally and internationally) the mingling are the most important elements of the night.
[bolding added to emphasize the absurdity of the Afore's sexism.]
This is why women leave the lds church. Also, how the Afore garners attention, along with plagiarism. Seems a high price to pay.
There is literally no other person within the Interpreter organization that can manage to co-ordinate a dinner for invited guests other than the President’s wife? Wow! What an admission. If Peterson’s wife can’t attend, then the event cannot go ahead as planned…wow!
Just dust off last year’s arrangements and do the same again. Simple. “Don’t worry honey, I’ll sort it all out this year” is something Peterson doesn’t have in his vocabulary. One wonders who is doing Peterson’s washing for him…relief society?
Last edited by I Have Questions on Thu Aug 06, 2026 11:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
Premise 1. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.
Premise 2. The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is eyewitness testimony.
Conclusion. Therefore, the best evidence for the Book of Mormon is notoriously unreliable.
Wasn't it also revealed that she executes on all the travel plans: pricing and arranging hotels and flights?
Am I reading this right that what he's saying is instead of calling up Panda Express and ordering a pre-built party bundle for x number of people, he's decided that after that major surgery, she can still manage to get into the kitchen and at least fix up a light desert for everyone?
Yes, it would seem that this is quickly turning into a PR disaster for Interpreter. Dean Robbers is correct: is the Interpreter President really so inept that he can't phone up Panda Express for some trays of chow mein and orange chicken? *That* would be a "catastrophe"? But it occurs to me that there is another way to read the situation--a financial way. Think about it. Who would pony up the money to pay for the Panda Express? The past dinners, evidently, were arranged / provided by donors--at least, that's the impression I got. You'd think it would be easy enough to plan this out as a potluck, but then again, the whole thing kind of seems to be framed as a way of "thanking" the volunteers and donors, but that appears to have been tossed out the window for this year's party.
But back to the money question: Why not bill the event to Interpreter? They've got enough money to spend making 80+ episodes of Bowdlerizing Brigham. Why not trim the production schedule down to 75 episodes so that you can reward your volunteers and donors with a proper meal of egg rolls, fried rice, and kung pao chicken? One answer is greed. Using up Interpreter money would mean that that same money *wouldn't* get spent on the Executive Producer's motel rooms, travel, and chicken fried steaks.
So, then, why doesn't the Interpreter President dip into his own sizable pile of cash to pay for the Panda Express? Going off of his blog posts, he's clearly got tens of thousands of dollars socked away so that he can continue to travel and dine out for the foreseeable future. But why not forgo just *one* trip--or even a couple of days of one trip--in order to pay for the Panda Express?
What I'm getting at here is that there is an aroma of "cheapskate" wafting off of the Afore. All the begging for donations and so forth while he's living high on the hog--well, it's no wonder that the BY project isn't going as he'd hoped. He isn't putting any of his own skin in the game! Elsewhere I mentioned Robert Rodriguez, who sold his own blood in order to finance the cult classic El Mariachi. And there are other examples of filmmakers who really put their money where their mouth is: I think of Mel Gibson, ponying up something like $33 million of his own cash to help finance The Passion of the Christ, which, I believe, was the most profitable religious film of all time. Or consider Jacques Tati, who bankrupted himself in order to pay for Play Time, which is now considered a masterpiece of world cinema.
And then there is the Afore, who pitches in practically nothing and instead basically leeches off the organization so that he can get free cheeseburgers, onion rings, and chocolate milk.
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
My spouse regularly organizes dinners and events for his business. It's part of his job.
On the other hand, this is Dan Peterson: [bolding added to emphasize the absurdity of the Afore's sexism.]
This is why women leave the lds church. Also, how the Afore garners attention, along with plagiarism. Seems a high price to pay.
There is literally no other person within the Interpreter organization that can manage to co-ordinate a dinner for invited guests other than the President’s wife? Wow! What an admission. If Peterson’s wife can’t attend, then the event cannot go ahead as planned…wow!
Yes. Apparently none of the nine members of the Interpreter Foundation’s board of directors, for example, can coordinate a dinner.