T.S.A.

TomKat is at the Doctor today. He's getting neutered. I could save us the fee for the procedure. Quick, get me a strong rubber band. Now he will be able to run free in the neighborhood without our having to chase him down. The neighbors will have to find some other form of amusement. He was really good this morning. Lenore said he went right into the carrier. Let's see if he develops a fear of the thing after today. It is unfortunate that we have to do this. He is so well tempered, and doesn't spray at all, and looks so manly with his furry trouser snake addendums (Jensen term, you can tell she's been attending a secular public school this year) hanging out the back.

Speaking of Jensen, she got straight A's this term and was selected as one of two kids from the school to go tour the local CSI type crime lab today. She was very excited. She is aiming for a paid internship there within the next couple of years. I thought her fascination with CSI was mainly because she wanted to be like Dr. Alexx Woods on CSI Miami and talk to the corpses. She says her interest goes beyond that.

New Legs..... Magic Legs

I watched a large part of Forrest Gump on Sunday. We have it on DVD. But, I'm more likely to watch it if I just happen upon it on TV. There is something about the rewarding of innocence and optimism that just rings true with me. It's not my favorite movie. But, it's pretty high on the list. The fact that it won 6 Oscars (and very possibly should have won 7, poor Gary Sinise) reveals its universal appeal. Tom Hanks is genius. (This was confirmed again when he did most of the music for "That Thing You Do.") Of course, I like a lot of the same things everyone else does about it. Alan Silvestri's score is great.

I like the bookends of the feather on the wind and its tie in to the two different philosophies expressed by Momma Gump (Is there a Mr. Gump? Mrs. Gump.) Forrest mentions this when addressing Jenny at her burial marker near the end of the film: "I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time."

I like the symbolism of the birds used in connection with Jenny and her life.

I love the reconciliation of Lieutenant Dan and when he finally thanks Forrest for saving his life.

There was a vast difference between the lives of Forrest and Jenny. Yet, they are connected. They gaze at the same moon in the sky even though they are separated by miles.

One of my favorite scenes:
Jenny Curran: Were you scared in Vietnam?
Forrest Gump: Yes. Well, I-I don't know. Sometimes it would stop raining long enough for the stars to come out... and then it was nice. It was like just before the sun goes to bed down on the bayou. There was always a million sparkles on the water... like that mountain lake. It was so clear, Jenny, it looked like there were two skies one on top of the other. And then in the desert, when the sun comes up, I couldn't tell where heaven stopped and the earth began. It's so beautiful.
Jenny Curran: I wish I could've been there with you.
Forrest Gump: You were.

There are a couple of details that Mr. Hanks includes in the body language/personality of Forrest Gump that seem to me dead on. When he makes the peace sign back to Jenny in the Bus, he does it with both hands, as if the mentally disabled Forrest would subject that gesture to some extra bit of processing and would not do it spontaneously. Also, when Forrest goes to comfort Jenny after she has been throwing rocks at her old home, he squats and then finally sits on the ground next to her. His movement and hesitancy seem exactly correct for the character and the situation. Lastly, I believe it is right after Jenny has turned down his proposal of marriage and he goes outside the screen door and stands with his back to her and his hands high on his hips.

When we were growing up there was a girl on our street who was mentally disabled, in very much the same way as Forrest Gump. I don't believe she was Down Syndrome. She didn't have the typical mongoloid features. Tom Hanks moved and acted a lot like I remember this girl acting and reminds me of her many times throughout the movie.

Of course perhaps the best bit of acting in all of filmology is when Forrest finds out that he is a father. The next time you watch that bit keep your eyes on Robin Wright. I think she matches him very well, plays off of his acting very well, without stealing the limelight. She was performing on much the same level as Mr. Hanks in that scene.

Turkish Delight

When we were in Saint George last month we saw The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. We all enjoyed it a lot. I had never noticed what a nice voice Liam Neeson has. I read the whole set of Narnia books about five times when I was younger. I can remember stealing lots of time in choir and math classes in Junior High so I could keep reading.

So now Lane and I are reading them at night. It was a little hard to keep her interest through the Magician's Nephew. But, now that we are into the "Movie Part" she is intensely interested. She remembers details about the movie and compares them to the book. Since we saw it in Saint George, the movie is forever connected with that city in her mind. It seems she thinks it was made in Saint George.

There is a wonderful dedication in front of the second book (LWW):

To Lucy Barfield

My DEAR Lucy,

I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be
your affectionate Godfather,


C.S. Lewis

It's Hard Out Here For A ......Conservative

I don't need rap "music" and I especially don't need a song like this to get an Oscar.

We watched the Oscars a week and a half ago. So I have to put in my annual two cents worth. I was not really excited by any of the offerings this year. I think Jon Stewart helped make the show immensely more entertaining than it would have been. There was no need for all of the montages. The highlight was most of the gowns were very nice. Nothing approaching Cher or Bjork. Except, I did not care for Felicity Huffman's gown at all. Still, just because these people are movie stars doesn't mean they know how to give an acceptance speech that is worth anything.

Lane Artwork

Calling Rick Berman

Lenore and I could use a new good TV show. We were just lamenting this last night. It has been a while since we had a show we liked to watch. We can remember being big ER fans for some time. But, that has been unwatchable for at least a couple of years. We were big X-Philes for a while. But, then they jumped the shark by giving Scully ample proof every week to believe in UFO's and she continued to disbelieve!!!!! They needed to steer away from that one note song. One of our favorite episodes was "Bad Blood" with Luke Wilson. Loved it.
We have recently kinda stopped watching CSI religiously. No reason really comes to mind. I never really liked the spin-offs. William Petersen is great. But, CSI Miami????? I have a congenital aversion to David Caruso. (Did you catch the Parade Magazine on Sunday? Walter Scott’s Personality Parade® - Q. Is there a reason why David Caruso tilts his head and talks hesitantly on CSI: Miami? —Jan L., Saginaw, Mich. - A. Yes. It’s called acting. They aren't usually so flip with their answers. But, lo and behold they were running a feature on David Caruso in the same issue. "It’s called acting????" Puhleeze, it's called still smarting from my appearance in "First Blood." William Petersen is your Great Great Great Great Grandfather as far as acting is concerned.)
Our best run really was with the Star Trek Next Generation spin-offs. For some strange reason we never picked up on Next Generation itself. But we really went in for DS9 and Voyager and to a slightly lesser degree Enterprise. We loved Terry Farrell and Avery Brooks and the character of Odo. And, ooh the Jem Hadar and their dependence on the Ketracel White. And also, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo and Jeri Ryan from Voyager. And of course, let's not forget Jolene Blalock in Enterprise,...:) I guess we need Rick Berman to put together some more shows for us.

Al Rovescio

Even I have gotten to where I don't really enjoy reading Ann Coulter's columns anymore. I think she needs to back off a notch or two. I haven't watched her on TV lately. So maybe she's still okay in that medium. However, she made a good point in today's column presumably quoting Pat Buchanan: ... Homosexuality has gone from "the love that dare not speak its name" to "the love that won't shut up."

Adventures in Data Mining

Most of you come to this blog on purpose Thank you for your interest. Some of you get here by mistake. How can I tell? SITE METER!!!! If you scroll down to the very bottom of the site you will find a small multi-striped square. If you click on it you will navigate to a site that keeps track of webpage traffic. I don't understand it all and don't know how reliable it is. But, it has been interesting at least.

Below are some of the more unusual and more bizarre queries that led to my blogs:

City (followed by) Search Terms
Madison, Wisconsin "where belinda jensen buys her clothes"
Newport, Rhode Island february surf in kauai
Burnaby, British Columbia "lake delores" "water park" "injury"
Reston, Virginia naked prints of catherine zeta-jones
(This websurfer didn't spend much time on my blog, I'm sure.)
Incirlik, Diyarbakir, Turkey angela & steve smith
Erba, Lombardia, Italy gael tromeur
Baton Rouge, LA "pierre tromeur" como
Cohoes, New York staglieno cemetery, genova, italy
Edinburgh, Scotland nuova riviera
Mogriguy, NSW, Australia train from nice to treviglio
La Jolla, California "angela giuliano"
Sai Wan Estate, Hong Kong "roman columns" "washington dc" "monument"
Immaculata, Pennsylvania market day cremona italy
1600 Penn Ave, Washington, DC "Osama Bin Laden is a slimy dog"

I threw that last one in just to see if you were awake.

I can just see Aron now for kicks begin navigating to my blog by googling "Todd Lillywhite is a big fat dork."

Oh, Oh, Oh, wait, quick somebody write a story where people send secret messages to eachother this way. Ailsa, get on it. Call it "Infomine." I claim the movie rights.

Because Aron Asked

Oh, Yes I did spend time in Torino. It was my first city (for two months) and then my second to the last (again for two months) city I lived in during my mission.

Torino is a very nice town. Surprisingly, it is further north than Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Buffalo, New York. I remember walking home at the end of the day 9:30 pm and it would still be very light. Many people would just hang out in Piazza Carducci at that time of night, talking and whatever. It was a very different atmosphere than home. Even though it is so far north, it is not much different weather wise than Salt Lake, except for the humidity. The summers are very hot and humid. There was a period of about two weeks straight where everyday we came in for our mid-day break from noon to 2pm, there would be a big thunderstorm. And then it would stop raining by the time we were going out again. Once at night though one of these storms came through at maybe 2am. Our small apartment had a typical balcony. Very small with an articulated shutter type thing that came down in runners so you could shut up the apartment very securely. They were sort of like the store front pull down doors you see in New York City for locking up establishments. This storm was really wild with pretty large hail stones. Elder Wallace and I opened the storm door thingy and stepped out onto the fourth floor balcony in our skivvies to watch. For a couple of minutes the hailstones came down really hard and there was a sort of fog about 10 feet off the ground from all these hailstones hitting the street and cars and bouncing up in the air. It was loud.

My first stint in Torino was in an apartment in the South of Torino on Via Baiardi near Piazza Carducci and the Po. There were four of us Elders in that apartment. For the first month it was Me and my companion, Elder Smith, and Elders Wallace and Jorgenson. It ended up that Elder Jorgenson was from Lenore's ward. But, of course I didn't know Lenore at the time, and his dad went to UCLA with Uncle Jay. Elder Wallace was from Walnut Creek, CA, I think. Elder Wallace was a very tall man. I think he was taller than me. He also had blonde hair. We tried not to go out too often together because the Italians would think that the GEheime STAats POlizei had come to town. A unique thing happened between me an elder Wallace. When I went to Genova he stayed in Torino and took it upon himself to forward my mail to me. He would sometimes write notes on the back of the envelopes. When I left Genova he came into the same apartment. Same thing when I left Milan. He followed me around the mission, almost immediately taking up residence in the apartment I had left so that 95% of the letters I have that were forwarded, he did the forwarding. The last one I got from him was just a day or two before his mission ended.

That was my first time in Torino. I went back in the spring of 1978. This time I was in the northern part of town near the Dora river. My biggest or most persistent memory of that place was our tracting area included some sort of pastry factory because there was a constant odor like donuts in the air.

Free? Agency

I've been working on an idea recently that I think we may teach or have discussed soon in our Relief Society and Priesthood lessons, and that has to do with Agency.

I think I've finally distilled partially what I've been thinking about. When we talk of taking away someone's agency, what is it we think of? We usually think of making them do something they don't want to do. But, in reality can you really force someone to do something they don't want to do? And when you do, who is accountable for it then? Certainly not the person who was forced.

So in reality I think the only way you can "take away someone's Agency" is by removing from them, or protecting them from, the consequences of their actions. That may be one of the main reasons it is a good thing for society to impose and enforce rules and laws on itself. I am especially talking about abortion and same sex marriage.

And I think this really can only be done on a temporary (or temporal) basis. In the eternal scheme of things you cannot ultimately protect someone from the consequences of their actions, except in the way that Christ did, through an atonement.

Taken in this light it makes it seems much more important or correct to school your children, establish rules and punish for infractions and teach Society to be the same way. Most of Society is completely upside down this idea.

I just discussed this with a co-worker and she brought up the facet of restricting someone's choices. I'm going to have to ponder about that and report back.

I think it is also true that "Satan's Plan" was a great big lie because he couldn't carry it out and save us from eternal consequences, only temporal ones.