Blue Turned Around

Christ’s parables teach with power and authority. With the account of the good Samaritan, He teaches us to love and to serve our neighbors. In His parable of the talents, He teaches us to improve ourselves and to strive for perfection. With the parable of the lost sheep, He instructs us to go to the rescue of those who have left the path and have lost their way. As we strive to place Christ at the center of our lives by learning His words, by following His teachings, and by walking in His path, He has promised to share with us the eternal life that He died to gain. There is no higher end than this: that we should choose to accept His discipline and become His disciples and do His work throughout our lives. Nothing else, no other choice we make, can make of us what He can. - President Thomas S. Monson

Red Ribbon Star

 "Can any claim be more specious than to suggest that we want more objectivity and less emotion in guiding the course of our personal and collective lives? Emotion is not a defect in an otherwise perfect reasoning machine. Reason, unfettered from human feeling, has led to as many horrors as any crusader's zeal. What use is pity in a world maximizing efficiency and productivity? Scientific husbandry tells us to weed out the sick, the infirm, and the weak. The ruthless efficiency of euthanasia initiatives and ethnic cleansing are but the programmatic application of Nietzsche's point: from any quantifiable cost benefit analysis, the principles of animal husbandry should apply to the human race." - from The Crucible of Doubt by Terryl Givens

Blue Ribbon Star

National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day is only seven days away! It’s time to rifle through your closet, rummage through the boxes in the garage, and search the bottom of your dresser drawer for the ugliest Christmas sweater you own - the one with the moose head with the 3D antlers or the fully decorated Christmas tree covering the front. If you don’t own an ugly Christmas sweater (or if someone donated yours to Goodwill a year or two ago) there’s still time. You can order one through Amazon.com in almost any size and still get it here before next Friday. Google “ugly Christmas sweater,” and you’ll find dozens of websites devoted to knits with attitude, both new and used. Then next Friday, wear your ugly sweater proudly. If no one has invited you to an ugly sweater party, throw your own. Because life is too short to have a boring calendar. Or an ordinary wardrobe.

Mrs. Taft's Choice

If you have pets you may want to read this before decorating your house for Christmas:

• Skip the tinsel. Your cat finds this irresistible, and it can cause serious problems if she eats it. The same goes for string, ribbon, yarn, floss and thread.
• Watch your houseplants. Several are poisonous to dogs, cats and people. Lilies, holly and mistletoe can kill. Poinsettias aren't toxic, but they can make children and pets sick. Consider a potted Rosemary instead.
• Fruitcake is worse than you think. Currants and raisins (or grapes) can be harmful to dogs. Chocolate will hurt your dog or cat. Sugar-free candies can cause liver failure. Resist the urge to feed your pet fatty table scraps.
• Avoid liquid potpourri. Cats are very tempted by scented oils, and the results can be disastrous.
• Put away the snow globes. Many contain ethylene glycol – antifreeze. If the globe breaks and your pet drinks even a tiny bit, it could be fatal.

Curved Roads

If you’re a visitor to the Salt Lake area one thing that’s likely to surprise you is our street numbering system. Maybe the best way to explain it is to compare it to longitude and latitude. Two numbers describe how far any given point is from zero. On a global scale, zero is where the equator crosses the Greenwich Meridian. In the Salt Lake Valley, zero is Temple Square. So if someone tells you to meet them at 77 West 1300 South, you should head thirteen blocks south of Temple Square and a bit less than one block west. And you should probably bring along your baseball cap, because you’ll be at the ballpark. Here are two more facts that may come in handy: A “block” is roughly 1/7 of a mile. And if you’re facing towards Temple Square, all the addresses on your right should be odd numbers. The addresses on your left should be even.

Mr. Roosevelt's Necktie

For my mother, who hosted Thanksgiving dinner last week: “Two years ago 41 people came to my house for Christmas dinner, some merchants and bishops and poets and 16 barbarians, mostly Goths and Visigoths, hairy savages who ate like swine, belching and shrieking, and spent the evening pillaging and plundering and left the place in ruins. We were picking food off the chandelier for weeks. And after I swept the refuse and sluiced out the dining room, I said, ‘No more savages for Christmas.’ Next year I invited only civilized people. It was a pleasant and orderly Christmas, but as the bishops and poets and merchants sat and drowsed over dessert, one poet piped up and said, ‘What happened to those little fellows who came last year, the ones who wiped their hands on the dog? They were a stitch! So uninhibited, throwing peas at each other! We talked about them for weeks afterward!’” – Garrison Keillor

Jingle All the Way

“Do material possessions make us happy and grateful? Perhaps momentarily. However, those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us. Unfortunately, these are some of the things we allow ourselves to take for granted. The English author Aldous Huxley wrote, ‘Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.’ We often take for granted the very people who most deserve our gratitude. Let us not wait until it is too late for us to express that gratitude. Speaking of loved ones he had lost, one man declared his regret this way: ‘I remember those happy days, and often wish I could speak into the ears of the dead the gratitude which was due them in life, and so ill returned.’” – Thomas S. Monson