Jacquie's Journal

Intelligent Design

This will be a short rant brought on by the news yesterday of the defeat (thankfully) of a bill in the Utah Senate attempting to insist that schools teach "Intelligent Design" along with Evolution as the mechanism for creation.

Personally, I think evolution is the most sensible theory given that we are all made of the same stuff and DNA is so similar between species, but that is not the purpose of my rant.  What gets my goat is the sheer arrogance of people who think human beings are so special that we can't possibly have evolved from <shudder> apes </shudder>.  We are all part of the universe, bound by the forces of nature and humans are really a very small part of it.  We have set ourselves up as the guardians of the planet, but really we haven't done a very good job for the most part - what with global warming, deforestation of the jungle etc etc etc.  I think everyone should visit something vast and controlled solely by nature such as an ocean or a desert, once in a while, to give themselves a sense of just how insignificant we really are in the grand scheme of things.

I was quite dismayed at the recent discovery of a lot of new species in the jungle in Indonesia.  Their days are numbered I thought to myself, now that us humans have gone poking our noses in yet again, where they are not wanted or needed.

Pancake Day

Today is Pancake Day.  I nearly forgot, but Gary reminded me at lunch, so after lunch I went to buy the necessary ingredients including lemon juice.  I will report later on or tomorrow how they went... I expect it will go something like "The first pancake was rubbish, so I had to eat that one.  The rest were fine...."

It was very windy last night - it really whistles round the house - I half expected to wake up in The Land Of Oz.  It has been windy all day too, and it has been raining so most of the snow has gone.

Boston Terriers, or at least our Boston Terrier - maybe I shouldn't generalise - does not like being out in the wind.  Her ears were streaming out behind her like Piglet's in the Blustery Day, and she kept lying down and putting her paws over her nose.

Gary and I had lunch at McCools, which is supposed to be an Irish Pub.  We have switched our lunch out day to Tuesday because McCools do half price appetizers - all you need for lunch - every Tuesday.  Gary had Bangers and Mash and I had a Lamb Quesadilla.  I didn't like to ask what region of Ireland that came from!  We have recently adopted McCools as our regular lunch time haunt since our favourite place - The Juhl House - shut down.  The Juhl House was like a European deli that sold every kind of cheese (including Mahon cheese from Menorca which we were very surprised to find) and every kind cured meat imaginable.  They also had some British treats like Flakes, Ambrosia Rice Pudding, and Paxo stuffing.  My favourite on their lunch menu was the Butternut Squash soup.  It was wonderful - thick and creamy, with ground hazelnuts and a dash of brandy.  Their crepes were good too with unusual fillings.  Anyway one day we arranged to meet there after not going for a couple of weeks and the store was empty and there was a notice on the door explaining they had ceased trading.  We were really upset - wherever you went, Juhl family, we hope you are doing well!

It is difficult to find places where you can get just a light lunch here - I guess that is why we end up having oatmeal fudge bars and coffee at Barnes and Noble so often.  There are sandwich places like Subway and Quiznos, but even they are huge.  I really miss being able to pop into Marks and Spencers for a prawn and mayonnaise, or chicken tikka sandwich in one of those triangular plastic packages.  They do not seem to have that concept here at all, though I am sure there would be a market for it.

Larry H Miller and Brokeback Mountain

As someone, non-LDS, who lives in SLC I feel I should have an opinion on this, so this is it. 

First of all, Larry H Miller owns 3 movie theaters, one Jordan Commons , that all the hooha is about, one downtown and one further south at Thanksgiving point.  None of these theaters is showing the movie.  Luckily there are plenty of other places where one can see Brokeback Mountain in and around SLC.  I have not seen it yet myself - I am not sure if it is my cup of tea, being about cowboys, but I did enjoy City Slickers and I am imagining it might be a bit like that. 

Anyway back to Larry H Miller.  They are his theaters and he has the right to show what he wants but If he is such a good Latter Day Saint then surely he should guard against us seeing anything the LDS church considers immoral - profanity, any kind of sex, and violence - by not showing any R rated movies.  If he didn't want to go that far, he could of course show the Clean Flicks versions!