Thursday, February 21, 2008

Truman Madsen is ruining our bell curve!

A couple of friends have put up this little icon that tells what the reading level is for their blog. So I followed the link and was not too surprised to find out that mine was at a junior high level. As usual, I am putting my vast vocabulary to good use. That use being a rousing game of hide and go seek in my brain.

But I would like to report that my vocabulary will increase by about 10% tomorrow after I look up all the big words I heard tonight at the lecture given by Truman Madsen at the Claremont School of Theology. It was actually a very insightful look at the relationship between philosophy and Mormonism and the parts that I did understand, that would be the ones where he didn't reference the writings of some 2nd century philosopher, were wonderful. But I was pretty much the dumbest person there. Well, maybe the lady who was sitting up on the stage knitting a pink hat beat me on that, but not by much.

I bring up the pink hat knitter because it always seems to be those type of people who get called on during the question and answer section of things like this. People who ask questions like, "Can you talk to us about Satan and Jesus being brothers." Or "I once heard this story of a blah, blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blahbity blah and I was wondering if you had heard that story too?" Knights of Columbus lady. I just donated a kidney and harvested a new one in the time it took you to tell that story. I'm sure her follow up questions would have been whether he thought Adam and Eve had belly buttons and if so were they innies or outies. Sure, I had ridiculous questions running through my head, such as "Did you realized that when you quoted that one old dead philosopher guy as saying the Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire that Mike Meyers used that in a SNL Linda Richmond sketch and that you probably would have gotten a laugh if you had said it with a Brooklyn accent and added, "Discuss," at the end?" But I'm smart enough to not raise my hand.

This is in no way contributing to my mansion in heaven so I'll stop now. But you get it, right?

One of the highlights of going to this lecture was that I saw a load of people whom* I hadn't seen in ages. The place was packed (the man sitting next to me noted that it was so even without a potluck.) and I felt like I was waving and smiling all night long. One of them was none other than James Appel (or, as he made us call him in our youth, Master James.) And I am to report to the Appels specifically and the World generally that James is now a smarty-pants and BFF with Truman Madsen, whose hand we shook and to whom* I may have said something along the lines of, "Uh, I really liked hearing about philosophy and junk."

*Notice the use of the word whom. I'm hoping to boost my blog reading level to high school. Go me!

9 comments:

Amanda said...

I am pretty sure that if I gave her my blog address, that one of my kindergarteners could read and follow my blog. I'm not going to check on that, but I think you have a very smart and funny blog.
I have a hard time imagining an environment where you would feel dumb, but then again those CC students pay a fortune for some reason.

Anonymous said...

Uh, if you haven't noticed, I don't even have a blog, because I don't have anything to say that anyone would be all that interested in reading. (See? You're already asleep!) So kudos to you for finding interesting subjects to talk about, and for making them more interesting by your humorous observations.

Valerie said...

Wait, do you mean James is a smarty-pants in a sarcastic, fun-making way, like "James is a smarty-pants", or do you mean James is a smarty-pants in a respectful, awed way, like "James is a smarty-pants"? Please clarify the difference (because you and both know the first is the only one that makes any sense).
P.S. Don't feel bad about your blob vocab being Jr. High School level. They are probably using a jr. high school for reference that was much better than Magnolia Jr. High.

Liz the Poet said...

I am so bummed that I couldn't go last night. You know that's something right up my alley!

But, I had to interview 6 people yesterday, and ended up with a horrible headache. So, I missed it.

It makes me feel better to know that you didn't understand all of it, cause I'd be right there with you--confused.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I'm pretty sure my blog would be junior high level too.

Chris said...

James is a smarty-pants? I think I met him at Mom and Dad's ward. He gave the lesson in priesthood and began by saying, "I decided to give the lesson today on Elder Uchdorf's talk, because it's fun to say Uchdorf."

And Truman Madsen?? Anyone who's named after two dead presidents probably feels like he has to impress everyone all the time.

Anonymous said...

I make up words. So my blog is in the dislexic fiction section.

People asking the random questions became one of the favorite things of my whole mission. "How far did Adam fall when he fell?"

courtney said...

i wonder how many "whom"s it'll take to get a bump on the meter...

thanks to bushman it sounds like claremont and the greater glory that is the inland empire is primed to become ground zero for hat knitting ladies who completely miss the point. but i have to ask--hat knitting? on the stage? next to the very upright truman madsen? and pink, no less? i'm having a rough time picturing this.

Gina said...

I'm going to say that all Appel's are the funniest (next to the Knechts) and smartest (hands down) people on earth. Viva James!

p.s. Valerie rocks too! Shout out to the Bronx!

Sara Dawn said...

OK Rac--that's exactly how I felt when I left the lecture. I went because supposedly he is a really good friend of Serge's grandfather and the name--Truman Madsen. after his first quotes about the text he lost me. Excuse me, was he saying that we had understood that in Mormonism long before the world did or that you should not be changing the meaning? I told Serge that I had been a mommy for one too many days to understand the first paragraph of his speech. It seriousluy went right over my head. Then he said, "That's why I kept volunteering to take landon out." He was awful insistant that Landon needed to go out after about the first 5 minutes and I couldn't understand why. PS, we got so many stares with him-like why didn't you get a baby sitter? So, um, yes. Did you also feel like his head was a little reluctant to turn to the right? Just wondering. Oh, and the lady knitting or whatever. It totally reminded me of a companion of mine--that's what she would do during general conference--to my horror. And the questions. Oh, it so reminded me of institute at the colleges. So um, yes.