Oy, this has been a long day of travel, and it's not over yet. I'm at the Salt Lake City airport right now, with a long 5 hour layover. At least I have wireless and my kindle.
It's a bit of a shock being here, though. I'd forgotten how much those big lumpy whatchamacallums, you know, those giant piles of rocks and dirt — oh, yeah, mountains — add to the scenery. Also, 80°. The world is not supposed to be that hot right now.
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PZ, in Salt Lake City!? It's taking everything in me to not go all fan boy and drive out to the airport to confirm that--it's only fifteen minutes from work and I'm off in five minutes...
Enjoy the moment, Spread the good word. Welcome home.
5 hours??
Plenty of time to go ask for a tour of the temple. Be sure to tell them who you are...
this
Planes, trains, and automobiles. And kindles and wireless.
I'm envious. Not for being in Salt Lake per se, but at least out there where the landscape isn't all obscured by this vegetation shit.
Wait. Wait...envy is a sin, right?
Shit.
I've taken the temple tour before. I knew better than to leave my name -- these guys are as bad as scientologists.
Ah, but Ashland's nicer, in my opinion.
Go see Shakespeare, if they're running any of his plays right now.
Too bad the nude woman isn't going to be parading through the streets. As I recall, she decided not to do so last summer, as well.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
PZ, you think it's hot there?
High of 98 F yesterday here at the University of California, Riverside. Be thankful for your 80.
And, incidentally, welcome out West.
Wait, it's only 80? I'd kill for 80. It's been over 90 here for the last 3 days. Bleh. I want spring weather back, this early summer bites.
Speaking of earth being warmer than it should. James Lovelock has a new book out reviewed in Nature this week. There is even a video. http://www.tompainesghost.com/2009/04/james-lovelock-has-new-book.html
He predicts AGW is going to be much worse than the models predict. So stop worrying and enjoy your life... Hey that sounds like a familiar catch phrase
sign in as P.X. Myers
golden plates and seeing stones?
they won't figure it out.
We have the wind coming off the lake, so we barely broke 50 F today. Mountains sound nice, it has been a while.
The world isn't. The west is.
I'm not denying AGW, certainly. What I am saying is that virtually the entire west is unseasonably hot now, and it wasn't a couple of weeks back. It's cooler in Washington today than it was yesterday, and the forecast is for seasonably cool temperatures in a day or two.
Global warming aside, a heat wave is a heat wave.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
The view of the mountains from the airport isn't all that great, but I never get tired of seeing them from downtown.
I had the same thought. I'm not sure there could be a proper Pharyngufest in an airport bar, though ;(
Pz going to be 90 here in Florida by Friday and thats in the East!!!!
Are there any magic underwear stores in the airport?
I immediately got reminded of this vid: http://www.spike.com/video/door-to-door-atheist/2798459 .
LoL.
Watch out for the Mountain Meadows massacre.
Ashland is a very unseasonable 79 degrees right now, but you shouldn't melt tomorrow since it is forecast to have a high of 54. My own little corner (southeast desert) of Washington State was in the 80s yesterday, mid 70s today and expects 61 tomorrow. Within two weeks it will be air-conditioning on most days, I'm afraid. We tend to go directly from winter to high summer.
You're complaining over 80 degrees? It was 93 in Austin today.
Hahaha, that's a funny question, but you know better than that!
Magic underwear is, well...magic. Much training (no reference to training pants intended) is required for the priveledge of aquiring said undies.
Look for nicely dressed young people going door-to-door, they can get you started on the underwear path...but don't bring it up first off, you might raise suspicion, y'know, "show me your underwear" might not work so well.
Good Luck!
University of Arizona was 97F yesterday and 94F today, PZ. Utah's got nothin'.
You are complaining about 80 degrees? you have fun here, we are having record temps this week! It was 95 on Monday! Can't wait to see you talk!
Psst. Touring Temple Square is not the same as touring the temple. (The temple itself is off-limits to people without the recommend you get from your bishop.) You CAN get into an undedicated temple during the month before dedication when they do tours, but that's pretty much the only time.
The mountains are one of the things I do miss about Utah. The scenery there is gorgeous.
The magic underwear store (at least the one where my parents got their garmies) was in a strip mall in the center of town. My mother would go in, show her current temple recommend, ask for a style, size, and fabric preference, and then pay for the garmies. (I always wondered why they made you pay for them. I mean, if you were paying tithing, why couldn't you get the garmies gratis.)
There's a few decent local microbreweries that operate pubs in the downtown SLC area. Next time you get stuck, you should look them up. (SLC itself is also, you know, a hotbed of sin and vice according to the god-fearing folk of Utah County. After all, they keep electing a Democrat for mayor.)
Religions aren't set up to go broke, son.. some will even kick you out if you're a cheapass... get a better payin' ass to fill that pew seat... and then recommend a different church for you... Catlick Church is pretty well off.
Darn, PZ. If I knew you were going to be in town for five hours, I would have arranged to sneak you into Tracy Aviary after hours, where you could have seen some of the coolest birds evolution has yet produced.
Today was remarkably hot, yes. Too bad you won't be here in two days, when it's supposed to SNOW. Guh.
I love the mountains... being a British Columbian means I am constantly saddened by the distinct lack of scenery now that I am living in Toronto.
And just more proof that Christianity has it all over athiesm this is what you get in Utah: Moab, Arches, Canyonlands, Slickrock, Dinosaur NM, Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude, Snowbasin, Park City, Deer Valley, The Canyons, Capitol Reef, Cedar Breaks, Bryce, Zion, Lake Powell; More skiing and mounain biking than you can do in a lifetime not to mention kayaking, rafting, trout fishing, and Donny and Marie thrown in. I have heard that Ashland Oregon is the athiest capital of the USA. It is famous for its Shakespeare festival.
To think, just a couple of weeks ago is was freezing and snowing here in Utah. Now it is scorching and hot. How I miss Spring and Fall, sometimes we just skip past them
Eric Z April 22, 2009 6:57 PM:
Did you know he actually lived here in Salt Lake City for a while?
Guess what. Rocks don't believe in god, no matter how pretty they are. And having been to nearly all those places, they let atheists in too. In fact, they never ask anyone their religion.
PS, you need to fix your spell checker something awful.
PLEASE post a review of Kindle on Amazon.
You certainly picked a beautiful day to be here. Too bad you (I assume) didn't have time to make it to any of the resorts, Snowbird was amazing.
Ahh springtime in Utah. It's ... charmingly unpredictable.
The oldest spawn used to work in the holidays in Killin in the Scottish Highlands. It's at the western head of Loch Tay which sits in a long thin, deep glen with mountains all around. Even out on the loch you would feel hemmed in. Anyway after being there a while on being driven out to the Lowlands, when coming out at Stirling or Perth would remark on feeling a bit agoraphobic, all that open space with no comforting mountains. Sort of a reverse of PZ.
Only 80 degrees? Sounds pleasant to me...
My brother and I took a temple tour once. But before they let us in, a security guy with a crewcut, earpiece and I'm-dead-inside eyes came and stood near us to report in. "There's a guy by the gate with a beard and a camera." The security guy then quizzed us and decided we were non-threatening, mostly on the basis of my clothing. I had dressed like a church-going female for the express purpose of being treated well. It worked. After I mentioned the name of someone in administration, I was even addressed as "Sister Howard."
To Josh, yeah, there's nothing like undressed rocks. Naked landscapes read like a book. For my money, there's still too much vegetation on the Wasatch Range. Go west from there, crossing the Basin and Range area via the old Pony Express route. Now there's a naked landscape.
I just flew cross-country with my Kindle; made my carry on much less weighty. I'd love to hear what you think about the Kindle, PZ.
I can confirm the rumor. One of those surreal, small world moments. Flew into salt Lake, popped open the iPhone to see what was new on Pharyngula only to see PZ's post about being in Salt Lake, and I look up to see across the room, the Tentacled one is indeed sitting there, Kindling away.
Sorry if I interrupted the reading PZ. Just wanted to say hi and thanks for your efforts. Wish I could have bought you a brew, but the time was late and home was calling. Hope your travels go well! I am, thankfully, back home and ass deep in the shit again :-)
Pdiff
This is for Llewelly: I have no idea what a spell checker is and I could never use anything that would make working a computer any more difficult than it already is. This is why I have 6.023X10 to the 23rd unread mail messages. Since it seems that you are one of those knowitall athiests that think Christians are nothing more than rationalizing self loathing preverts, I would suggest that you check out the article in the April 27 New Yorker on page 30. (the issue with the PWD on the cover).
Come on Pro, get over yourself already. You come trolling along as one of those "holier than thou" Christians claiming all natural beauty as proof, and then get all bent when you're called on it? BTW, you seem to be assuming main stream Xtians consider Mormons to be "Christian". Many, if not most, do not. That's why they chased them off to Utah in the first place.
As for spell check, the fact that you won't learn/use something new, something that would improve your image, make your message clearer, and something that is automated in every modern browser anyway, says quite a bit about you. BTW: why would you have an email account if you can't/won't use it?
I don't have an image worth improving. Retract your claws and read the New Yorker piece. It's only 2 pages long and it's funny.
If the beauty of Utah is an argument for the existence of any deity, it is for the Native American gods.
Sure, that's a dumb argument, but the argument that Utah proves Yahweh is even dumber
This afternoon topped at out at a toasty 82 °F. In Cleveland. Eighty degrees in Cleveland is like 95 °F in SLC.
Oh dear, that's a bad sign, perhaps someone inside the temple has had a divine revelation in the field of computational complexity theory.
Did they have any giant TVs showing nothing but white noise? Did you have a strange urge to laugh? (Well, yes, but at something other than the ridiculousness of it all.)