Sunday, January 29, 2017

but trump

Ugh. January.

It's this time of year when I look at the massive piles of snow in the yards and think, "Is this ever going to melt?" Because the snow just keeps falling, and we have several days below freezing in the forecast. It's easy to feel hopeless.

And this January is even worse because of a certain someone in a certain-colored house in a certain country.

Before the election, I said Trump was the worst possible candidate they could have picked. After the election, I was filled with a surprising amount of optimism.

But now that he's in office, it's far worse than I ever expected it to be. Why is it that scientific facts about climate and vaccines are now controversial opinions that should be suppressed? And why is it that people who are legally allowed in the country are no longer legally allowed in the country?

And I find it disturbingly perplexing that he's going to investigate this voter fraud business. First of all, there's no evidence for it. And second, he's already president! What's it going to change? This action proves to me that he's nothing but a selfish egomaniac who can't bear the thought that anyone didn't vote for him. He can't take any criticism, but he can dish it out with all the maturity and diplomacy of a ten-year-old playground bully. Donald, did it ever occur to you that just maybe this is the exact behavior that made you lose the popular vote?

I really feel like he panders to the crazies of America. He was one of the supporters of the ridiculous Starbucks Christmas cup controversy in 2015--but why would he care, except to pander to the crazies? He obviously doesn't live a Christian life.

During election season, the rallying cry was "Never Trump." I wondered why it wasn't "Anyone but Trump." Then I realized that "#anyonebuttrump" would come across as "butt rump." That might be a suitable nickname. (Sorry. I have all the maturity and diplomacy of a ten-year-old.)

Sometimes I think I should get more involved in politics and knowing issues. But then I realized: I don't want to. See, I really learn the issues when I'm on my computer. And when I'm on my computer is when I feel like I'm wasting time. I could be out exercising, enjoying nature, cleaning, socializing, and doing all sorts of things that are better for my personal life. I'm glad other people follow this kind of stuff, but I have other priorities.

Even though I think it's great for other people to be involved, I think some people do take it too far. Facebook shows me every time my friends like something. (It's super obnoxious, but I've already talked about that.) There are some friends that I never see doing anything on Facebook to the point that I think they must not get on, but they like every article of a certain viewpoint. There are both Trump supporters and Trump haters. Is that really all you spend your time doing? Liking articles of your viewpoint? That seems foolish to me. But it's worse when they're Trump supporters, since he's a reprehensible despot. ("Reprehensible despot" is more mature and diplomatic.)

One other thing that confuses me is that the Trump supporter women (or at least the far-right supporter women) are the same demographic who share all the recipes on Facebook. I don't see the correlation, but it's the same people.

It's going to be a very long four years. I just hope that the people who are more powerful than I am won't tolerate him and will get him out of there.

#anyonebuttrump

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Accent shaming

There is a lot of talk in our society about various kinds of shaming, and this week there has been a lot of shaming and assuming the worst motivations for things people do. ("If you choose to perform at the inauguration, it must be because you endorse all the bad ideas of the president.")

I want to focus instead on something that we rarely identify as shaming, but it is nevertheless something that has impacted me.

This week, I heard a friend talking about Brighton High School. I noticed that she was very careful in the way she pronounced the t in "Brighton."

"Liz," I said to her, "you're a native Utahn, right?" (BTW, spellcheck is telling me "Utahn" is wrong, but that's how we do it here.) When she confirmed that she was indeed native to Utah, I asked her if she naturally said it that way, or if she had been trained to say it that way.

Her response wasn't unexpected. "I hate it when people don't say their t's. I'm the only one in my family who says it that way." She was surprised when I told her (1) that it isn't a phenomenon unique to Utah, and (2) it has a name: glottal stop (which uses this symbol, ʔ).

Unfortunately, I recognized her unusual carefulness because it's something I have done. Going back as far as fourth grade, I remember a classmate saying Utahns "don't say their t's." And as I heard this sentiment repeated, with the insinuation that it was an inferior or incorrect form of English, I trained myself not to say it that way. I became very careful about how I said "mountain," "Layton," etc.

Now that I've graduated from college with a degree in English linguistics, I know how bogus this idea was, and I am ashamed that I did that. I'm more ashamed of others for making me feel that I needed to do so.

These people almost always say "don't say their t's" to refer to the phenomenon. But that's not accurate at all. Using a glottal stop isn't "not saying" a t. A glottal stop is simply an allophone of the /t/ phoneme.

What are allophones and phonemes? I'm glad you asked! A phoneme is a sound or letter we think we hear. Allophones are actual sounds we make that our brain registers as phonemes.

It's best explained with an example. The words top, stop, hit, butter, and Batman all have the /t/ phoneme. But in each word, the t is pronounced differently. In top, a puff of air comes out of your mouth when you say it, but not in stop. (You can put your hand in front of your mouth to see for yourself.) In hit, your tongue stays at the roof of your mouth. In butter, it's more like a d. And in Batman, guess what it is? A glottal stop! So it's not accurate to say that a glottal stop is not saying a t.

(As a side note, in English, /r/ and /l/ are separate phonemes, but in Asian languages, they are different allophones of one phoneme. That's why Asian speakers have trouble with l's and r's in English, leading to things like Engrish.)

Another problem with the anti-glottal stop crusade (but they don't know what it is) is that it's not only a Utah thing; it's used in many other places--especially in England, but no one criticizes the Brits!

And it's not just a problem with this t pronunciation. There tends to be a look-down-your-nose attitude for Utah accents. If you look at the comment boards on any language article from a Utah newspaper, you'll see just what I'm talking about.

But we inherit accents naturally by growing up among them. We don't decide, "I'm going to speak with a New York accent," "I'm going to speak with an Irish accent," "I'm going to speak with a South African accent." Accents develop naturally, and everyone has one. So why is it OK to make fun of some people for theirs?

There's been a lot of talk about body shaming. And body shaming is a bad thing. But with fat shaming, there is often some kind of decision that has made people fat, and being overweight is unhealthy for them. (Don't accuse me of fat shaming here; I speak from experience. I weighed more than 200 pounds when I was in seventh grade and reached 250 by the time I was nineteen.) I'm still not saying fat shaming is OK, but there is often some element of lifestyle to it.

But I think accent shaming is even worse. Since accents are something we naturally develop, making fun of someone's accent is like making fun of a birthmark. (It basically is literally a mark of birth.) And whether someone says "mountain" with a glottal stop or some other allophone really makes no impact on them or on you.

I've tried to get back into saying glottal stops. It's more comfortable and natural. But I avoided it so long that I still often feel like I'm saying it "wrong" when I use one. The stigma has really affected me negatively. I'm trying to take it back with pride.


The people who criticize it don't know what they're talking about, so they're not an authority to criticize it. And those who do know what they're talking about won't criticize it.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Fifty things I like

The other night, I was awakened at 3:00 a.m. by a spam text message. Somehow they had my name, and they said I had a video request from a person who is apparently a real person in Bountiful. It kind of creeped me out. But even worse, it woke me up, and it took me a long time to fall asleep again. I hope that spammer from Georgia is happy with themselves.

But while I was lying in bed awake, I began thinking about things that make me happy. And I thought I would blog a list of them, since there's nothing worthwhile that happens in January anyway. These are in no particular order.

(I also thought of making a list of things that make me unhappy, but thinking about those things would work me up and make me unhappy. I could do frivolous things I hate, like feta cheese (yuck!), but that's a slippery slope.)


  1. Holidays. Once someone asked me what's something I geek out about, and I didn't even think to say holidays, because they are such an integral part of my life. I could never be a JW.
  2. Trail running. It brings stunning views, good health, a sense of accomplishment, wildflowers, and exhilaration. Street running will never be as good.
  3. Wildflowers.
  4. Autumn. The cooling temperatures, the changing leaves, it's all just lovely.
  5. Fresh pineapple.
  6. String cheese. 
  7. Seasonal candies and desserts. I love carrot cake, but only at Easter.
  8. Target. In large part because they have the best selection of seasonal items.
  9. Terrible 1960s sitcoms. The campier the better. Gilligan's Island is my favorite.
  10. Identifying rocks.
  11. Prehistoric animals.
  12. Etymologies and semantic shifts.
  13. Old English and Middle English. Early Modern English is interesting too.
  14. Small towns.
  15. Brigham Young. Sure, he wasn't perfect, but you try setting up an entire state without making any mistakes.
  16. The Word of Wisdom. I once heard of a guy who's never had soda in his entire life, and I was kind of jealous. But, while I missed out on a soda-free life, I have never had a drop of coffee or alcohol (not counting mouthwash or foods that other people have given me that had alcohol cooked in it), nor have I smoked or consumed illegal drugs. I've never had to deal with hangovers, DUIs, or doing embarrassing things while drunk. (I embarrass myself enough while sober, thank you.) I'm proud of this.
  17. Macabre things like vampires and cemeteries, but usually in a silly context.
  18. Polar regions.
  19. Looking at pictures of eight-legged animals. Insects are cool too.
  20. Reminiscing.
  21. Cooked vegetables. Especially when they are presented in an unusual way, such as veggie burgers.
  22. 1960s music. The 1950s were one of the worst music decades, IMO, but mid-to-late 1960s were great.
  23. Lady Gaga's clean songs.
  24. Cats. It's kind of pathetic.
  25. Early 1970s Peanuts TV specials. The 60s were great too. The 80s were awful.
  26. My current job.
  27. Terrible music videos. Jan Terri. But I don't have time to watch much YouTube anymore. (And I feel more fulfilled.)
  28. Making desserts out of fruit from our own trees. 
  29. Blossoming trees.
  30. Pretending I can play the piano.
  31. Bizarre dreams. Last week I dreamed I was kicking tiny walruses at Dolly Parton.
  32. Walruses.
  33. Playing music on shuffle.
  34. Life Cereal.
  35. Puffins. (The bird. The cereal is gross.)
  36. The Nightmare before Christmas.
  37. Board games that require creativity but not brain power, like Balderdash or Loaded Questions.
  38. Colorful shoes.
  39. Silly t-shirts.
  40. Wool sweaters.
  41. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage. (Take that, prescriptivists!)
  42. My niece and nephews.
  43. Hearing or seeing vintage ads, from any decade of the twentieth century.
  44. Two-year-olds and three-year-olds.
  45. Collecting music for every holiday.
  46. Recycling.
  47. Fun socks, but only if they're durable.
  48. Stop-motion animation.
  49. Sugar-free breath mints.
  50. Blogging.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Why summer is better than winter

Back when I was interning at BYU Studies on the main floor of the JFSB at BYU, we were down the hall from a kindergarten and preschool, and sometimes they would bring the kids around to the different offices to ask survey questions. One time they were asking what kind of bread we preferred. On another occasion, they asked us whether we preferred summer or winter. (They left spring and fall out of it, because that just complicates things.)

I really wanted to say winter, because I hate heat, and everyone else in the office said summer, and I don't hate winter as much as other people. But I couldn't. Summer really is better.

Let me start off by saying that I would rather be cold than hot. You can always put more layers on, and it's no fun feeling all sweaty. Also, air conditioning is more expensive than heating.

But hot is just hot. Cold, while it is better than hot, is still not good, and it brings a lot more nasty things with it.

Here is what is bad about summer:

  • It's hot.
  • There are wildfires and drought.
  • You can't leave your groceries, your dog, or your kids in the car.
  • Wasps, mosquitoes, and other bugs.
Here is what is bad about winter:
  • It's cold.
  • There are inversions and smog.
  • You can't leave your dog or your kids in the car.
But wait, there's more:
  • It's icy, with all its attendant problems.
  • Snowy driving is treacherous. 
  • Salt gets everywhere.
  • It's dark.
  • You have to scrape your windows in the morning.
  • You have to wear lots of bulky clothing.
  • Shoveling snow is a chore.
  • Dry skin.
So winter has a lot more bad things than summer. But what's good about the seasons? Let's start with winter this time:
  • Skiing, snowboarding, sledding, etc., if you're into that kind of thing. (I think this is like the only reason people like winter. I can get people being so passionate about it; I dream about my own hobby of trail running. But I've never been skiing or snowboarding, because I'm terrified of falling. I think I have PTSD from breaking my leg while rollerskating, slipping and landing on my teeth, and watching my mom break her leg on the stairs, among other incidents.)
  • Christmas. (But it comes in the beginning of winter, so you're depressed when it's over, which also happens to be the worst part of winter.)
  • New Year's and Valentine's Day, and I guess MLK Day and Presidents' Day. (But these are the weakest links on the holiday chain.)
  • Fresh, white snow is beautiful, as are icicles and other icy things.
  • Hot chocolate.
  • Cozy fireplaces.
Now, what's good about summer?
  • Hiking, running, rock climbing, etc., if you're into those things. (And seriously, what kind of person doesn't like hiking to some degree?) Basically, skiing, snowboarding, and sledding are the only hobbies you can't do in the summer, but you can do a lot more things in the summer, including things you can also do in the winter.
  • The Fourth of July and Pioneer Day. (They're not as good as Christmas, but that means you're not as depressed when they're over, and they're certainly better than New Year's and Valentine's Day. And, unlike Christmas, they occur during the peak of summer, so you have something to distract you from the horrible weather.)
  • Wildflowers, including sego lilies and mulesears in June, Richardson's geranium in July, and sunflowers in August.
  • Popsicles.
  • Campfires and camping.
But wait, there's more:
  • Outdoor concerts and movies.
  • Pool parties. 
  • Barbecues
  • Long daylight hours.
  • Vacations and road trips.
  • Fresh fruit and vegetables. And that also means cherry crisp, apricot meringue pie, and plum-rosemary upside-down cake.
  • Awesome afternoon thunderstorms.
So, you see, winter has more bad things, and summer has more good things. Ergo, summer>winter. 

Take that, skiers!

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Twenty Sixteen

I look forward to writing this review post all year! In my personal life, 2016 wasn't as bad as it was in the world in general--but I do feel like the bad things were worse than usual, and the good things weren't that unusual.

January. I got a Fitbit Surge watch, which I thought would be more of just a fun gadget, but I love it and can't go without it now. I especially love its GPS function to map my runs. For my stake family history calling, I had to oversee a family history institute class. I got a new phone, one that was much better than my old one; it is great for taking pictures of our cat.
My mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer and had surgery to remove it. I made veggie burgers out of beets and other things.

February. My ward got a new bishopric. I had my Ancestry DNA done, and I'm 52 percent Western European. I went on an awkward date to a Debra Fotheringham (local folk singer) concert. (Ladies, take note: if you adjust my defrost settings without telling me, and you don't even fess up to it when I am perplexed why my windows are so unusually foggy, it won't impress me.) I was amused by valentines in old editions of The Children's Friend.

March. We went to California for the baptism of my nephew Franklin; 
we also visited Alcatraz Island. We took our cat to the vet for the first time in thirteen years; she has arthritis and a heart murmur. I ceased looking at my Facebook feed on my phone after I accidentally sent friend requests to two people I don't know. I went to the democratic caucus, but the line was out the door and around the corner, so I didn't even park. I bought shoes designed specifically for trail running, and glacier lilies marked the return of trail season. My stake had a Vocal Point concert on Easter weekend.

April. I made carrot soup using lemongrass, but I included the wrong parts of it, and it was full of inedible, grassy pieces. On Earth Day, I ran up Mueller Park to Elephant Rock for the first time that year, and on Arbor Day, I ran up North Canyon (it was too snowy to get all the way to Rudy's Flat), the first of twelve runs up there in 2016.

May. The book I coedited, A Historian in Zion: The Autobiography of Andrew Jenson, was published. 
I successfully ran all the way to Rudy's Flat and back, my first, but by no means last, time doing so. I also explored some trails near the Bountiful Temple but wasn't too impressed. We removed the carpet from my bedroom to replace it, since it was gold shag carpet from the 1970s. I went to a chalk art festival, and one of the artworks matched my shirt. I made a mushroom asparagus pie, which was very good, surprisingly.

June. My carpet got replaced. My nephews came to visit at the same time my family was on vacation, so I had to watch them for several days. My grandparents watched them during the day while I was at work. I went to see the Monkees in concert, as part of their fiftieth-anniversary Good Times! tour. I picked lots of cherries at my sister's house. My ward had a fun weekend at Bear Lake, where I had never been before. June is the month of mulesears and sego lilies.

July. July was probably the most eventful of all the months of 2016. On July 2, my family did some fossil hunting in Utah County with my nephews before watching the North Salt Lake fireworks. I ran up North Canyon again on the Fourth of July. My parents drove my nephews back to California, but I had to do some urgent tasks at work, so I flew out a few days later. My tickets had the wrong gate on them, so I missed my flight. With my nephews, we visited Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks and the surrounding area. Then we left them, and with my parents I visited Redwoods and Crater Lake National Parks. 
I began tracking my calories on the Fitbit app after I gained three pounds on the trip. On July 22, my niece, Allie, who turned thirteen, was in the Bountiful Handcart Days parade. I volunteered to give a talk on Pioneer Day, a talk that elicited more compliments than I have ever received for all other talks combined. On July 25, I ran up Holbrook Canyon, but it wasn't a good running trail. On July 30, I twisted my ankle while running in Mueller Park Canyon, so I had to limp more than two miles down.

August. I made many items using our own fresh fruit from our yard: apricot meringue pie, 
plum crisp, plum cobbler, plum-rosemary upside-down cake, roasted plum and pudding tart, grape juice, grape tart. I watched the Olympics while making these things. I enjoyed running among leaves that were changing early. I switched positions at work and began working for my old boss again; I love working for him. My family attended an exceedingly awkward Cherie Call/Lyndy Butler concert at This Is the Place Heritage Park.

September. My family went to the ghost town of Frisco, Utah, and other places in the central part of the state to find rocks and explore. I made more items from plums and grapes, and I think apples had started then as well. I turned twenty-eight. I loved watching leaves continually changing.

October. More running and more leaves, and I hiked Adams Canyon. I also saw a deer skeleton. 
I dressed as a vampire at a Halloween party. I was released as stake family history director and assistant ward clerk and instead became executive secretary. My sister's best friend from high school died, very sadly. We had our kitchen cabinets refinished.

November. I mailed my ballot for Evan McMullin and hoped Hillary would win. I was accepted as a reviewer for The Impulsive Buy, with my first review appearing in December. Trail running wrapped up for the year. 
We drove to California to visit my nephews for Thanksgiving.

December. We had lots of Christmas decorations, including a real wreath and a small real tree for the first time since 1993. 
We attended Christmas concerts by the Lower Lights and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. My friend Camille was hit by a drunk driver, which did not fill me with charity at Christmastide (death to drunk drivers!). I got an Amazon Echo and an herb garden for Christmas. I had lots of Christmassy clothes to wear. 

Here's hoping 2017 will be better!