We need an adjective!

This picture serves as a thumbnail image since Facebook doesn't let me choose.

I enjoyed a peaceful conference weekend at home. My cat joined us while we watched; even when he wasn't sitting on us, he was hanging around us. It's endearing. I also watched the women's session, because after working on that book about women's talks, I can't not watch it.

I had heard there were going to be lots of changes, so the biggest surprise to me was that there weren't more changes. I had already heard all about the two-hour block, so no surprise there.

The temples were more surprising to me. I was surprised that one of the smallest audience reactions was to the Guam temple. Guam is tiny! Also, my mom's family was baptized on Guam in 1966, so I have a connection, even though I've never been there. Thanks to my presence in the historical community, their story was featured on the Keepapitchinin blog nearly three years ago.

As for renovations, I hope they give the Salt Lake Temple a seismic upgrade. As a quasi-geologist, I know it needs one. And maybe they need another Washington County temple while St. George goes through renovations?

But most of my thoughts today relate to President Nelson's words on the name of the Church. I have been thinking of these thoughts since the first announcement in August. I don't like being critical, but I do have plenty of reservations on this initiative, due to my perspective as a linguist, as an editor, as a historian, and as an author.

First, my linguistic quibbles. To begin with, it's very difficult to prescribe something and get people to change, especially after nearly two hundred years of usage. But my absolute biggest reservation is that they took away our adjectives--LDS and Mormon--without telling us what adjectives to say instead. Everything they've told us to be acceptable is a noun. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a noun. It is entirely unreasonable to expect us to use prepositional phrases all the time. "Mormon missionaries" becomes "missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"? "LDS scriptures" becomes "scriptures of the restored gospel"? Nah. I guess we can use "Latter-day Saint" as an adjective, but that still has its problems--and also, I don't see how it's any more reflective of the Savior than simply "LDS." We need an adjective! I was so hoping President Nelson would give us one, but he didn't.

As an editor, I am aware of the cumbersome nuances of the name of the Church. When the full name is used (in Church style), "The" is capitalized, but not if it's just "the Church." Also, it's lowercase "day," with a hyphen. But other Latter Day Saint factions don't follow that convention (see?). Most members don't grasp these nuances. Even the sixteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style erroneously capitalized "Day," though they fixed it for the seventeenth. Personally, I would like us to lowercase "the" and capitalize "Day" (but keep the hyphen), since that's the general convention. Why insist on the full name when the punctuation and capitalization are so confusing?

As a historian, I recognize "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" for what it is: an unwieldy nineteenth-century title. It might have been revealed, but it was still revealed in an age when book titles took up the entire page. We are left with a nineteenth-century name for a twenty-first-century institution. Also, it is true that "Mormon" began with less-than-sympathetic usage, but the Saints took it for themselves, though they often used it with scare quotes.

And as an author, I appreciate having adjectives, and especially multiple adjectives. I have a book coming out in May. We had a subtitle, but we had to change it because it had "Mormon" in it. This happened before the formal announcement; Deseret Book had already been discouraging "Mormon." None of the subtitles are as good as the original was. This is to say nothing of the actual prose of books. (Hopefully I don't have to rewrite everything that says "Mormon"!)

Still, though, I could overlook all of these problems if they just gave us a suitable adjective. But that's a huge problem, and I think it's shortsighted not to address it.

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I feel silly doing my pumpkinundation roundup after a more serious topic, but I'd rather not do two weeks' worth next week, so here we are.

Einstein Bros Pumpkin Double Whipped Shmear is acceptable, but it's my least favorite of the three cream cheese I've had now. 6/10.

I made a second trip to Trader Joe's, so I have additional things to show you in the coming weeks.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread isn't as good as Philadelphia, but it's better than Einstein. It makes bagels more palatable. 7/10.

I ate this Pumpkin Spice RX Bar on an evening trail run to Ensign Peak. I don't remember exactly how I felt about it, except that it's good but not great. 6/10.

Trader Joe's Organic Pumpkin Spice Granola Bark are little bars of granola coated in dark chocolate and pepitas (pumpkin seeds). They're fine as granola, but not very pumpkiny. 7/10.

Trader Joe's Candy Corn Popcorn is supposed to taste like candy corn, and the pieces are coated in yellow, orange, and white. The texture weirds me out, with the gritty crunchiness of the coating and the soft crunchiness of the popcorn. It doesn't taste much like candy corn. 6/10.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spiced Pumpkin Seeds are the weirdest shaped pumpkin seeds I've seen, but I like the seasoning and texture. 7/10.

I formally reviewed these Nature Valley Pumpkin Spice Granola Bars last year, and I feel the same way. They're like the ones in the green wrappers, but not pumpkiny. 6/10.

This My Sugar Fix pumpkin cookie is new; in 2016 and 2017, their pumpkin cookies were more like sugar cookies. This was more cakey, and I didn't like it as much. 6/10.

I thought the Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix was a little bland when plain, but they were fine with pumpkin butter. 7/10.

I had this Dutch Apron Pumpkin Roll at a mini birthday party. Someone else said it was really good, but I found it a little ordinary. Maybe I'm pumpkined out? Someone this week asked me if I get sick of pumpkin. I don't really get sick of pumpkin, but I get sick of carbs. 7/10.

Trader Joe's Caramel Apple Flavored Granola uses pumpkin spice pumpkin seeds, apples, and other things. It wasn't caramely, but I liked it. 8/10.

This Russell-Stover Candy Corn Marshmallow was better than I expected. The marshmallow was yellow, orange, and white, and I liked the white chocolate on the marshmallow. 8/10.

I was finally able to cook with my pie pumpkin. Pumpkins sure are an unwieldy vegetable.

 I cut it up and cooked it on the stove with onions...

 ...so I could put it in a pumpkin grilled cheese sandwich, using a recipe from The Pumpkin Lover's Cookbook, a book that is a little overly advanced for me. But I really enjoyed the sandwich: comforting grilled cheese with the nutrients of vegetables. 8/10.

I still had this World Market Pumpkin Spice Cocoa Mix from last year, and I like the spices added to the traditional cocoa mix. 8/10.

During a slow moment at This Is the Place, I bought this Caramel Apple Cow Tale. If I've ever had a Cow Tale, I was super young, but it did taste familiar. This was a weird candy, but I liked the texture. 8/10.

I submitted a formal review for Brach's Unicorn Horns Fruity Candy Corn, so it should come out this week. These taste like fruit and cream. I like the lemon, orange, and mango or melon flavors, but I don't care for the purple ones. The pink is OK. 7/10.

Brach's Dragon's Teeth Candy Corn is OK. The chocolate flavor isn't new, and the strawberry flavor isn't great. They are part of the Unicorn Horns review. 5/10.

I had Trader Joe's "This Pumpkin Walks into a Bar" Cereal Bars last year, and I still think the filling is kind of like glue. 6/10.

Nature's Path Organic Pumpkin Pie Toaster Pastries are different from Pop-Tarts, but they're still as good. I think I like them better toasted. 9/10.

Stephen's Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa isn't very chocolatey or very pumpkiny. It tastes pretty fake. 6/10.

Kellogg's Pumpkin Spice Special K is a satisfying cereal, though it's not as healthy as you might expect. It's Special K with yogurt-coated oats. 7/10.

Pumpkin Spice belVita Breakfast Biscuits aren't very pumpkiny, but I like them. 7/10.

Synder's of Hanover Pumpkin Spice Pretzel Pieces are hard pretzels with a pumpkin spice seasoning. They're decent. 7/10.

I liked the frosting on these Walmart Pumpkin Bundt Cakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing, but the cake was a little too dense and bland. Not worth the calories. 6/10.

I liked Trader Joe's Pumpkin Rolls better than most cinnamon rolls. Both the rolls and the frosting actually have pumpkin in them. 8/10.