Pionniers et Olympiens

Back in 2012, I made a blog post called "Pioneers and Olympians." Twelve years later, I thought I would dust off my French so I could reuse the title. 

My newfound professional expertise came in handy again this week. My friend Madi asked me to speak at her ward's FHE on the history of Pioneer Day, so I did that on Monday. My old Cub Scout leader from the 1990s is in her bishopric, so that was a fun surprise. People were very complimentary of my presentation, though I don't think I'm a great speaker. It was a fun evening.

I had Pioneer Day off, and I decided to spend it in the style of the 1880s, with recreation and leisure. My parents and I went up to Farmington Pond, where I enjoyed swimming and paddleboarding. I would like to get more comfortable with open-water swimming.

My mom told me she got a great picture of me swimming . . . and then when she sent it to me today, she said, "I thought it was a better pic."

Then I went to the Gateway to Sweet Rolled Tacos, because they had banana cream pie ice cream for Pie and Beer Day. I bristle slightly at the concept of Pie and Beer Day, but if I'm going to be the world's expert on the holiday, I need to become aware of different kinds of celebrations. But I must never endorse or condone alcohol use, because it ruins too many lives. 

I try to avoid plastic spoons, and sometimes it works when I ask.

In the evening, I wanted to see Salt Lake's drone show, just like last year. I invited ten people: six people responded they couldn't make it, and four didn't respond. (When people don't respond, I assume they didn't want to be invited, so I consider putting them on my "don't invite" list.) So I went by myself.

Before the drone show, there was a Powwow at Liberty Park. I think it's wonderful to have the Native American festivities on Pioneer Day. I briefly watched some of the Native dancing, but it doesn't interest me that much. (Does that make me racist?)

I actually found a great spot right below the drones. The show was delayed because an airplane flew over right before it was time to start. But it was an enjoyable show, though several of the drones were unlit. They had a theme of Winter Olympics. (The pictures are in reverse order because Blogger is horrible.) 

Last year they had a handcart. I think the wagon is a better option.

I didn't know whether this was a hat or a UFO. But now that I look at it, I think it might be Jell-O?

Pie and Beer. Sigh.

The honeybee is our state insect, and cherry is the state fruit

Everyone thought this was a popsicle...

...but I think it's a feather.

I'm guessing this hand represents Indigenous peoples.

This is Salt Lake City's flag, but most people don't know that. On both July 5 and July 24, I heard people around me saying it was Utah's flag.

On Tuesday, I started noticing that I seemed to be developing a mild cold or something, and it got more pronounced through the week. On Friday evening, I ran up a steep but short trail. As I got to the top of the ridge, I was totally winded, even though I run there frequently. (Downhill was easy though.) 

Because of this evening run, I knew I wouldn't have the lung capacity for a longer run on Saturday. So I just took it easy.

I have to say, I don't love the last week of July. It's the hottest time of year, there's no holidays, it's still generally too early for plums and grapes, and it doesn't have the same fond memories as August. But the Olympics are kind of fun. Randomly, I've remembered these bizarrely hilarious Emerald Nuts commercials from the 2004 Olympics. 

And, of course, it has become a new tradition to end each blog post with the week's AI dream images. I had one multifaceted dream about missionaries, and apparently AI thinks the Great Salt Lake is sinister. I like to see what AI comes up with, but a lot of the fun comes from describing my dream in one succinct sentence.

Mark eats a hot chocolate Pop-Tart in front of class, but it's just minty filling between two slices of bread

Latter-day Saint missionaries stay inside their church building to guard it during the pandemic

Latter-day Saint sister missionaries are very happy they got to eat berry cheesecake

a Latter-day Saint mission president gets up and calls the king of England a monster

Mark opens a Christmas gift he wrapped himself in Peanuts comic strips (I'm actually jealous of this fake person's shoes)

Mark almost buys jeans with pink lace, but they don't have his size

Mark plays songs by the Free Design in the locker room

everyone can see a colossal structure in outer space

A local shop changes it's name to Fillmore (I made this image on my phone, and my phone changed "its" to "it's" 🙄)

Ann is uncertain if the body of water next door is the Great Salt Lake

Sue talks about Nathan's height in the Great Salt Lake

Mark and Katherine ask if there are any edible pumpkins

Mark and Scott watch an unreasonable man heckle the employees in a restaurant kitchen

Mark looks at unisex Halloween sweaters for sale

Mark has gummy bears on the grass, and children step on them

Mark looks at a 3-d printed diorama to see which way he should take to get to the store

Mark asks Calvin if he has read "American Zion"

Pioneer Day Professional

 I have a lot I want to talk about this week, so I'm going to break it into different parts.

Pioneer Day Festivities

I didn't add Pioneer Day to my canon of holidays until 2015. Nine years later, I am the world's foremost expert on the topic. And that's not hyperbolic: I literally think I know more than anyone else about Pioneer Day. This is my first Pioneer Day season since my article was published last December, and I'm glad to put my expertise to use.

On Monday evening, my ward had an activity where people could just get up and share random pioneer stories. Yes, it was as interesting as it sounds. I tried to spice it up a little bit by sharing how we have changed the way we think of and discuss pioneers: how the original designation of Mormon "pioneer" only referred to July 1847, meaning that handcarts were excluded; then anyone who arrived before the railroad in 1869 was a pioneer; then we should try to be like pioneers; then anyone could be a pioneer by exhibiting pioneer qualities; then refugees and immigrants are seen as pioneers.

Wednesday was the big day! I discussed the history of Pioneer Day on a Zoom panel for the Utah Historical Society. I'm really pleased that I got to share the information I began researching six years ago. It was recorded and will be posted to YouTube, hopefully this week. I didn't see who all the attendees were, but I saw there were more than forty people. I know I had a few friends watch it—thanks for your support!

That afternoon, I realized that the Bountiful History Museum was open (it's only open twice a week), and I had never been, so I decided to go take a look, even though it meant I would have to work late. There was a volunteer docent who showed me around. I feel like I know a lot about Utah history broadly but less about local history. I thought it was a good museum for being staffed by volunteers, but it could be more interesting. The coolest part was a train diorama of Bountiful. 

There were also some things devoted to Ivy Baker Priest, a US treasurer who was the mother of Pat Priest, who played the second Marilyn on The Munsters. The docent asked me, "Have you ever seen the movie The Munsters?" Of course, I said, "I'm a big fan of The Munsters." But it was clear to me she really didn't know the show, especially since she called it a movie.

On Friday, I helped someone move before we went to Bountiful Park for the Handcart Days concert with Peter Breinholt. I disliked his voice in high school, but he's fun to hear live. I think this is the third time I've heard him live: I went to a joint concert of him and Cherie Call back when I was at BYU, and in February last year he performed at a fireside with a man who's under the trans umbrella.

The banner they had for him misspelled his name

Then on Saturday morning, my dad and I watched the Handcart Days parade, which is the second-biggest Pioneer Day parade. I guess I have more of an academic interest in parades than I care about the parade itself. Various stakes provide floats, and I like most of them, but the ones devoted to worldwide temples make me uncomfortable in a civic parade, because that has little to do with Utah or pioneers. But there were also lots of commercial entries, such as this one for a Halloween attraction.

My stake was asked to help out with the Handcart Days fair in the park, and members of my ward helped with the fishing pond, which meant we stood behind wood panels and put toys on "fishing lines." The executive secretary of my ward came in and decided to put more than one toy on each. We pushed back against it, because it wasn't fair for kids to have inconsistent toy amounts, but he insisted. So then kids noticed that some holes gave more toys than others, so I had to start giving away more toys too. At the end, someone from my ward told one of the people in charge, "We tried to burn through the toys," and the guy in charge said, "We actually don't want to burn through them." This situation left me very frustrated, and it makes me not want to help out next year.

Then in the evening, I had another concert to attend. My mom wanted to go to Deseret Book's third annual Pioneer Day concert at This Is the Place. But she is stuck in California because of all the airline problems, so I just took my niece. Two years ago they did one devoted to Black pioneers, last year was devoted to Indigenous peoples, and this year was focused on Polynesians, especially the Hawaiian ghost town of Iosepa. I really am happy to see Pioneer Day have this more expansive and inclusive rhetoric—I want the holiday to survive, but I don't think it's sustainable to keep focusing on the 1847/handcart narrative (even though handcarts weren't used in 1847). This year's concert also included the Black and Indigenous performers of previous years, and they even had a land acknowledgment. This is surprisingly (and wonderfully) progressive for Deseret Book. The songs were very devotional, and it seemed like a strange setting for that—but it makes sense for a Deseret Book concert, and I find it remarkable that a Deseret Book concert would have gospel singers and even include a rap verse. And of course it's lovely to have an outdoor concert. I would go again.

It was a very busy week! But I'm glad to have fun things going on in July.

Pioneer Day Foods

Even though I'm the world's expert on Pioneer Day, I'm still figuring out what foods are suitable for the day. It's been a while since I've put a food dump on this blog, so here are some of the foods I'm associating with the holiday:

• Lemonade has long been used in Twenty-Fourth of July celebrations since the nineteenth century, and it was also an iconic Fourth of July treat. So not only can I drink lemonade, but I can also have lemonade-inspired things. 

Crumbl's raspberry lemonade cookie

So Cupcake's lavender lemonade cupcake 

7-Eleven's strawberry lemonade donut

• Ice cream is the longstanding counterpart of lemonade for both the Fourth and the Twenty-Fourth. But for the Twenty-Fourth, I only have ice cream made in Utah, such as Red Button, Farr's, Fat Boy, and of course local ice cream shops.

  

  Orange cream and grilled pineapple ice cream from Blacksmith

  
  
• Fry sauce, a Utah favorite, and pastrami burgers, another Utah favorite

RJ Grill

Arctic Circle

• Sunflowers and sagebrush were a common pioneer decoration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so I would love to see us embrace more sunflowers at this time of year.
  
  
  
• Honey is symbolic, even though I don't think Utah really has a strong honey tradition (at least not more than other states)

  
  

  I like that this packaging uses hexagonal beehives, which is part of Utah's flag motif. I took one bite and was instantly overpowered by the sweetness

  
  
• Red, white, and blue is suitable for Pioneer Day, especially now that Utah's flag is red, white, and blue 

  

  Thirst beignets

  

  

  IHOP

  
  
• Saltwater taffy. We have at least two major taffy companies in Utah, and the candy is a staple of Pioneer Day parades
  
  
  
• Utah scones, fried dough. I read a book on July 3 called Utah English, and it claims that this definition of "scone" is the only truly unique linguistic trait of Utah.

  

  I got this at the Handcart Days fair, not knowing that they gave us tickets for helping out

  
  
• Watermelon is a summertime staple and has been part of July 24 celebrations since the earliest days

Thanks for letting me geek out about my fatness!

To Be Young Again

This week the Church announced that they changed the definition of YSA, young single adult. It is no longer eighteen to thirty but is now eighteen to thirty-five. That means I'm young again! But I don't really anticipate any changes for me. I turn thirty-six in two months anyway, so I'd be back where I started at the end of the year. Also, I feel like the YSA setting is more likely to emphasize the heteronormative "go get married" rhetoric. I heard BYU recently did a massive dating event, and I recently saw a billboard for next month's YSA conference saying people can meet lots of YSAs or maybe "the one." If I meet "the one," I will get punished for it.

I aged out of the YSA ward less than five years ago, but since that time, I have gone through a pandemic, grad school, an existential crisis, PRK, coming out, and new career opportunities.

Speaking of the last five years—back in 2020, I bought this Biden Harris t-shirt. I wore it a few times and had people compliment it. In more recent times, I fear for my safety.

And now I am relieved that Biden is dropping out of the race. I will never vote for Trump, but I have had serious concerns about Biden's age and cognitive ability. He recently said "Vice President Trump" when he meant "Vice President Harris." Mixing up your running mate and your opponent is a colossal goof! I know he's been digging in his heels over the last few weeks, so I'm glad he finally did what's best for the nation.

Dreams

I have had several people tell me they enjoy my AI dream images, so here's this week's installment. I have significant concerns about AI replacing actual art, and I'm even more concerned about AI being used to deceive people. But I think these AI images are funny, and hopefully I can help people recognize AI. 

(Also, everyone has dreams about being inadequately dressed in public. I have had a lot of them lately, but I try not to post them.)

at an outdoor movie, some women invite Mark to an activity, but he forgets that he already committed to something else

The cat makes a mess on Mark's bed

little Allie rides in the back of a pickup, but she doesn't want the plastic skeleton to ride with her

Mark walks home carrying a plastic skeleton

Mark smells April eating beef jerky

Reggie the cat gets green dye on his fur

Mark eats from his cat's litterbox

Mark decides to get rid of his old camera because it doesn't work well

Mark goes to a golden spike museum in California

Mark watches woolly mammoths enter a building

Halloween is over, so Mark prepares to decorate for Thanksgiving

Mark looks at new Valentine's candy

Mark buys lemonade-flavored almonds from a convenience store for Pioneer Day

an man [sic] hugs his daughters in an elevator, happy he has not been electrocuted

an Indigenous employee of the Utah Department of Indian Affairs has electricity coming from his brain

Mark wants to wear the same green and blue shirt and shorts he wore when he was six years old

children sell popsicles at a parade, and their parents accept payment on their phones

Brent gives white chocolate Reese's bats to people whose access badges aren't working at the Church History Library

Mark runs past exotic animals next to a river, many of them in cages

a wolf attacks a raccoon, then chases a coyote, which chases Mark

Mark watches videos about jaguars at the vet's office

at the vet's office, Mark watches dogs get trained outside