Wrath of Blog

OK, so. Several things.

1.  This calls into question the validity of TED talks. I mean, I already thought they were on the smarmy, suspicious side of pretentious assery, but this really clinches it.

2.  Bob knows about as much about being Buddha as my dog knows about theoretical physics. Have I mentioned Bob is an ass? Did I mention I knew Bob?

3.  There was a joke at Columbia when I was there (I was in the same department he teaches in) that went like this:

Q:  What’s the difference between God and Bob Thurman?
A:  God shows up sometimes.

It was well-known that Bob didn’t attend his own classes. Ever. Well, maybe once a semester. Each class period another grad student would lead discussion. Sometimes they wouldn’t bother at all. He just didn’t much seem to be interested. Unless there was publicity involved, Bob didn’t come.

Bob once attempted to insult a Christianity professor by  making fun of Christianity. That professor was an atheist. Bob is the only senior religion professor I’ve ever run across that didn’t know that most responsible professors of religion separate personal belief from professional teaching, research and inquiry. It’s college, Bob, not church/temple/whatever.

Also, he was just an ass in general.

From the article (which has much of the book in it):

Among his many creative feats is a fairly unknown, fairly scandalous one: In 1939, when Geisel left Vanguard for Random House, he had one condition for his new publisher, Bennett Cerf — that he would let Geisel do an “adult” book first. The result was The Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History’s Barest Family, which tells the story of nudist sisters who, after their father’s death, pledge not to wed until each of them has “brought to the light of the world some new and worthy Horse Truth, of benefit to man.”

Also in the category of baffling things: Mormon underwear. I didn’t know this was a thing. I will not try to pretend to understand this thing. It is apparently also something that most Mormons refuse to talk about. It sounds as if during confirmation (or something like it) you are instructed about your temple garments (aka underwear) and then you wear it as much as possible after that to remind yourself of your connection to the temple and to be modest. 

This makes me wonder if there is a special sub-set of Mormon underground pornography involving religious underwear and its removal.

Maybe that’s just me.