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Every now and then, I get existing tenants asking this question and just recently I had a tenant who was renting one of my rooms paying a monthly rental of RM310 for a non-air conditioning room. She was willing to pay as additional RM100 each month if it was installed but I was not really willing to do so for several reasons.
Firstly, when I received this inquiry, I did mention to her that I would check with the owners on this issue and revert back to her. It is important for you to revert back to your tenant soonest possible on any issue that is brought up to you as it is part of the service that has to be done by the owner or manage r of the rooms.
Secondly, we have to look at the cost involved in this possible upgrade, buying a new air conditioning unit and installing it plus the piping required to the outside compressor would cost quite a significant amount since this is a non-windowed room situated in the centre of the house so therefore it would need quite a lot of piping just to get to the outside of the house to install the compressor. This is additional cost required vs if the room had a window that was next to the outdoor of the house.
Thirdly, would it be viable and profitable for this upgrade to be done? Yes it can be done but the situation may defer from case to case. In this particular house there is already 5 rooms out of the 10 rooms that are fitted with air conditioning units. Normally air conditioning rooms will also naturally increase the electricity bills of the house so that is also a something to consider especially when your rental includes the utilities of the house. Air conditioning rooms are also the slowest to be filled vs non air conditioning rooms. There was also a situation where the upstairs tenant which was a air conditioned room was also looking to move out so it would be possible to arrange a transfer of the existing tenant to either that particular room where the tenant is looking to move out or another air conditioning room in the house. There are of course the standard transfer fees required if the existing tenancy agreement has yet to expire. It takes extra time and effort for transfers to be done, therefore a charge is required and the tenants will not misuse this. What has happened in the past is that tenants would move in to the rooms and after a month or two, they will either start asking about either upgrading or downgrading a room and at that point in time, I did not have any experience in this situation and No charges was initiated to the tenant for the upgrade. What I notice after this upgrade was that tis news started to spread around the house and other tenants also wanted to do the same thing as it did not cost them anything to do so but it would give you a real administration nightmare. The reason for this is that you would have to pro rate what the owner has paid for in rental and also tenancy agreement fees and all the other fees vs the cost of moving in to the new room and whether they have to either top up or refund certain deposits and also you would have to have a new tenancy agreement written and you have to get involved in the moving of the tenants stuff from the old room to the new room as they would need some time to move their physical stuff. So the new room keys would have to be given to them while leaving the other room open for this process to be done. After which you would have to get this room that the tenant has just transferred from to be ready for viewing for the next potential tenant. All this really takes a lot of time and effort so a fee for this process is usually a norm that you have to make clear to your tenants. Of course, some profit will be made at the same time but that is what I call a business. I charge RM50 for every transfer done and currently I only allow upgrades and not downgrades as refunds are required on the deposits and I rather not get into that situation where it would reduce my cash flow but focus on increasing it.
Do please share with us what you feel on this issue or whether you have encountered a similar issue and how you have solved it by commenting below.


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If you're tired of staring at the same old walls in your home lately, consider interior decorating! Giving any room in your house a make-over can be fun, rewarding and even economically efficient. Consider the following tips to help you plan, prepare and produce your home decorating ideas with style.
Look at the furniture you have on your home and find a combination of colors and furniture that fits well together. You want to have furniture colors that compliment each other, as well as the colors around your home. Avoid picking colors that aren't related, because this can look like you don't know style.
If you are making decisions about changing the interior decor of your home, get your family involved. Remember that they will need to live with the changes as well. Decisions that are made should be acceptable to everyone to avoid conflict and ill feelings. Your home is the haven for each member of your family, so everyone should feel good about the changes ahead.
Use mirrors when decorating your home. Mirrors can be very handy, especially if you live in a small space. A mirror on one or two walls isn't just convenient for fixing your hair on the go. They can also give the illusion of more space. One strategically placed mirror can do wonders for opening up a room.
Do not neglect your basement when you are planning an interior-design project. If you have a basement that is even only semi-finished, it can be transformed into a great space to entertain, play or relax. If you are ready to start designing your home and have a basement you should think about what you can do to make it a place that you can enjoy.
When you are getting ready to paint a room, paint just a portion of a wall first, and wait a few days before you decide. You can avoid the hassle and added cost of re-painting a poor color choice by seeing how you feel about it after a couple of days.
Take care when choosing colors for your interior-design project. You want a color scheme the works harmoniously together to create a balanced look. It is just as important to avoid incorporating too many colors that clash with each other as it is to avoid creating a bland, monotone and boring space.
Have you ever heard the old saying about taking off one piece of jewelry before you leave your home? The same rule applies to interior design. Once you finish decorating a room, give it a good look and spend some time editing down your design. Even if you love every pillow, plant, or picture in your home, you don't want a room to look cluttered.
Try to add a rug to as many rooms in your house as you can. Rugs can enliven the atmosphere in the room and complete the overall look. Also, they can last for a long time and can cover parts of the hardwood that you do not see fit for the room.
Avoid catering to any design trends that are currently popular. These trends are often expensive, and they'll be out of style fairly quickly. Go with something timeless that you think looks good. Don't let what current trends say are good influence how you want your place to look. Follow your heart, not a trendy magazine.
They saying, "less is more" could not be more true when it comes to interior design. Rather than filling your room up with lots of different pieces, you would be better served to choose fewer pieces that complement each other beautifully. This way, you avoid giving your room a cluttered look.
If you tend to redecorate your rooms often, it would be wise to have furniture and walls that are neutral and then accent them with colorful, eye catching accessories. This way, when you next redecorate your room, you would only need to change out the accessories instead of totally redesigning your room.
Put pictures at eye level. Never put pictures up high on a wall. Handing pictures at eye level doesn't just make them easier to view. When you position pictures up high, it makes your ceiling appear lower. Leaving them at eye level creates a nice focal point and opens up the room a bit.
Use vinyl adhesive stickers to decorate a child's room. Because you may not want to redo your child's room each time they go through a phase (trains? dinosaurs? super heroes?), vinyl stickers are a great solution. Available in practically every design from words to numbers to athletes and more, they allow you to stick them semi-permanently to any wall, but easily remove them when your child finds a new passion.
Having the same decor and furnishings for any length of time can make for a really boring home. Splash some color on the walls, hang dazzling curtains and turn everything inside out until you have found your decorating Zen! Hopefully this article has given you great ideas and new found inspiration.

subset: commoncrawl


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I was a practising employment and labour relations lawyer for 30 years from 1988 until June 2018 when I retired as a lawyer (LL.B. Dalhousie, 1987; J.D. Dalhousie 2011). I maintain the designation of Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR) and I now practice as a management consultant in the HR and Labour Relations field. I also work with with non-profit organizations as a consultant or workshop provider on matters of board governance, human resources policies, risk management and insurance. I may serve as Interim Executive Director during times of transition. I also provide professional recruitment services when hiring a new Executive Director.
From 1988 until 2007 I served my clients through an established Annapolis Valley law firm where I was the senior litigation partner (and for a time Managing Partner). I served as Legal Counsel in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition and subsequently, I was appointed Legal Counsel and Chief Negotiator for the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union. I later operated a private human resources and labour-employment law practice, based in Kentville, Nova Scotia, from 2011 until until the fall of 2017 when I was appointed as Legal Counsel and Manager of Policy and Planning for a regional public-sector environmental services authority. I served as its Acting General Manager for a time. In the past, I represented both employees and employers in Human Rights cases of all kinds, under both the Provincial and Federal human rights legislation.
My clients have included large corporations, financial institutions and banks, and government entities at both the provincial and municipal level. But mostly, over the years, my clients have been small and medium-sized businesses, farmers and entrepreneurs.
Most business leaders would agree that smaller organizations that do not employ in-house HR staff can still benefit greatly from professional HR advice on an 'as needed' basis. Good HR practices are widely known to bring greater efficiencies and a more engaged and productive workforce and better recruitment and retention while at the same time reducing the employer's exposure to often very substantial unexpected costs. I can provide cost-effective HR solutions that allow business owners and non-profit organizations to concentrate on what they do best: growing their businesses, improving their operations and serving their clientele.
I also provide private workplace incident investigations and dispute resolution services that can save your organization money.
I served a five-year term as Chair of the Nova Scotia Election Commission from 2009 to 2014. While I was appointed by the Cabinet, like a judge I could only be removed by a resolution of the House of Assembly. During my term, I met monthly with senior representatives of the three political parties that had seats in the House of Assembly to grapple with many contentious issues including the registration and financing of political parties, merit-based appointments of local election officials, election finance rules and proposals to expand the way people vote during elections. These were complex and often difficult discussions.
I have also been retained by municipal governments over the years to handle sensitive and difficult matters involving disputes between and among municipal councillors. I one situation I was asked to inquire into and report to Council on an allegation of violation of the Code of Conduct made by one councillor against another. I was retained by a different municipality to meet with Council informally to resolve a factional dispute between two groups of councillors that was preventing Council from functioning as it should.
I bring these same advanced mediation and practical problem-solving skills to bear in employee relations, whether in a unionized or a non-union workplace, and no matter what the size of the operation is.
As a volunteer, I was elected to serve on the national board of Diabetes Canada and I sit on the Compensation and Human Resources Committee. I was also elected to the board of the National Diabetes Trust Corporation, which is a for-profit social enterprise that benefits the work of Diabetes Canada.


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Homepage » Forums » Plants, Climates and Soils » Old bathtubs
This topic contains 11 replies, has 12 voices, and was last updated by moira 5 years, 6 months ago.
2013-11-25 at 9:48 am #27093
We have three old bathtubs on our property. I thought of using them as small ponds but the sides are too slick and steep. Does anyone thinks they would be put to good use as sunken garden beds in our somewhat arid climate?2013-11-25 at 9:58 am #27097
Bathtubs really do make fantastic greywater filtration systems.2013-11-26 at 12:01 am #27162
Probably want to check out whether the bathtub finish contains lead that could leach into the water. If so, I wouldn't use it, even for non-potable water, because that water will go into the soil. Many of the older porcelain ones have very high lead content, according to my on-line research when I was looking into refurbishing an old tub for my home remodeling project.2013-11-30 at 1:44 am #27399
I use one as a raised bed in the middle of my small fenced garden. I use it to start seeds and it makes it easy to transplant seedlings because it is high off the ground so I can cultivate it easily…2013-11-30 at 7:01 am #27404
Geoff Lawton has a video showing a bathtub used as a worm compost bed.2013-12-05 at 11:46 am #27997
Greywater, earthworms, garden bed are all great ideas plus I have one that I use as a fish pond for my grandchildren to enjoy. lots of sand, gravel and rocks layer the bottom.2014-01-03 at 10:17 am #36472
We have a bathtub as a duck pond at our farm in Brooklyn, nyc. When we drain the water and clean the pond, it flows into a raingarden type spot and fertilizes the plants.
When we first began using it, it actually worked as a rat trap at night and drowned quite a few. But after the first chicken death we added a submerged ramp. It's no longer a rat trap, but it continues to work really nicely for the ducks. Chickens occasionally still fall in trying to drink water but they can climb out now.
Is it possible to post images?
Also: no dice in the wintertime. That water will freeze and break the tub.2014-01-04 at 12:44 am #36567
I was thinking of applying some hugelculture principles and putting wood in the bottom. Anyone tried this?2014-01-04 at 6:12 pm #36695
Colten JacksonParticipant
You can link to images, like this (there's a link button above the text input box. Highlight the words you want to add a link to, hit the link button and paste the web address of your image)
imgur.com makes uploading and copying the link to images very easy.2014-01-05 at 1:42 am #36755
If they are contaminated by lead, you could maybe use them to grow non-food items like insect-attracting plants. . . I would expect water to pool up nicely in there if you sunk them down.2014-01-08 at 5:20 pm #37984
All our vegetable gardens are in old bathtubs to prevent rabbits from decimating the veggie crops – works well! Just ensure adequate drainage and fill with a good soil / compost.2014-01-10 at 3:50 am #38282
hi we had a bath tub and found a few problems – first water got sour very quickly and things drowned and dogs drank from it and so we introduced a net
tried using a bramble screen to use the space (one of the members was very fond of the bath) and still discourage young people and dogs
we looked into solar / alternative powered pump to aerate the water – but it was very expensive
there is now an old tub in a different location, half filled with rocks and some compost. planted with reed and topped with gravel then filled slowly (so as not to disturb the soil below the gravel) with rain water – a year later this seems to have done well – no dogs are dead, no kids or mice drowned and there was a water source (which did dry up in the summer for a while and had to be topped up sadly with mains water because naughty imps ran off the rainwater tank) for the bees and birds ) Leaves and twigs were floated on the surface to provide landing zones – and the water more or less is clear – if it muddies it does settle and like i said the dog seems pretty much ok so am thinking is not too soured
when the bath was in use, there were veg with chewed holes in leaves – could have been beetle, but after a few years and seeing some stuff, am wondering if it was birds (have seen pigeon and magpie pecking and making holes in the leaves) anyway there seemed to be strong connection with the bath tub and has eased off since the bath tub was emptied
maybe the positioning was bad
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You're likely missing out on some killer deals although purchasing an airline ticket looks pretty simple if you are just taking a couple of minutes to accomplish this. Airfare is a cost, however many the ticket charges, which means you don't need to generate any accidental slips when reserving your ticket. These errors are things that anybody could create, so understanding what you may be taking without recognizing it can be precisely what you want to be sure you've also got the ticket that is very best — along with the trip — which you can. Not contemplating trip insurance. Travel coverage can seem to be a useless expenditure, but it may not be as absurd as you may think. While it isn't needed by you and won't get anything from it, in different situations, it may save a lot of money, time, and frustration. Traveling and hazard pros at Aon Affinity Travel advised Insider the goal of traveling is to guard you if your layouts shift or something changeable appears.
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Netanyahu And Trump-It Is Iran, Not The Settlements
President Trump foreign policy may seem to be chaotic, not unlike the overall performance of the new administration, but there are two elements of it, which have direct bearing on Israel, and which seem to shape up in a way which indicates coherence. One is the attitude towards settlements, one is the approach towards the rogue Iranian regime. The wet dream of Naftali Bennett, Tzipi Hotovali and other settlements-obsessed nationalist politicians about a cart blanche given to Israel with regard to expanding existing settlements and constructing new ones was , is and will continue to be delusional, detached from reality and overall damaging to Israel's national/strategic interest. Not so with PM Netanyahu own focus on Iran.
It is a matter of double standards, sheer hypocrisy and false reading of the important Middle East realities, but the settlements have become a major Achilles hill for Israel, chiefly because of the silly belief of so many, that the settlements constitute THE most significant impediment to peace with the Palestinians, but sometimes, such deeply held beliefs, near universal conventional wisdom are hard , if not outright impossible to change. Even die-hard supporters of Israel, including in the US, and also in the new administration, are not fans of turning the settlements into the litmus test of the relationships with Israel. For Israel, therefore, to focus on this one issue is a crucial mistake, total misreading of the signals already amply supplied by the new administration. The WH statement after the first announcement about building plans in Judea and Samaria,that the subject would be discussed with Netanyahu on 15 February, while not repeating the usual Onbamaseque "illgetimate, impediment to peace" message, was a polite , friendly reminder to Israel, to simply leave that issue aside, but the sensitive message, from an administration known already for its lack of sensitivity, was completely misunderstood in Jerusalem. The inevitable WH reaction , was still in the realm of politeness and empathy towards Israel, but this time with a pointed policy message. Stop bothering us with that, stop making unnecessary announcements, stop dreaming about new settlements, and be happy that we consider existing settlements as being legitimate and NOT being an impediment to peace. Netanyahu should have jumping up and down with joy, telling "I told you so", and declaring victory,but he did not. He has coalition partners on his hands, he has Amona , and he may feel a need to justify Kissinger's old cliche , about Israel having only domesic politics to contend with, not foreign policy considerations. Well, Netanyahu can still prove Kissinger wrong, and himself a statesman. He needs to come to Trump in few days time with a strategic blue print of future understandings between Israel and the US, and he got a broad hint from Trump as to his priority, and this is Iran.
Netanyahu himself should not be preached about the importance of Iran, as he turned this issue into his trump political card in recent years, including aggravating already tensed relations with the Obama Administration and the Democratic party[he was right on substance, wrong on tactics], and he proved right with his concerns. The Iran nuclear deal has been a disaster, strengthening Iran, turning it to an ever greater danger to Israel and overall regional stability in the Middle East. Here is where the importance of the Iran factor as being THE center of gravity of Israeli regional policy. Iran can be the key to a dramatic improvement in the relations between Israel and some of the most important Sunni Muslim states in the Middle East. Iran is a key factor in the attempts to achieve an arrangement in Syria, Iran is the benefactor of Hizballah, and Iran is NOT on friendly terms with Turkey, a country which Israel has interesting, though problematic strategic relations with. On top of all that, the Trump
Administration does not like the Iran nuclear deal. wants to reduce its negative impact on the region, and has already started to take actual steps along this line. Here is where Netanyahu should focus-come with a detailed, regional plan about how to deal with Iran, do what is important to both Israel and the administration, do not do what is important only to Bennett and Hotovali.
For decades, the Israeli-American strategic alliance was based on commonality of values, as well as similarity , even very close one, of strategic-regional interests. Obama and Kerry worked diligently to destroy all that. Now is the chance to restore the foundations, with an administration which is interested, but one which can still turn around-it is called the "art of the deal".offer Trump a deal he cannot refuse to, not something which he will be eager to reject.


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What is Network Security and Forensics?
Computer crime is one of the fastest-growing types of crime in the world. Every aspect of our economy, industry, commerce, public safety and national defense relies on computer networks, which are complex and have built-in vulnerabilities. Network security and digital forensics – or cyber security – is the practice of protecting computers and networks against exploitation or attack. From the computers in our homes and embedded in our mobile devices, to the inventory systems that bring us our food, banking, automotive and communications, securing these networks has grown to become a cyber-battle, and the most pressing priority in our personal lives, our businesses, and our nation.
Network Security and Forensics (NSF) is an Information Technology degree program offered by Fountainhead College that trains students to prepare and protect networks, intranets, and websites. The NSF program's core focus is on securing computer networks and diagnosing problems, security risks, and cyber analysis processes. Network security and digital forensics professionals harden computer networks against unauthorized access and intrusion.
Demand for Network Security and Forensics Professionals
Network systems and data communications analysts are projected to be the second-fastest-growing occupation in the economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Identity theft, "phishing" emails, viruses, Trojan horses, denial of services attacks and industrial and governmental espionage are becoming more commonplace, creating a rising public awareness of risks to confidential information. These threats represent what the Department of Homeland Security considers America's most pressing problem: cyberwarfare. Increasing numbers of network security and forensics professionals are hired every year to help keep information secure and reliable. Businesses and government officials see network security and computer forensics analysts as integral to their IT infrastructure.
The Network Security and Forensics program provides technical career training to prepare students for occupations such as Computer Security Specialists. For related occupational information, please visit the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET website.
SOC Codes (Standard Occupational Classification) related to Network Security and Forensics careers: 15-1122.00.
O*NET Online Report on the industry
Gainful Employment Information
FE Disclosure for Network Security
The Bachelor of Applied Science in Network Security & Forensics program is a comprehensive baccalaureate degree program in the field of Information Technology that provides 66 semester credit hours of instruction to complement any accredited post-secondary computer-centric associate's degree. Prospective students who have a non-computer-centric associate's degree or higher degrees, who wish to enroll in this program, must be able to demonstrate proficiency in computer repair and operation, and in network configuration and administration. This can be demonstrated by acquiring certifications, or by special examination, at the discretion of the College. Day and evening classes meet 20 hours per week for four semesters (60 weeks), assuming the entrance criteria have been met. Students may enroll directly in this degree program without completing an associate's degree for a total of 8 semsters (120 weeks).
Network Security & Forensics students benefit by Fountainhead College's designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAEIAE) by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This prestigious designation recognizes Fountainhead's NSF bachelor's degree program as one of the best in the nation and one of only 7 Centers of Academic Excellence nationwide that grant all six certifications that meet standards from the National Security Agency Committee on National Security Systems.
This program is the only cybersecurity bachelor's degree offered by the CAEIAE in Tennessee, and the only college in East Tennessee that offers all six national certifications offered by the CAEIAE.
Fountainhead College of Technology is designated a National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Fountainhead is listed under Tennessee. This link may claim to be unsecure but it is a government link. To download a pdf of this site, click here IAD_CAE_Designated_Institutions . To configure your browser to not receive the security warning, follow these instructions COMMON SECURITY WARNINGS SITE ACCESS ERRORS.


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Submitted by: Robin Pilon
Chantel Pilon holding her OUA All Star Award.
Competing in her final Ontario University Athletics Championship, Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) citizen Chantel Pilon went out in style, winning the gold medal in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) women's pentathlon event at Toronto's York University in February, 2014. The OUA gold was Waterloo's first in track and field since 2003.
Pilon also represented the University of Waterloo Warriors at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Track and Field Championships at the University of Alberta in Edmonton where she broke her own varsity record scoring 3,494 points. She ran a personal best of 2:18:00 finishing first in the 800m race to place her fifth overall in the women's pentathlon. Pilon then lead the 4 x 400m women's relay team to a new UW varsity record and sixth place Canadian Interuniversity Sport finish with a time of 3:50:90 battering the old record by nearly one second set back in 2002. Her efforts earned her a Waterloo Warrior of the Weekend Award and for three consecutive weeks, the Warrior's Athlete of the Week honours.
Pilon was named Captain of the University of Waterloo Warrior Track and Field Team in 2012, a position she held for three consecutive years. She is a three-time University of Waterloo Warrior Most Valuable Player (MVP) Track and Field recipient, a two-time University of Waterloo President's Athlete Academic Honour Roll Recipient, a two-time Academic All-Canadian and an OUA First Team All-Star.
Pilon graduates from the University of Waterloo this spring with an Honours Co-op Degree in Recreation and Business. She will start her master's degree at the University of Waterloo in September 2014 where she will compete unattached and help coach the Warriors track and field team.
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text: If the patient have a cold or allergies, the openings of sinuses may be blocked by excess mucus or a swelling of the tissue that lines the sinuses. When drainage of mucus from the sinuses is blocked, the sinuses become congested. They may become infected with bacteria, a virus, or even fungus. The infection can make the sinuses even more clogged. The pressure caused by swelling and congestion causes sinus headaches. Most sinus problems happen when the patient has had a cold or a sore throat. Some occur after a dental infection. Sometimes hay fever or irritation from dust or smoke causes swelling. If the patient has injured the bones in your nose or have a deformity of the nose that causes the sinuses not to drain properly, you may be more likely to get sinus congestion and infection.


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No, you'll still have a direct relationship with the manufacturers, sales and training support, marketing support, and in some cases, access to advantage programs.*
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It's more revealing than ironic, that the most famous book by the most "authoritative" LDS "authority" for many generations was given the title: Mormon Doctrine, by Bruce R McConkie. The revealing part of course, is that Mormon Doctrine isn't necessarily Mormon doctrine. It's merely Bruce R McConkie's personal take on LDS theological concerns. Some of it is correct and undisputable doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And some of it is not only wrong, it's been admitted by the author to be embarrassingly wrong. And though Bruce R McConkie has successfully homogenized his Mormon Doctrine theology into LDS dogma because he was responsible for most of the now "canonized" indexing, cross-referencing, commentary and dictionary sections of the LDS "Four Standard Works," Bruce R McConkie's original encyclopedia of Mormon "doctrine" remains what it has always been, an almost entirely unauthoritative collection of personal Mormon opinions. Any implied authority it may have had while he was alive died with him in 1985.
Mormon Doctrine wasn't even originally published by the LDS church through its Deseret Book, "official" publishing arm. Mormon Doctrine was published by the period go-to literary marketing wing of rebuffed and rejected LDS apostles, general authorities and literary wannabees, Bookcraft. Bookcraft, or "Priestcraft Book" as I called it before it was bought out by Deseret Book in 1999, eagerly scrounged together odd talks and lectures from whatever LDS "authoritative" source it could scrump out of the religious or intellectual Mormon brain orchards, threw a ghostwriter and an editor at the project, and in a few weeks had yet another inspiring, and more importantly, marketable, piece of LDS er, literature.
The story of how McConkie, not yet an apostle, published this work on his own without any authority or even informing his superiors is an enlightening one. This will come as a shock to most Mormons, particularly of the McConkie era, but Marion G Romney's evaluation of it at the time, writing on official assignment for the Council of Twelve, under the direction of President David O McKay's First Presidency, listed over a thousand serious errors and noted the offensive use of negative labels against other religions and an overall pompous and authoritative tone for a book with no approval of the "Brethren" behind it whatsoever:
As to the book itself, notwithstanding its many commendable and valuable features and the author's assumption of 'sole and full responsibility' for it, its nature and scope and the authoritative tone of the style in which it is written pose the question as to the propriety of the author's attempting such a project without assignment and supervision from him whose right and responsibility it is to speak for the Church on 'Mormon Doctrine.' Had the work been authoritatively supervised, some of the following matters might have been omitted and the treatment of others modified.
He then goes into a point-by-point illustration of serious doctrinal errors espoused in the work. President McKay responded with a series of meetings, noted in his diary:
"THURSDAY, January 7, 1960
10:15 to 12:45 p.m. Re: The book—'Mormon Doctrine'
The First Presidency met with Elders Mark E. Petersen and Marion G. Romney. They submitted their report upon their examination of the book 'Mormon Doctrine' by Elder Bruce McConkie.
These brethren reported that the manuscript of the book 'Mormon Doctrine' has not been read by the reading committee; that President Joseph Fielding Smith [President of the Twelve at the time] did not know anything about it until it was published. Elder Petersen stated that the extent of the corrections which he had marked in his copy of the book (1067) affected most of the 776 pages of the book. He also said that he thought the brethren should be under the rule that no book should be published without a specific approval of the First Presidency.
I stated that the decision of the First Presidency and the Committee should be announced to the Twelve.
It was agreed that the necessary corrections are so numerous that to republish a corrected edition of the book would be such an extensive repudiation of the original as to destroy the credit of the author; that the republication of the book should be forbidden and that the book should be repudiated in such a way as to save the career of the author as one of the General Authorities of the Church. It was also agreed that this decision should be announced to the Council of the Twelve before I talk to the author.
Elder Petersen will prepare an editorial for publication in the Improvement Era, stating the principle of approval of books on Church doctrine."
"FRIDAY, January 8, 1960
11:55 to 12:15 p.m.
The First Presidency held a meeting. We decided that Bruce R. McConkie's book, 'Mormon Doctrine' recently published by Bookcraft Company, must not be re-published, as it is full of errors and misstatements, and it is most unfortunate that it has receive such wide circulation. It is reported to us that Brother McConkie has made corrections to his book, and is now preparing another edition. We decided this morning that we do not want him to publish another edition.
We decided, also, to have no more books published by General Authorities without their first having the consent of the First Presidency. (see January 7, 1960)"
As harsh as this sounds, ignoring what the last big, popular LDS "authority" had to say and just swallowing with an embarrassed shrug whatever the new guy is telling you, is essentially the LDS party line. This has become far more difficult to do since the advent of modern, affordable, publishing capabilities, combined with the ability to record these "authorities" in sound and video.
Six years later, after submitting to all the corrections noted by the Brethren, McConkie pressed President McKay to allow a reprint. McKay relented. Rather than reveal McConkie's lack of insight in his original work, Mormonism, well used to brainwiping itself and starting over with the next big authority, ignored the first edition, and embraced the revised book as next to Divine:
After more than 50 years, Bruce R. McConkie's Mormon Doctrine , one of the most influential LDS books of the 20th century, has quietly gone out of print.
The encyclopedic explanation of LDS teachings, first published in 1958, went through 40 printings, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Deseret Book has decided not to reprint the classic volume, said spokeswoman Gail Halladay, because of "low sales."
"The demand is no longer there," said Halladay, managing director for marketing and communications.
From the day it came off the presses, though, Mormon Doctrine , was at once wildly popular to many and deeply troubling to more than a few, even at the highest levels of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Several passages about the Roman Catholic Church and McConkie's views of blacks were seen as especially offensive.
Although McConkie, an LDS apostle who died in 1985, took sole responsibility from the start for Mormon Doctrine 's content, it often was quoted over the pulpit and treated by members as quasi-official. The book, with its presumptive title, seemed to provide an answer to every question and left little room for ambiguity.
" Mormon Doctrine served two generations of the Mormon rank and file as the main authoritative source of LDS teachings," said LDS sociologist Armand Mauss. "With its authoritative tone and constant promotion from high places, it came to be regularly cited in the church curriculum, especially in [Church Educational System] materials, and soon took on almost a scriptural stature."
To assemble the volume, McConkie, son-in-law of LDS Church President Joseph Fielding Smith, drew on Mormon scriptures, prophetic sermons and commonly held beliefs. He put them together in alphabetical order and with a tone of certainty.
Still, many complained that it did not fairly reflect the diversity of opinion among Latter-day Saints and their leaders.
"The book would more accurately have been entitled, Mostly Mormon Doctrine ," Mauss wrote in an e-mail from his home in Irvine, Calif.
The book was even challenged by LDS President David O. McKay, who led the church from 1951 to 1970.
"Nonetheless, McConkie audaciously approached McKay six years later and pushed for publication of the book in a revised form," according to Prince and Wright. McKay responded that "if republished," the book should be clearly marked as McConkie's work and not an official church publication.
McConkie took that as a go-ahead, Prince and Wright wrote.
"The book became one of the all-time best-sellers in Mormondom," they wrote, "achieving the near-canonical status that McKay had fought unsuccessfully to avoid, and setting a tone of doctrinal fundamentalism, antithetical to McKay's personal philosophy, that remains a legacy of the church to this day."
Prince said he "never saw anything in Bruce McConkie that was mean or un-Christian," but the LDS scientist nonetheless was "delighted" by news that Mormon Doctrine no longer would be published.
"His book," Prince said, "has done some serious damage."
In the first edition, Prince said, it was his "diatribe against the Roman Catholic Church that did the most harm, but subsequently, the real damage has been his statements about blacks."
After the LDS Church opened its all-male priesthood to blacks in 1978, McConkie deleted his previous statement predicting that never would happen. Even in the most recent edition, though, McConkie wrote that God cursed Cain with "a mark of a dark skin, and he became the ancestor of the black race."
Mauss, the sociologist, thinks the book is going out of print "none too soon, especially given the current public-relations preoccupation of the LDS Church."
The volume's continued availability after its wide distribution, he said, will "continue to provide critics of the church with an enduring basis for claiming, however unfairly, that 'Mormon doctrines' are non-Christian or anti-Christian, and that the church is a racist institution."
"Elder McConkie was an apostle and a good man but a man of his times," said Darius Gray, former president of the
Genesis Branch for black Mormons. "Sadly his times included a period in this nation when not all men were judged by the content of their character but rather the color of their skin."
The gospel of Jesus Christ never has been a respecter of persons, said Gray, co-producer with Margaret Blair Young of a documentary film, "Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons."
"The LDS Church is a young church," he said, "and, as it has grown, it has become more inclusive, embracing of all God's creations."
The continual publication of Mormon Doctrine seemed to suggest an approval of the concepts and attitudes of a former time, Gray said. By not reprinting it, "a weight will have been lifted off the body of the church. We have thankfully moved on."
Not apparent in the above article, is the happy eventuality that David O McKay, who vehemently resented McConkie's attitude, rude style, and a lot of his theology, passed away four years after the publication of his Mormon Doctrine second edition. His father-in-law, Joseph Fielding Smith, who's own theology McConkie had almost exclusively been paraphrasing, left as president of the Quorum of the Twelve and became the next president of the church. Oddly enough, McConkie soon moved into the Quorum of Twelve. Suddenly, McConkie's unauthorized book wasn't quite so bad after all, and he could preach it with apostolic authority, particularly on issues like the Curse of Cain or Negroes getting the priesthood—issues upon which McKay and Joseph Fielding Smith via Bruce R McConkie strongly disagreed.
I'm not concerned here much with what Mormon doctrine is. I'm simply exploring how Mormon doctrine gets to be Mormon doctrine. And more importantly, how you as an investigator or member of the LDS church can determine what really is your obligation to believe, to accept as "the gospel," as Mormons would put it. The Mormon "gospel" isn't mind you, "Jesus saved me amen." It's a very complicated litany of beliefs that adds up to "The Church."
There is a huge base of what I call "hard" LDS doctrines that really haven't budged from the days of Joseph Smith. Almost all of these originated with Joseph Smith. Most of the rest are little bursts of insight professed by Smith's contemporaries or later leadership that sprang directly from something Joseph Smith once said. One of these would be the notion that mankind is literally the kin of God. Jesus is our literal brother, and God the Father is literally our Father. This crosses physical and spiritual lines to mean that God and man are of the same species, and that mankind can grow to become like our Father the same way a human child can grow to be like its father. But through the years, the urge to expand upon this concept or define it further, has tended to get a bit dodgy–from the top to the bottom of the LDS church.
Joseph Smith's first step into "heretical" anti-Trinitarian unorthodoxy was the "First Vision." Mormonism has never doubted from that point onward that there are three distinct and individual members of the "Godhead." Smith's terminology was ironically stolen from Jean Cauvan, who also used "Godhead" rather than "Trinity," because frankly, Cauvan, or "John Calvin," couldn't find any Trinitarian language in the Bible itself either. He was persuaded however to find some, when his early detractors formed a lynch mob, dragged him before the local church authorities, and they nearly excommunicated him for it. At that point Calvin begrudgingly conceded to pick up the required Trinitarian jargon and at least pay lip service to the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds—neither of which he actually considered authoritative. That adjustment having thus been made, Calvin's theology became immensely popular in "orthodox" Protestantism. Calvin indeed, nearly invented what we in America call "Protestantism."
But Calvin probably saw in Acts 7, exactly what Joseph Smith said he saw personally in the thickets of Upstate New York: God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, appearing as two distinct and identical beings in human form. In Acts 7:55, Stephen identifies these two as the Father and Jesus Christ. Stephen says these two Biblical characters appeared to him as separate beings. Luke, the presumed author of Acts, obviously agrees with Stephen's assessment. Furthermore, Luke claims Stephen was first visited by the presence of a third entity, a spirit entity, the Holy Ghost—again, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the same place, in three separate forms, the Holy Ghost filling Stephen's his heart, and the other two Deities appearing before him physically. Even this perfectly traditional, Christian and orthodox source gives Mormonism three distinctly separate beings with or without Smith's vision. This testament appears in canon, from a Sainted witness, Stephen, and a Sainted, Apostolic scribe, Luke. But of course, you have Joseph Smith's replication of this experience concurring with Acts 7 on top of that. So this bit is easy: The Father and Son are again, in Mormonism, unquestionably two "perfected" or "glorified" physical beings and the Holy Ghost is just that: a Spirit.
I've looked by the way, for Christian depictions of Saint Stephen's First Vision. They're markedly absent from the icon repositories. This is because they would look exactly like Joseph Smith's First Vision, and blow the hell out of all of Christianity since 326 AD and the Council of Nicea.
You may well ask, what is a "perfected" or "glorified" body? That's where it starts to get sticky. That's were knowledge starts to get replaced with intuition, sophistry, intellectualism, or just a hunch. Or worse yet, in Mormonism, you get your own "personal revelation," and run around shooting your mouth off about it for generations until it sticks.
When you open the door to re-conceptualizing the nature of God and Man, what follows is that prophets, apostles, janitors and ward clerks all feel equally empowered to walk through that magic portal and explore the vast open spaces of the "Restoration." God's intentions, express and implied on the matter, are generally far more limited than those who claim to seek His wisdom in all things.
We find the whole culture of Mormonism pondering just what the relationship of God's physical body is to ours, how man's spiritual beginnings are integrated into a mortal frame, why the Holy Ghost doesn't have a body of any sort, and so forth. For authoritative answers to all this pondering and questioning, at one time, with a handful of members and the prophet Joseph Smith alive and kicking, you would just go up and ask him. He'd talk to God about it, and give you an answer sometimes instantly, not just in the name of God, but he would deliver the very word of the Lord in First Person. Most of these tidbits of God's Word were written down, went before the leadership, sustained by the membership, and became canon scripture.
Now, even though in Joseph Smith's day you might well have God's wishes for you personally delivered by a prophetic mouthpiece of the Lord in First Person, if it was just you writing it down, especially scribbling it out later from memory, well, that only means something to you. Assuming you got it down right, which is a big assumption, it may be a great personal bit of insight, but has no more binding doctrinal authority on you or anyone else than an autographed baseball card from Babe Ruth would have the authority to get you a contract with the major leagues. If you didn't get it right, then you have a problem not just for you, but for a whole people of faith. Mormons love to dig this stuff out of scrapbooks, family Bibles, pioneer journals and old conference talks. Since 1847 they've been reading, sanctifying, and passing this crap around out there in "Zion." And then every generation's "authorities" tag onto the heritage, a little bit of their own alleged insight.
For instance, I used the language, "mankind can grow to become like our Father the same way a human child can grow to be like its father," in my quick sketch of the doctrine in examination at the moment. Let's pretend I'm Joseph Smith. Let's pretend that Parley P Brigham LaVerle Widstoe wrote it down in his journal a day or two after I said that from memory, but now you're reading me nearly two hundred years later. Did I really mean the "same" way, or did I only mean to imply a similar relationship?
The "same" way could mean that humans just physically evolve into Gods. I could have meant that God started as pond scum and evolved His way up from tadpoles to fish to reptiles to mammals to monkeys and so on. You could postulate that mankind is phase-one of becoming Divine in a very Darwinian sense. "Similar" however, might only mean that even though the organic physics of the process may be entirely different, the familial relationship is the same from the standpoint of intelligence and spirit.
The point is, even if quoted verbatim in the surviving record, you can't be certain what I, as Joseph Smith meant, almost two hundred years ago. And you can't ask me.
Joseph Smith has also written that we existed in a spiritual body before this earthly body, and that spiritual matter is simply a finer type of matter than temporal matter. This isn't debated doctrine at all either. OK then, how is the crossover between the two types of matter and existence accomplished? Why is this crossover even necessary? Did God also begin as an intelligence, organize Himself into a spirit, and then evolve or manufacture Himself a mortal body? Did He then move on to perfect his mortal body over time into His present form? And how do I advance this line of understanding? What resources do I have? What role does logic or science or other wisdom play in figuring out this puzzle? Do I conclude that Jesus was an alien-human hybrid, and the Virgin Mary was enveloped by a cloaked shuttle sent from God's mothership and received her implanted Divine DNA bundle through a non-physical trans-matter probe?
Don't laugh. It's not so funny. There's a whole class of LDS gospel hobbyists who think they're entitled to explore both that sort of vernacular and the exact mechanisms of Celestial reproduction.
With any allegedly "authoritative" Mormon source, I always go back to the same question I have about any "canon" or any other authoritative record: is that what the guy actually said? Now, in the case of the Gospels and Biblical texts, no, there were no shorthand geniuses taking dictation. Everything is from memory, everything was recorded years, decades, hundreds of years after-the-fact and filtered through generations of copiers and editors. As McConkie claims, yes, the only way we have of "proofing" canon is against other canon. From several canon authors we can eliminate some of the goofier theories at least. IE:
On the question of the Mormon conception of a Godhead, apart from divining Truth from a hundred slightly conflicting Biblical verses, Mormons have a very spelled-out version of the doctrine in the D&C, from the Articles of Faith, the very first of which is:
1 We abelieve in bGod, the Eternal Father, and in His cSon, Jesus Christ, and in the dHoly Ghost.
To flog this dead horse one more time: Mormons believe there are definitely three distinct personages in the Godhead. The Father and the Son are determined to have "perfected" physical bodies. The Holy Ghost has a spiritual body—but in LDS theology this would simply mirror His physical body-to-be. It is also taught that the Holy Ghost will some day have a physical body as well, but you know, at the moment I'd really have to do some research to tell you where to confirm that in the canon, because at that point we come to the end of the certainty.
It has been universally surmised initially however, that the whole point of what Joseph Smith meant to say was that we're literal children of God. All of us. We are not born the inherently evil offspring of Satan. We don't have to be "saved" from our hellish fate with our hellish natural born father the devil, by being adopted into God's family. We were born children of a noble birthright and always have been His children, even before birth. Calvin was full of crap. That was radical enough for Mormonism when Joseph Smith was first explaining it to the world. It certainly pissed off the Calvinists.
Joseph Smith said that not only did God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son have physical bodies, but we are physically and spiritually related to them. This further applied to every one of us in or out of this or that church or not. Black, white, pagan, heathen, elect or not elect. All of human kind were God's children. That's all the farther Joseph Smith ever really took the doctrine however.
Mormon culture was founded originally by free-thinking, "enlightened" souls keen to explore intellectual and theological liberty. For many a generation, every single Mormon of any slight position or rank felt compelled to lecture and write and promulgate and plumb the depths of every minor theological or doctrinal suggestion ever half-spoken or jotted down by Joseph Smith–even if Smith had been pondering in jest. Today's Mormonism however has been re-crafted with a quick sketch, a flip chart, a challenge to baptism, a lot of praying, and waiting for a burning bosom to confirm you should sign up. If you don't weep in the first discussion you're probably not good Mormon material. So conversely, today's Mormonism has for generations, systematically repelled the same sort of intellectually and theologically curious, enlightened, free-thinkers who founded the church. Thus we find it now produces shepherds who talk softly and carry a big stick like Bruce R McConkie instead of insightful, inspired, pastoral theologians.
Even the best of sheep are not theologians. They just chew the theological grass–any theological grass, you lead them to. Only in the McConkie model, you drive sheep where you want them to go. That's American style shepherding. Train some dogs and let them loose on the flock. They'll all end up in the pen where you want them to be.
It is not surprising then that the LDS church finds itself now still idling and chugging the worn-out engine of its gospel bandwagon around the safe retreat of the Wasatch Front, never daring to theologically venture far from the nearest gas station and repair garage. Organizationally the church is expanding its horizons and doing great business, but theologically and prophetically speaking, it is in a very retrograde condition. It's no longer "revealing" or "restoring" insight into God, the universe and everything, every day in wilder and woolier ways. More importantly, it doesn't seem to know how to back the old jalopy-towed bandwagon out of the several box canyons and blind alleys previous leadership has unwittingly, and repeatedly piled and rammed it into over the generations.
Today's LDS leadership must look back to Joseph Smith and the early days of the Restoration, in much the same way the Early Christian Church looked back at Christ's ministry towards the end of its second century on earth, after losing its First President, our Lord, Jesus Christ, and then all His original apostles. And just like the Apostolic Fathers who scrambled to preserve what little written records they had back in those days, the LDS church went through an era where there was an abundance of writing and theological wrangling, based upon what early Latter-day Saints like Parley P Pratt for instance had extrapolated from teachings by Joseph Smith.
Parley Pratt invented Mormon pamphleteering, or "tracting" as it is called today. One of the big problems with Pratt in particular, and the entire "Restoration" movement, is that it borrowed a lot from the "Primitive Gospel Movement," which among other revolutionary ideas, felt that written creeds were an abomination compared to Holy Scripture. Anything that cannot be extracted from Holy Scripture is not Church dogma they held. Period.
Parley Pratt, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and the very core of the LDS church as organized officially on 6 April 1830 with six total members, thought for the most part that the church was as "Restored" and as "Organized" as it ever needed to be. Those 13 Articles of Faith Joseph came up with were quite enough. For some early Mormons then, there remained a lot of organizational tension in the group as Joseph Smith continued to have more and more visions, write more and more scripture, reveal more and more dogma, and the LDS church started to be more and more centrally "instructed."
Parley Pratt and most early Mormons, leaders or not, felt liberated to take the new canon, from the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, the Doctrine and Covenants, or the mouth and pen of Joseph Smith, and with this measuring stick as a central jumping-off point, just go nuts with their pondering and praying and studying, like drunken prophetic sailors.
The bottom line is, to this day, the LDS church as an organization, has not dealt with the issue of what is or isn't Mormon doctrine in a unified, coherent, harmonized fashion. I do not mean that they have not obfuscated, banned, redacted, sanitized, reprinted, republished, and sent out hit men like Bruce McConkie and the Correlation Police to insure that what they want taught gets taught, and what they want read gets read. What they have not done is define a clear criteria or organized system for canonization, or for harmonizing sometimes hugely disparate statements of doctrine by various Mormon "Prophets" or church presidents and other high leadership over the ages.
But most importantly they haven't bothered to do "it." As Spencer W Kimball used to say, "Just do it."
It seems that prophecy is more an art than a science. Prophecy is more a question of waiting for God to speak through you than the ability to know the immediate will of God just by asking any time you like. The truth is, it's pretty hard to tell sometimes when a prophet is speaking as a prophet—even to the prophet doing the speaking. And so, from the prophet's perspective, it's just better that Mormons assume a prophet is always speaking as a prophet. Furthermore, the longterm problem with openly establishing a consistent criteria for Mormon doctrinal authority, is that it will eventually lead to some current "Prophet" having to authoritatively condemn a previous "Prophet" for teaching false doctrine.
In example, let's go back to Joseph Smith's simple revelation that God is a perfected human and that we can be like Him:
In June of 1840, apostle, and eventual LDS church president Lorenzo Snow came up with the couplet, "As man is, God once was, as God is, man may become." Superficially, this seems to be in harmony with the Divine human origins Joseph Smith implied we had. But on the contrary, it bounds spritely beyond Smith's teaching, almost like a nonsequiteur, leaping over what Snow obviously thought was a logical ditch to jump. Snow says God started out just like man. Smith never said that. Smith said man can become like God. Smith said that we are children of God and can become like our Father. We are the created children of our Father and we were designed by Him to become like our Creator. That's what Joseph Smith said for sure anyway. That's what made it into canon. This is not at all what Snow is onto here. Snow implies that if we can become like God, then God must have at some point been just like us and done the same thing. This demands that God must have had a God back then, just like we do. Take your SciFi pick folks–you guys know what a temporal paradox is, and that's one right there. So much for an eternal God without beginning or end. That's your basic ouroboros, the eternal snake of the universe swallowing it's own tail forever.
Snow never really issued a binding, definitive "revelation" on the matter. Brigham Young naturally blabbed all about it off the record as usual, but the issue wasn't specifically parsed out anywhere in LDS canon. So, the question remains, is there one eternal and unchanging God in Mormonism? Mormons would answer yes. Can we as co-eternal lesser children grow to be like Him? Mormons would also answer yes. That much would be hard, steadfast Mormon doctrine. To do any more thinking about it however, puts you on very thin theological ice. If God started out as a mere mortal who grew to be God, and thus by implication, God had a God, and God's God had a God, and God's God's God had a God……well then, God wasn't always God, so He's changed, and couldn't possibly be eternal and unchanging and perfect. Amongst other things, this fuels the intellectual fires of pundits like Cleon Skousen who, from this sort of pondering, deduce things like God is only God because we voted Him into office in the Spirit World.
Apparently, at least one recent LDS president had time to do some thoughtful reconsidering of the LDS official commitment to this whole apocryphal line of reasoning–before he kicked the bucket and left it for somebody else to reverse:
Question: "Is this the teaching of the church today, that God the Father was once a man like we are?"
Hinckley: "I don't know that we teach it. I don't know that we emphasize it. I haven't heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don't know. I don't know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it. But I don't know a lot about it and I don't know that others know a lot about it."
– Interviewing Gordon B. Hinckley, Time Magazine, Aug 4, 1997
Question: "Don't Mormons believe that God was once a man?"
Hinckley: "I wouldn't say that. There was a little couplet coined, "As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become." Now that's more of a couplet than anything else."
– Interviewing Gordon B. Hinckley, San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 1997, p 3/Z1
Church apologists explain Hinckley's public statements:
"The real question should be, is President Snow's couplet an accurate reflection of LDS doctrine? Everything Latter-day Saints teach about God is in agreement with the rest of the Christian world, with the exception of His nature. Joseph Smith said God is in the same form as we are, because we were created in His image as the Bible plainly and clearly tells us… But again, we do not emphasize Heavenly Father's past, but the possibility of our future.
– The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR)
For what it's worth, Joseph Smith's assertions about man's kinship with Deity do in fact have an ancient basis in both Christian and Jewish theology. The concept was called "theosis."
With this doctrine of exaltation or human deification, though, Joseph Smith wasn't actually moving away from Judeo-Christian tradition. He was returning to a forgotten strand of it.
For ancient Christians and Jews also had a doctrine of human deification, which scholars call "theosis."
As an early Jewish midrash or scriptural commentary expressed the belief, "The Holy One … will in the future call all of the pious by their names, and give them a cup of elixir of life in their hands so that they should live and endure forever. … (And He will also) reveal to all the pious in the world to come the Ineffable Name with which new heavens and a new earth can be created, so that all of them should be able to create new worlds."
President Hinckley was quite correct about Lorenzo Snow's couplet having been de-emphasized for many decades now, at least in the official LDS teaching and support materials. The way of it is this: Lorenzo Snow had one big idea during his presidency. He came up with that cute couplet. Though he couldn't quite canonize it or bill it as "prophecy" he flogged the hell out of it and it became the gospel fad of his era. That era passed it on for another couple of eras until, probably around the time David O McKay was yelling at Bruce McConkie for his presumptuously encyclopedic tome, and afterward into Joseph Fielding Smith and Harold B Lee's Correlation Movement in the 1960's and 1970's, the Brethren, the First Presidency that is, started to try to take control of doctrinal development and clarification personally. By the time Gordon B Hinckley was having a closer look at some of these long-held folk doctrines, Snow's couplet for one, which raised more questions than it provided answers, just didn't seem to measure up. So it went bye-bye quietly.
At one time every LDS meetinghouse library would have a complete set of the Journal of Discourses, the Comprehensive History of the Church, and other collections of first-hand or near-period journal-based "histories" and "doctrinal" commentaries particularly from presidents and apostles of the church. Many of these sorts of "authoritative" historical volumes and their later-era commentators are now commonly understood to lie in the realm of extra-canonical or apocryphal records.
At the same time the prophet-of-the-day is cleaning the bookshelves of his predecessors' doctrinal ramblings, each new generation of LDS leadership also fears the imagined consequences of letting the non-inerrancy bunny loose in the garden, or the non-infallibility cat officially out of the bag. The feeling amongst the "Brethren" it seems, has long been that to admit that even a single past leader was apparently pulling his "doctrinal" thoughts out of the wrong orifice, rather than giving verbatim dictation from Deity, would collapse the entire Kingdom of God like a house of cards. The Truth however, exists in a sphere unto itself. That's another Joseph Smith-based, hard Mormon doctrine. It's an "Eternal Principle." Not even God can change that.
Covering arse is not an Eternal Principle. Personally, I think cleaning doctrinal house and formally admitting to failed records or failed traditions would serve God's purposes better than covering arse. It would only free the church structure of its weak members and bring in a more solid foundation and an overall stronger leadership as well as general body of believers who are less fragile and more capable of taking the work to a very harsh world.
But then, I don't run the place.
The bulk of LDS membership today hears exactly what they want to hear and will believe what they want to believe, in regards to current prophetic leadership. They will believe that the current "prophet" is the only authority in the church, and Jesus gives him direct and daily instructions about everything and anything. Most Mormons really really need to believe this. It's their whole "testimony." The whole garment of their membership in the church hangs utterly upon this one flimsy coat hook. It would spiritually and emotionally devastate most Mormons to know that the truth about the "restored" church is that usually, LDS "prophets" and "general authorities" say their prayers, read up on the subject, and then have to discern, decode, and try to understand the Will of God from the same subtle workings of the Spirit that you and I do.
There isn't a better example of this Mormon emotional dependency on a single Divine Oracle than the first time a change of "The Prophets" or church presidents took place after Joseph Smith's murder. A meeting was called in Nauvoo, In the midst of much contention over the line of LDS leadership succession, lead in part by Smith's wife Emma and her son's claim to the ministry through a claimed blessing given to Joseph Smith III by his father. Sidney Rigdon made a claim for the job based on proximity of his calling as First Counselor in the First Presidency. Brigham Young's claim came as the standing president of the intact Quorum of Twelve. He argued that the Twelve held in trust all the keys of Melchizedek Priesthood, and that the First Presidency had been dissolved upon the death of the First President. Until officers of the First Presidency were again called and that quorum reformed, Young claimed title as the chief presiding officer of the Church, and holder of all related priesthood keys.
Now, legalistic arguments like this just aren't sexy enough for some Mormons. The story goes that Brigham Young stood up before the crowd and at least some portion of that gathering suddenly saw him change into the voice and person of Joseph Smith—the sign from God that confirmed his mantle of authority. This was really really popular when I was a kid. It came right out of the primary manuals and everything.
The only problem is that no one talked about this amazing transformation when it happened. There are no journals, letters, or newspaper accounts written at the time of the meeting that would back up this amazing story. It is true that such a meeting took place. And it is true that both Sidney Rigdon and Brigham Young spoke at the meeting. But no account of the transformation was recorded at that time.
Historian Richard Van Wagoner has searched all diaries, journals, newspapers, and church records written shortly after the meeting and has found no evidence to verify the "miracle transformation" story. You can read more about his findings by reading his published report.
Brigham's speech was reported on in detail in both Nauvoo newspapers and recorded by scribes for the official church records. Hundreds of members present wrote about Brigham's persuasive argument in great detail in their private journals. Nowhere was there mention of the miraculous or divine.
So where does the story come from? There is no recorded account of the transformation until many years later, after the Saints were settled in Utah. In 1857, 13 years after the speech, Albert Carrington is the first to mention the transformation. In a speech before a huge gathering of Saints, he said that he couldn't tell Brigham from Joseph that day when Brigham was speaking. Soon others were making the same claim.
Records even show that it was impossible for several members who made the claim to have witnessed the miracle to have even been in Nauvoo at the time of the meeting.
But not all members got caught up in the new story. Bishop George Miller, present at the gathering, later recalled that nothing supernatural had occurred on that day. Young made a "long and loud harangue," Miller later wrote, for which I "could not see any point in the course of his remarks than to overturn Sidney Rigdon's pretensions."
I guess this was supposed to be Brigham Young's big miracle or something, or at least a lot of the faithful felt he needed one. At the time of the alleged miracle naturally, the first Mormon prophet had been murdered and Young was contending for his now open position. Likewise, at the time the story first appeared over a decade later, not coincidentally, there was an Army marching out to destroy them from the States. Brigham Young needed all the leadership credibility he could muster to hold his people together in the crisis. No doubt, some of his followers tried to help him out by producing some really convincing testimony in his favor, since Brigham was in the heat of many debates and contentions regarding how to respond to the invasion force.
In pioneer times, obviously an orderly transition of leadership in the corporation wasn't thrilling or convincing enough to inspire men, women, and children to struggle, fight, and die all across the Great Plains for reasons of parliamentary procedure. The fact remains however, that, not since Joseph Smith "restored" the church, has LDS leadership openly claimed to have been led via bona-fide and openly glorious "revelation" in the same sense that Smith actually claimed to talk personally, face-to-face with Deity and Angels in a Q&A setting. Neither has any subsequent LDS leadership actually laid claim to speaking directly as the Voice of God, meaning relaying directly or channeling the express words and will of Deity, speaking in the First-Person of Jesus, as did Joseph Smith in hundreds of distinct, sometimes very personal and specific revelations now canonized in the Doctrine and Covenants, and many others not so canonized:
Thus sayeth the Lord… And Joseph Smith quoted the Lord almost daily. He and the Brethren hung out in the room above Newell Whitney's store and held lengthy question-and-answer sessions about nearly everything, and Smith would right then and there give them the direct Word of God. Or he'd come back the next day having written down a vision or revelation, and he'd call it that, and present it as the verbatim word of the Lord.
Starting with the Utah experience, starting with Brigham Young to put a fine point on it, Mormonism found itself short on prophecy, long on hardship, and it began to invent encouraging, seemingly harmless little stories to make themselves feel better about themselves and their leaders. Their leaders in turn tried to promote everything they uttered as if it had the same prophetic insight as the ruminations of Joseph Smith. They weren't always on the mark like Smith seemed to be. In a closed society, all of these wishful, sometimes whimsical if faithful efforts, evolved into a warm tapestry of homespun mythology, as Mormonism kept trying to fill the pit of mystical emptiness that Joseph Smith had once filled daily via connecting them directly to God.
Eventually, "harmless" Mormon mythology got sucked into the culture as fact and thus became an integral part of the religion as well. Since it was just them, out there in that hole, and they were all Saints, and they all believed anyway, nobody cared if it their little stories were all entirely true. It felt true. And they didn't care if it sounded stupid. Mormons don't like smart people anyway. Smart people don't make good Mormons, they had decided long ago. Simple mindedness became a virtue in Brigham Young's church. Their little anecdotes and couplets and experimental theological ramblings raised their spirits and promoted the "Gospel." That's all that mattered to them.
The same sort of thing happened in the mountain isolation of the Appalachian range in Tennessee and the south. The only difference is Brigham Young decided Adam was God, and the Christian hillbillies decided you should dance around, drink poison and handle vipers at church if you really love Jesus.
Wackiness is wackiness.


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Something exciting for me! A blog to keep you informed about all my activities and information that may interest you. Please come back when I start to get the hang of all this new Technology!!
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Saturday, December 16, 2006
New Leaf Again!
I just looked at my blog and in the two weeks or so that have elapsed since my last post, that leaf has turned old and fallen off and today is new leaf day again! So, what have I been doing in the meantime whenever the need arose to waste some time? I have a crush! I have n't had a crush like this since Shah Rukh Khan in DDLJ! This time around, it is this guy Siddharth. I usually dont get crushes on chocolatey guys like this, so this one is an anomaly. Just look at him!
My list of permanent crushes consists of people like Greorge Clooney. So, I guess I am undergoing a change of life or something. Anyways, what I have been doing these past two weeks is watching Rang de Basanti, Ayutha Ezhuthu, Boys and even Nuvvostanate...first golt movie I have watched by myself! BTW, check him out here as Siddharth, not Karan or Santosh or Arjun, going a thousand words per minute in the tone of a desi sophisticate. Got to go now and try and turn a new leaf!
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, May 15, 2018
CONTACT: Tony Mangan, Public Information Officer, 605-773-6196
Hand County Fatal Crash
What: One-vehicle crash
Where: S.D. Highway 45, mile marker 115
Two miles north of Miller, S.D.
When: 6:29 p.m., Monday, May 14, 2018
Driver: Male, 26, Fatal Injuries
Vehicle: 2005 GMC Envoy
MILLER, S.D. – One man died in a one-vehicle crash that occurred Monday night north of Miller.
The name of the deceased is being not released pending notification of family. He was the only person involved.
A 2005 GMC Envoy was northbound on South Dakota Highway 45 when the vehicle drifted off the road into the west ditch and rolled twice.
The 26-year-old driver, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the vehicle. He later was pronounced dead at the hospital in Miller.
South Dakota's Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.
The Highway Patrol is part of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.
Note: Records of state-reportable crashes are now available at http://www.safesd.gov/ Records should be available about 10 days after the investigation is complete.


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RamCal is a perpetual calendar that gives the day of the week for any given date.
It's a universal calendar that converts dates into the following calendars : Gregorian, Julian, Julian with Roman style (kalends, nones, ides), French republican (as well as a simulation of the continuation of this calendar), Jewish and Muslim.
You just have to enter a date in one of these calendars to automatically see the conversion in the other calendars and to see the day of the week for the Julian, Gregorian and French republican calendars.
本作品采用 知识共享署名-相同方式共享 4.0 国际许可协议 进行许可。


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The history of Model UN movement in Azerbaijan can be divided into 3 phases. The first one is the phase of acquaintance with MUN. Azerbaijani students have shown interest to simulation games by participating in regional conferences and organizing some faculty-scale events. These first initiatives contributed to the formation of primary idea on what Model UN is. I believe the most important happening of this phase shall be considered simulation which was held by Association of Former United Nations Interns (AFUNI) Azerbaijan and Student Youth Organisation of the Academy of Public Administration in collaboration with British Council Active Citizens programme and UNDPI Azerbaijan. It was a 2-day National Model UN Conference which theme was "Reduction of nuclear power plants for a safer environment".
The second phase starts on March 12, 2012 when in order to respond to national and international calls on youth empowerment, UNDP and the Ministry of Youth and Sport of the Republic of Azerbaijan signed a Memorandum of Understanding launching a first ever partnership between these two organizations aimed at youth empowerment in the country. One of the areas of cooperation under this MOU calls for giving youth "ample opportunity to prepare for international events through critical/analytical research, assessment and formulation of national position in relation to global policy issues" through the set of different activities and simulation exercises.
UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Youth and Sport and as part of joint project "Youth Participation in decision making and policy implementation" supported a youth camp titled "Azerbaijan 2020", where selected young people were given an opportunity and platform to discuss the country's long-term development vision through 2020. Youth shared their points of views on country's draft Vision 2020 through a simulation exercise where they were given the role of different national agencies and governmental bodies that would shape the country's future development agenda.
For keeping this momentum and continue supporting youth in discussing national and international development/political agenda, Model United Nations was chosen as an instrument to broaden the scope and geography of youth dialogues. To this end, one of the components of the joint project was to nurture young leaders who are suited to represent Azerbaijan at the international forum through Model UN Security Council. The objective of this component was to organize International Model UN Security Council with the participation of youth delegates from the 15 current member states (3 delegates per country), exposing the Azerbaijani youth to the exchange of information with their international counterparts and showcasing the country's performance as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for years 2012-2013. It was Azerbaijan's first International Model United Nations Security Council Conference, a joint project aiming to spur youth participation in decision-making and policy implementation in the country. The conference was a four-day exercise in high-level diplomatic decision-making, centred on finding ways to curb the ever-growing threat of cyber warfare. This was a challenge the conference's young participants were eager to tackle.
Seeing the interest of young people in simulations and MUN as well as observing the benefits and contributions of Model UN to the personal and professional development of Azerbaijani students, The Ministry of Youth and Sport and UNDP Azerbaijan supported their participation in various international Model United Nations Conferences.
The third and ongoing phase has started with designation of institutionalization of Model UN in Azerbaijan as one of 2 objectives of the joint project "Creating new platforms to support active youth engagement in the global policy debates" between UNDP Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Within the framework of this project Model UN initiatives and clubs were and are being formed in 9 universities of Azerbaijan. Project aims to broaden the geography of Model UN movement in Azerbaijan and increase the involvement of Azerbaijani youth interested in policy and international relations.


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You SEEK - Authentic Connections, Truth and Detachment from Density
Your LESSON - There are things in this world that you covet and cherish yet they bring you emptiness. Your happiness can not be bought and the feelings inside of you require experiences and remembrance to move forward. You have come to a place of open acceptance where anything is possible.
Your WORK - Focus on your physical body. You are someone who at this point is working with a very thick and densely woven shell. Your body is signaling you to let go and open up to energy of detachment amongst the situations around you. The more you close yourself off the more your energetic field will force you to open up. Once you learn this lesson and see the patterns being created within the physical body it will be time to learn the lesson from the emotional body and then the mental body for full acceptance and graduation to take place.


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Monday, April 9, 2012
H is for HOLY EXPLETIVE! I GOT AN AGENT
The short story:
I don't know what to tell you first. Maybe start with the fact that I'm deliriously happy to be represented by Barbara Poelle of the Irene Goodman Agency. You don't understand (she whined like a star struck fan girl) Barbara was the first agent I ever met, the first who requested my full before I'd finished revising it. I saw her at the Pennwriter's Conference last year with CJ Lyons and later that summer at writeoncon with Holly Root. Lots of agents talk about how necessary passion is, but with Barbara you feel it, it comes off her in waves. She's whip smart and funny and lovely and I KNOW she's married, I am too. I'm just saying, when she offered me representation (which I didn't know was coming) I told her I love her. I'm not taking it back, either, though it was probably too much too soon.
The long story:
I sent Barbara BookEnd in January, SEVEN MONTHS after she requested it. I wanted to send it sooner, I had a voice in my head that kept whispering, you're taking too long, your taking too long. I worried that she wouldn't be interested after all that time. But against that panicky feeling I had something substantial. Jonathan Maberry's voice in my head. I met him at Pennwriter's too and over lunch I asked him when I should send in the full request I had gotten from Barbara, after I took some time to clean it up. He got very zen-like and said, "When it's ready." I didn't think he understood me, so I said, "Right, but how long is too long to wait to send it - what's the optimum time frame for sending out a request?" He didn't even blink. "When it's ready," he repeated. (He's like the writing Kung Fu master, by the way.)
So I took his advice and polished that sucker until it shone. In January I sent it to Barbara and also sent it out to a few other agents. I started racking up rejections (see rejection badge) quickly, but I also got a couple of other fulls. January was OK, February was worse, March was terrible as I got a rejection on my full on my birthday. Cry.
On April 2 I got an email from Barbara saying my book was next in her queue and thanks for my patience. I pretty much ate Tums like Pez that week. Then a week ago I got an email from Barbara saying lovely things about my work and asking if we could talk.
I don't know why I'm so clueless sometimes but I managed to convince myself that this was going to be a request for a revise and resubmit.
Keeping a brown paper bag nearby in case of hyperventilation, I called Barbara and found that she was just as lovely as I remembered. She asked me some scarily insightful questions about my story - about a character's motivations and development - and then she said she'd like to offer representation. All casual and stuff, like she'd said she was running out to Starbucks and would I like a chai? I couldn't speak for a good five seconds. She might have thought I'd dropped dead. Then she said, "Um, hello?" That's when I told her I love her. Cry. Tears of happiness.
I'm so excited and grateful to be on this journey with an agent (advocate, ally) like Barbara.
H is also for the Hunger Games Soundtrack:
47 comments:
Fabulous! And what a great story - here's to quick sales and a fruitful publishing journey.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Jaye! and thanks for the retweet :)Delete
So exciting! Congrats, I've heard great things about her!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Nia. Yeah, Barbara is pretty much the bees freaking knees as far as I'm concerned.Delete
Congratulations and welcome to the agency (I'm one of Miriam's clients)! The folks at IGLA are awesome, and you are in great hands with Barbara!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 9, 2012 at 8:28 AM
Alex, what wonderful news! I'm so glad I became a follower just in time to catch your agent announcement. Congrats! Congrats! Congrats! :)ReplyDeleteReplies
thanks linda - yeah, who knew H was going to be such an eventful letter ;)Delete
Yay!! Congratulations!! She's an awesome agent, and funny too. Wishing you the best!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks L.G! Yeah, Barbara is so funny, but also so insightful. It's kind of amazing!Delete
Congratulations. This is very exciting news.ReplyDelete
HUGE congratualtions, Alex!! I'm really happy for you!!! I know you've had some struggles over the whole querying process these past few weeks, so I'm really pleased Barbara offered you representation. Here's hoping we'll soon be reading about the publication date. :DReplyDeleteReplies
thanks Colin - I so appreciate your support! As for pub date - who knows? These things take time, I'm told. Still, can't hurt to cross fingers, toes and anything else you can think of!Delete
That's amazing! It's the best feeling when you get an agent, right? Serious congrats!!ReplyDelete
Also, love the Hunger Games soundtrack. Great post.
Congratulations! That's terrific news!!ReplyDelete
And the Hunger Games soundtrack is amazing. I love it.
Yay! That is an amazing story! Congrats to you!!!!!!ReplyDeleteReplies
thanks Emily! I'm so incredibly grateful!Delete
Congratulations!! That's so awesome :)ReplyDelete
When I got my agent for my first novel, that was almost a bigger validation tha actually getting it published; someone was will to really take a chance on me and to work hard to get me out there. Enjoy this high, another great H!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Sandra! I can see that. It's the first acknowledgement that someone other than your mother thinks you've got something special :)Delete
That's really awesome! Congrats :)ReplyDelete
Congratulations!! Getting an agent is such a big step towards publishing, and I'm happy that your hard work has paid off.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Cynthia. It's so true, there's still a lot of work to do, but it feels great to have support!Delete
- AnonymousApril 9, 2012 at 1:42 PM
CONGRATS!!!! Welcome to the Barbara Poelle team - I second what Sarah said up there, everyone at IGLA is amazing. You're in great hands :) *HIGH FIVES YOU*ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Kerri! I feel like I just got adopted into the most fabulous, loopy, supportive writerly family. I'm thinking of designing a Team Barbara or Barbara is my Ninja Agent t-shirt...what, too much? :)Delete
This is fantastic! :D And awesome, and great :D Thank you for popping over and congratulating me too. What a great day for the letter H haha.ReplyDelete
Isn't it funny how we all think it's going to be an R&R... hehe
Congratulations!!! :)ReplyDelete
Congratulations! This is excellent news! I was clueless about an agent call, too. I thought for sure Tricia was calling to ask for a revision. I wish you the very best of luck with Barbara! It sounds like you're a match made in pub-industry heaven!ReplyDelete
Congratulations! Thanks for sharing your story. I was at Pennwriter's last year too. :)ReplyDelete
Dude. DUDE. Not only do you have an agent, you have Barbara Poelle!!! I know you know this, but OMG! haha. Congrats!!! This is SOOO AWESOME!ReplyDeleteReplies
Lori - I KNOW!!!! I'm not sure other people know how amazing Barbara is (my mom definitely didn't get it) but it's nice to know you UNDERSTAND. Feel like I won the agent jackpot. Swoon. Thanks for the congrats!Delete
Congrats! Yay!ReplyDelete
:Throwing confetti in the air:
My A-Z
Awesome! You were so smart to polish and polish and repolish. Congratulations!!!ReplyDelete
So Awesome! Congrats!ReplyDelete
THAT IS THE BEST H POST EVER!!!!!! I love reading I got an agent stories and I am so thrilled for you. Congrats!!!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Laura. Never thought I'd be on *this side* of the agent story - glad to have one of my own!Delete
Woo Hoo!! Totally worth the wait!!ReplyDelete
Hi - stopping by for the A to Z challenge. That's wonderful that you now have agent representation! Very exciting. :)ReplyDelete
Congrats!!! That is so very exciting!ReplyDelete
H is for Hearty Congratulations! So delighted for you. I hope this is the beginning of a great relationship for you both!ReplyDelete
I'm the author of the Bella and Britt series for kids. Take a peek at my blog if you've the time...
All best wishes!Replies
Hi Nancy - thanks for visiting. I will definitely check out your blog - your Bella and Britt series sounds great!Delete
OMG! I missed this post. I am SOOO happy for you! And not at all jealous. :)ReplyDelete
YAAAAHOOOOOOO !!!!!!!ReplyDelete
Congrats! Best of luck to you on submission.ReplyDelete
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Pharrell's Miami Penthouse
Any one would be happy living in this Miami penthouse. Home to the rapper, singer-songwriter Pharrell, this beach front residence boosts more than just the view of the fabulous Floridian coasts, but also a mixture of quirky Murakami décor in this contemporary classy space.
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Pharrell's Miami Penthouse Entrance
A grand entrance is what every glitteratti needs for a statement. Pharrell's entry way is not exception - with its extremely high ceilings and open concept space, it feels like the world is in your hands.
Pharrell's Miami Penthouse Living Area
Expect nothing less than the typical with any celebrity pad. This circular layout penthouse contributes to the uniqueness of this living area. With plenty of seating, fitting in your entourage shouldn't be a problem.
Pharrell's Miami Penthouse Dining
Enjoy the height of the ceiling at this dining area, it almost makes you feel like it goes on forever.
Pharrell's Miami Penthouse Kitchen
Prepping for your meals can be a pleasure with a view like that. Whether for a hangout area, or a place to chat while you serve up your cuisines, guests are bound to flock to this space.
Pharrell's Miami Penthouse Bedroom
Wake up to the sound of the Miami waves in this coveted bedroom. The view is so stunning, it makes one wonder if it's an illusion.