Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

I know this is a bit late, but I was intrigued by the recent question on transgender people . Zedability states, When this acquaintance of mine started wondering about their gender, they asked me about the Church's stance, I explained and encouraged them to pray for themselves. As far as I can tell,...

While it may not be reassuring , I know the scores of a few Monson Scholars, and all of them scored 35 or 36 on the ACT and had 4.0 GPAs in high school. All of them had taken a fair number of college-level courses in high school and had at least a few notable extracurriculars. I also know that the b...

I find the comparison of Israel to Ender fighting against bullies to be both horrifying in its implications and singularly inappropriate. First, Ender killed both Stilson and Bonzo. So this comparison suggests that Israel will end by eradicating the Palestinian people. If that is truly how people se...

As the grandchild of both a career military man who spent a few years in Vietnam and a man who was (gasp) a military doctor, I am also confused by what is so impossible about being committed to both family and military. Was it hard on my grandmother and their two young children when my grandfather w...

Thanks for the recommendations on food, guys. After eight weeks of being set on suicide and a ten day hospitalization, I'm free again from both the hospital and the suicidality. The doctors now suspect bipolar. Some are hesitant to diagnose yet, given that I haven't had any hypomanic or manic episod...

I haven't had smoothly shaved legs in over a year. I've occasionally used a razor to do a sort of trim when I was going to be at the beach, but I have a patch of eczema on one leg that becomes a flaking, bleeding painful mess if I shave frequently or closely. It seems silly to shave one leg but not ...

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with depression when it makes obtaining food, whether buying or preparing, seem too hard to do? I've missed a few meals in the past couple of days because even making a bowl of oatmeal seems nearly impossible. Oddly enough, I can keep up with school wo...

The meter issue is the other part of the question that had me confused. For what it's worth, Anne, Certainly only says that "he'd probably be spitting out verses in trochaic tetrameter or some such," which seems very uncertain. That's good, because she was dead wrong. The great Greek and R...

While this question was entertaining, I am absolutely baffled that the writers assumed Socrates would be rapping in Latin. Not only was he Greek, not Italian or Roman, the Roman are of control was entirely contained in the Italian peninsula during his lifetime, so Socrates would have barely, if that...

For reference, the Monson scholarship is only a few hundred shy of covering groceries, rent, utilities, books, and tuition for me for the entire school year, and that's after I paying tithing on the stipend portion. It covers anything a "full-ride" would. It does go to fifty students a yea...

I have no idea if ceteris paribus will read this, but it's a bit long for a comment. And it's neither solicited nor a correction, so it will go here. And in fact, I find that oftentimes when I'm at church, or when I do feel like a lesson really did sink in and I'm pondering it, it almost seems to fe...

I don't know what the commenter's midwife actually said, but research clearly shows that the pelvis expands (in just about all directions) in upright positions, giving the baby more room. So while there are some legitimate reasons for laboring on your back, an expanded pelvis (or portion of the pelv...

I stumbled across this , and I found the perspective in the piece and in the comments fascinating. Given that I wear boy's clothes fairly frequently on BYU campus and get compliments on them, being FTM might fly under the radar. I've worn button-down shirts paired with pants to church without any ne...

Since the definition of damnation in LDS theology is non-progression, not progressing in a way that people think of as spiritually significant can readily lead to guilt and a sense that it can (and must) be changed. I have actually had people, including a bishop, assume that I must be doing somethin...

Having this classified under self-improvement frustrates me a bit. I have only once in my life had a fleeting feeling of God's love, and my emotions at that time were seriously unreliable, so I don't know if that was actually coming from God. I've been doing everything the answer suggested for years...

I appreciated Genuine Article's response too. I've had too many people dismiss my desire to go to the temple based on my age and the fact that I am neither engaged or going on a mission. None of those things are things I can control, and yet the blessings of the temple will be withheld from me for a...

I just did some size checking on Barbie using Gap's sizing chart. If you scale her waist up to 24 inches (between a 00 and a 0), her hips are about a size 14 and her bust measurement seems to require a size 22 top. So the original anorexically skinny barbie is certainly curvy enough (you'd have to m...

Why would a professor actually feel justified in lecturing a class for not taking the material seriously enough after all but one of the students failed an exam? Surely the failure of practically the entire class suggests that there is something wrong with the presentation or with the test, not nece...

The impression that I've gotten is more like this: LDS theology holds that you're not responsible to live according to laws you haven't been taught, but once you learn them, you're accountable. The temple has some really big laws, and the spiritual consequences for failing to live up to them could ...

https://theboard.byu.edu/questions/73562/ I'm having a hard time with this question since it hurt more to have my chance at receiving my own endowment soon ripped away from me than it did to have the chance of a mission taken away. I know I'm only 19, but the fact that I've been wanting to get my e...