Rhyme of the Day

My wife's deaf brother is going in for a cochlear implant soon.  He had profound hearing loss as a very young boy.  Hearing aid technology has improved quite a bit over the years.  I remember when he came to our house with new hearing aids and was puzzled by the sound the dog made when she lapped water out of her bowl.  He didn't know dogs made noise when they did that.  Implants should take him to a new level, but they are a bit scary, since they involve surgery and some special risks.

What would that be like?  To be deprived of hearing at the age of 2 - and then to have it restored?  I'm told you have to work at learning how to distinguish sounds, particularly speech sounds.  I readily believe that.  I had trouble distinguishing a lot of speech sounds, and my ears always tested healthy!

Rhyme of the Day:

Where silence was,
A dog's tongue laps
And watery claps
Excite the air.

The good news is that Grant Palmer, who sounds like a very reasonable Mormon, has escaped full excommunication.  Instead the Church has merely disfellowshipped him, which I gather is a temporary sort of punishment.

How did he get in trouble?  By writing a book with overly sensible opinions on the origins of the religion.  For instance, he argued that Joseph Smith, the religion's charismatic founder, didn't really translate the Book of Mormon, but just wrote it.

Contemporary Mormonism has many virtues, but it continues to struggle with its legacy of authoritarian doctrine.

Rhyme Time:

When will the Book of Mormon
Be ready for reformin'?