[27930] in linux-announce channel archive
All New Portable Air Conditioner Keeps You Cool All
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mini AC)
Thu Aug 5 16:30:47 2021
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2021 16:27:47 -0400
From: "Mini AC" <mini-ac@highexpectations10.club>
To: <linuxch-announce.discuss@charon.mit.edu>
------=_Part_752_1539696652.1628194579994
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
ONE DAY LEFT!
Daily Deal 50% OFF!
3 in 1 Portable Space Cooler: Air conditioner, humidifier, air purifier. While it's small in size, it's mighty in power, and will make quick work of cooling your home down for the benefit of your family, friends and work colleagues. During the heat of summer, the inside temperature of your home or place of business can become unbearable. However, the thought of a high power bill can also be more than enough incentive to just battle through and wear less clothing. Air conditioners, as a whole, are also expensive to buy, cumbersome to operate, and take up more room in your home than you typically have spare. Therein lies the question: Can there be another solution?
Take Up To 50% Off Today Only -> http://www.highexpectations10.club/snappily-watchers/c066Q2KX395M86Vl10F46a1W82bI40Lhbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47UQZon9d6h1D0wO5SJ1sv
If you have any questions, we are Hawking, Black, and Johl Publishing Group
34 Miller Rd. Farmingdale. NY, 11735. Edit prefs http://www.highexpectations10.club/terming-contrived/c424D2395fC8O612r469ry8z82bk40jhbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47zQZon9d6S10vNt6Jpspvq
------=_Part_752_1539696652.1628194579994
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<html>
<head>=20
<title></title>=20
</head>=20
<body>
<!--half-light. They continued up the road at the same even pace without
looking back. A dark yellow sun was beginning to rise in a sky that was the=
same
slick dark gray as the highway. The fields stretched away, stiff and weedy,
on either side. "Where we goin?" Mr. Shortley asked for the first time. Mrs=
Shortley sat with one foot on a packing box so that her knee was
pushed into her stomach. Mr. Shortley's elbow was almost under her nose
and Sarah Mae's bare left foot was sticking over the front seat, touching
her ear. "Where we goin?" Mr. Shortley repeated and when she didn't answer
again, he turned and looked at her. Fierce heat seemed to be swelling slowl=
y and fully into her face as if
it were welling up now for a final assault. She was sitting in an erect way
in spite of the fact that one leg was twisted under her and one knee was
almost into her neck, but there was a peculiar lack of light in her icy blu=
e
eyes. All the vision in them might have been turned around, looking
inside her. She suddenly grabbed Mr. Shortley's elbow and Sarah Mae's
foot at the same time and began to tug and pull on them as if she were
trying to fit the two extra limbs onto herself. Mr. Shortley began to curse=
and quickly stopped the car and Sarah=20
Mae yelled to quit but Mrs. Shortley apparently intended to rearrange the
whole car at once. She thrashed forward and backward, clutching at
everything she could get her hands on and hugging it to herself, Mr. Shortl=
ey's head, Sarah Mae's leg, the cat, a wad of white bedding, her
own big moon-like knee; then all at once her fierce expression faded into
a look of astonishment and her grip on what she had loosened. One of her
eyes drew near to the other and seemed to collapse quietly and she was
still. The two girls, who didn't know what had happened to her, began to
say, "Where we goin, Ma? Where we goin?" They thought she was
playing a joke and that their father, staring straight ahead at her, was
imitating a dead man. They didn't know that she had had a great
experience or ever been displaced in the world from all that belonged to
her. They were frightened by the gray slick road before them and they
kept repeating in higher and higher voices, "Where we goin, Ma? Where
we goin?" while their mother, her huge body rolled back still against the
seat and her eyes like blue-painted glass, seemed to contemplate for the
first time the tremendous frontiers of her true country.=20
II
"Well," Mrs. McIntyre said to the old Negro, "we can get along
without them. We've seen them come and seen them go -- black and
white." She was standing in the calf barn while he cleaned it and she held
a rake in her hand and now and then pulled a corn cob from a corner or
pointed to a soggy spot that he had missed. When she discovered the
Shortleys were gone, she was delighted as it meant she wouldn't have to
fire them. The people she hired always left her -- because they were that
kind of people. Of all the families she had had, the Shortleys were the
best if she didn't count the Displaced Person. They had been not quite
trash; Mrs. Shortley was a good woman, and she would miss her but as
the Judge used to say, you couldn't have your pie and eat it too, and she
was satisfied with the D. P. "We've seen them come and seen them go,"
she repeated with satisfaction. "And me and you," the old man said, stoopin=
g to drag his hoe under a
feed rack, "is still here."=20
She caught exactly what he meant her to catch--->=20
<p></p>=20
<!-- [if mso]> <style> body,table tr,table td,a, span {font-family:Arial=
, Helvetica, sans-serif !important;}</style> <!--<![endif]-->
<!-- [if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> <o:Pi=
xelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endi=
f]-->=20
<table style=3D"width: 100%; background: #f2f2f2;" cellspacing=3D"0" cell=
padding=3D"0" align=3D"center">=20
<tbody>=20
<tr>=20
<td align=3D"center">=20
<table class=3D"container" style=3D"width: 600px; background: #ffffff=
;" cellspacing=3D"0" cellpadding=3D"0" align=3D"center" bgcolor=3D"#ffffff"=
>=20
<tbody>=20
<tr>=20
<td align=3D"center">=20
<table style=3D"background: #ffffff; width: 100%;" cellspacing=3D=
"0" cellpadding=3D"0" align=3D"center">=20
<tbody>=20
<tr>=20
<td align=3D"center">=20
<table class=3D"container" style=3D"border: 0 none; border-sp=
acing: 0; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #0=
00000; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; width: 100%;" cellspacing=3D"=
0" cellpadding=3D"0" align=3D"center">=20
<tbody>=20
<tr>=20
<td style=3D"font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; =
padding: 20px 0 20px 0; font-size: 24px; color: #000000; font-weight: 800;"=
align=3D"center">1 DAY LEFT!</td>=20
</tr>=20
</tbody>=20
</table>=20
<table class=3D"container" style=3D"border: 0 none; border-sp=
acing: 0; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #0=
00000; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; width: 100%;" cellspacing=3D"=
0" cellpadding=3D"0" align=3D"center">=20
<tbody>=20
<tr>=20
<td align=3D"center" valign=3D"top">=20
<table class=3D"container" style=3D"border: 0 none; borde=
r-spacing: 0; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color=
: #000000; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; width: 100%;" cellspacing=
=3D"0" cellpadding=3D"0" align=3D"center">=20
<tbody>=20
<tr>=20
<td class=3D"act-copy-1" style=3D"font-family: 'Open S=
ans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 40px; color: #53a318; font-weight: 800;=
" align=3D"center">Daily Deal 50% OFF</td>=20
</tr>=20
<tr>=20
<td style=3D"font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-ser=
if; font-size: 16px; color: #000000; font-weight: normal; padding: 30px; li=
ne-height: 30px;" align=3D"center"> <p>3 in 1 Portable Space Cooler: Air co=
nditioner, humidifier, air purifier. While it's small in size, it's mighty =
in power, and will make quick work of cooling your home down for the benefi=
t of your family, friends and work colleagues.</p> <p><a href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/3954H2395CP8H611w46g97Y82bY40Phbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47aQZon9d5hP10R6APlysv/conducts-maneuvered=
"><img src=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/1b56w23gJ95EJ7la10C46a0Y82bq40Shbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47CQZon9d6UA1tZ06N0svBl/accumulators-typographic" alt=3D"" width=3D"100%" /></a></p> </td>=20
</tr>=20
<tr>=20
<td style=3D"padding: 20px 0 40px 0;" align=3D"center"=
>=20
<table style=3D"border: 0 none; border-spacing: 0; fo=
nt-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000; font-=
weight: normal; text-align: left; width: 250px; height: 48px;" cellspacing=
=3D"0" cellpadding=3D"0" align=3D"center">=20
<tbody>=20
<tr>=20
<td style=3D"font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, sans=
-serif; background: #53A318; color: #ffffff; padding: 5px 0 5px 0; font-siz=
e: 16px; font-weight: 600;" align=3D"center"><a style=3D"color: #ffffff; te=
xt-decoration: none;" href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/3954H2395CP8H611w46g97Y82bY40Phbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47aQZon9d5hP10R6APlysv/conducts-maneuvered" target=3D"none">View Air-Coolers<=
/a></td>=20
</tr>=20
</tbody>=20
</table> </td>=20
</tr>=20
</tbody>=20
</table>=20
<table class=3D"container" style=3D"border: 0 none; borde=
r-spacing: 0; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color=
: #000000; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; background: #ffffff; widt=
h: 600px;" cellspacing=3D"0" cellpadding=3D"0" align=3D"center">=20
<tbody>=20
<tr>=20
<td style=3D"font-family: 'Open Sans Regular', Arial, =
sans-serif; color: #000000; font-size: 10px; padding: 0 0 10px 0;" align=3D=
"center"> </td>=20
</tr>=20
</tbody>=20
</table> </td>=20
</tr>=20
</tbody>=20
</table> </td>=20
</tr>=20
</tbody>=20
</table>=20
<table class=3D"container" style=3D"border: 0 none; border-spacin=
g: 0; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #00000=
0; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; width: 100%; background: #f2f2f2;=
" cellspacing=3D"0" cellpadding=3D"0" align=3D"center">=20
<tbody>=20
<tr>=20
<td style=3D"padding: 30px 0 0 0;" align=3D"center">=20
<table class=3D"container" style=3D"width: 600px; background:=
#f2f2f2;" width=3D"600" cellspacing=3D"0" cellpadding=3D"0" align=3D"cente=
r">=20
<tbody>=20
<tr>=20
<td style=3D"font-size: 16px; color: #888888; line-height:=
119%; padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px;" align=3D"center"> </td>=20
</tr>=20
<tr>=20
<td class=3D"mobile-font" style=3D"font-size: 10px; color:=
#999999; line-height: 120%; padding: 10px 10px 0 10px;" align=3D"center">&=
nbsp;</td>=20
</tr>=20
<tr>=20
<td class=3D"mobile-font" style=3D"font-size: 12px; color:=
#999999; line-height: 150%; padding: 0 10px 10px 10px;" align=3D"center"> =
<p>If you have any questions, we are Hawking, Black, and Johl Publishing Gr=
oup<br />34 Miller Rd. Farmingdale. NY, 11735. <a href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/2e15ss2395P8vm612c4698mJK82bC40jhbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47VQZon9d6i1T0Xi6LOsXkv/accumulators-typographic" targe=
t=3D"_blank" rel=3D"noopener">Edit prefs</a>.</p> </td>=20
</tr>=20
</tbody>=20
</table> </td>=20
</tr>=20
</tbody>=20
</table> </td>=20
</tr>=20
</tbody>=20
</table> </td>=20
</tr>=20
</tbody>=20
</table>=20
<p> </p>=20
<p> </p>=20
<p> </p>=20
<p> </p>=20
<p> </p>=20
<p> </p>=20
<p> </p>=20
<p> </p>=20
<p> </p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">The memor=
y of these stories blended in my head now with Mormon myth, and I had the s=
ense that they had sprung from the same impulse. Mormonism and science fict=
ion were modern inventions that responded to a new reality, one increasingl=
y dominated by scientific thinking and the technology it bred. People found=
themselves in a Copernican universe far vaster and more impersonal than th=
e biblical heavens, and one way to react to this new normal was to discover=
in space itself ? its stars and planets and imagined denizens ? the stuff =
of religious awe. So in science fiction, the wonder and terror long inspire=
d by the Judeo-Christian God, and by angels and devils, gets remapped onto =
aliens; visitations become visitors. In Mormonism, God <em>is</em>&nbs=
p;an alien; we are all incipient aliens, bound up in a project of collectiv=
e deification.</span></p>=20
<blockquote class=3D"pullquote centre">
<span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">In the stillness I heard our voices as t=
hey'd sounded when we were gathered in this place: children's screaming lau=
ghter, my dad belting out Grateful Dead songs, my mom in her bathrobe laugh=
ingly chiding him. It occurred to me that in the Mormon heaven I would neve=
r lose these people.</span>
</blockquote>=20
<div id=3D"inline-ad-7-compound-container">=20
<div id=3D"inline-ad-7-compound-0" class=3D"compound-ad-unit">=20
<div id=3D"sf-inline-ad-7-compound-0" class=3D"ata-frame-wrapper">
</div>=20
<div id=3D"inline-ad-7-compound-0__controls" class=3D"ata-controls">
<span id=3D"inline-ad-7-compound-0__complain-btn" class=3D"ata-control=
s__complain-btn" style=3D"color: #ffffff;">REPORT THIS AD</span>
</div>=20
</div>=20
<div id=3D"inline-ad-7-compound-1" class=3D"compound-ad-unit">=20
<div id=3D"sf-inline-ad-7-compound-1" class=3D"ata-frame-wrapper">
</div>=20
<div id=3D"inline-ad-7-compound-1__controls" class=3D"ata-controls">
<span id=3D"inline-ad-7-compound-1__complain-btn" class=3D"ata-control=
s__complain-btn" style=3D"color: #ffffff;">REPORT THIS AD</span>
</div>=20
</div>=20
</div>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">Why did i=
t matter, this drive to enchant? I thought again of that spiritual desiccat=
ion I had glimpsed in myself and my students. And of what I'd seen on the g=
round that week: people supercharged by a modern myth that insisted on the =
sociality of salvation, a retconning finally of redemption itself, which he=
ld that we are delivered as collectives or not at all. It was a mythos for =
the era of disasters. It lay behind the Mormon response to Katrina, and lat=
ely COVID-19, which saw bishop's storehouses, positioned around the globe, =
bring <a style=3D"color: #ffffff;" href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/accumulators-typographic/8644z2395L8Z6D12GM4U699O82bO40qhbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47cQZon9d7w10sWoJ5YysMv">nearly one hund=
red million pounds of food</a> to beleaguered populations in 2020.</sp=
an></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">Was the c=
ulture I belonged to ? a culture of unbelief that wanted, nonetheless, to c=
onfront the catastrophes ahead, which threatened to tilt reality toward sci=
ence fiction ? capable of such feats of social strength? My time here had m=
ade me skeptical. Because belief was the crux of it, the impetus behind the=
directors' calling out to the young cast: <em>this actually happened<=
/em>. That was what elevated their story from sci-fi to scripture, from&nbs=
p;<em>Dune </em>to an architecture of revealed truths in whose image t=
hey remade the world. What did I or my friends ? secular, overeducated, cli=
mate-terrified yet basically inert ? have to rival that?</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">In order =
for people to abandon their self-interest and commit to a grand cause, writ=
es Jane Bennett in <em>The Enchantment of Modern Life</em>, something =
has to happen to their aesthetic being ? that part of them that is sensory =
and emotional. They have to fall in love. ?One must be enamored with existe=
nce,? she writes, ?to be capable of donating some of one's scarce mortal re=
sources to the service of others.? Put baldly, ?You have to love life befor=
e you can care about anything.? Enchantment turns out to be the preconditio=
n for committed political life together ? a way of charming people toward s=
elf-transcendence with a vision of existence that pulses with animacy and p=
urpose. Ethical codes are stillborn without such visions; they can't catch =
unless people are inflamed by some story of their lives capable of drawing =
from them, again and again, virtuous performances.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;"> </s=
pan></p>=20
<p class=3D"has-text-align-center" data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span sty=
le=3D"color: #ffffff;"><strong>Thursday</strong></span></p>=20
<p class=3D"has-text-align-center" data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span sty=
le=3D"color: #ffffff;"> </span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">Opening d=
ay. Morning.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">Across th=
e grounds people bustled. Some drove golf carts. On the Bowl, cast members =
did last-minute run-throughs while directors, clutching at walkie-talkies, =
fine-tuned and fretted. The air crackled with promise.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">I had arr=
ived late. There had been a dry run of the New World Multitude scene and I =
had played hooky, having decided against the part. Now I strode with Scott =
through the cast area, where a mood of serenity had set in. People were fin=
ding each other. They sat in clusters outside the tents, playing guitars an=
d singing, touching each other reassuringly and laughing. I had never witne=
ssed a pilgrimage. I saw people divorced from their workaday lives who ? ba=
thless, deviceless ? had been deprived into clarity.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">?Everythi=
ng else is stripped away,? said a girl named Emily.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">?It's a v=
ery similar feeling, I would imagine, to when people converge on disasters,=
and they'll sacrifice of their own to give to some cause,? added another k=
id, Jonathan. ?Everyone's made some sacrifice to be here. And love is at th=
e center of that.?</span></p>=20
<div id=3D"inline-ad-8-compound-container">=20
<div id=3D"inline-ad-8-compound-0" class=3D"compound-ad-unit">=20
<div id=3D"sf-inline-ad-8-compound-0" class=3D"ata-frame-wrapper">
</div>=20
<div id=3D"inline-ad-8-compound-0__controls" class=3D"ata-controls">
<span id=3D"inline-ad-8-compound-0__complain-btn" class=3D"ata-control=
s__complain-btn" style=3D"color: #ffffff;">REPORT THIS AD</span>
</div>=20
</div>=20
<div id=3D"inline-ad-8-compound-1" class=3D"compound-ad-unit">=20
<div id=3D"sf-inline-ad-8-compound-1" class=3D"ata-frame-wrapper">
</div>=20
<div id=3D"inline-ad-8-compound-1__controls" class=3D"ata-controls">
<span id=3D"inline-ad-8-compound-1__complain-btn" class=3D"ata-control=
s__complain-btn" style=3D"color: #ffffff;">REPORT THIS AD</span>
</div>=20
</div>=20
</div>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">I went on=
walking, surveying all I saw with the attention one bestows on something a=
bout to vanish. No one knew, of course, that this was the last pageant ? th=
at the pandemic would obliterate the planned finale ? but there was somethi=
ng valedictory about it all. The show needed revision ? the redface had to =
go ? yet it seemed a pity that this huge, weird piece of Americana, which h=
ad survived into the age of TikTok, was ending because a 94-year-old man in=
Salt Lake City had demanded it should. The church's official line was that=
it wanted people focusing on their home lives ? scripture-reading, prayer =
? not theater. This sounded like a cover for wanting to save money, issued =
by an institution that <a style=3D"color: #ffffff;" href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/coining-warbler/26a4R2395FM8I610O469aO82bH40shbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47GQZon9d7U1BZH0K5MjsOv=
">as of 2020 had $100 billion in assets</a>.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">Morning b=
lurred into afternoon, afternoon into evening. Somehow, the premiere was cl=
ose at hand; the cast left to change.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">For once =
unchaperoned, I followed a party of players toward a costume house at the h=
ill's southwest end. Here, as players disappeared behind curtains, I took i=
n a scene that included an entire wall stocked with boxes containing beards=
, each labeled. There was <span class=3D"h-small-caps">NEW WORLD MULTI=
TUDE SAVIOR</span> and, beside it, <span class=3D"h-small-caps">U=
NBELIEVER #1</span>. ?They're all made of human hair,? said a voice beside =
me. It belonged to a spectacled seamstress named Jackie. ?A beard can take =
a year to make.? There were hundreds. She plucked a box off the wall ? =
;<span class=3D"h-small-caps">VISION SAVIOR</span>, the lesser Jesus ? and =
opened it. ?Church members donate their hair for these,? she murmured, dang=
ling a reddish pelt before my face. I gaped at what was at once the beard o=
f God's son and the Norelco trimmings of some ginger guy in Utah, then turn=
ed away.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">All emerg=
ed from the costume house dressed and I followed, watching as they rambled =
down the hill. There they were joined by the clad players from the other ho=
uses, several streams of people made suddenly mythic, who came together in =
one teeming body aimed, I saw, for the devotional pavilion. Beyond them I g=
limpsed the Bowl, swarming now with spectators ? thousands?staking out chai=
rs. With a giddy solemnity the cast crowded into the pavilion, ranging in r=
ows ? characters from a Mesoamerican past brushing shoulders with those fro=
m Jacksonian America. A director led them in a last prayer, after which the=
y sang a hymn called ?God Speed the Right,? then marched out to meet the cr=
owd.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">I walked =
with them. The premiere was slated for 9:00 p.m., and it was 7:30; this tim=
e had been allotted for the players to mingle with the audience. I watched =
the graying cherub playing Joseph Smith ? Willy Wonka-ish in top hat, tailc=
oat, and breeches ? get swiftly engulfed by stans seeking selfies. Vision S=
avior, who worked in Big Oil and lived year-round in Saudi Arabia, flashed =
me a beatific smile, then turned to greet a family of eight.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">I surveye=
d the acreage of people before me and, in the gathering darkness, ventured =
in. It was the most international of crowds. I met a family that had flown =
in from Honduras that day, and when the show was over would return by red-e=
ye flight. I met a party of women from the Sichuan province of China who'd =
been born into Buddhism but converted as adults to Mormonism, enticed by th=
e emphasis on family.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">At this p=
oint I became aware that the weary cynicism that had steered me to this pla=
ce was being dislodged by something else. A doubt about my doubt? The energ=
y, the immense shared electricity coursing through this outdoor cathedral, =
unmoored me. A man in the missionary getup ? mid-50s, indefatigable as a ja=
ckrabbit ? pulled me aside, training laserlike gray eyes on mine. ?I teach =
economics and finance at Columbia. These are <em>not </em>individ=
uals lacking in intelligence,? he said, gesturing across the crowd. ?They'r=
e brilliant.? He had fused his spiritual and logical intelligence, he neede=
d me to know, into ?an incredible technicolor understanding.?</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"> </p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">Whatever =
unsteadiness I was feeling, it seemed a consequence of being inundated by t=
housands of worshippers. I suppose I would've felt the same approaching the=
Kaaba at Hajj. I met two women from Massachusetts who spoke to me of the a=
fterlife with such passionate certitude, such detail, they could've been re=
turning tourists. ?The amazing love that exists on the other side of the ve=
il is outstanding,? one said. They spoke of becoming kings and queens in de=
ath ? of deification ? and with gentle firmness stressed how I needed to pr=
ay to receive personal revelation. When I asked how ? was there a wikiHow? =
? they laughed: ?Just talk to God. Just ask Him.? (Earlier, in private, the=
pageant president had told me the same, more forcefully: ?You have to knee=
l down and ask!?)</span></p>=20
<blockquote class=3D"pullquote centre">
<span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">At this point I became aware that the we=
ary cynicism that had steered me to this place was being dislodged by somet=
hing else. A doubt about my doubt?</span>
</blockquote>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">All at on=
ce the cast vanished, full night came on and the show started. I found a se=
at. In the dark, a cluster of robed women appeared atop the stage, flourish=
ing apocalyptic trumpets they pretended to play while an epic fanfare sound=
ed through the speakers. The cast marched onstage, an army, some bearing fl=
ags ? and as they assumed their places in an opening tableau there were who=
ops and whistles in the crowd.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">All went =
semi-dark. A group of players danced and jumped while the narrator, an omni=
scient father-figure who sounded like Charlton Heston, set the scene: Jerus=
alem, 600 BC. Depravity reigns. Lehi, the Mormon Moses, and his son Nephi h=
ave visions foretelling Jerusalem's destruction <a style=3D"color: #ffffff;=
" href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/2a55d239n5Mrn8610g469bw82bH40lhbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47iQZon9d7FqOw10t5FlUsv/coining-warbler">and Jesus's coming. They need to flee. The visions to=
ok the form of ?water curtains,? big cumulus mists plumed up from understag=
e, through which apparitions shone: a manger, a tree, a middle-aged angel h=
igh above the stage who for years dangled from a cable but in 2019 stood on=
a hidden platform. The production quality lay between full-on professional=
and DIY.</a></span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;"><a style=
=3D"color: #ffffff;" href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/2a55d239n5Mrn8610g469bw82bH40lhbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47iQZon9d7FqOw10t5FlUsv/coining-warbler">It started raining; babies cried. =
Someone farted. I watched the fugitives cross the Atlantic in that wooden b=
oat, limousines-long; their arrival in the Americas and campy harvest dance=
; the fracturing of the party into rival tribes.</a></span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;">The show'=
s climactic sequence kicked into motion. ?Far away, on a hill outside Jerus=
alem, three crosses rose,? the narrator announced. At the upper-right corne=
r of the stage a trio of crucifixes swung into view, thronged by flames, th=
en vanished. A stage-wide inferno follow<a style=3D"color: #ffffff;" href=
=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/movements-corking/5944a2395D8HV610z469cS82bJ40Whbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47mQZon9d7Q1W0HRy6zksAv@">ed ? the cataclysm that killing Jesus triggered here. I wat=
ched as firebombs burst, geysers shot up, and waterfalls plummeted; I saw t=
he silhouettes of a few hundred cast running about screaming while, below u=
s, the earth convulsed with subterranean sound.</a></span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;"><a style=
=3D"color: #ffffff;" href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/movements-corking/5944a2395D8HV610z469cS82bJ40Whbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47mQZon9d7Q1W0HRy6zksAv@">Total darkness and silence ensued.=
Then the risen Jesus appeared, this little refulgent being clad in white a=
nd perched at the pinnacle of the stage. It had always borne the seeds of s=
ci-fi, the Christian story ? an otherworldly emissary, the logos incarnate,=
sent here on an errand to sa</a>ve us ? and here Jesus looked like nothing=
so much as a lone visitor. His person was mediated by stre<a style=3D"colo=
r: #ffffff;" href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/unpacked-advertiser/d8c6o239DS5W8n6X12tL469dML82bS40Rhbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47lQZon9d5txv106o1Mlsv">aks of rain. It was so quiet across the Bo=
wl, a deep and babyless silence. Lights slowly came on, and I watched the s=
cene I'd acted in two days before: Jesus descending the staircase, the cast=
filtering onto the stage, all surrounding and vene</a>rating him. Around m=
e, people started crying.</span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;"><a style=
=3D"color: #ffffff;" href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/8455D2U395zF8N612jG469lez82bB40ihbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47VQZon9d6O1U0gF6tlXs@v/conducts-maneuvered">The scene ended and they told of t=
he two tribes going to war afterward, of the Nephites' dying off ? but not =
before one of them, Moroni, had buried their history in this hill. It's har=
d to convey the all-out weirdness of the next, final episode. ?Centuries la=
ter, in the spring of 1820,? the narrator declared, ?the Lord heard the ear=
nest prayer of a young man named Joseph Smith.? There was Smith excavating =
the hillside while Moroni supervised; t</a>here he was sharing the good new=
s with a bunch of New Yorkers in bonnets, corsets, suit jackets. It was imp=
ossible to ignore how meta ? how postmodern, really ? it was: the abrupt fa=
st-forwarding 14 centuries, the found text which is the very text you're wa=
tching, the author inserting himself into the story. It was at onc<a style=
=3D"color: #ffffff;" href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/e7b5y2x395pi86K10q469fi82br40fhbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47DQZon9d5VAH106VL2sv3/coining-warbler">e deeply moving and reminiscent of=
a senior thesis by a screenwriting major.</a></span></p>=20
<p data-adtags-visited=3D"true"><span style=3D"color: #ffffff;"><a style=
=3D"color: #ffffff;" href=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/e7b5y2x395pi86K10q469fi82br40fhbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47DQZon9d5VAH106VL2sv3/coining-warbler">The show concluded and the Bowl re=
sounded with cheering. Anxious to beat the crush, I got up and hastened awa=
y. Rain fell more heavily. When I reached the roadside I turned and took in=
the scene a last time: the multitudes gathered on the grass like groundlin=
gs, as they'd gathered here nearly a century; the cast advancing to meet th=
em; the whole thing an international city, the shadow-image of the ones the=
y hoped to</a> form in death. And the driven rain deluging it, in effect, o=
ut of existence.</span></p>=20
<img src=3D"http://www.highexpectations10.club/excommunication-amassing/a9e6wwt2395Wx85x10j46a2n82bq40Qhbr47Ga-Drrs4rGIEHbwG4wwfGaDvsrEibxEIH47yQZon9d5F1B_05cBqsv" alt=3D""/></body>
</html>
------=_Part_752_1539696652.1628194579994--