More Travel and Dining Expenses for "Bowdlerizing Brigham"?

[Doctor Scratch]

Doctor Scratch,

According to the travel agency page, tips are required for the guide. It didn't say anything about the "supporting" guides, do you have any speculations about tips in regards to those?

I think there is definitely a possibility that tips are given to the “supporting guides,” as you put it. What I think is practically a 100% certainty is that many, many appeals are made for donations to Interpreter: maybe even multiple appeals each day. So while it is perhaps true that “no Interpreter funds” were used to pay for aspects of the trip, I assume that it’s also true that all kinds of Interpreter funds were *solicited* on this trip.

Oh, and re: condiments for fries? I would assume that fry sauce would be the default selection.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Tipping adds up, by the way. On a 10-day tour with, say, 20 people, a tour guide can walk away with like $2-4k in tips, while a driver might get around +/- 1k and an assistant guide might get about the same as a driver **unless** they’re more like a co-guide, so it’ll go up. It’s one of those gigs where getting tipped may not look amazing at first glance, but the tips can really add. The longer the tour the more tips a guide can rack up, basically.

So, it’s not a bad hustle if you’re getting comped airfare, lodging, and meals. Especially so if the majority of your knowledge about each stop comes from Wikipedia, and you just gin up a quick down and dirty for each spot you stop at for the day.

[I Have Questions]

Your experience on this board is devoid of all meaning without MG? Are you for real? Here’s a thought…put some effort in yourself! Stop being lazy. Start a thread about a topic you personally think is interesting.

worrying about MG and Daniel Peterson has little interest for me.

Your initial comment lamenting the “loss” of MG on a thread specifically about Peterson’s documented eating habits, suggests otherwise. But by all means show us what you do have interest in by starting a thread or two about such things…

[I Have Questions]

Doctor Scratch,

According to the travel agency page, tips are required for the guide. It didn't say anything about the "supporting" guides, do you have any speculations about tips in regards to those?

I think there is definitely a possibility that tips are given to the “supporting guides,” as you put it. What I think is practically a 100% certainty is that many, many appeals are made for donations to Interpreter: maybe even multiple appeals each day. So while it is perhaps true that “no Interpreter funds” were used to pay for aspects of the trip, I assume that it’s also true that all kinds of Interpreter funds were *solicited* on this trip.

Oh, and re: condiments for fries? I would assume that fry sauce would be the default selection.

Fry sauce? In England? Are you mad?

Fish & Chips (not “fries”) is traditionally eaten with salt and vinegar, mushy peas (although less so in the south), and either ketchup, curry sauce, or mayonnaise if you’re trying to be trendy. Given the usual portion size it is a dish best shared between two, and it always tastes better when consumed at the seaside.

[Doctor Scratch]

I sat in the pew where Lewis generally sat, near the “Narnia window.” And when, for a few minutes, I found myself alone in the church and felt impelled to say something, I simply looked toward the altar and whispered “Thanks, Jack. Thanks. Thanks.” I found the experience surprisingly moving. His influence on me has been profound and life-long, and I can’t express the joy I’ve received from reading (and re-reading) his works.

He had so many baptisms to perform that Brigham Young and Willard Richards came to help him.. We then partially ascended the Herefordshire Beacon, enjoying the exceptionally good Bennetts Ice Cream that is sold where the path up the hill begins. (Yes, yes. I ate some.)

The same reverence should be extended to the ice cream, don’t you think? (“Thanks, Bennetts. Thanks. Thanks.”)

Here’s a question for the most advanced students of Mopologetics: Which has had a more profound, long-term impact on the field—the writings of C.S. Lewis? Or ice cream?

[Everybody Wang Chung]

[Doctor Scratch]

Can we get one where the Afore is like a youthful Edmund from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, being tempted by Turkish delight, except that the White Witch is Jennifer Lopez?

[Everybody Wang Chung]

[Doctor Scratch]

“Thanks, Jennifer. Thanks. Thanks.”

[Gadianton]

Who is Jack and why is he being thanked so much inside a church? Is this a prank, like Church of the Subgenius? I thought we were only to thank the Father in the name of the Son. Anything else is idolatry.

Which has had a more profound, long-term impact on the field—the writings of C.S. Lewis? Or ice cream?

That's a difficult question and I have a feeling I've forgotten about an important ice cream incident. C.S. Lewis has had a profound effect on apologetics. I've seen some of these broken kids, bright kids going into Mopologetics with aims of learning ancient languages and showing the world how smart they are, but then they end up crumpled in a corner of an abandoned building somewhere quoting C.S. Lewis.

Food in general turns out to be a huge motivating factor. Mopologists are materialists in extreme ways, living for the next big meal and dismayed that non-believers can carry on with their lives knowing that one day they will no longer eat. Just recently we've learned that Will celebrates the death of innocents in Ukraine all for a few bucks a month that he spends on dinners and "family" outings. Mammon and filthy lucre for food is a heavy motivator.

But ice cream in particular, and rivaling the greatest religious blowhard of the modern age? That's a difficult question and I'd be left to guess.