We’ve laughed at earlier posts drawn from the “Girl Query” department of the Young Woman’s Journal. Those curiosities magnified by the passing of time are still here, but in this first year of American involvement in World War II, a surprising number of of queries hint at the darker facts of life — typhus, war, and racial prejudice.

And the cost of postage has climbed by 50%.

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Can you suggest something new to serve with a light meat or chicken course, aside from cranberry or currant jelly? – Kathryn.

A very refreshing relish and garnish to serve with such a course is small individual molds of very tart lemon jelly, in which are molded a few nut meats. Tint the jelly to carry out any color scheme.
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Juvenile Instructor, July 1913

So you’ve been called as a member of the ward or stake Social Committee (the forerunner of today’s Activities Committee). You want to hold a dance, perhaps in honor of those fine young men who have just been called into the army. How late should you permit the dance to run? Should men be encouraged to attend stag? Can we dance to that outrageous ragtime music?

Luckily for you, the Church Social Committee has laid it all out for you, in this handy dandy guide, complete with photographic illustrations of the proper dance positions, showing particularly the correct placement of gentlemen’s and ladies’ arms, and the proper distance between dancers. (If you plan on measuring that distance using a Book of Mormon, better bring the extra-large-print edition … or maybe the Braille edition. Anything slimmer is going to fall right out of the gap prescribed in these pictures.) (Your models are Miss Edith Barlow, head of the Department of Dancing, Deseret Gymnasium, and Mr. Fred A. Jackson, President of the Utah Dancing Masters’ Association.)

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Juvenile Instructor, January 1919

America’s First Ally

On April 28, 1780, Lafayette reached Boston after an absence of fifteen months in France, during which time he had secured the promise of the French Government to aid America with ships, men and money. From Boston Lafayette then rode as rapidly as possible to Washington’s headquarters, at Morristown, New Jersey, and made his happy announcement to the General himself.

After a cool and unprecedentedly rainy June, Utah is gearing up to settle into a hot, dry July. I’d rather not run my air conditioner any more than absolutely necessary to sleep, so I sit here under a ceiling fan, with a desk fan trained on my face. There are only so many layers of clothing that a modest Mormon woman can shed, and only so many glasses of ice water will go down any one throat in a day.

Wouldn’t it be nice, I think, to step outside my door and slip into a pool of water, warmed by the sun yet cool enough to wash all the heat away …

That’s a pleasure the Brigham Young children enjoyed, from the late 1850s onward.

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The Instructor, February 1952

Maybe it’s an unintended consequence of correlation, but it occurs to me that our church magazines just don’t do as good a job as they used to at supplying us with articles on house flies. You know what I mean?

Take, for instance, the fine report on “The House Fly and Disease,” by Prof. John Zimmerman Brown of the University of Utah’s medical department, published in the 1909 Young Woman’s Journal. Now that’s an article providing a dose of everything our young women search for in vain in The New Era.

It’s a delightful article to read over the breakfast table, with its charming opening:

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Juvenile Instructor, July 1915
Lafayette’s Arrival

Thanks to Mormon Matters (where nominations and votes will be registered), with the assistance of Ziff at Zelophehad’s Daughters (who must be losing sleep already with delighted anticipation of numbers to crunch), the Niblets return to the Bloggernacle.

Niblets are a fun way of community building within the Bloggernacle and a way of letting bloggers and commenters know that their 2008 efforts were memorable, even when a post didn’t draw a lot of comments or there was little on-screen response to consistently witty or insightful or peacemaking comments. So register your nominations at Mormon Matters, and remember to vote when the ballots are posted.

And, um, uh, should the spirit so move, remember that Keepa was launched during 2008, and that a complete list of posts can be easily found by clicking the “Topical Guide” link at the top of the sidebar. You know, just in case.

Regular readers will have noticed that our commenter Researcher has referred to herself as a “heart mom” from time to time. Her little boy, who just turned two, has had his third heart surgery this week. He is struggling tonight. Please remember him in your prayers.