Contact Points

AEParshall [at] AOL [dot] com is my personal email address, the best way to reach me for anything to do with Keepa (aside from leaving a comment on a post, of course.)

Keepa also has a Facebook page, a low-volume feed that generally posts one update a day with a link to that day’s posts. Occasionally I also post a link to an outstanding comment on an old post that you might otherwise miss, or news about technical difficulties. That page is also a good way to let me know if my anti-spam program has mistakenly blocked you from accessing the blog.

I also run Facebook pages for John A. Widtsoe and Heber J. Grant with short clips from documents by and about those leaders. If you don’t do Facebook, you can find those clips archived here at Keepa: John A. Widtsoe on Facebook and Heber J. Grant on Facebook. Links to those pages are also found in Keepa’s sidebar.

My project She Shall Be an Ensign also has its own Facebook page where I post short pieces of women’s history or biography to let you know that, delayed as it is, the book project is moving ahead.

Finally, while I generally limit friends on my personal Facebook page (Ardis E. Parshall) to people I know in real life, you’re welcome to follow me there if you’d like. In the course of my work day I frequently post humorous or poignant or bizarre bits from the documents I’m working with, and makes those and some other posts public.

I am no longer on Twitter, and have not yet found a community at newer social media sites. I’m always looking, though, if you have a community to recommend.

Financial Support

There’s a PayPal donation button on the sidebar if you’re so inclined to help me take care of Keepa’s hosting fees, and the expenses for spam prevention and the safe archiving of old posts and comments so that Keepa doesn’t vanish in the blink of an eye if my host has problems. Even tiny amounts help, and just sit in the account until the next bill is due.

Meaning of “Keepapitchinin”

The original Keepapitchinin was a comic newspaper – the Mad Magazine of its day – published at Salt Lake City sporadically from 1867 to 1871. Its chief editors were talented second-generation Mormons George J. Taylor (son of apostle, later President John Taylor), Joseph C. Rich (son of apostle Charles C. Rich) and Heber John Richards (son of apostle Willard Richards), with occasional help from apostle Orson Pratt and artists Charles R. Savage and George M. Ottinger. Ronald W. Walker’s “The Keep-A-Pitchinin, or, the Mormon Pioneer Was Human,” BYU Studies 14:3 (Spring 1974), 331-344, gives background on that publication.

Bloggers

Ardis E. Parshall and assorted guest bloggers, most of them long-time friends and readers of Keepa.

Readers

Regular readers and commenters are affectionately known as “Keepa’ninnies” or as “‘ninnies.”

Guest Posts

Guest posts of an historical nature in keeping with Keepa’s tone and theme are solicited. Submit them to AEParshall [at] aol [dot] com.

[This invitation does not extend to spam masquerading as guest posts — you guys crack me up with your continued “offers”!]

Mascots

We even have official blog mascots — who else in the Bloggernacle can make that claim? Heck, we even have a slogan and an official phonograph dealer.

Regular Features

• Lives of little-known Saints and their associates
• Topics in LDS church history and culture
• Utah history
• “From our exchanges” – 19th century newspaper editors traded copies of their own publications and published freely from each others’ papers. This department of Keepapitchinin reviews articles from past and current journals, draw attention to favorite Bloggernacle posts, and otherwise publicizes others’ writings
• Lesson plans for the weeks I teach in Sunday School or Relief Society
• Lessons from old, older, and very old LDS materials covering the same general topics as our current Sunday School lessons
• Fiction and jokes from past decades of LDS magazines
• Magazine cover art, music, radio scripts, and other artifacts of Mormonism’s cultural past
• Current events, guest posts, and any other ol’ thing that catches my fancy

Past Posts/Topical Guide

A listing of all past posts, grouped into rough categories, is found by clicking the two-part “Topical Guide” in the navigation bar above our header, There’s also a search box there where you can look for old posts — or write to me at AEParshall [at] AOL [dot] com, and I can probably help you find something you only vaguely remember from past posts.

Comment Policy

Comments are solicited. Please remember, though, that I am a believing Mormon writing chiefly for others of my faith, and all comments must respect that orientation. Keepa has developed a community of courtesy and friendship, with a minimum of sarcasm and attacks on other commenters. I am the idiosyncratic court of final appeal as to suitability of comments.

Blog Theme and Technical Advice

My sincerest thanks to J. Stapley for designing the original Keepa pages in 2006 pages and for handling the technical details – I couldn’t have got started without him. Our new (2023) look was designed by Jenny Smith, who acquiesced in my desire for the page to look as familiar as possible, while looking crisper and cleaner, and incorporating many behind-the-scenes improvements. Thank you Jenny (and Jared).