I'm in Great Falls Montana now and to get here, we had a stop-over in Salt Lake City. I was kind of excited being there because between watching "Big Love" and rereading "Under the Banner of Heaven" recently, I've been kinda into Mormonism lately. Mainly because it's a pretty weird little religion made up of some really weird people. Being in Salt Lake City, well, the airport at least, had a feel of being in some unique, foreign land-- "oh, look! Mormons!"

This made me really curious to check things out and see what kinds of things I could find in the airport that would reflect it's presence in Mormonville. This, of course, meant airport bar hopping to see if one could even find a bar, but I couldn't necessarily determine it due to the fact it was 8 in the morning and whatever bar type thingys there were weren't open. I don't know what I was expecting to see, actually, in that an airport is an airport is an airport, no matter where you are, but it wasn't until we hit the bookstore that we saw some things that weren't typical of your typical airport.

There were no nudie magazines, to be found, which isn't that unusual, but the magazines that featured partially clad women (Cosmo, GQ) all had some sort of black paper put over it lest any wholesome Mormon boy see cleavage. There was also-- and this part was pretty cool-- an entire Mormon section of books. There we found the actual Book of Mormon (a quick scan through determined that it was not the highest quality of literature, but what would you expect from something supposedly written by some dude looking into a hat) as well as testaments written by lesser Mormon lights. There was also a whole series of inspirational Mormon novels, usually featuring stalwart Mormon frontiersmen and frontiersmen trying to make their way through America while holding onto their faith. I'm pretty sure none of those brave Mormon lads in the books had more than one Mormon lass to which he was passionately devout with ("As Jedediah made his way through the plains of a great nation, will he reunite with his true love Mary, and will his Second Wife Lizbeth be able to fight off attacks by noble Indians and keep her and his 13 year old child-bride survive?") And speaking of which, another book that was there contained the love letters that Joseph Smith wrote to his wife. I'm also pretty sure none of those letters mentioned his marriage to another wife. Or another one after that. Or another one after that. In fact, I'm pretty sure it will probably skip over any mention of a "divine revelation" that allows him to marry wives #2, 3, 4, 15, 16, or even 23. There was also a devotional book to Mormon women written by the 120 year old Prophet of the Church. Watch out Oprah!

The last book we found, the one I found most interesting, was a coffee table book of photos of ancient Mayan temples throughout Mexico and Central America. The pictures were indeed beautiful and of high-quality, but what were they doing in the Mormon section, you might ask? Because each temple shown was scenes of where the Nephites hung out with Meso-American tribes and you can get a glimpse of what life was like back then. Kind of like how the Roman Coliseum ruins gives us a glimpse into life in the Roman Empire except completely and totally not true. Or at least according to anthropology and what does anthropology know?

Oh, and yes, you could buy "Under the Banner of Heaven" in the airport which surprised me. Somehow, I don't think they sell "the Davinci Code" at the Vatican.