From:           masticol@athos.rutgers.edu (Steve Masticola)
Newsgroups:     alt.folklore.urban
Subject:        Mormon, Moroni, etc.
Date:           4 Feb 91 03:11:48 GMT
Organization:   Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

Wayne A. Christopher writes:

] The doctrine of the Mormons is supposed to have been given to them by
] the angel Moroni -- there is a golden statue of him on top of the
] Mormon temple in Salt Lake City.  I guess "Mormon" and "Moroni" are
] lexically close...  I wouldn't care to have a name like that if I were
] an angel though.

Unfortunately, history has that bit wrong. The doctrine was given by
the angel Voronoi, and concerned methods of drawing hyperplanes
equidistant from pairs of points in general location. Joseph Smith,
unfortunately, had just woken up and was too groggy to understand the
name correctly, besides having flunked CG. The angels Preparata and
Shamos were due for a visit too, but gave up after that episode.

- Steve "Posse Comitatus, here I come" masticol@athos.rutgers.edu