Panopticon

I'm surprised Jim Bob allowed that.

She sure was— Jill mentions it in her book, saying that at the time she didn’t realize it was “strange, unsafe, and unwise.” The other sisters just joked about Jana being one of Gothard’s girls. I think it would be hard for either Jinger or Jill to do anything but dance around the subject because anything they say will be presumed to be about Jana.

And Jill is quite explicit about that in the book. JB and Michelle were having trouble keeping up with their speaking engagements during the height of the show’s popularity and JD’s dream was to fly, so it lined up nicely. Meanwhile, Jill “thought about it briefly” but “didn’t want to ask where the money had come from.”

One of the rare nice things I have to say about JB and Michelle is that they really treated Tyler as another sibling for their kids. Granted I think the way they treat their bio kids suck, but Tyler always looked quite happy to be there. I hope yet another change in family situation isn’t too hard on him.

Yup. The four older girls were the cash cows. The leg humpers loved them for how dutifully they cared for the house and the younger siblings. The snarkers were fixated on them because they saw them as exploited and hoped that they escaped. It helped that all four were reasonably pretty and had reasonably distinct personalities. Jim Bob had to have known that. He was just so arrogant that he thought that he could get away with continuing to rule them with an iron fist while offering a pittance in return. He was half right (the Jana and Jessa half).

I could see Jeremy— with his history of latching onto people more famous than he is— deliberately scheduling an interview for Jinger’s book just as Jill’s book was drawing in publicity that he could borrow. I could even see this as a consciously coordinated effort by the Dillards and the Vuolos. A rising tide lifts all boats or some such.

Bets on whether Amy knows she didn't get even a single name-drop?

Perhaps the saddest part of the book is the passage about little Jilly Muffin running around with her nurse playset asking her siblings in turn if they felt sick and whether she could help. Maybe if Jill had had access to a proper education, she still would have chosen to marry young and stay home with her babies. And that's a totally valid choice, of course. But it seems like she had a genuine calling to the medical field, too, and she never had a real chance to see how far she might have gone with it. Super creepy passage about how Jana was the only J'Slave invited to be one of Gothard's Girls because she was the blonde. I know that's nothing we didn't already know, but it lands with an even more sickening thud coming from Jill. Speaking of Jana, there's a passing mention of young Jill trying to out-good her siblings while either set of twins was "wrestling for the best position on the couch." Jana and JD were allowed to wrestle each other pre-Josh scandal? That's... also incredibly sad, considering what was taken away from the various subsets of siblings post-Josh. Ugh to Jim Bob explicitly sending nasty messages to Jill through her siblings. Also something we already knew; also lands really hard coming from Jill. I wonder which sib was the one who snuck out and snitched that "Pops is telling everyone that if we don't stand against you, then we're standing against him." I would love to know what happened between Jim Bob and Michelle before Michelle left the infamous contract at Jill's door in the middle of the night. Ha! Jill (or her ghost writer) better be careful with that snark, or else she'll end up hanging out here with us. Seriously, though, Jill/the ghost writer did a great job making Jill's love for her parents palpable even while she skewered them. And while she was explicit about adoring her buddies and taking pride in building the TTH, she was equally clear about being devastated that Jim Bob didn't choose to protect her over the show.

Although many of her siblings and most of her in-laws go unnamed/unmentioned, Jill's book has multiple positive references to Jeremy. Jeremy, the great guy who was getting to know Jinger and came down to El Salvador. Jeremy, the clever guy who found the lawyers who handled the sisters' lawsuit about being publicly outed as survivors of sexual abuse. So Jeremy loves the book, and therefore Jinger loves the book.

Me: I am not going to buy this book, even if there is a waiting list of 6 months and almost 150 people at my local library (which generally buys extra copies if the list gets that long). Also Me: But I bet it hurts Jim Bob's feelings every time someone buys a copy. I bet he thinks he won't allow it! Still Me: ::hands over credit card::

A J’Slave looking Jim Bob in the face and saying “you treat me worse than you treat my pedophile brother?” Damn. Quite a journey from keeping sweet to THAT.

If Jessa does manage to do something truly newsworthy— say she gives birth to quintuplets of whom three were fathered by Ben and two fathered by a J-Rod microphone demon— all of the press coverage would still mention both her incarcerated brother and her sister’s new book. It would probably drive Jill’s sales up.

If so, it’s amusing that Jill commented on how “adorbs” the kid pics are.

I was in Target this week to pick up a new Roku remote control and was distracted by how much I liked the clothes they had on display. There wasn’t a lot in my size though, so I escaped with just one pretty new tee.

And not so long ago Joy was a girl who did keep up with her brothers, more than was usual in her family, since she was too young to be an original J’slave and too old to be a lost girl. All forgotten now?

Hard to read the Bible or anything else in that chair. It’s in the middle of a pile of clutter (of course) and is just not structurally meant for reading. Also the decorative pillow is creeping me out. This is my happy place… because it’s where my thoughts go to die and if I can’t have thoughts I can’t realize I’m trapped and hopeless.

23 holds for the ebook at my library, and even more for the audio version. I was a little surprised, but now I think you’re right— SHP is having an effect.

See this is a clapback I don’t mind. People wanted to know whether she still had a dog; she confirmed that yes, she does. I’m not sure that even rises to the level of clapback. It wasn’t in the style of a certain other Jill who would say “We are so blessed to have a most godly dog, unlike those blue haired dogs, and all of the people persecuting us said we don’t have a dog because they abuse animals.” And she does look pretty. It’s always been mildly interesting to me that all nine Duggar sisters are quite pretty (awkward phases aside) but have a variety of looks. Meanwhile their brothers are interchangeable.

I think TNG had one of the greatest cliffhangers in the history of television with the Enterprise firing on Picard/Locutus. My middle school self could hardly stand to wait ALL SUMMER. But it's different with ten-episode-per-season streaming shows that may go years between seasons. Anticipation isn't as fun when the buildup is short and there's no firm date for a resolution. It feels kind of cheap. That said, nice to see Scotty. The Christine-related suspense was as good as it could possibly be with the constraints of a prequel. And Anson Mount remains awesome.

Yes, this. I feel like the earlier Star Treks, while deeply unsubtle about their sociopolitical views, often managed a show-don't-tell. If one of the earlier Star Trek series wanted to send a message that a [Widget Person] was as valuable and worthy of respect as anyone else, it would plunk the Widget Person down on the bridge of the Best Starship Ever: clearly great at the job and implicitly trusted by the captain. Meanwhile, the audience would be told a story about how the brilliant-if-flawed crew fought to protect each other through dangerous and humorous challenges. If Discovery wanted to send a message that a [Widget Person] was as valuable and worthy of respect as anyone else, two characters would have a conversation. "Widget People are as valuable and worthy of respect as anyone else." "Can you believe that some planets are bigoted against Widget People?" "Not any planet I want to visit." "They just need to be educated. Called in, not called out." "No, I don't think there should be any debate about the value of Widget People." "Of course you're right. Did you know how much Widget People contributed to medical advances across the universe?" "And the music of Widget People is the most popular in seven galaxies!" And this dialogue would go on for so long that Discovery would completely forget to tell a story. I was really hesitant to try SNW because I was so repulsed by Discovery and its lectures. But I happened to get a free trial of Paramount Plus and I thought I'd put SNW on in the background while I did something else, turning it off when the self-righteousness wore me out. It was a pleasant surprise when I actually liked SNW. I'm almost tempted to watch some of the Discovery episodes with Pike, as I didn't make it that far when I attempted to watch Discovery when it was new. Almost tempted. Not quite.

I was just thinking about that. The foundation for this take on Kirk is definitely there in TOS even though those aren’t the attributes of Kirk that went down in pop culture history. You could describe TOS Kirk as a guy who liked to play chess, kept physical books around in an era when everything was digital, was familiar with the Shakespearian canon and went to see plays, knew enough history and chemistry to build a canon out of the rocks available on an abandoned planet, and surrounded himself with science nerds and cherished them. Someone who was emotionally generous when an old friend framed him for murder and so aware of his space besties’ respective foibles that he left them a just-in-case-I-die recording to keep them from turning on each other. A genius in military strategy, skilled in hand-to-hand contact, but also diplomatically gifted and eager to save his enemies after a conflict. But that tends to get lost in the cultural memory of artfully ripped shirts and alien babes of the week. My favorite part of this episode was the Kirk/La’an stuff. I was glad that the risk of forced musical confession gave her an excuse to violate the order not to tell Kirk about her experience with his AU persona. I get the reason for the regulation, but how horrible to be forced to keep that secret while the Kirk from her universe is alternately flirting with her and looking gently concerned that she’s having a breakdown from being in the presence of the wonder that is him.

From what we know about Albert Alarr’s taste, I’d be surprised if any of them were his picks. As he would say, Kassie can’t even remember what it’s like to be young and vibrant (he said that to Martha Madison, for those not following the Days meltdown). And while the GH stars do have their own potentially portable fanbases, does JPL? Although if you’re correct and this is Alarr rather than Carlivati, my original thought doesn’t really change: I hate this for Kassie. She was making some headway in making Eve her own, and that’s a harder battle if she’s coming in as part of an identifiable group of invaders.

The first time, sure. But this time she’s popping up as part of a perceived package deal with JPL, Tamara Braun, and Steve Burton—all of whom have also been on the show previously, but are much better known for their ABC roles— so it has a certain vibe. Especially since I wouldn’t say any of these four has an independent Days fanbase.

Apparently Kassie is back on Days too. I actually grew to love her portrayal of Eve (another bizarre recast but Kassie specializes in making bizarre recasts work). Still, I kind of hate that she’s coming back as part of an influx of “the ABC head writer will have his ABC stars.” Never mind the backdrop of the outrageous behind the scenes sexual harassment scandal there. Will probably dovetail nicely with whatever “funny” stuff Ron no doubt wrote about how Steve Burton’s character was the real victim when he had sex with teenage Eve as part of a bet and Eve attempted to kill herself in response.

This was my first time seeing Jack Quaid in the flesh, although I have watched Lower Decks. I was surprised to learn that Meg Ryan’s famous glowy-upbeat facial expressions were things that could be passed along genetically.