Wellfleet

Agree. I've noticed the "um... like... awesome..." pattern often among pre-teens, teens, sometimes even younger college students - but these patterns are temporary. Except with the Duggars. They've spoken like this all along, especially the girls. In part because they've really never been encouraged to express themselves, in part because they weren't read to, don't read themselves, don't see movies, TV etc, don't have regular contact with non-family. Aren't exposed to how others speak.

I should have written - "of being, IMO, canned at WalMart... " My apologies. The timing, the questionable circumstances etc, all strongly lead me to believe Derick did not willingly walk away from a job most everyone would have been very glad to have.

Jana's hair seems to be getting shorter, which I take as a good sign. I doubt Daddy has decided she should have shorter hair, because he likes it long and curly - eeewww - so it looks like Jana's being allowed to make a decision of her own and act on it. And it looks very nice. She has always looked the cleanest and most put-together of all the girls, IMO.

Yes, this could be true as well. Although they've made so many return trips to the US, I can't what it might be that they're hiding so sporadically from. At this point if they're trying to avoid a subpoena or whatever, the server should just hang at the airport. Eventually the Dillards will be shuffling through.

I think Derick began his procedure fully expecting to be in the US the whole time. The whole 'going-to-do-mission-work-in-Guatemala' is a hurriedly-contrived result of being canned at WalMart, and of course - the Adventures of Josh.

Fear not, Derick. Your wife is always around...

I think Derick is self-conscious about almost everything. As best we can tell, he's even needed the involvement of parents/other adults to interact socially with the opposite sex - as an adult himself. He's on TV now, and he knew he would be if he married Jill. He should have realized that the whatevers of his life would be of interest to the viewing public. And that he wouldn't be the one to decide which factors. If he is so self-conscious that he can't speak truthfully - and briefly - about it, he should remain off-camera. Derick and the Duggars are trying to have it BOTH ways. "Come watch us smell hot chocolate, shop in thrift stores and bench-press our six-month old. But this issue here? Derick's jacked-up face that you just noticed? Pay no attention to that whatsoever. We're not willing to discuss this and want this to remain private..." Sorry but it just doesn't work that way.

Yet another failure on the part of the TLC production team. Lame with a capital lame. Derick is clearly undergoing something major, yet they seem to be going out of their way to avoid addressing it. When people don't have actual facts, they tend to have a lot of questions, and ultimately make up their own answers. And the imagined "facts" are almost always much more colorful than the dull old truth. Just fess up, Derick and TLC. End the speculation. Is Derick actually sick? Is the whole thing primarily cosmetic in nature? Is this something Jill has perhaps been pestering him to do? Is it something Derick finally has the $$ to pursue now? Is further surgery/treatment expected down the road? And most puzzling to me - why did Derick start down this path and then turn around within mere weeks and announce that the family was leaving the country to do mission work? This makes no sense whatsoever, and is where it probably becomes dicey for the Duggars. I believe Derick started his medical procedure - whatever the heck it is - with no intention to do mission work outside the US at anytime soon, but then was canned at WalMart, again for whatever reason.

Do we know why the Duggars rate such special treatment? Is it a condition of their participation? Can't Jessa learn to handle the questions she doesn't want to answer? Just kidding on this last one - I know Jessa couldn't formulate an articulate reply to a difficult question with a dictionary and a Harvard English major helping her. Jillions of other "celebrities" - and ones much more famous than her - handle it every day. What is it about the Duggars that makes them believe they should never have to deal with the tough questions - the tough things in life period? Why do they believe the world owes them a good day, an easy time?

Ah, this is probably true. To have technology taken away from them - now - would absolutely frazzle some of the Duggars. But I still think that in general, most fundies would return the US to the 1800s if they were able. Just like the Amish have basically decided that the world had enough technology by 1830 - and in large part, most of them don't take advantage of things developed after that point.

Boob doesn't want to spend the $$. Seriously. He spends only when he absolutely must, or when TLC won't. And besides, having babies at home is how it was done in the 19th century, which is where all the fundies would live if they could.

Yes, I'm positive that Boob has made this point abundantly clear to the older kids. And now they get to feel financially-responsible for the family too. Josh screws up twice, and Daddy screws up - and yet both of them manage to get themselves off the hook financially. Now it's the kids have to be sure the $$$ keeps pouring in too. Good grief but Boob is just the Absolute Worst.

This is a great question - I'd love to know the answer here. What would happen if Ben and/or Derick wanted no further filming in their lives? Personally I can't imagine either one of these Milquetoasts pressing the point too hard. I'm guessing Jessa and Jill would shut it down pretty firmly the first time it was ever mentioned at home. So much so that there wouldn't be any second mentions - LOL. Jessa would probably smack Ben "upside the head" and Jill would probably smile, giggle, not reply and then run privately to let Daddy know what Derick just said.

They might, but I think it's a BIG might. And I really don't think it can be sustained for more than a year. Jill, Jessa et al simply can't handle it. TLC is already having sponsor troubles and there are now a whole lot of people who know the Duggars are not what they claimed to be. They may watch for a while, but the truth will eventually dawn on them. That's what I hope for, anyway.

I think it was your brother, lookey. He was just letting you know he's OK. I've read that spirits frequently make themselves known by scent. I have a good friend who woke up one night smelling the scent of Oil of Olay very strongly in her room. She had an odd feeling about it but managed to get back to sleep. In the morning however, she got a call that her mother had passed away in the night at her nursing home, and - you guessed it - her mother always used Oil of Olay.

Great story. I think you're exactly right about where the old coin came from....

Oh, I really don't like those show-off Christmas letters either, the ones where people extol their own virtues and triumphs throughout the whole letter. I just flat-out don't believe them They always remind me of Margaret Thatcher's line: "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't... Just change Margaret's word powerful to wonderful - and you have those Christmas letters.

That's an easy one. Because they have Boob.

This is probably SO true - and my point exactly too. LOL.

I so agree. It makes me crazy when people write COULD OF instead of COULD HAVE. Also for all those who have SpellCheck problems, there is an easy answer. Turn SpellCheck off, or actually proofread before sending. I'm always stunned at how many mistakes I find, many of which SpellCheck would never find anyway.

Ask him to say "spaghetti" and see what happens - LOL.

You could be right, but I'm not so sure. Yes, we know TLC is working with judgmental, uneducated Arkansas hillbillies and that one of them is the biggest, most competitive knob I've ever seen. But intelligent, creative, well-trained producers, writers and editors should have the chops to make riding in an elevator look interesting. You look for an angle, you shake things up, you try something different once in a while. And for sure, you don't let the Knob make decisions. He's taking the $, and that means TLC has bought the right to call the shots. Despite how eye-popping crazy that might make the Knob.

That's it - Table for Twelve. The Hayes family in New Jersey. And I agree, I bet they quickly grew tired of the whole TV grind, loss of privacy, TLC bullshit etc etc. When they disappeared I chalked it up to responsible parents doing the right thing for their kids. SO hope that's true.

100% right. Now if the powers-that-be at TLC had any kind of intelligence at all, they also should have filmed a big family who weren't fundies. I keep thinking of that family in New Jersey whose name I can never remember. Dad was a cop, Mom was SAHM, one of the kids had CP. I think there were 10-12 kids total, including a set of quints or sextuplets. They were on TLC very briefly, no more than 10 episodes I think. And they were such nice, regular, middle-ground people. Juxtaposing their lives and how they did things with the whole Duggar world - now that would have made interesting television. And it might have even made good ratings too.

Excellent post. If Boob and Me-chelle have been pounding into Josh that he is superior and the leader of the kids since Day One, then the massive amounts of entitlement, smugness and attitude he's displayed over the years make complete sense as well. As do the feelings his siblings are expressing now - since his fall from grace. It must have started some questioning with some of them too, although we'll probably never hear it from them. But if Momma and Daddy could be wrong about Josh, and they clearly were - what else are they wrong about? Just love "Howdy Booby" - this is perfect. PS - agree fully with post too.