Wellfleet

A wonderful idea! I love this. A wonderful, in-your-face, smart-ass idea!

As with all post-secondary training, it depends. On the quality of the program. On how many seats are available. On how many applications are received, and on the quality of those applications. The best schools are obviously looking for students who will do well and succeed in their programs, for students with a proven academic track record and for the potential to succeed as ministers and religious "personnel." And as MargeGunderson pointed out, some schools are denominational, some aren't. Then there are others who are just looking to fill seats any way they can, and these have only one real requirement. Ability to pay. So which will it be for Ben? Harvard Divinity School? Or East Hucklebuck Bible College? You make the call...

Nope - I had no clue either.

Yep, TV was the closest thing I could come up with too. But I still don't think I would have become neurotic over being kept away from TV for a week or whatever. Some of these experiments showed kids grabbing their phones over their bedside tables immediately on waking in the morning - feet hadn't even hit the floor yet!

OMG, Happy. Sometimes when I read your posts I think you are the female Job, being visited by all manner of plagues, troubles and problems. You have my sympathy for all of it. Because of you, I am really appreciating my own quiet, uncomplicated, boring life. FWIW, I think you're right and your SIL wrote the second e-mail. Probably ticked off your daughter was so cooperative and friendly the day before. Just want to let you know I'm going to be praying for some huge, hideous, hitherto-undiscovered species of tropical crawlie to find your SIL, become curious and eventually take a good-sized chomp out of him, causing him to lapse into a painless but incurable 50-year coma. In a few years - or less - your daughter will get a divorce and marry the handsome Latin doctor who first brought her the news of the coma. Try putting some manuka honey on your finger as soon as you can. You'll be stunned at how quickly it heals.

We had someone just like that who worked in our office. Always something medical going on. Over the three years she was there, she was out for three major surgeries and something else a bit less drastic which I can't remember. Her workload was reduced before and after these incidents for certain periods of time as well. Guess who picked up the slack each time? In the 38 months of her tenure with us, she was out a total of 14 months. !!! She was finally "let go" when it was determined she really was not capable of doing the job. I think she has Munchausen's because we later learned she'd had a LOT of jobs before ours, and her work records were similar at many of the other jobs. Secures job, then gone time and again for medical treatments, hospitalizations, etc. I'm sympathetic with people having medical troubles, and would certainly hope people would be understanding for me in the same situation. But to hear her tell it herself, this person's entire life was one incident after another. Just when she appeared recovered from her bout with A, condition B would come along.

I think it's really common at this point for 20-somethings to be absolutely enamored with their phones, computers and social media in general. I've seen experiments conducted on news magazine shows, PBS etc where they separate teens or 20-somethings from their devices for an hour, a day, a week or more. First off, it was shocking to hear how much of a 24-hour day they are "involved" with their phones. For most of the kids in this age range, it was basically all of their waking day. Of course there were varying responses to having the phones removed but in general, the kids are really thrown for a loop - discombobulated, as it were. I'd liken it to taking away a two-year old's blankie at the time when you know he is the most attached to it. Of course none of the subjects had screaming fits the way a toddler would, but they do report nervousness, crying, anxiety attacks, depression, trouble concentrating, physical effects etc. I can't remember any experiments where there were long-term harmful effects but it was truly surprising how severely the subjects reacted to being without their devices. I was trying to compare it to something in my generation [born in mid 50s, high school & college in the 70s]. Was there anything that our parents could have withheld from us that would have caused so much angst for an hour, a day, a week? Maybe someone else can think of something, but I honestly couldn't. And I think it's really good that I couldn't.

Love TCM with a holy passion. I have two sisters, one of whom loves oldies like I do. We talk movies all the time when we get together etc etc. My other sister calls TCM the "black and white movie channel" - little does she know - and just rolls her eyes at us when we get started. But she has no idea what she's missing. We can roll our eyes at her too though, because she's in her mid-50s now and just got a motorcycle - !!! - plus of course the license, the helmet and a whole lot of black leather clothing. Of the three of us, we think at least we're acting our age - LOL!

IMO, they need a lot of breaks. This is not a family accustomed to doing things it doesn't like to do - in a general way. In other words, the normal drudge of daily living that the rest of us cope with. Outside-the-home job, maintaining a home and all that THAT entails. domestic work, children, volunteer and community activities, social activities/keeping up with friends etc. If they want to do X and the laundry isn't done, either Grandma stays home to do it - or it just gets put off until the next day. They don't have to manage a lot of "Have Tos" - and the ones they DO have to contend with are evidently quite taxing for them, requiring many breaks, respites and vacations.

One thing we have learned here. It's very difficult to embarrass a Duggar. Especially Boob, and especially when freebies of anything are involved.

I heard that about President Reagan as well. There's also a practical reason for not letting recipients know the source of a check. Often when they find out it's from someone in the public eye, they don't actually cash the check. They hang onto it as a "souvenir" and consequently, don't get the help they need.

Maybe that's why she does it so much...

Bingo. And soon it'll be time to choose again. As Dumbledore said, "We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy..."So - what's it gonna be, Josh?

Joanne? Joanna? Julia? Julie? Juliet? Julietta? Janelle?

Nepotism lives, that's for sure, and always will. People hire their own relatives, or relatives of current employees ALL the time. Hey, it's faster & that much easier than the regular route. And of course every idiot manager is expecting to find the same fine work-related qualities in BOTH individuals. "Mom is a super worker; it only follows that Junior will be too!" But in the long run, it's very definitely not the smartest tactic to take, because in a majority of cases you DON'T get a carbon copy employee. It's amazing to me that it still happens as much as it does, because it only creates more problems than you had before. A - You still don't have the right person for the position, and have wasted that much time and $$ in training & paying the wrong hire. B - How to "get rid of" the wrong hire and, if possible, without offending the employee you want to keep. C - a group morale problem because nepotism never fails to create a bad vibe within the existing group. The new hire is not welcomed, and never accepted, the same as a brand-new, "from the outside" non-connected person would be. So in the end, if WalMart hired Derick simply because he was his mother's son and knew something about accounting, it wasn't very smart of them.

He bought it because it filled his #1 requirement - it was CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP.

But I thought having an education and credentials of any kind didn't matter? Weren't important at all? Hey Derick, your slip is showing... She'll be there - and, more than likely, barking orders left and right.

Just sitting here pondering how many "mission" trips the Duggars participated in before Boob thought to have the whole gang classified as a "church" and basically a tax-exempted entity or whatever the correct phrase would be. I'm guessing exactly zero. Another question, TLC funds obviously helped with some of the trips once they were being broadcast, and of course now anytime any Duggar or Duggarling [ben, Derick etc] wants to do anything without spending their own $$ for it, they'll hold out their poor, empty bowls for the public to fill. But if TLC had never come along, and tax-exemption was not a possibility, would the Duggars ever venture south of the border - or anywhere else? I'm 99¾% positive they wouldn't.

I bet you're right about that. And I guess the bottom line is that CPS will just have to "get good at it" and quickly. It shouldn't be basically OK for two nimrods to get away with being crappy parents because they were super-fertile and decided to have their very own litter of kids.

Horse hockey! ALL signs have different wonderful, and not-so-wonderful qualities. Every positive trait has a negative application [and vice versa]. Some are innate, some are "nurtured" into us. We all have qualities to learn, and qualities to teach. I think it's this natural balance, give-and-take aspect of astrology that's most appealing to me. From my Taurus journal: Positive. Reliable, practical, honest. Dependable, conservative, cautious, content. In a very large part, happy with things as they are. Solidly-connected to life and home, a real family person. Needs security, complacent, practical, steadfast, stable, determined. An island of calm. Quiet, affectionate. Taurus people are those to whom others turn. Good advice-givers. Seeks harmony with environment. Creative, artistic, enjoys creating a comfortable, beautiful home. Negative. Dogmatic, preachy, stubborn and resistant to change. Sometimes so lazy or caught up in earthly possessions, life can pass them by.

Loved Wings - a real favorite of mine, especially Lowell and Roy. And the same great kind of writing they had on Cheers. PS - it's available on Netflix.

As a matter of fact, I believe the police would consider it squatting. "What's this? You don't own this property? You don't rent it? You don't live here? Essentially you have zero legal or financial involvement with it at all? And you say the people who do live here are out of the country at the moment? OK, that's it kids. Everybody out - now!"

This month's cover story for Duh! magazine. Good grief, not to mention GREAT point. You're so right, Julia. If this was getting noticed anywhere else, involving people who HADN'T been on television, heads would be rolling as we speak.

I think Boob is very competitive with his boys - with all males really - and in just about any situation. As long as he keeps winning, he's OK, but I don't think it's a good day for the boys if they ever beat Daddy in any particular contest. I think Josiah must have creamed Boob once at something, because it seems like he's been in JB's doghouse for a LONG time. When it comes to the girls, Boob is partial to the ones who best display the kind of Gothardesque demeanor that only good [fundie] Christian women have. Meek. humble, quiet, respectful, totally enthusiastic-for and obedient-to whatever Hubby wants, attractive if not outright beautiful, domestically-skilled and very fertile. My Dad always said the first kid is like the first pancake on the griddle. Basically OK but more often than not lopsided, and a little squirrelly around the edges. With Jana being the oldest girl, there was no one to show her "how Daddy wants us to be," because we certainly know Me-chelle was well into the baby-a-year plan by the time Jana was a toddler. So Jana, as any very young child would, acted on her own natural instincts and impulses. And we know those wouldn't have lined up with the Gothard/Boob way. At all. Jill, Jessa, Jinger made out much better because they had the benefit of Jana's experience. Bottom line, IMO Jana was probably a little too much of an independent little spirit for Boob - and yes, too "normal" for him. And I think it affects their relationship to this day. For as long as I've been watching, Boob seems ill-at-ease and guarded around Jana, even as he manages to wear that Howdy Duggar smile of his.

I'm hoping with Grandma Cathy...