Albanyguy

Angeltoes, I wish I could believe that. I don't mean to be a pessimist, but I have the strong feeling that if Jana really is about to court and marry, Boob has picked out a husband who will be completely under his thumb. She probably won't even get to move into a Duggar-owned house somewhere on the property. Her new husband will move into the TTH and Jana will continue to be the full-time housekeeper just as she always has been.

I think that's true. When a child is disliked and scapegoated by a parent (as Jana has always seemed to be by Michelle), it often makes that child even more desperate to win the parent's love and approval. I also think Jana is one of the biggest Kool-Aid drinkers in the family; as much of a fanatic as any of them, but she's always flown under the radar. If she really is about to court and marry, it won't be to a guy like Jeremy, who would pry her away from her family's tentacles and introduce her to new experiences. Her new husband is going to be Derick 2.0 and we're going to see a new, unlovely side of her.

And probably checking constantly to see how many hits her latest recipe post has achieved.

And if Jill is tending to Sam, why can't Izzy's grandmother sit with him and help him? But of course Michelle can't, because she has to have her "baby" Josie on her lap whenever there's an audience. Mainway Toys! Makers not just of "Bag O'Glass", but such classics as "Pretty Peggy Ear Piercing Kit" and "Johnny Switchblade, Adventure Punk"!

"Welcome aboard, Mr. Dillard! We hope you enjoy your summer with us here at Planned Parenthood!"

"There! That really hurt, didn't it? Now you know not to do that again, don't you? Stop crying or I'll give something to really cry about!"

Although he did manage to marry one of his daughters off to the crown prince of a famous TV family and another daughter to Bill Gothard's protégé/right hand man. Fundy social climbing at its finest.

We've always assumed that young Fundie guys like Derick and Ben rush into marriage with girls they barely know because they're horny and desperate to get laid with God's blessing. I think that's true in Ben's case, but maybe not so much with Derick. Even young guys can have a low sex drive and it may be that sex is something Derick can live nicely without much of the time, especially if he channels all his energy into religious mania. If Derick isn't really into sex (and any affection he had for Jill is being eroded by her incessant clinging) then the chances for conception are very slim. On the other hand, there's been speculation that Sam's difficult birth may have left Jill unable to have more children. I wouldn't wish that on anybody and I hope it's not true, but it could explain a few things. They were quite secretive (for Duggars) about the circumstances of Sam's birth. We know something bad happened, but they kept it quiet (as opposed to their usual "Look at me!" exhibitionism with childbirth). And ever since Sam's birth, they've both been acting crazier than usual: Derick's increasingly weird religious rants, the feud with Jazz, the abrupt departure from TLC, his obvious anger towards Jill, Jill's retreat into child-like idiocy ("Yaaaay!") and her sudden obsession with churning out recipes. All of these things could have other explanations, but they could also be a reaction to receiving devastating news and being forced by family pressure to keep it a secret.

Fairly common in the restaurant business. At one restaurant where I worked, when a big group came in to celebrate a birthday, we usually supplied a large birthday cake upon request. After the guest of honor blew out the candles, the cake was taken back into the kitchen to be cut and plated. But sometimes they'd bring in their own cake (usually a favorite cake baked by Grandma) and we'd cut and plate it for a small charge. I hated doing that because if it was a sloppily-baked cake (imagine Jill baking a giant birthday cake), it would fall apart when you tried to cut it, look like crap when you served it and of course the family would blame the staff.

Bingo!

I think he's keeping that as his ace in the hole for when TLC seems ready to drop him or when Josh brings another big scandal down on their heads. We've always speculated here that the money the adult kids earn from the show goes into a general fund which JB controls and from which he doles out allowances. I don't know if that's true, but even if it isn't, I'll bet that he made all of them sign contracts that allow him to rake off a substantial fee for acting as their manager, a la Kris Kardashian.

And it's also very possible that Jinger is getting more positive attention and unconditional affection from her mother-in-law than she ever got from Michelle. I honestly can't see this as "Jeremy is forcing Jinger to prioritize his family over hers", although I wouldn't be surprised if the Duggars saw it that way.

Maybe it was taken at Cathy's house over Christmas. The Duggars are often deceitful when it comes to posting older photos as if they were just taken yesterday.

"She's my little miracle!"

With normal families, yes. With this bunch, I wouldn't be surprised to see Jill post "I bought the ingredients for the kids to make themselves a pizza, but to my astonishment, they brought the finished pizza to David and me and told us that they wanted the two of us to have it because we were such good parents and they wanted to show their appreciation to us! I feel so blessed!"

Maybe it's a head's-up for the invited guests, so that anyone who would be offended at the sight of a father dancing with his daughter could stay away.

Poor June has been relentlessly mocked for doing her housework in pearls and high heels when it wasn't really her fault. Barbara Billingsley wore flat shoes around the house at first, but when Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers hit their growth spurts and started to shoot up, the producers demanded that Billingsley always wear high heels so that she would appear taller than the boys. And she wore the pearls to cover up a scar on her neck.

I think you may be underestimating the Duggars' basic "do as I say, not as I do" hypocrisy. Jim Bob pays lip service to the idea that every wife is bound to obey her husband, but in reality, I think he expects all of his adult children (sons, daughters and in-laws) to stay securely under his control. If Derick insisted on returning to DA and Jill wanted to remain behind in Arkansas, I don't think Jim Bob would have a problem with that. Jill, Yaay and Sam could move back into the TTH, Jana could take over raising the kids and Jill could spend her days happily sitting around doing nothing. It wouldn't cost Jim Bob that much, compared to the cost of maintaining them in a home of their own. Michelle wouldn't care; she's so checked out these days that she'd barely notice they were there. The only problem would be explaining it to the public, but they could spin it as a big sacrifice on Jill's part: "Jill wants desperately to be at Derick's side, helping him with his mission, but the Lord has laid it on her heart that she needs to stay behind and keep the children here where they're safe from danger. But she will be with Derick in spirit and our thoughts and prayers are with him and we look forward to the day when we'll all be together again." The leghumpers would swallow that, hook, line and sinker, and shower Jill with praise like they always do.

That's a very good point. I also seem to remember hearing that the staff at FRC all disliked Josh for his arrogant, entitled attitude and total lack of ability. I could easily see the FRC deciding that they weren't getting any return on their investment in him and cutting their losses.

True. The time to get a foot in the door of Big Time Evangelical Celebrity Preachers was about twenty years ago. That ship has clearly sailed.

He could also claim friendship with Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, both of whom are very big deals in hard-core conservative Christian circles, which would help make him an asset to the FRC. But Santorum dropped the Duggars like a hot potato when the molestation scandal erupted. Huckabee made a public show of standing by them at first, then when it became clear that the scandal wasn't going away, he began quietly backing away from them. Derick doesn't have the connections that Josh had back then and he doesn't even have the benefit of appearing on "Counting On".

I'm sure he envisions himself standing before the Supreme Court, delivering the brilliant argument that overturns Roe v. Wade, then being taken out to dinner by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.

It's because the kids are emaciated. Their chins (and their heads in general) look oversized because they're resting on skeletal necks and shoulders. They look like bobbleheads and Nurie in particular looks like her head could snap off her neck at any moment.

Derick probably doesn't like it any more than we do. I wonder how many times he's snapped "Move over, I don't want you on my lap!" or "For God's sake, shut up and leave me alone for five minutes!"? I'll bet that happens a lot more then they'd want us to know.

Churchhoney, thanks for the info. For some reason, I was under the impression that he ran a bigger church with a more prosperous congregation; more of a "prosperity gospel" type of outfit.