Churchhoney

LOL

Both her previous cds are fully previewable at CdBaby. The first (hymns, 2010), to my ear, not as horrifying as the snippets I heard from the wedding -- she doesn't have to bang to reach the crowd, and a lot more nuance. Still way more embellished and at times robotic than I like, though. Girl loves the run and the arpeggio. Loves them. The second (gospel, 2012) has a lot that's, uh, bangin. ... And the balance between violin and piano. Uh.....more tinkering with the knobs was needed. On the bright side, were she in the Old West, she most certainly could get a job in a saloon. (They'd appreciate her hair, as well.) Nevertheless, I'm glad she does this. She got training and she's putting her talent to use. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/erinbates http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/erinbates2

It's a good question, but I think they've really been raised with the opposite expectation. While JB and M have made many a speech about how they raise their kids to be mature people who can manage themselves (I think they used to say even by age 12 or something) the subliminal message there has always been the opposite. Jim Bob's your headship and your protector and he purposes to have you be his appendage ... forever. He's even said that he'd like to have them all living on the same big lot, IIRC. Speaking as someone who was carefully conditioned in a similar situation, I'd say that those strong subliminal messages really imprint themselves on you and shape your reactions for a long time, even when you consciously try to break free from them. Plus, in this family, unlike in a lot of other highly controlling families, for the past decade and up to now the material rewards for staying on the ranch have probably looked very significant, compared to what they might gain from the literally satanic world they'd encounter outside the TTH. That's a big reason why I've wanted the show to end. Because I think an end to the material rewards they've reaped as beneficiaries of Boob's TLC contract negotiations will provide the strongest impetus available for someone to wake up and realize that their endless little-child status is not natural or healthy. But it's hard to walk when you're in shock, too. So I expect that it'll take a while for someone to rouse from the slumber. Most people most strongly get the world's expectation that kids grow up and do things on their own. But these guys have been very sheltered from that and assiduously fed the opposite idea. So leaving for them can't be so easy. Their brains are actually wired somewhat differently from other people's because of their experiences, I believe.

I'm blank, too. I expect a lot of time is taken up by audience giggles every time she casts a side glance at Ben or something. (That gives him a reason for being there, too!)

Yeah, I really hope it's fake, too. And the fact that it's at "Dillard's" gives me some hope that it is -- somebody could be making a sly reference there. On the other hand, lots and lots of folks have their registries at Dillard's. Time will tell, I suppose.

In the interest of conducting a fact-based discussion, here's Dillard's description of Amy's chosen receptacle. it's glass, and it's teensy: Description From Kassatex, this Vizcaya wastebasket features: etched glass contemporary style approx. 6.5 x 9.5" Imported. http://www.dillards.com/product/Kassatex-Vizcaya-Wastebasket_301_-1_301_505198222?categoryId=677314&di=04464683_zi_silver&facetCache=pageSize%3D100%26beginIndex%3D0%26orderBy%3D1

This is my favorite.

Grandma likes it better when you just send her a whole truckload every few months. That way she can clear a whole night to do it so she doesn't get it mixed in with her regular loads.

Yep, you're perfectly right about the registry in general. I'm just reacting (over-reacting??) to the potential linking of it with the fans "sending" things issue. ... That, and the fact that, one of my personal massive neuroses is that I avoid at all costs any situation in which someone would feel obligated to give me a gift. (I realize that this is sick, especially because I want to claim the privilege of giving other people gifts frequently. I love giving stuff, but the thought of receiving stuff makes me want to jump off a cliff. An unfortunate combination of traits, I realize... It's kneejerk, however, like my turtleneck fetish, so my friends and relatives have learned to put up with it, poor things.) Anyway, that problem preconditions me to get really over-excited if I think someone's suggesting that strangers give them gifts! And, of course, Amy may not be doing that at all.

Well, see, I didn't know about the ravenous, gourmet dog. : ) I don't care whether her friends and family give her this stuff, I'm just thinking about the implication in her and her fiance's various comments about the wedding that they intend it somehow to be a kind of public event for "fans" who would send her cards "and etc." in return for a handwriting sample. And of course we don't know if this is a registry that she'd ever hope fans would see or actively point out to fans (or even that's it's actually her registry.) If she doesn't intend "fans and followers" to ever see this registry or spend that $75 and it's only a registry for people she actually knows, then I'm not critical of it at all. If she hopes that fans will see it, then I think it's crap, even if she does have a voracious dog. ETA: I just looked at the trash can in question, and it has absolutely no elements that would fend off the hungry dog. It's just a straight bucket type, with nothing on top, no closures. Its main claim to fame seems to be that it's fancy -- hard to tell but it seems to be glasslike with a sort of Scandinavian-designesque wavy shape to it. Its other claim to fame seems to be that it's the most expensive bathroom trash receptacle on the Dillards website, by quite a margin, too, IIRC. Make of that what you will. EYATA: Once again, I malign Amy. It's the second most expensive can. There's another one that costs $3.99 more. No other can is nearly as pricey as those two, however.

If I were in charge of hiring a PR person (or a lawyer) for Boob, the first qualification on my list would be: Extensive experience and demonstrated facility with duct tape.

I don't think that the the things they're doing are outrageous, exactly. But what I do think I notice is a pattern: Except for Jessa's speaking gigs, the family's response to having the show cut off seems to have an unusually high focus on stuff they want to get through means other than their own efforts. The Dillards put their money ask in big type on the website; the "heartbroken" statement was clearly a plea for somebody else to get involved to force TLC to bring them back; Amy's -- and Mr. Pickle's -- wedding communications have had a fairly major focus on stuff and attention that they'll be losing and that they expected; the Youtube solicitation focused on "send us money," instead of what most people seem to do on Youtube -- put out some great videos first that get people watching and only then focus on making the work pay. Each of these individually might not mean much, but to me when you take it all together it looks as if they've become (or always were?) a bunch of people whose first resort tends to be What can I get you to do for me. And there are other things that someone could say about all the topics they've mentioned. But they all said -- I want someone to give me stuff! .... There's a large contingent of grifters in my family, and this is always their kneejerk response to everything, so that fact is either alerting me to something that's true of the Duggars or causing me to over-read these events!

Well, for me the issue is that Jessa seems to have a mental/intellectual/emotional age of about 15 or so, and I strongly feel that these kids' isolation a) has kept them actual children to an alarming extent and b) is not their fault even at this point (five to 10 years from now it will be, in my opinion, but not now). So that makes me feel that it's unfair to ask her questions that I know she wouldn't have answers to (which is pretty much all questions, actually). To me, it's a question of whether it's not better to give a pass to somebody who doesn't have the mental or emotional competence to grapple with what you're saying and whether asking her hard questions would do any good for her or for the misguided people who look to her for leadership. And I don't think that disconcerting her in public -- which would be all that would happen, I imagine -- would spur thinking on her part or have any effect on fans other than to rile them up against Duggar "enemies." Asking Jessa any of the many things that we're all itching to put the Duggs on the spot about seems both unkind and useless, in this instance. I think "gotcha" questions are absolutely called for in many many interview situations. But I believe that they should be confined to interviewees who are old enough to be held fully responsible for their actions. I would be completely on board with asking all available hard questions of Boob, Mom-ME Michelle and Josh, for example. And if I met Jessa in a private setting, then I'd consider any and all questions fair. Just don't see the point of publicly distressing a very immature and ignorant girl (no matter how much of a know-it-all she presents herself as on tv and instagram.) And I agree that she has no business being a public speaker! I don't think hard questions are going to stop her, though. They'd just give her an utterly undeserved martyr complex, I think.

Whew, thanks. Perfect. .... Also, too long since I've watched Fame. I really liked that movie back in the day.

Not Amy (even if this is her registry). It's an order to some other poor idiot who got that $75 at, you know, a job. If somebody wants to spend their own $75 on their own used-tampon-and-floss dump, that's fine with me. But not directing how others should spend their cash. Sorry. I just hate registries. Or anything that implies gifts, especially certain gifts, are required. I'm one of those who writes NO GIFTS, PLEASE!!! in big letters. Which I realize is equally obnoxious. Also an order about what people should do. But in this day, who can really afford all this stuff for her? Especially if she's thinking "fans." She doesn't even know these people.

Heavens. I'm a little suspicious given that the store is Dillards, though. Small world : )

Now there's a hybrid for you.

Man. Perfect metaphor for what reality teevee did to this family. Cargo cult, indeed.

Yeah, that's another Duggar money mystery. There are plenty. I'd love to know how it all works. But I suppose we'll only find out when the really big tell-all comes out, written, I expect, by Josie in her old age. Which means that I'll be dead and won't get to read it. Dang!

They know they're wearing "Mrs. Santa" costumes, right?

Apparently being a Duggar is what does it. Which amazes me since besides being "one of America's biggest families!!!" they certainly also qualify as one of America's Least Educated and Most Lazy-Minded and Willfully Ignorant Families!!! ... And somehow this seems to qualify all of them as instant experts in whatever they choose to pontificate about. Talk about anti-intellectualism in American life.

I like the sound of Jiggles, Jedi and Jackass. Guess that third one's already taken by Jim Bob, though.

In true self-reliant, no-indebtedness-of-any-kind Duggar fashion, though, looks like they're doomed to stand a while on the dock, wondering when the love-offering vessel will arrive. In the wake of the show's closing, a pattern of behavior seems to be emerging here. I find it kind of mind-blowing, actually.

Jana, Jinger and Joy ask for dowry cash.

I think you did a great job explaining. This is what I was groping toward in what I said about salvation. And I completely agree that there's nothing Jewish about them! -- the focus on legalism in Gothard and some other Protestant groups and among the Duggars, I think, is intended -- on their part -- to make them akin to the Jewish people, though. Just showing how much they don't understand, of course.