James Thomas Rook Jr.

Hard to get anything past me... I type with TWO fingers! It would go faster if I removed the finger-tip rubber chicken heads.

Memory fails me .... I was always visualizing it as a kettle drum dirge to drag 200 ton stones by .... the predominate musical instrument being a kettle drum being played by a guy that used to work on a Roman Galley ship to time the pulls for slave rowers. ... then I would visualize the slaves rowing the Roman Galley, and amid the booming drum cadence, one slave would yell out "Yoo Hoo! ...Yoo Hoo! .... I have a blister!".

Remember the song in the old pink shirt cardboard songbook, that I used to call the "Let's drag the stones to the Pyramid" song? I forget the name ... Bum dee dee BUM de de, BUM BUM BUM dum bum. BUM de de BUM de de bum dum dum dum DUM. Bum de de, Bum de de DUM, DUM .... ... etc. I miss that song ....

Once a religion reaches a certain size .. they always morph into reflections of each other ....

... remember the original question ... and the stated topic of this thread ? If we wander far-afield I will remember some really long shaggy dog stories! You wouldn't want THAT, would you?

Like the old saying goes here in the South (USA) .. " There are two things that money can't buy. True Love, and home-grown tomatoes ".

...NAW... the whole point of this is to get OTHER peoples' perspectives.

Who would pay me to watch Youtube Videos and take notes? You interested in buying them? I do have reasonably good handwriting! ( Hmmmmm.... I could scan them, and post them here ... photons are cheap! )

Susan and I are watching the whole thing now on YouTube, and we are taking notes. I hope the information is worth the effort. " ... Law of diminishing returns ... ", as you already understand. Besides, my face and arms are covered with poison ivy from working on my chicken coop, and it's 93 degrees out there.

All you have said, Melinda, is true, but .... (assuming you have already attended the 2019 Convention ...) the question remains, WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT WAS NEW AT THE 2019 "LOVE NEVER FAILS" REGIONAL CONVENTION ? By the way ... I met my first wife at an Assembly ( she ran out on me with my best friend, an ex Bethelite and a Pioneer). I met my second wife in Peru, and we both worked on helping to build Bethel, there ( she ran out on me for no specified reason, other than she never loved me ). and ... I met my current and third wife, Susan, on a JW dating website, and after six years, she is the love of my life, and my best friend. My three children, very VERY dedicated to the Organization, and who live within a 200 mile radius, have visited me less than ONE DAY in the last ten years ( this coming December 19th), so you can see why it is important for me to find out how OTHER people process information, and ... WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT WAS NEW AT THE 2019 "LOVE NEVER FAILS" REGIONAL CONVENTION ?

I realize there are many reasons to go to an Assembly, or Convention, and when my children were living at home they would go to others' conventions for a variety of reasons, as well as their own. I would always ask them when they returned home "What did you learn that was new?" . This was important to me as I had to work long hours to afford to finance their explorations and socialization, which I thought was important ... but I still expected them to learn something new ... and since I was paying for their travels, to tell me what was going on. Generally, attendance to an out of town Convention nearby would cost about $200 a day, times three days, so that would be $600. Now that I am retired, and my income has been cut by about 80%, it's even MORE important to me to want to get good value for the time and money I would be spending for my wife and I to spend three days, traveling out of town, to learn something of lasting value .... something worth at least three days of our time, which is painfully obviously shorter, and the what is now considerable effort and considerable expense. In Engineering it's important that the "Law of diminishing returns" be observed so that you do not go physically, mentally or emotionally bankrupt. Perhaps I am just asking for some encouragement that the effort is worth the cost and effort, and that the benefit is worth it, so if I may ask ...... WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT WAS NEW AT THE 2019 "LOVE NEVER FAILS" REGIONAL CONVENTION ?

I realize there are many reasons to go to an Assembly, or Convention, and when my children were living at home they would go to others' conventions for a variety of reasons, as well as their own. I would always ask them when they returned home "What did you learn that was new?" . This was important to me as I had to work long hours to afford to finance their explorations and socialization, which I thought was important ... but I still expected them to learn something new ... and since I was paying for their travels, to tell me what was going on. Generally, attendance to an out of town Convention nearby would cost about $200 a day, times three days, so that would be $600. Now that I am retired, and my income has been cut by about 80%, it's even MORE important to me to want to get good value for the time and money I would be spending for my wife and I to spend three days, traveling out of town, to learn something of lasting value .... something worth at least three days of our time, which is painfully obviously shorter, and the what is now considerable effort and considerable expense. In Engineering it's important that the "Law of diminishing returns" be observed so that you do not go physically, mentally or emotionally bankrupt. Perhaps I am just asking for some encouragement that the effort is worth the cost and effort, and that the benefit is worth it, so if I may ask ...... WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT WAS NEW AT THE 2019 "LOVE NEVER FAILS" REGIONAL CONVENTION ? ......

Words are the tools with which we think. If you use the proper tools, with skill, you will have thoughts and ideas worth something. If you use crappy words without skill, your thinking will just be poorly made crap. It seems to me that children of almost ANY age can commit fornication ... which is what the original question asked. In like manner, children of almost any age can commit murder. Whether or not they should be held responsible for it ... or ARE responsible for it, is a completely different matter.

There is of course, a simpler explanation .... " WDS - The sword that cuts both ways."

.... Just as a point of interest ... if I was a wretched cur, wouldn't my God be the human that fed me, and took me to the Vet? Seriously though ... I seem to remember that both Allen Smith and BillyTheKid46 have both alluded in the past to being mentally ill, and castigated those of us (?) who were ridiculing his/their "condition", when in fact I knew nothing about it until he/they brought it up. I make jokes about this or that person being mentally off, but then again I make jokes about everything and most of the time it is in jest, and the other person is mock-insulting me right back, which is what guys do. I even make disparaging jokes about myself, if I think the jokes work. I personally believe that Allen, Billy and Foreigner and perhaps one other are the same person, as a matter if casual speculation .... but perhaps we are making the mistake of assuming that the "Fantastic Four" are mentally competent, and at least marginally sane ... and therefor holding him/them to a higher standard than would be reasonable. What disturbs me is when a person that appears to be borderline insane "has" a fantasy .50 caliber BMG sniper rifle, in addition to another possibly fantasy arsenal, and is as insulting and bitter as he/they is/are. In 1972 I spent 6 hours in a psych ward from an allergic reaction to a drug I was taking for asthma, as I was delirious, my estranged first wife sent me there after the ambulance rescued me from the asthma .... and I walked around for awhile looking at the "crazy people" in the ward, and decided I had to get out of there quick, or soon I would become like them. The "doctor" wanted to keep me for further observation, although I was fine, until I said "You know, of course, that I am not going to pay you.", and I signed myself out. The point of this shaggy dog (cur?) story is that interacting with crazy people can make an empathic person just as nutso as they are, and I suppose that is why even psychiatrists have psychiatrists. If you get a chance, be sure to see the movie "One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest", with Jack Nicholson getting electric shock therapy, walking out and winking at the Indian. That scene was worth the whole movie! "Sling Blade" .... was another story!

.... too soon?

...but the most amazing thing G. Washington ever did is arrange to get Barbara Bush's picture on the One Dollar Bill. ... just a little juxtaposition to balance out Billy's equally imaginative post.

I know that George Washington used to sign his letters "Your Most Humble Obedient Servant - G. Washington", which I suspect was understood as "... which you know damn well I am NOT!". He also wore a white powdered wig, a lace "blouse" with lace around the cuffs, and skin-tight breeches that left no doubt to his gender. He also carried a dagger, a sword, and a 55 caliber one shot pistol .... which if you dress like that, is probably a good idea!

I am building my chicken coop and run as a fortress ... custom designed and built by me ... 100% enclosed, even the wire roof over the entire run, with six strand electric wire around the bottom, and I have already installed the brackets for the weathered wood sign which will read in black stenciled letters "STALAG 17". If you have not seen the movie "Chicken Run", with the voice of Mel Gibson as the flying cartoon rooster trying to teach all the hens to fly and escape,, it is worth seeing. That's where I got the idea about naming my Chicken Concentration Camp "Stalag 17". A "multi-nested" inside joke.

......

I tried to keep them short on pocket money ..... ... but even my daughter is more than 6 feet tall.

I once told my children when they were young enough to believe it, that I knew EVERYTHING ... except four things. They caught me with three of them. This may be number 4.

I thought it was a good talk, TTH ... and you mentioned chickens , I think, FOUR times. Since my wife bought 18 chickens, I am sensitive about such things .... they are as much fun to watch as parrots ($ 900 to $3,000 ) and the big plus is that chickens ( $1.00 to $1.50 ) do NOT talk.

I thought "paregoric" was something you gave someone if they had food poisoning, to make them deliberately vomit out the contaminated food. My Mom used to keep a bottle in the kitchen cabinet, but I never read the label, but I THINK I remember the word. (?).

I have not been looking at sunsets out here .... I have been doing VALUABLE RESEARCH! As it turns out, BillyTheKid46 (BTK46) is the reason that Tight Pants Tony (TPT) has such a fixation over tight pants! If the pants are TOO TIGHT, it makes the head swell up into a giant yellow crazy face! ..... Or a jet black tall hat in an otherwise sepia colored cowboy bandito photograph!