WordWolf

A) Do you have the official names of the organizations by which twi are currently known in each of those countries? B) If the official census in twi is 600 per country, the actual number of people is possibly 300. Many of us are aware how easy it is to get on that list, and how slow it is to get off that list. I am sure my entire family was on that list for many years, but a maximum of 3 of us were in at all, and I am sure at least 5 were listed with them, more if splinter groups are counted because of when we showed up. I am aware that when twi consolidated their mailing address, the oldest person was the one mail was sent to, despite being one who almost never attended. (I am confident we all used the same mailing address, and that is why twi saved stamps that way.) Hey, twi claimed 100,000 people for membership when the largest membership they ever had was around 24,000. The higher number was based on how many people signed up for pfal.

There's a certain irony there. vpw once complained about "Rice Christians." His supposed book on the "Dilemma of Foreign Missions" complained that existing groups were seeing attendance on the basis of food being provided- in countries where finding food is a lot harder than in the USA (at least when he was saying that.) He and lcm criticized the RCC and said that they saw growth in the most broke countries. Now, we've got twi targeting Venezuela. Venezuelans fled the country by every method, including crossing the Andes mountain chain on foot because they couldn't find food or jobs. We've got twi, who targeted Zaire/DC of the Congo in the past and present, and there were already some complaints in the past with twi there that resembled the "Rice Christian" phenomenon. With the DC Congo, twi may be able to claim some numbers. However, as a whole, any attendees they find will be people with little to no income. (If they get people in Venezuela, I'd expect the same.) So, twi's investing time, effort AND MONEY on countries where it's unlikely they'll break even financially. I openly disbelieve twi's own reports that they have 20,000 followers in the Congo. I believe they might have gotten that many to show up to at least 1 meeting. We already know they wildly inflate their numbers at every turn, and I have no reason to think that, suddenly, the Congo's numbers are all accurate. twi plans on trying South America. Let them try. South America's already got local groups of every type. twi's late to the party, They'll have to actually compete with existing groups and attempt to get people to leave their own current place of attendance. it's a lot harder than it sounds.

I got to thinking again, and another page from the twi playbook is "get everyone else to pay for everything." Twi, as religious groups go, is expensive to continue in. You're shaken down for 10-15% of your income for a "tithe"(it went up to 20% once, and the word means "tenth".). You're shaken down for more than that ("abundant sharing.") They had "plurality giving", which was to hand over ALL of your income that you had left over after your expenses were covered. There's no counterpart in any other group I've ever heard of, and it was a shameless money grab. From the earliest days, vpw made sure all the classes and books were priced at retail prices, while doing all the production in-house-- which funnels extra money to the group. In fact, much of the materials were all bought on the cheap- auctions and so on, and machines were kept and staff had to make old, outdated machines work. It made them work a lot harder than needed, but proper machines cost money, and that means less money in the coffers for the cadre. (Religious groups generally keep prices low on their insiders.) So, in this case... How do we make more profit at the ROA? We either raise prices, or we cut expenses. If we raise prices, then we can't get all the people we want to show up. So, we cut expenses, and find things the innies require- and make them bear the additional expense. Let's see.... Got it! We lower or remove food services! Everybody staying on-grounds has no choice- they have to pay whatever the prices are. People there for the day won't care, they have the choice of buying food there or not. So, stop the expenses of bringing in most or all of the food, and that also works better with so fewer people in the group. We have many fewer people than before, but we require fewer of them to run things with fewer services. So, what do we do for food? We notify food trucks that we're having an event and they are welcome to show up. This means that they can actually charge the food trucks for the spot, and charge the food trucks for any electricity or water they use- if electricity is available, usually the truck provides their own. So, twi gets more money. The food trucks make it up by charging their prices at the event. The twi people pay more money for the food, but twi doesn't care. If the food trucks try to cut the nice Christian people a break, they make a lot less money on the event, and may not even break even- but twi doesn't care, they get paid when the truck arrives. So, this was a new variation on the same old themes. It was indeed something new, but it wasn't nearly as innovative as it might have sounded. All another way to wring money out of their people, and hang onto it themselves.

OK, well then, how about... That was right? Not bad. I'll need to think. I wasn't ready with another question so soon.

If you're having trouble finding 50s, 60s and 70s songs online on streaming stations, message me.

*blink blink* Yeah, your turn, and you earned it. I think the movie is under-rated, but I'm of the impression it's almost unknown. The cast includes Kim Cattrall, Peter Boyle, and Paul Sorvino playing himself. Now that I sat down to watch it again, I think it appeals more to New Yorkers and people who live in big cities. It's a movie that doesn't have a lot of violence or car chases, much swearing, and doesn't have a lot of sex stuff (and obviously no nudity.) For some people, that makes it a boring movie. A review I once read called it "a real yawner". I disagree. It has some action, it's got some laughs, and it is story-driven. If you get into the story, you'll enjoy the movie.

I've been getting good reviews of SNW. Also, their advertising had been slanted to try to pick up more viewers, but in a way that sent me the other way. Since that's not an issue (yet, if ever), I'm interested in sitting down for the show at some point.

OK, this one was on my mind. I'll take a shot and see if anyone can get it. "ZIMMERMAN FLEW. TYLER KNEW." "JUST ONE MORE QUESTION, MISTER MAYOR... ARE YOU READY? THINK HARD! WHO FLEW? ZIMMERMAN FLEW, THAT'S WHO! AND WHO KNEW? TYLER KNEW, THAT'S WHO!" Let's see if anyone can tell us who brought us those messages (not counting me.)

"This show has been brought to you by the letters R and F, and by the number 8." "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn't the same." "These are the people in your neighborhood, the people that you meet each day."

That's the correct title! The word actually means to campaign and make your speech at a stop to audiences, you know, a "stump speech." Oldies, seriously? That was the late 1990s! What happened to the 50s and 60s being oldies?

Secretariat??????

[OK, that all makes sense when you think about it. First of all, we know that twi cooks its numbers, and has no qualms about using statistics deceptively to inflate their numbers, or draw attention away from the real numbers. Like when they discussed what 20% of a Way Corps group was going to do. There were FIVE grads. ONE grad was 20%. So, one grad was going to do something. But they reported what the percentages were going to do, and not how many grads. When they published a photo of them, the photo included a LOT of the staff with which they worked. The description of the photo did NOT include saying who in the photo was a grad and who was a staff, so we knew when GSCers identified a lot of the staff in the photo. So, let us review how they used numbers deceptively here. Let us remember two things before we start at this. 1) vpw himself was unable to get 1000 wows when he tried, not even for a huge event like the US Bicentennial, even after hyping it like the end of the world. So, we will NOT see 1000 wows, nor 900 wows here and now. 2) The group has had less than 3000 members for some time now, even including all children and retirees, nationally. They have NOT had a membership boom in the last few decades. The membership booms were a product of their times, when vpw was able to co-opt the Christian hippies and divert them from serving God to shilling for twi. So, membership numbers boomed until the low 1980s as a by-product of them, the people they recruited, the people recruited by those people, and so on. When the late 1980s were done, over 80% of the group was gone in two splits. Since then, there have been no more booms, nor could there be. They lost more people in the 1990s with lcm's purges- and some people who slipped away voluntarily in the face of those purges. So, how does a group with significantly less than 3000 people get to claim 3000 people attended, and how does the group with less than 900 wows get to claim commissioning 900 wows? By being deceptive with the numbers. The challenge then remains to see what they manipulated, and how they manipulated it. A leopard can't change its spots, and twi can't stop lying, not to its members, not to outsiders, not to everyone not in the inner cadre, the top of the oligarchy. ] On 8/13/2025 at 11:04 AM, Belle said: NEW KNOXVILLE — The Way International concluded its four-day festival, Rock of Ages ’25, on Saturday evening with music and a fireworks show. The event drew more than 3,000 participants from around the world, according to a release from The Way International, with attendees enjoying amenities such as a petting zoo, a splash pad, food trucks and more. The final tent meeting included the commissioning of more than 900 people to serve as Way Ambassadors for the next nine months, traveling throughout the globe and spreading the message of The Way. For more information, go to theway.org. Link to the article here. It looks like they are now editing whatever press release TWI sends to the paper. I especially like how they most likely changed the wording from "spreading the Word of God" or "sharing information on how to properly interpret the Bible" or some other TWI-speak nonsense. "More than 3,000 people" - were these people pestered over and over until they caved in and used vacation and PTO to appease the gods of TWI? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [(Hi, Belle!) So, they don't have a membership of 3000 or more, that's how many people "participated" (showed up) from "around the world". That means at least one came from another country, and significant numbers weren't fully involved, but just showed up. They claimed more than 900 "Way Ambassadors". They don't ever print a direct lie, they do what vpw did and phrase the truth deceptively, making a craft of "plausible deniability", and leaving things by implication. The truth they say isn't the truth you hear, because they lie by implication and "weasel words." So, how do we account for the numbers? We get lots of non-twi people to show up for the event, and make it sound like 3000 twi people. With enough leaning on people, they could get at least a thousand curious locals to show up for a day for a petting zoo. People leaning on family to come look for a day could account for more numbers. Then simply leave the implication-without an outright lie- that all those people are actual twi people. ] =============================================================== Twinky: 3,000 participants. Does that include, I wonder, all the staff pressganged to work on the event? Limb coordinators, etc (if such still exist), dragged in? Together with spouses and children? I'm almost surprised that there'd be 900 non-staff present. And 900 "ambassadors"? In their dreams! =========================================================== Nathan Jr: They did open this year's festival to the general public. How many of the 3000 were locals, I wonder. =========================================================================== shortfuse: They expanded the scope of the program to included "Local" Way Ambassadors. These folks went to the ROA, participated in training, and went back to the places they already live. They will do a modified version of the program 10 hours a week. "National" Way Ambassadors are more like the idea of Wows/Way D we know. No idea what the split is but suspect the number of "local" Way Ambassadors is the larger group. This most likely accounts for the inflated numbers. ================================================================================== [So, that decodes the inflated numbers. How did a group of less than 2500 get more than 3000 participants? Host a petting zoo, food trucks, and make a local carnival out of the thing, and talk locals to attend for an afternoon- even if only to attend the local carnival. Then count all of those people as "participants." How are they "from around the world"? Old twi trick- at least 1 person is from outside the US. They could even be a staffer from outside the US. Hey, staffers are required to attend, so that's a "participant." If you have 3 from 3 different countries- 1 from Canada, 1 from somewhere in South America (Hi, JR! Still being counted as from another country?), and one from Africa, like, say, the former Zaire, and you can make it sound like hundreds of people came from different countries. Most of the 3000 were never in twi, and never plan to be, but, hey, taco trucks and a petting zoo, and we have nothing better to do this afternoon, so.... When you live out away from significantly sized cities, the arrival of ONE food truck is an event, and two or more is news. (Anyone who's watched "the Great Food Truck Race" could confirm that- any time the race stopped in a small town, the entire town turned out to greet the trucks because that was the event of the season.) How did they get more than 900 "ambassadors" when twi in its heyday couldn't pull that off, with attendance now a sliver of attendance then? Well, redefine "ambassador." They don't have 900 people able to uproot and shill for twi even if they had 900 willing to do it. So, make it so that only a handful of them have to uproot and shill for twi like everyone expects. For, say, the other 888 of them, call them "ambassadors" and make the requirement a few hours a week where they live, and lean on everyone to do it. Eventually, through squeezing the members, and easing the requirements- probably more than once until the numbers rose- you could get that many. So, with enough deceptive massaging of numbers, that's how you get those results, and that's how twi manufactures a story. Frankly, I'm surprised they laid out enough cash to get a petting zoo and food trucks. They must have wanted to seem relevant really, really badly, to have actually given up cold, hard cash to do it.]

Mason Capwell Garry Buckman Luke Brower Tobias Wolff Jim Carroll Arthur Rimbaud Brandon Darrow Amsterdam Vallon Danny Archer Roger Ferris Frank Wheeler Dominick "Dom" Cobb

"Star Trek- the Next Generation."

Wait. The other guy... right. And it was him, not Hopper who was... right. So, I have Peter Fonda The Cannonball Run Dom De Luise

It sounded familiar until the last set. "AVENGERS- AGE OF ULTRON?"

Heart attack, brought on by obesity. Correct! This was a good example of "keep your mouth shut if you're not in charge of talking to the press." She was found in bed, with an ENTIRE, UNEATEN sandwich within arm's reach. Can't choke on something NOBODY has ever eaten, let alone yourself. The old saw about it being a HAM sandwich was just a cheap joke about a Jew choking on something non-Kosher. (Or another cheap shot about her weight by invoking a pig, take your pick.) Why do people think she choked on a sandwich? The coroner choked on the air! The media showed up with cameras and microphones. He got nervous ("he choked") and began rambling and spewing nonsense instead of checking his notes. There was a sandwich present, that's true. It had nothing to do with cause of death, unless the sandwich scared her and instigated the heart attack while it sat on the plate. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ham-and-wheeze/ It is true that she seemed to dislike answering to "Mama Cass." She appeared on game shows, and was NEVER referred to as "Mama Cass", even though it would have made the audience recognize her faster. Every single time, she was called "Cass Elliot", which was her stage name. (Her real last name was Cohen, and "Cass" came from her Dad jokingly comparing her to "Cassandra" of Greek myth.

"Or something" was not inaccurate, but it was too vague to count as a guess or a correct answer.

Um, that's not the name. If you can't give me the name, give me the names of all the drinks. at least. "Don't cry for me, next door neighbor." (Raf, you can stop laughing, it wasn't that funny. ,) )

"I get knocked down, but I get up again. They ain't never gonna keep me down!"

You may remember the musical group "the Mamas and the Papas." (Wilson Phillips' parents came from them.) One of them was Cass Elliott ("Mama Cass", although she seemed to hate being called that.) She died pretty young. They found her in bed, having passed away in bed. There was a lot of talk about the specifics of what they found. It was a relatively normal, mundane scene, like anyone might have in their bedroom. According to the coroner, what was the cause of death?

Hm. Is that The Eagles with "WITCHY WOMAN"???

That's it.

So, might have been the elephant.

Correct! Your turn.