WordWolf

"Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By." "

"Let's work the problem, people. Let's not make things any worse by guessing." "I don't care what anything was designed to do. I care about what it can do. So let's get to work, let's lay it out, okay?" "With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour." "When I go up there on 19, I'm gonna take my entire collection of Johnny Cash along!" "Dad, can I please wear this?" "Sure." "Jim!" "No! No, absolutely not." "Do they know they're not on the air?" "We'll tell them when they get back." " I remember this one time - I'm in a Banshee at night in combat conditions, so there's no running lights on the carrier. It was the Shrangri-La, and we were in the Sea of Japan and my radar had jammed, and my homing signal was gone... because somebody in Japan was actually using the same frequency. And so it was - it was leading me away from where I was supposed to be. And I'm lookin' down at a big, black ocean, so I flip on my map light, and then suddenly: zap. Everything shorts out right there in my cockpit. All my instruments are gone. My lights are gone. And I can't even tell now what my altitude is. I know I'm running out of fuel, so I'm thinking about ditching in the ocean. And I, I look down there, and then in the darkness there's this uh, there's this green trail. It's like a long carpet that's just laid out right beneath me. And it was the algae, right? It was that phosphorescent stuff that gets churned up in the wake of a big ship. And it was - it was - it was leading me home. You know? If my cockpit lights hadn't shorted out, there's no way I'd ever been able to see that. So uh, you, uh, never know... what... what events are to transpire to get you home."

This is obviously the song by the Animaniacs, "Make a Gookie." Here's a sample: Ok, so, my turn now? Let's see, I need a song.....

"Reefer Madness of King George." George (our George) took a film I haven't seen-but is fairly well-known so I know the name- and mixed it with a classic b&w film intended to terrify the US public out of ever trying 'reefer'. From their descriptions, the thing is an awful lot like LSD, only more dangerous. Most of us who've ever heard of it still haven't seen it. I should, because it's unintentional comedy. When my kid is old enough, I'll show it to him so he can practice critiquing propaganda so he's better at recognizing the modern stuff.

Well, if Morrison had sung in the 80s or later, he might have done a cover of it.

"You've made me acknowledge the devil in me. I hope to God I'm talkin' metaphorically. Hope that I'm talkin' allegorically. Know that I'm talkin' about the way I feel." "This old town's changed so much. Don't feel like I belong. Too many protest singers. Not enough protest songs." "You give me just a taste so I want more and more. Now my hands are bleeding and my needs are raw. Now you've got me crawlin', crawlin' on the floor."

"Let's work the problem, people. Let's not make things any worse by guessing." "I don't care what anything was designed to do. I care about what it can do. So let's get to work, let's lay it out, okay?" "With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour." "When I go up there on 19, I'm gonna take my entire collection of Johnny Cash along!" "Dad, can I please wear this?" "Sure." "Jim!" "No! No, absolutely not."

If you check at least once a week, you should be fine. We're all busy, but can check in every few days for a minute or 2 unless we're having some emergency or traveling. And I see 2 photos, and 2-3 notices above them about posted images that aren't there for me.

Even adding every single person from all the offshoots, twi and all the splinters/offshoots is certainly a LOT less in size than twi in its heyday- the late 70s/early 80s. I'd put all the participants in the US of all of them somewhere closer to 5000. They NEVER publish numbers. The groups, generally, are more about retaining- sbout hanging on to the old- the old doctrines, the old slogans, the old ideas, the old people, the old reminisces- than about all the changes they'd need to get new people. So, they are generally in membership decline. A few are having MINOR success with kids the same way vpw hijacked the hippies. Overall, they are losing more people each year than are gained by new recruitment. Most "growth" is one offshoot getting people from twi or a DIFFERENT offshoot. At best, that's a zero-sum game. So, give it another generation, as the memberships continue to slide towards zero. I think we'll see a resemblance to Zeno's Paradox, where we never quite see zero people, but half the previous membership, then half of that, then eventually the meeting of all the members nationwide could be held in a hot tub.

The numbers internationally are hard to get, but wild exaggeration is the order of the day, still. So, we think there's a FEW people in Africa, but beyond that, no. Presence in Europe left with cg, and presence in South America left with RC. That leaves Australia- which never seemed to been an outreach continent- Antarctica (same approach) and Africa. Last I heard, they were requiring people to come once a month for the service-and the cameras are set up once they channel people into a narrow aisle in the lower level so they can pretend the entire level is packed. Offhand, I'd suppose there's about 2000 twi'ers currently claiming membership across the US. As churches go, there's many LOCAL congregations that are bigger. twi exists but is hardly a factor outside of New Knoxville.

I don't know about anyone's "system." I do know my approach is to try to understand what's written, and come from a perspective that Scripture is sensible and consistent. That gets me MUCH better results than coming from a perspective that it is INconsistent and senseless. I think the Bible makes sense of the whole Bible, not any "system." (I can never tell for sure who you hate more-Darby or wierwille. However, it's probably wierwille because you haven't mentioned Darby lately.) "wierwille's rules of thumb tend to be incorrect." That's one of MY rules of thumb. ;) Even when I was in twi, I rendered it "stewardship" even when we were discussing "administrations." I felt that put the emphasis where it belonged, and "administration" had too much modern baggage for people to clearly see the meaning where it was claimed to be so- such as implying it was a period of time. IMHO, the biggest problem with the twi-style system is the reliance on a system. To be specific, the claim of "a mathematic exactness and a scientific precision" was wild and unsupported, and the opposite of what later evidence showed. Those who embraced it too strongly ended up looking for hidden meanings in Scripture, and a few still look for hidden meanings in vpw's works. It's NOT a 21st century textbook. It was meant to convey meaning for peoples thousands of years apart, thousands of cultures apart. And it does.

Probably the first "Die Hard" movie.

If it's what I'm thinking, that's a brilliant choice. I have to leave it up for a bit just so others can take a chance at it.

WIN Ben Stein's Money, but yes, that's the answer. In round 1, 3 contestants answer questions. At the end of round 1, the lowest-score contestant is kicked out, and Ben Stein takes their podium (and their score is added back to the kitty.) Whenever a contestant gets a question right, their total goes up towards $5000, and the kitty-Ben's total- goes down from $5000. When Ben gets a question right, his total doesn't change but the others don't get it. At the end of round 2, the lower-score contestant is kicked out, and their score is added back to the kitty. Round 3 is "the best of 10." Ben and contestant are placed in isolation booths. The contestant can choose to go 1st or 2nd. Each is asked 10 questions in (I think) 60 seconds, and can "pass" and come back if there's time. If the contestant loses, they get the money they won so far. If the contestant ties, they get the money they won so far plus $1000. If the contestant wins, they get the $5000- which is handed to them as cash. Ben's safe (pushed onstage at the beginning of Round 3) is opened, and Ben counts off the money in each result. When someone wins the $5000, Ben generally adds after the full count "I hate you, get out of here!" because it was money otherwise going to Ben's pocket.

I think a healthy response to Campbell's work is a healthy response to just about everybody's work, including mine. Read it over, consider it, evaluate it, and where there's value, use it, and where there's error, correct it and discard it (or correct it and use it.) Otherwise you can end up doing something like fleeing vpw and endorsing Campbell like he's some sort of guru, even though he was wrong in many places. What he wrote, IMHO, is interesting and has value, but it doesn't seal up the sum. Or you could survive vpw, then endorse lcm, then reject lcm and endorse ccg or v2p2 or someone else. We've got a lot of people who left twi and reject SPECIFIC gurus but retained the ERROR that one NEEDS a guru to do their spiritual thinking FOR them.

Ok, while we're waiting.... TV game shows have hosts asking questions of the contestants... but this TV game show also had the host answering the questions alongside them!

That's it. It made more sense in my head last night when I posted it. (Because of time-zone differences, it's hours later here than the posting time notes.)

"You've made me acknowledge the devil in me. I hope to God I'm talkin' metaphorically. Hope that I'm talkin' allegorically. Know that I'm talkin' about the way I feel." "This old town's changed so much. Don't feel like I belong. Too many protest singers. Not enough protest songs." No vibraphone fans online this week?

While we're waiting.... This is a TV-movie starring Fred Dryer as a President of the United States, who goes to work alongside the LAPD in order to kill bloodsucking undead before they take over the US.

"Let's work the problem, people. Let's not make things any worse by guessing." "I don't care what anything was designed to do. I care about what it can do. So let's get to work, let's lay it out, okay?" "With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour."

Steve Carrell Over The Hedge William Shatner

What about my "up"? ("Your turn" or "you're up" would be correct.) Ok, let's see..... "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

It's the closing line of "Back to the Future." I once contemplated getting that line on a t-shirt and wearing it to Christian functions.

It's still your turn since you posted the last correct answer. (Gilligan's Island.)

"This old town's changed so much. Don't feel like I belong. Too many protest singers. Not enough protest songs."