Posts by TMS

102

ARE YOU AN INTELLECTUAL? Why not?

by Terry in

jw
friends

i think i heard the word "intellectual" for the first time when i was less than ten years old.. my grandmother said to me that the presidential candidate for the democratic party (adalai stevenson) was an "intellectual".. the way she said the word...the timbre of her voice...the look of admiration on her face...led me to believe this was a good thing indeed!.

i think i may have asked her what the word meant, but, i don't recall exactly what she told me.

perhaps enough to confirm that this fellow stevenson was a "thinker" of admirable stature.. fast forward.. by the time my teen years came along there was a kind of dichotomy in society between so-called "eggheads" and common folk.

TMS

"Narkissos, Alan F, Hillary_Step are three examples of people who never fail to stop me dead in my tracks. I love it---and I love them for that.

They are each--in their own way--dazzling minds! I don't fault them for it.

I'd love to be in that rarefied category of thinker--but--alas, I'm not. I never got farther than High School."

Terry,

Self-deprecation aside, you're not intellectually inferior to the three you mention. I'm certain you've visited other forums and held your own with individuals holding advanced degrees. JWD is atypical, with a greater sampling of machismo and comeuppance. Do you remember JW pickup basketball games,how competitive they were? Knock down, drag out! All those frustrated JW's trying to prove what they could have been if restrictions and limitations of "serving Jehovah" hadn't stifled, squashed and squelched them? Unused or undisplayed intellectual muscles have to be flexed too.

I'm certain that if you ever had the opportunity to eat lunch in Cowtown with your ex-wife at the teacher's table, you quickly realized you were not overmatched intellectually despite working at a book store. Honesty, Terry, weren't some of those teachers and administrators pretty dim bulbs?

"Never getting farther than high school" can be worn like a badge, like an athlete who has never taken steroids. Imagine what I could have done with performance enhancers! I could have been a contender!

tms

102

ARE YOU AN INTELLECTUAL? Why not?

by Terry in

jw
friends

i think i heard the word "intellectual" for the first time when i was less than ten years old.. my grandmother said to me that the presidential candidate for the democratic party (adalai stevenson) was an "intellectual".. the way she said the word...the timbre of her voice...the look of admiration on her face...led me to believe this was a good thing indeed!.

i think i may have asked her what the word meant, but, i don't recall exactly what she told me.

perhaps enough to confirm that this fellow stevenson was a "thinker" of admirable stature.. fast forward.. by the time my teen years came along there was a kind of dichotomy in society between so-called "eggheads" and common folk.

TMS

"It's Wednesday. *smile*

Do you have a shop to work on things in?"

I was terrible in shop class. I helped other kids with English & math in exchange for help on my projects. Oh, thanks for the info. I'll run and put the trash out now.

tms

102

ARE YOU AN INTELLECTUAL? Why not?

by Terry in

jw
friends

i think i heard the word "intellectual" for the first time when i was less than ten years old.. my grandmother said to me that the presidential candidate for the democratic party (adalai stevenson) was an "intellectual".. the way she said the word...the timbre of her voice...the look of admiration on her face...led me to believe this was a good thing indeed!.

i think i may have asked her what the word meant, but, i don't recall exactly what she told me.

perhaps enough to confirm that this fellow stevenson was a "thinker" of admirable stature.. fast forward.. by the time my teen years came along there was a kind of dichotomy in society between so-called "eggheads" and common folk.

TMS

Why not?

1. A blood card-carrying member for 50+ years in a cult that viewed thinking as speculation, rebellion, presumptuousness, egotism.

2. My high school electives were all non-academic; wood shop, metal shop, boy's home economics, auto repair, basic electricity. I was consciously trying to acquire skills of some sort to pioneer.

3. I destroyed millions of brain cells with alcohol.

4. Hypo-thyroidism further slowed brain activity.

5. Since retirement, I have trouble identifying the day of the week.

tms

52

Natural gas BBQ

by besty in

jw
friends

wisdom of the crowd please.. going to buy a bbq and need opinions on the best fit for our needs.. 1 - cooking for 20 people max.

2 - small yard.

3 - pre-plumbed to the yard for gas.

TMS

" is there a grill you know of I can buy from a store that would be an alternative to recycling oil barrels and assuming I don't have any welding kits, smokestacks or rubber tires? "

Actually, a national chain, Academy, has legitimate smoker/grills.

tms

52

Natural gas BBQ

by besty in

jw
friends

wisdom of the crowd please.. going to buy a bbq and need opinions on the best fit for our needs.. 1 - cooking for 20 people max.

2 - small yard.

3 - pre-plumbed to the yard for gas.

TMS

Grilling is sacred here in Texas, double that here in extreme south Texas. The first thing a man does after work is start the grill. The construction site has a grill. The factory has a grill out back. The car repair shop has a grill.

It is never gas. A gas grill is simply a kitchen stove moved outside.

It is always fired by wood. Mesquite here in south Texas. In other parts of Texas, maybe oak or pecan. Wood imparts the flavor. Propane has no flavor.

Use the propane orifice to fire up some beans or seasonally to fry turkey in peanut oil. Do not connect it to some sort of fancy-dancy stainless steel Home Depot BBQ box. Nothing edible can come from that.

Smokin' Joes in Oklahoma sells real grills. Or come down here to the border where old hot water and propane tanks are carefully cut in half, layed horizontal and turned into the same. My homemade grill came with rubber tires, a smoke stack, grates, two wooden shelves, and metal beer holders for $100. It does a brisket in short order that can be cut with a fork.

tms

44

did you have CO's with speical dietary requirements ??

by karter in

we hade one if you served him a meal with onions he would not eat it and said to one sister"don't you know i can't eat this!

" no she did'nt.

the latest co around here if you have them for a meal you get a list what they will not eat.

TMS

Yes, Tom and Barbara M. In the late 60's we had them for lunch after morning field service. My wife was fixing a very simple lunch with ground sirloin patties, a vegetable and bread. Sister M. mentioned that her doctor suggested she either eliminate bread or alcohol from her diet because of her weight problem. Sister M. asked if we had any vodka. No, but we did have a bottle of gin. She dropped some ice into a tumbler and poured at least 4 or 5 ounces of gin. I don't recall if Barbara accompanied us on return visits and Bible studies that afternoon.

I will not mention their last name as these were good people I considered friends. But I do believe that, like many of us, they had a problem with alcohol. A couple of times, their visit was cut short due to "the flue". Barbara usually missed her husband's service talks as she had "heard them all before". She was an earthy sort who occasionally used profanity. Tom was a dynamic man with a missile launcher in his back pocket. His secret weapon was that he had fought at Iwo Jima and some of WWII's bloodiest battles. He was a coiled spring, waiting to unleash on someone who called him a draft dodger, coward or Communist. He would start out calmly, asking in what branch of the military he or she had served, whether they saw combat, etc. It frequently escalated into a Steve Wilkos-like denigration with a demand for an apology. But that's another thread.

tms

34

WATCHTOWER ... Take a look at your literature!!!

by What-A-Coincidence in

jw
friends

my mother, who spent 30 plus years in the org and after finding out all the scandals asked me, "when are you taking out the wt trash?

" hee hee hee.

peace out!!!.

TMS

My "volumes" '56 to '96 were my most prized possessions. I can still close my eyes and visualize the rougher texture of the older volumes and the faded gold etching. At idle moments I would pick up an older volume and start reading, feeling the warmth of spirituality morph into my cerebulum.

In 1996 I bought the Web-TV thingamagig which essentially turned your TV into a computer monitor. I read one chapter online from "Crisis of Conscience". I mentioned to my wife that we no longer needed the volumes since we could purchase the CD-ROM(We never did). She agreed. I tossed forty years of formerly prized religious dogma into a dumpster.

tms

32

Ever have a gout attack?

by Gregor in

jw
friends

i'm going through it this weekend.

the right foot big toe joint.

i get this every couple of years and it is the most painful thing i've ever experienced.

TMS

The fact that it is reoccurring is serious. I had gout four years ago. Everything I read indicated that if it reoccurred, it would be problematic from then on.

tms

46

IF IT AIN'T BROKE---WHY would they FIX IT?

by Terry in

here is a bible quiz.

answer each question to the best of your ability.. 1.when god has sent a prophet to speak in his name, what is the standard which must be met?.

2. if a prophecy fails, what does it indicate about the prophet?.

TMS

Terry,

Nice summary.

Glad you touched on Charles Taze Russell's egomania. It's easy to see Rutherford's tyrranical, bullying ways, but many times Russell is
given a free pass.

Can you imagine the gall of a 27 year old clothing store owner's son, reading some Adventist pamphlets, and wanting to educate Pittsburgh's
ministers? Obviously, he had the charisma of hundreds of other charletons. With mock humility, he accepted the role of "the faithful servant".

For me, Maria Russell is the more interesting character. How did she so quickly get "up to speed" to write articles for "The Watchtower"? How did
she get past the "I do not permit a woman to teach" New Testament declaration?

All of this research is a two-edged sword. The more shaky our religious heritage, the more gullible we are shown to have been.

tms

39

Why don't I see any pastors or clergy on this forum?

by moshe in

jw
friends

it just occurred to me that i have never seen a member on jwd who was a minister/priest/rabbi/monk,friar,shamman, etc.

maybe i have just missed their posts and then again, maybe they don't come here for some reason.

i know they must come in contact with jw's and ex-jw's all the time.

TMS

lavendar,

Some appreciation for your feeble attempt at humor(fundies laugh, too). You may want to check a couple of my earlier posts. The impeccable WIKIPEDIA:

"studies have shown that the earliest known version of the Book of Revelation (from the 3rd century) used 616. One 11th century manuscript also shows 665.

All that aside, I took the liberty to scan your profile. I notice that you are not a JW, but that your son has married one and is "progressing" toward baptism. I genuinely feel for you, your son and future grandchildren. It's going to be a long, painful haul.

tms