WordWolf

This was the last of the Eyewitnesses threads. So, similar threads for years 1993 and following would be appropriate- would they be appreciated?

The Fog Years didn't draw so many posts, either....

Not many posts about specific memories from this year-at least, not on this thread.

Some personal recollections are here, as well...

There were a few memories here, as well.

For a single year, quite a few details were filled in here...

This thread had a lot more responses-which was to be expected. It included the initial recruitment explosion of twi.

It's possible someone who was in before 1966 will check in, but by this point, it's highly doubtful.

I started some threads specifically to put timelines in and fill in the details on each era. I'm interested in reviving them and adding new threads for the details included in these new threads, if anyone is interested. We could try to match the events to the years they happened for easier review for those reading them over. What do the rest of you think?

It came up here that lcm's grandiose delusions included that his wap class was the greatest thing since sliced bread and that it should attract students like flies to dung. So he concluded that- if it wasn't drawing numbers (and it was drawing pitiful numbers)- then what was needed was more salesmanship and then there would be more students- and more students would mean more people tithing and abundantly sharing- at whichever levels the ABS was being defined at that year. So, lcm decided that the best FINANCIAL decision was to make all the Corps into an aggressive sales force for wap, and the tuition, tithes and ABS would begin rolling in and replace all of us who'd left by then (more than 80% at that point.) So, the Corps were turned from people paying money to twi- tithes, ABS- to a PAID sales force (twi paying them) in the expectation that the operating expense of their salary would result in a rain of money from new people. Not only did that fail to happen, but the additional whammy of having to pay all the Corps to travel to Corps Week and ROA multiplied the expenses. Eventually, lcm had to admit his decision was bleeding the coffers dry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Lake Well, the evidence is pretty conclusive that John G Lake was a liar on a grand scale who made grandiose claims about his education and his connections. "He later claimed that he maintained relationships with many of the leading figures of his day including railroad tycoon James Jerome Hill, Cecil Rhodes, Mahatma Gandhi, Arthur Conan Doyle, and others." "When he began his preaching career he claimed to have walked away from a $50,000 year salary (around $1.25 million in 2007 US dollars[15]), as well as his seat on the Chicago Board of Trade. Lake's biographer, Burpeau, reported no evidence outside of Lake's own assertions that Lake was connected to these wealthy financiers and industrialists.[6] According to Morton, contemporary records show Lake never left Zion City at the time Lake was said to be making his name in Chicago; he instead worked in nearby Waukegan as an "ordinary, small-town insurance salesman". So, any claims that he actually produced healings should be highly suspect- since he's a proven, chronic liar. I'll have to look into this Curry Blake guy separately. However, so far, I do indeed SEE parallels with twi- both groups were founded by chronic liars with grandiose egos.

I prefer we not get into names if possible, but yes, that poster was serious. He said that when Jesus returns, he will hold a copy of the Orange Book in his hand and teach us from it. I figured he was making a joke. Someone else asked him- he was serious, and said he'd "seen him" that way "many times". He referred to the vpw books as God-breathed and said the KJV wasn't. Of vpw himself, he said he had an "overabundance of brains and brawn" and was "overgifted." Frankly, that was the reason I started the athletics poll. With claims vpw was some sort of super-athlete on the table for his claims, we examined his claims. vpw was on the basketball team in high school. After high school, he was deliberately vague- he "played basketball all through college" (no evidence anywhere he was actually on the varsity team, just a claim he played- and he could do that with a handful of friends once a semester), and he "was involved with" some NBL team. People naturally thought he was saying he was both a player in his college team, and the Sheboygan Redskins. However, that's not what he said-that's what he wanted us to hear. After getting away with that one, he began making claims like he invented the hook shot ( officially recorded in use in 1937 by a Lithuanian, obviously invented before then.) Then again, with its origins unclear (Harlem Globetrotter Geese Tatum-1942 to 1954 player- is often credited with it as well- he probably felt he could get away with attaching his name to it. When put to the test, that poster had cast aside everything and everyone else in his life that couldn't 100% support his claims- so, no significant other, and so on.

There's not much I can add to this, but I can add a little. When vpw was going to visit an area for, say, a weekend, a local was tasked with finding, buying and bringing SEVERAL bottles of Drambuie to present to vpw for use during his stay there. Someone reported confusion on behalf of the person-who had never heard of the stuff before but now had to buy a stack of bottles so a minister had the stack for personal use while he visited them for the next 2 days, vpw also had this thing of breath mints to counteract the chronic smell of booze and smoking on his breath. He used to have a bowl of breath mints at the podium. He would put one or more in his mouth, break them to get to the inner, more effective part, and use them that way. When he was unclear, staff thought he wanted a bowl of 1/2 breath mints, all pre-broken into 2 parts.

A history of twi is a history of "what did vpw co-opt, and when did he do it?" From the time he claimed he heard from God about God Almighty teaching him if he'd teach others, for about a decade (1942 to early 1950s), vpw was this small-time country preacher. It was only after he plagiarized BG Leonard's class and JE Stiles' book that he had a product worth buying- and thus, any significant numbers of customers. From that point on, he had significant numbers of customers- but no windfall of customers. Then, at the end of the 1960s, vpw read about the Jesus People in San Francisco. He went over there, and convinced them that he was some great one who had a deep understanding of God that was quite rare. So, he ended up scooping up part of the Christian movement there, and turned it into a sales-force for twi. He brought some of them to the farm, then sent some back to California and sent some others to the NY State area. THAT was when numbers leapt up for twi. People saw the legitimate, genuine Christians who were in those areas (like D00p in CA and H33fn3r in NY), and began showing up. Membership numbers in both areas shot up. After that happened, vpw announced that both groups were no longer going to operate independently- he was going to run the whole show from the farm. So, that's when the local groups became introduced to twi legalism- the early 70s, after the numbers were already increased. The biography of vpw thread should have the years for these things.

It was a direct quote of the LoT "Invasion!" episode,.at 6:20. "Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra!" "I'll take that as 'have fun storming the castle." "Oh. For real? You're gonna use Princess Bride against ME?" I had to get up and finish my laughing fit. Mrs Wolf got it about 3-4 seconds into my seizure.

"Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra!"

Wild guess here: "Star Trek Beyond"?

Mrs Wolf doesn't normally follow Supergirl, so I give her updates from time to time. She saw this one, and insists on trying to watch the series' in airdate order because she expects some degree of overlap and crossover (wait, didn't Diggle have a daughter? Why isn't he surprised? Why is Ollie wearing long sleeves?) There's no way they could have really adapted "Invasion!" to the shows, but I appreciate the effort. I loved the comic story. At the end of part 1, the Alien Alliance had taken over Australia and issued a call to surrender all supers to them. The UN debated- if we hand over the supers and they break their deal, we handed over our best defense against invasion, is our best defense cooperation, etc.) The story ended with Jimmy and Perry White discussing the Daily Planet's front page. "Earth to Invaders: DROP DEAD!" "World gears up for war!" "Story begins on page 2" Now, THAT's a cliffhanger! Perry said something to the effect of- I don't know how we'll do against them, but, by Caesar, at least we stand united!

"Oh I can't take another heartache Though you say you're my friend, I'm at my wit's end You say your love is bonafide, but that don't coincide With the things that you do And when I ask you to be nice, you say" "Well I do my best to understand dear But you still mystify and I want to know why I pick myself up off the ground To have you knock me back down, again and again And when I ask you to explain, you say" "..in the right measure." "...it's a very good sign." "...means that I love you."

Ok, saw Flash. We disagreed on who should have come along. I would have liked Jonn, or at least Monel, but Mrs Wolf pointed out that Kara's kept Barry as a big secret. I still would have liked to have seen Monel get dragged off for a weekend. Mrs Wolf pointed out he's still recovering-and I said he was STILL more buff than most of the team that's taking the field, even walking wounded. Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice....

Figures. We just finished watching the Supergirl one and saw the Flash flag at the end. Which makes sense because I had them numbered, with SG as 1 and Flash as 2 and so on. Next stop, Flash.

Proceeding from "New Jack City" I play Judd Nelson From the Hip John Hurt

As long-time GSC attendees know, he fumbled that one, as well. The word "learning" in "for our learning" is the same word rendered "doctrine" in "all Scripture is God-Breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Then again, while we're on the subject, he fumbled the "thoroughly" thing also. If he'd ended his point at "people don't read what is written", he would have stayed on sound ground. However, he INVENTED the "definition" of "throughly" that he used. In 1611, the word was an alternate rendering of "thoroughly" and carried the exact same meaning to the readers of the KJV either way. (That's off the "Actual Errors in PFAL" thing, from way, way back.)

I figured you were going somewhere with it, but you were far too opaque. I'm sure YOU got your own joke, but remember that the rest of us can't read your mind, so any point or joke stands or falls on what is actually typed.

Correct- mixing "the Mob Doctor" with "Doctor Doctor" with "Doctor Strange."