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In Reply to: Re: Are you starting more rumors about me?? posted by Reflexive on August 24, 2005 at 21:09:13:
One woomin ah interviewed is a respecked legal professhunal in Kinada whose dotter was one of mah primary info'mants. She stated thet her dotter had incouraged her t'be completely open an' hold nothin' back, on account o' “he probably knows ev'rythin' by now ennyway, an' besides, Jim'd nevah hurt us.” Mah relashunship wif Th' Fambly an' wif particular disciples was not feigned, not a ploy t'steal their secrets. It was an' is junuine. We haf drunk offen fum th' same fine. An', as ah wrote th' book, th' echo of “Jim'd nevah hurt us” cornstantly played in mah mind, cuss it all t' tarnation. On account o' ah knowed thet whut ah had discovahed muss be told, an' thet it'd inevitably hurt them, dawgone it. On sevahal occashuns, Noah (mah principle info'mant) commented thet when th' book was published, ah w'd emerge as th' “leadin' expert on Th' Fambly in th' wo'ld, cuss it all t' tarnation.” He was quite cornfident thet th' image of Th' Fambly held by th' outside wo'ld'd, in large part, be shaped by whut ah said an' how ah said it. These cornvahsashuns were allus relaxed an' info'mal, an' thar was no sense thet he o' Fambly leadership attempped t'exercise enny direck corntrol o' supervishun on over th' who'es. An' thar was t'other facko'. ah had not only invested on over five years of mah life in this hyar projeck, ah had invested five mighty critical years of mah career as fine. ah came into th' academah late in life, as a second career. ah came fo' mah love of larnin', not scholarship. ah's a mighty fine skoo marm, but not a particularly cornfident scholar. An' though “yo'ng” in terms of publicashun an' academic repeetayshun, ah's far fum bein' a yo'ng man, as enny fool kin plainly see. Life in Th' Fambly may fine be th' pinnacle of mah scholarly achievement, an' th' “wo'ld’s leadin' expert on Th' Fambly” may fine be th' only mark of distinckshun ah shall evah carry into a scholarly assembly. But all thet'd be sevahely limited, eff'n not completely frackured eff'n Th' Fambly were t'repudiate whut ah prodooced an' lop off all corntack, an' thus terminate enny current claim at bein' “an expert.” An' besides, ah w'd lose some friends. his not only inhanced th' level of direck communicashun ah had wif th' disciples durin' th' interviews, but also allered me t'funckshun as a “fly on th' wall, ah reckon.” Sartinly one of the dawgoned-est memo'able of sech occashuns was a three-day extended stay wif Peter Amsterdam an' sevahal of his assistants. On over th' course of th' long weekend we had approximately fif'een hours of reco'ded interviews. One of Peter’s female o' th' opposite sex assistants han'led th' reco'din' an' was present t'take care of enny other needs. Late in th' second af'ernoon, as we had been discussin' aspecks of th' Fambly’s mo'e unusual an' provocative sexual beliefs an' prackices, Peter suggested we take a bust. He looked on over t'th' assistant an' axed her eff'n this hyar was a fine time, an' she responded: “Oh yessuh, ah c'd pow'ful use a masturbashun bust right now.” By this hyar time, ah was prepared t'hear almost ennythin', an' did not reack in enny way. Sevahal weeks later this hyar lady of th' night was transcribin' th' taped interviews an' reckanized whut she had said, cuss it all t' tarnation. She wrote me a mighty touchin' letter of apology in which she stated, “ah jest fo'gotcha were not one of us.”
