Duck Dynasty

[TheSassyOne]

patsymae,

I guess it is an act of charity. Charity and love are interchangeable. I don't view adopting a child as a service though. I do view adoption and having children naturally (the decision for each) as selfless. Parents really learn what it means to put others' (their children) needs over their own. That is selfless in my book.

So again, by no means do I think the R's are boasting, "hey look at us, we took in this bi-racial kid as a charitable service". No, they put that child needs/wants/desires over theirs and that's what I applaud them (and any parent) for. Yes, it's what parents should do (and most do), but sadly in today's world we see too many stories of parents doing just the opposite.

Hope that clarifies my earlier comment, if not, then yes we'll just have to agree to disagree. Have a great New Year! :)

[Alecto]

I grew up in northeastern Louisiana, and I would agree with your assessment. Race is still a BIG issue in the area. I graduated HS in 1999, and my school had segregated proms. Yes, in 1999. There weren't enough (or maybe any?) biracial kids to warrant a look at the policy.

Even so, I love Duck Dynasty and watch it faithfully. It reminds me of Thanksgivings with my extended family where all the "menfolk" awoke before dawn to go duck hunting, and Thanksgiving dinner was followed by skeet shooting.

I'm a former Rustonite with a side trip to Arcadia. Welcome!

[karismanic]

Alecto,

Tech grad here. Thanks for the welcome. :)

[Alecto]

Alecto,

Tech grad here. Thanks for the welcome. :)

Me too!

[karismanic]

Any chance we ran into each other between 1999-2003, Alecto?

[Alecto]

Any chance we ran into each other between 1999-2003, Alecto?

Do you know of the Red Table people?

[karismanic]

Yes, but I wasn't one of them. Thought you all looked fun and cool, though. :)

I was probably what most here would consider fundie-lite, but totally turned off by the BCM crowd and dated lapsed Catholics. :) I still am a Christ-follower, but liberated from my legalistic upbringing. Fundie, but enlightened, perhaps? Maybe I can have my own category...funlightened?

[Alecto]

Yes, but I wasn't one of them. Thought you all looked fun and cool, though. :)

I was probably what most here would consider fundie-lite, but totally turned off by the BCM crowd and dated lapsed Catholics. :) I still am a Christ-follower, but liberated from my legalistic upbringing. Fundie, but enlightened, perhaps? Maybe I can have my own category...funlightened?

I was run out of the BCM for having pink hair. I went to Wesley sometimes, and then joined the Pagan Student Alliance. I miss Tech. I wonder if they still have Midnight Poets' Socety.

[MamaJunebug]

Y'all are going to have a hard time not saying, "Geez Louise, MJB, what took you so long" - but I am getting way less on the Phil train, the more episodes I catch up on.

The whole man vs. girly-man thing -- pfft. Compared and contrasted with Si, Phil comes off as an insecure patriarchal type. Consider:

Phil's little granddaughters have a tea party. Phil won't even sit down. Si not only partakes but agrees to a little rouge and some feather boas.

The yuppie-girl daughters-in-law can't make an apron to cover Ms. Kay's bosom. Si sits down at the sewing machine and makes a full-coverage apron that would make Mama Arndt envious (ie, ugly but somebody liked it). Meanwhile, Phil rolls his eyes and sniffs that Si can sew. Si's impervious to embarrassment, in fact boasting that 24-1/2 years in the military prepares a man to do anything he might need to do.

.

Phil continues to speak to "ladies' during the cooking DVD taping, and when Korie corrects him and notes that not only is there a man (Willie) in the frame with Phil and Kay, but that lots of men cook, Phil snots, "Girly-men."

He says he's practically a eunuch for driving the food truck.

The worst to date has to be the bee smoking. Phil tells one of his adolescent grandsons that just as you smoke bees to calm them down, you must smoke a woman. Same episode, he says the most important thing about considering a woman is whether she can cook.

I know it's supposed to be homey homespun live-off-the-land stuff, but there's something about his attitude mixed with his quick condemnation of "girly-men" and evident fear about having any femininity to himself ... makes me think Phillips, Brown, Gothard, Botkin, the lot of them.

As he himself has said in scoffing, "Pfft."

[karismanic]

Great observations, MJB. Those reasons are why I consider Si my favorite...well, and his amazing commentary, too.

I need Si to teach *me* to sew... It's a female fundie skill I never learned. :)

[Alecto]

As a former resident, I realized this week I know Mountain Man. I used to work with him.

[MamaJunebug]

As a former resident, I realized this week I know Mountain Man. I used to work with him.

Srsly! :P What's he like? There's something about him that seems very peaceful, gentle, a sweety of a man. But hey, Jack, TV can be deceiving.

Where did you work together? I mean, not enough to identify either of you (he apparently doesn't want his name known, either, heh). Just, what kind of workplace?

ETA: I've watched each episode I've been able to record at least twice, so the quips and sillinesses are kinda old ... but I still dissolve when Jase does his Mountain Man imitation. Never gets old, never. :lol:

[karismanic]

I'm back in the area to help with a family emergency and drove by Duck Commander warehouse. So busy, people were double-parked. If I have time, I might go in the newly-opened merchandise store tomorrow. Will report back any beard sightings... :)

[MamaJunebug]

Karismanic, prayers for your family and TIA for any local color commentary, as it were! If I were there, I'd be looking for Miss Christine, Si's wife. What stories SHE must have to tell!!!

[carebear]

I'm back in the area to help with a family emergency and drove by Duck Commander warehouse. So busy, people were double-parked. If I have time, I might go in the newly-opened merchandise store tomorrow. Will report back any beard sightings... :)

Sorry to here that you are there for an emergency.. but yes, please let us know of any sightings. I hope they are as nice in "real life".

[MamaJunebug]

Got my library copy of Duck Commander Family and have to say that they sound about as wholesome as you can get, given mental quirks on both sides of the family. ;) Intriguing that Korie comes from money - earned money (her folks and grandparents are wily businesspeople) and yet were reasonably quick to give their blessing to her marriage, at age 18, to 19-y-o Willie. Guess their wiliness included perceiving the work ethic and shrewdness underneath those Robertson beards. :D

[MamaJunebug]

OK-dokay, computer just ate my screed. Sucks to be you, computer, I'm rewriting it.

Finished the DD book. Have a taste in my mouth about as bad as they say Si's squirrel sketti smelled in the prize travel-trailer.

Not because it's a rags-to-riches story. I love those.

Not because of the family's early poverty - my mom grew up about as poor, in the '20s and '30s, I'm used to that.

Not because they credit God about 9,000 times in the book ... oh, yeah, it's that.

I can see the hand of years of Freejinger settin' foot in my thinking. Pre-FJ, the repeated theme:

[paraphrasing] We succeeded but it wasn't us, it was God! God chose to favor us! If it all went away tomorrow, we'd still have each other and we'd know God still loved us!

would not have bothered me. But now, I get it, already. I also get, now (as I wouldn't've before FJ) how these repeated glorifications can get on a person's nerve who doesn't believe.

I glance at the Jewish community newspaper next to the DD book on my kitchen table. Think of a line from the song, "To Life" from "Fiddler on the Roof"

"We'll raise a glass and drink a drop of schnapps in honor of the great good luck that favors you.

We know that when good fortune favors two such men, it stands to reason: we deserve it too!"

Tsarist troops sing that to celebrate the Jews' happy news of another betrothal. Probably Russian Orthodox by training, those troops might have honored God as they knew God in a more traditional worship setting than the village tavern.

Tevye and his townsfolk thank God for good stuff, and they question, but ultimately don't lose faith, in the face of bad stuff.

Buddhists as I understand it have "big luck" ceremonies hoping that whatever it is they look to will favor them.

I get it, that people of faith do - or should - acknowledge the hand of the Almighty/Mysterious in their lives' ups and downs.

So why did the Robertsons' repeated glorifications annoy me so much? Is it because, after a few years on FJ, I understand as I didn't before, how such over-witnessing can be ironically so counter-productive in reaching unbelievers, or shoring up believers' doubts?

Would I have reacted less negatively if the authors had devoted a chapter to the subject, rather than repeat it over and over?

It almost came across as: "We were poor, but now we're rich because we worked so hard but really it was all God." Unconvincing, is that the word?

Do I just resent that Kay and Phil got their stupid days behind them so much earlier than me and my The Spousal Unit did? Or that all of them lived life exactly as my folks forbade me to do (marry at 18 and 19, graduate college with babies on your hip) and did better than I did, I who played by the rules as I understood 'em?

I dunno! I have to say that along with the disgust/disappointment, I'm more curious than ever about this bunch. Would like nothing more than to attend Sunday services at their church, watch the behavior, listen to the a cappella singing. Their church is one of those that forbids instrumental music, IIRC. Do they just float about, being "just folks" and "aw shuckin'" any back-slapping they get? Probably.

I take back the above wish. What I'd really like is ... to have read the story told dispassionately. Times and places and dates and significant events. Summer 1976: Phil goes buck wild and throws his wife and three small sons out of the house. Late Summer 1976: Kay secures low-cost housing thru the church, takes a moral inventory of herself and determines to become Christian. Winter 1976: Phil came out of his drunk long enough to realize he had made a grievous mistake, pursues Kay, becomes religious, goes on the wagon, etc.

Is it that I feel they wrote down to their readers? That they were disingenuous?

I wish that I'd been able to have read the story as stated above. Just the facts, the twists and turns of building the business. The folksy anecdotes weren't worth the disagreeable feelings I have about the family now. Familiarity breeds contempt, perhaps that's the saw that applies here.

I shall watch Season 3 willing myself to forget the details and heavenward-finger-pointing that I didn't need or want in the first place.

Thus endeth the review, go in peace...Jack.

[karismanic]

Thanks for the review, MJB. I've been wanting to read their book, but now I'm glad I haven't. I'm totally cool with the family wanting to credit God with their success, but it would have gotten on my nerves to read it on every (other?) page. It sounds like they didn't tell their story in the most effective way if considering the book a testimony for non-believers to read -- or that they didn't have a good ghostwriter. I can almost see it as a rush job, much like the cooking DVDs, perhaps?

Either way, I still love watching Duck Dynasty. My family situation is keeping me in the area, so I may have more opportunities to run into one of the Robertson clan. I went by the warehouse and merchandise store about two weeks ago, and it was a fun experience. They were filming, so no photography was allowed. I saw Jace, Willie, and Si from a distance; they were in the parking lot with a group of men around a motorcycle. The merchandise store employees were young but nice, and I bought a $7 Uncle Si tupperware tea glass.

As for local color, I got lots. I've been away from the area for ten years, so I had enough distance to have some culture shock coming back. :)

[MamaJunebug]

I find myself almost entirely "meh" about the new episodes coming up tomorrow or Thursday, whenever they start. Don't know if it's because I got a snootfull of them by reading their way-too-aw-shucks book (DC Family) or if, having seen most of the existing episodes twice, the whole smokescreen of just-folks anticking up while actuly living in splendor, traveling widely, driving Escalades, etc., to an extent that makes even me go wow (and I've never gone hungry, etc.) .... just kind of leaves me cold.

And it could well be that the description for one of the new episodes has to do with Phil wanting to get frisky with Ms. Kay despite his "dirty" pre-duck season habit.

I dunno. I've done a 175 on 'em ... not too far to go that 180! Anybody else?

[MamaJunebug]

Just watched the 2 season premieres. Except for Killer, Si's poodle retriever, nothing and no one captured my fancy.

In fact, though, shirtless Phil helped me stay on my diet. Yech.

I think I'm done. The novelty is gone, the scripts aren't really fresh. I mean, how many jokes can be made about rednecks who are rich, anyway?

[formergothardite]

From what I have caught of the show it seems like really rich white people trying to pretend they are normal and down to earth by doing stuff like making an elaborate, rather expensive redneck water park and buying a vineyard.

[MamaJunebug]

From what I have caught of the show it seems like really rich white people trying to pretend they are normal and down to earth by doing stuff like making an elaborate, rather expensive redneck water park and buying a vineyard.

Yeeah....it's kinda that, too - real mixed messages. They didn't end with Phil praying for the whole family, at least, but there too: you have all this talk of being loving and Christian and every second word out of Phil's mouth is how inferior women - even his cute granddaughters - are.

It's classic "fish out of water" only the rich fish do the same things they did before they were rich - use truck wheels to power a conveyor belt, or a water park feature. Admirable ingenuity the first time, ho-hum the 3rd thru infinity.

I just think its a two-season show, and this is S3. But I'll no doubt be proved wrong.

[kpmom]

My son likes this show, so I watched a show he dvr'd last night. Something about those scraggely beards, especially the older guys, reminded me of Michael Pearl, and it was hard to enjoy the show after that.

Then, the older guy (Phil?) was trying to shoot and set beavers on fire. It seemed pretty cruel.

In this episode the mother wanted to open a restaurant. She tried running a restaurant for a day, and found out how much work went into it. And of course, the "beards" acted as cooks and waiters, without tying all that hair back. Yuk.

The whole thing seemed so staged.

If they are that rich they could certainly help her open a restaurant for real, with real cooks and wait staff.

[laura oz]

I'm just getting into the show in a big way. DH doesn't get my interest, but he's just happy he doesn't have to watch Sister Wives for a while :lol: The other night they had a minithon of episodes and I cursed them the next morning when I had to get up cause I had to watch every episode they showed. The way they enunciate does bug a little, it's just so much like Phil and he's kind of sour. Si had me at "Hey!"

[GodsKnickers]

We quite like the Quack Pack at our house. Si is our hands down favorite. "Sting like a butterfly, punch like a flea!"

A friend of mine just met Willie & Korie in real life. They were on the same plane as she was, flying into the airport here to do an appearance. She sat and talked with them for quite a while in the lounge. Said they were absolutely pleasant and she really enjoyed chatting with them. My brother works at the airport - I meant to call and ask him if he met them at all, when they came through. He's met quite a few celebrities that way.