Friday, January 9, 2009

First things first



Mr. Barnwell has requested that readers of his blog, er, book, er, blog put their comments in this section here at the top of the blog. He will entertain any and all questions and comments as long as they are relevant and interesting. Mr. Barnwell alone will decide what constitutes relevant and interesting.

Note. If you are a first-time visitor to this blog, skip this section for now. Go at once -- do not pass GO, do not collect $200 -- to the next post, the one entitled “Caveat Emptor!” and do not come back here until you want to leave a comment or read the comments of others. Mr. Barnwell feels that this will be the best way to interact with you. Also, he didn’t want to have to be checking his individual chapters constantly for comments. As you can see, it’s all about him, him, him and not about you, you, you. Oh, and he wishes to thank you in advance for your cheerful cooperation.

If you are the independent type who doesn’t like to be told what to do, go ahead and read the first couple of comments below to get a flavor of what you’re in for. But it’s prolly probably better to get bogged down in the book itself than in the comments, at least until you have been exposed to enough of Mr. Barnwell’s twisted mind book to decide for yourself how you want to proceed.


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Here are the first two comments received, along with Mr. Barnwell’s replies:

Pat - An Arkansas Stamper said...

Dear Billy Ray Barnwell

So far, I have read the Title Page and the Note From the Publisher (my eyes misted up with joy at what lies ahead) and would continue if I didn’t have to take Snuggles and Buddy back home this morning because last night I forgot to bring their dog food to my house whence I returned because I cannot sleep well in any bed other than my own and the dogs need a fenced yard in which to do their business so I don’t have to stay up or get up in the middle of the night, get them to hold still while I attach their leashes, then wander around a strange yard with no flashlight because my family let all their flashlights go dead and I don’t want to end up with a broken leg lying in the cold in my pajamas and my cell phone on the nightstand and no neighbor within earshot, and I will do so when I return to whatever I choose to call “normal” in my life. (January 9, 2009 7:22 AM)

Jeannelle said...

So, how long have you....er, Mr. Barnwell....been working on this? You mean you have a whole book here on this blog? This blog is a book, then. Very cool. Mr. Barnwell, I think you should go give your opinions on my post of 2 p.m. today, entitled Poll: Reading or Writing. I’d love to know your views, considering you are now a “published” author.

I will look forward to reading this blog.....er, book.....er, blog......

Good job! (January 9, 2009 1:28 PM)


Mr. Barnwell replies to comments from readers:

Pat, I completely understand the unavoidable delay caused by your dilemma with Snuggles and Buddy because I have had dogs myself starting with Tippy, a Border Collie, when I was just a kid and continuing with Sandy, a Shepherd-Collie mix, and then Frisky, another Shepherd-Collie mix, about whom my mother taught me to say, “I have a little dog named Frisky, he is a very intelligent pup, he can stand on his hind legs if you hold the front ones up” and each of those dogs lived to be three years old before they were hit by cars they were chasing so I certainly understand the need for a fence and I shudder to think about the possibility of you, make that your, ending up with a broken leg lying in the cold in your pajamas and your cell phone on the nightstand and no neighbor within earshot and may I also say that I admire your writing style immensely.

Jeannelle, rhymeswithplague posted about this book two times back in January of 2008 and even included Chapter 27 in one post as a teaser but no one seemed to take the slightest notice at the time and he also commented on your “Poll: Reading and Writing” post yesterday, not that it’s any business of mine what he does, he is an okay sort of guy when I can get him riled up about something but most of the time he is a complete drain on my creative juices and so I think I need not post my own answer on your blog as it might be somewhat repetitive but thank you for asking. (January 10, 2009 7:21 AM)

(Click on Comments below to leave a comment)

96 comments:

  1. I read up to Chapter 1 tonight, and hope to read one chapter a day. I tried to get on the follower list, but there is no link there. Is that right?

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  2. Jeannelle, unless my eyes deceive me there is a link there, but if it is not working, I don't know what to tell you to do, all I can suggest is that you keep clicking on the words "FOLLOW THIS BLOG" until your cows come home or perhaps you could sell your vast holdings of Blogger stock so that the stock market will be driven even lower and bring about the downfall of our country's economy even faster, but on second thought I don't believe that would be a good idea because without blogging what kind of a world would we have on our hands anyway?

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  3. Holdings of Blogger stock?

    Hey, there is a working link tonight, but last night there was not, and there was only two lines of text there last night....at least showing up on my computer screen.

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  4. Bob,

    I find this great. I have added your original blog and Mr. Barnwell to mine.

    I hope he will continue to answer questions of a peculiar nature. I am sure I will think of some!

    Thanks again for coming by and I am pleased to make your acqaintance.

    Michael Burns
    Carlsbad, CA

    PS Where is Canton? I travel in Ga. but have yet to pass though.

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  5. Did you post Chapter 3 on your blog several months ago? It seems familiar.

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  6. Mr. Michael Burns, Esq., of Carlsbad, Collie-forn-ya, thank you for commenting, I found out by looking up in a road atlas that Carlsbad is located approximately halfway between the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in San Clemente and the border town of Tijuana, Mexico, I do not answer questions of a peculiar nature, I think you have me mixed up with Ask Dr. Jim who is not answering any questions at the moment, peculiar or otherwise, because all of Texas was apparently not big enough for him so he sailed away on the Queen Mary 2 for a little midwinter getaway in the Caribbean, I am likewise pleased to make your acquaintance but I am confused about your blog which is called Reamus and your website which is called amusingreamus, is that amusing reamus or a musing reamus and just what is a reamus anyway, I remember reading Tales of Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris, but somehow I think a Remus and a Reamus are two different things like Southern Bell and a Southern belle, Joel Chandler Harris was from Georgia also, but he lived in Eatonton and I live in Canton which is about fifty miles north of the Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Cherokee County, it's Canton that's in Cherokee County, not Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and a very beautiful county it is, too, being in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains which gradually become the Blue Ridge Mountains which gradually become the Great Smoky Mountains by the time you get into Tennessee and North Carolina, by the way my name is not Bob, it's Billy Ray, Bob is that guy who writes the rhymeswithplague blog.

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  7. Jeannelle, old rhymeswithplague is always stealing my stuff, he published it on his own blog and even sent it away to Garrison Keillor a while back who amazingly enough actually put it on his website as well, but the version here in my book is the real thing, it differs slightly from the other two versions extant and thank you for the opportunity to end a sentence with the word extant.

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  8. I do beg your pardon Billy Ray.
    IYou should know that Dr. JIm will be gone awhile as the QEII is now a hotel in Qatar .

    I will be sure to ask Bob where Canton is then.

    For your information, it is A Musing Reamus. The Blog name came from something my nieces have called me for years. While Remus wrote the stories, Uncle Reamus, I believe, was in the name of the character in the movie...zippity doo dah and all that. The account Uncle Reamus was unavailable, I have written elsewhere under A Musing Reamus and would clear it all up but I would have to open a new account and move what is on the blog now. Far too much work for me.
    I can say hello to Bob for you if you like, biut as I recall, you don't speak often.

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  9. Reamus, I didn't mean to scare you, I am an okay guy too, it's just that rhymeswithplague and I are constantly competing, it seems, for Mr. Brague's time. And RWP would tell you the same thing about Canton, it is about fifty miles north of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson (two former Atlanta mayors) International Airport in Cherokee County and the foothills of the north Georgia mountains which gradually become the Blue Ridge mountains which gradually become the Great Smokies by the time you get into Tennessee and North Carolina. Because that is the truth.

    You misread what I wrote about Dr. Jim, he is not on the QEII, he is on the QMII, Queen Mary, not Queen Elizabeth, a little slip like that can make all the difference in the world, you have to be really careful to avoid ending up in Qatar, as you say, instead of in the Caribbean.

    I am glad your blog is A Musing Reamus, I like that one better than Amusing Reamus, but I need to tell you that Remus didn't write the stories, Joel Chandler Harris wrote the stories that he heard Uncle Remus tell, and the guy in the movie is Uncle Remus too, not Uncle Reamus. Song of the South with "Zippity Doo Dah" or "Zip-a-dee Doo Dah" or whatever it is was one of the first movies I ever saw along with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Dwarves or whatever they are, the spelling probably isn't important enough that you would want to change your blog title or anything, of Remus, I mean, not Dwarfs or Dwarves. You know what, I think you are probably an okay guy too.

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  10. Your writing is quite amazing, Mr. Barnwell, and I'm enjoying it very much....it seems as if--and please don't take offense at me saying this--it seems as if your mind is being used by someone of rather deeper thinking inclinations than yourself. Do you ever get that feeling, and, if so, what exactly does that feel like?

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  11. Jeannelle, thank you for commenting once again, it seems you are becoming a regular reader, not that I thought you were an irregular reader, but you get what I'm saying. Nobody has ever called my writing amazing before and I'm glad that you are enjoying it very much but since I don't know how far you have gotten into the book I'm not sure what exactly is causing either the amazement or the enjoyment. I am not offended by what you said, goodness, no, unless you are calling me shallow, which I don't think you are doing, my mind is plenty deep enough as it is, deep enough to keep me pretty busy trying to get all my thoughts out onto paper or screen which I don't think I ever will, although yes, there are times when things just come to me all in a flash and I have to wonder if that might not be an indication of a certain Power behind the Throne, for example when I woke up yesterday morning the first thought I had upon opening my eyes was "I love You, Lord" and the next thought, which seemed to come from somewhere else and deep inside me at the same time, was "If you love Me, keep My commandments" which is enough to make anybody sit up and take notice, and someothing else I have noticed is that all my comments and posts here say that Robert H. Brague said them, but he did not, I said them myself, me, Billy Ray Barnwell, there must be some kind of flaw in this computer.

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  12. Now they are saying rhymeswithplague, that is just weird.

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  13. Dear Billy Ray Barnwell, I can't say that I'm "back to normal" even if I knew what that is, but I have thoroughly enjoyed reading from where I left off as of my first comment through Chapter 7 which is about as much as I can take in one day because each chapter or vignette or whatever you want to call it is highly entertaining and I have hooped and hollered over some of your word pictures even though I was confused by some of the Latin stuff you wrote about because in my high school which was not in Grapevine Texas either although they offered Latin I chose to take Spanish and I'm glad I did as I seem to encounter a lot more Spanish speaking people around here than I do those who speak Latin which is I understand a dead language anyway so I guess your high school English teacher was right about your going to become a writer and I assume you made it through your senior year and went on to greater things although I probably will have to wait until I have read more of the story to find out what those were but I'll bet I will not be a bit surprised to find out how talented you became in a lot of things.

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  14. Pat, you write a really good comment, I notice you used a lot of conjunctions and subordinate clauses just like me, maybe Mr. D. P. Morris my old high-school English teacher back in Not Grapevine, Texas, had a twin somewhere, Como esta? is about all I can say in Spanish besides Si, senor, you'll have to imagine the tilde over the N because this keyboard doesn't seem to have one, and Donde es las mujeres? and muchas gracias, senorita, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

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  15. I'm a chapter behind Pat. I just finished 7.....wow, you have been blessed to know many folks with unusual names, Mr. Barnwell. Our well is right next to our barn, by the way.

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  16. Pat in Arkansas and Jeannelle in Iowa, the two of you really warm my heart, I have actual readers which I thought might never happen because I was afraid people might get thoroughly turned off by something I said or maybe the way I said it after a page or two and just toss the whole kit and caboodle into the corner although since it is on a computer screen and not on printed pages in a book it might make it a little more difficult to toss it in the corner, and some people may still have an adverse reaction but at least the two of you didn't and for that I am grateful.

    Our well was just outside our back door, there was a little stoop or porch about eight feet square made out of concrete blocks and right at the corner of it was the well, it didn't have a huge diameter like yours prolly does, ours was only about twenty-four inches in diameter and the bucket, if you can call it a bucket, was long and narrow and had holes cut into the side of it for the water to get into it because the well wasn't wide enough for a regular bucket to be lowered and somehow turned on its side to let the weight of any water coming into it pull it under the water altogether and then just bring up bucket when it got full, no, you or rather I had to haul this contraption up as fast as I could, hand over hand, because it was losing water all the time through the holes in its side and I had to have an actual bucket handy at the top to save what water was left in that strange object, it looked sort of like a metal lantern with lots of holes in it to let light get out but instead of letting light out it let water in until you or rather I pulled it above the water level in the well and then it let water out the whole time you or rather I was pulling it up, I was so glad our well was shallow, only about twenty-six feet deep, our neighbors with the spigot on the side of their house had a well that was much deeper, ninety feet comes to mind or maybe it was a hundred and fifty, I can't remember, but nobody had to pull a rope because they had installed a pump to bring the water to the house and also a real faucet in their kitchen and a porcelain bathtub with a drain in their bathroom.

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  17. I have read up through Chapter 15 and I agree with you that Chapter 13 was unusual to say the least and I'll take your word for it that it's your best writing so far as my computer screen seems to have gone blank maybe bankrupt would be a better term when I got to that part so I hope it was not a matter of my anti-virus program just deleting it all because I think Chapter 13 would have had some interesting things to say had I been able to read it, and in Chapter 15 you were sort of complaining that no one had written a book called Gladly the Cross Eyed Bear which tells me that you haven't read a lot of Ed McBain's books because he has one of that title which I have read and which was not too bad if you like his sort of writing which has a lot of underhanded dealings in it since the main character is a detective of sorts who runs across all sort of folks and the heroine of Gladly the Cross Eyed Bear is a toy designer who is getting ripped off and he comes to her rescue and all that sort of stuff.
    I failed the test to identify the singing groups as that sort of music is not my thing and I hardly even know who the Gaithers are but have listened to them a few times but that's about it but having been born in Texas and now living in Arkansas I have always considered myself a southerner but maybe I'm not because I have eaten sugar well actually syrup on grits as well as red-eye gravy which undoubtedly is high in sodium and cholesterol the red-eye gravy that is not the syrup but I don't really care because if I have lived this long eating that stuff I just as well keep on doing it 'cause prolly sugar and fat is all that is holding me together as it is and if I suddenly gave it up I would fall apart.
    I will read more later.

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  18. Pat, I think the mark of a dedicated reader is that the reader begins to take on aspects of what he or she is reading and you certainly seem to be doing that, I sure didn't know there was a book called Gladly, The Cross-Eyed Bear after all, I guess great minds run in the same channel, to which someone I once knew replied so do garbage boats, well, you can't win 'em all is what I say, oh, by the way, just where in Texas were you born anyway in you don't mind sharing that piece of personal information. I am really surprised your computer screen went blank on Chapter 13, it was all right when I set it up, did you notice that I did not say alright which is incorrect just as alot is even though a lot of people say alot a lot of the time.

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  19. Sorry, I just eavesdropped on your comment to Pat. I never knew "alright" was not a correct word. Actually, my dictionary lists it but states, "....it is found in advertising and comic strips, but it is not as yet generally acceptable." (in 1966)

    I just read Chapter 8. Oh, my.....you have some heavy memories permeating your being. But, what a lesson for all the rest of us.

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  20. Billy Ray Barnwell here, I just thought of something else I wanted to tell Pat, and that is of course you are a southerner if you were born in Texas and are now living in Arkansas, those are both in the South, what I think you may be trying to say is that you are not a "true" southerner, there is a difference, some of which, differences, I mean, I tried to outline in Chapter 15 and one I left out is that a "true" southerner thinks and acts like Coy Flurry, I am sorry for any confusion in your mind that I might have caused, but it's prolly good that you are not a "true" southerner, neither am I, because the real question is true to what? and that may sound a bit judgmental but it's what I think.

    And if I may combine two comments into one, let me also say to Jeannelle it is time to buy a new dictionary because if you are using 1966 as a standard of what is or is not as yet generally acceptable, you might could find yourself in a bit of trouble in today's world because a great deal of what used to be considered acceptable is not any longer, see Chapter 9 for more on that subject, and similarly a lot of what used to be definitely unacceptable is flaunted in the streets and all over television and the movies these days, I guess I stopped talking about words and started talking about something else for which no dictionary has yet been published, so before I make you even more confused this is Billy Ray Barnwell signing off for now.

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  21. Dear Billy Ray Barnwell, I was born in Yorktown, DeWitt County, Texas, a small town founded in the mid 1800's, located about 75 miles east of San Antonio and 35 or so miles northwest of Victoria, which was my mama's home town. I don't know what my daddy was doing in the way of work at the time or why or how the family got to Yorktown, I just know that's where I was born 'cause it says so on my birth certificate.

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  22. Pat, I took my handy-dandy road atlas down from the shelf and checked it and sure enough, there was Yorktown, Texas, in DeWitt County, between San Antonio and Victoria, I spent nearly fourteen years living in Texas, but I had never heard of Yorktown, I was more in the North Central Texas world around Dallas and Fort Worth, although I did attend one year of college not far from Austin and went through eight weeks of Air Force basic training in San Antonio and have visited friends in Houston and went on a business trip to Brownsville and Harlingen once, and I have seen Lubbock and Wichita Falls and Beaumont and even Texarkana, but there are huge chunks of Texas I have never stepped foot in or laid eyes on and that part where you were born is one of those chunks. I see from the atlas that Yorktown is not far from Goliad, one is at EM-6 on the grid and the other one is at EN-7, and Goliad, in case you didn't know, was the scene of a fierce battle in the War for Texas Independence from Mexico in 1836, in fact at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto the Texans were heard to yell not only "Remember the Alamo" but also "Remember Goliad," wow, I haven't thought about Texas History since I was in school and somehow didn't mention one word about it in my book, but how do you like living in Arkansas? I have visited a relative who lives in Rogers way up in the northwest corner of the state past Fayetteville and I have traveled from Texarkana to Memphis, Tennessee, on Interstates 30 and 40, and also from West Plains, Missouri, to Memphis through Jonesboro and oddly enough we have a friend here in Georgia who grew up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, as my mother used to say, what a co-sinsa-quance.

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  23. Billy Ray Barnwell here, this is a P.S. to Pat, I checked my sources and discovered I had given you a piece of misinformation, that must be some kind of first, the Battle of Goliad actually took place in October of 1835, a thousand pardons.

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  24. I have now read Chapters 16 through 24 at one sitting and that's a lot of words to get through I tell you, Billy Ray Barnwell, and I don't know how long it took you to come up with all those words but you did a pretty good job with them I think and you should thank your English teacher, and your math teacher, too, for that matter, and I like your poem about the folks in Florida a whole lot 'cause there is a lot of truth in what you wrote, I'm sure, although I've only been to Florida three times in my life and then only for short visits, once to visit the Disney place (before Epcot Center was open so you know about how long that has been but it was already a pretty pricey place to visit and I'm not sure I got my money's worth if you know what I mean) and one to help move my daugher, her no-good husband (as it turned out) and her two sweet babies to somewhere outside St. Petersburg and one other time to attend a seminar on new software being installed for my company's personnel system which was a bust, the seminar, not the software, all most of the folks who attended wanted to do was party and I didn't learn very much at all and I didn't party either so it was a waste of time for the most part, but I ate some delicious Cuban Black Bean Soup and some good seafood in the restaurants nearby and got to walk on the beach at St. Pete early mornings and late evenings, I have to do that because I sunburn really easy and I didn't look forward to having blisters, and I've never been to Dade County Florida in person but have seen a lot of it on TV, nor have I been to Boca, although I have chewed on a coca leaf when I went to Cuzco Peru to help avoid altitude sickness and it tasted just like an oak leaf, I think, although I have never chewed on an oak leaf, but it did work, the coca not the oak leaf I didn't chew on, 'cause I didn't have altitude sickness at 9,000 feet and some of my traveling companions were just about knocked out from lack of oxygen so I guess there is something efficacious in it, and I nearly lost my composure and scared the cats out of a year's growth while reading about Saving Ryan's Privates, and that's about all I have to say for now except that I enjoyed the information about the Greek Muses.

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  25. Pat, thank you for your very kind and informative comment, it is just about the right length, I think, none of this "Nice job, so long" stuff for you, and I have never chewed on an oak leaf either, but I did have a bowl of gazpacho once at the Columbian Restaurant in Ybor City, which is in the Cuban part of Tampa, which is not at all like black bean soup, gazpacho I mean, not the Cuban part of Tampa, and I have also never ever received a comment before that contained the word "efficacious" so that is a real first, it reminded me of a woman I knew forty years ago, Effie Lindmark of either Poughkeepsie or Wappingers Falls New York, I can't remember which, it has been so long ago, but we were members of the same church, please apologize to your cats from me personally, not about my memory of Effie Lindmark but that I made you nearly lose your composure and I guess the only thing that saved them even more trauma, the cats I mean, was that it was only nearly.

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  26. I have posted comments several times, they have not showed up yet. Perhaps I am invisible? Funny stuff.

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  27. There they are! Yesterday, after arriving at this blog, Google disabled me. Said I looked like a spammer, or that I might have a virus on my computer. Hmmmm...ran a virus check, the 2nd one for the day. No virus, but I am able to post again.

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  28. Good to see you, Mary @ Annie's Goat Hill, I have never spoken before to someone with either an at sign or an apostrophe in the middle of her name, if you don't mind I will just call you Maryat, and I suppose I'm not really speaking to you now, what I'm doing is I'm creating a written response to a written comment, but we'll just pretend we are talking, I'm glad you finally made it through all the spam blockers and virus killers, it reminds me of something Tennessee Ernie Ford said one time on the TV that his wife said about his moustache, she told somebody that she didn't mind having to go through a little underbrush to get to the picnic, I still don't see your comments, by the way, except for this one that says, "There they are!", so if they did in fact show up somewhere please tell me where exactly it is that they showed up, because I live for readers' comments, I sure hope you can resurrect or re-create them, but so long for now, Maryat, I hope you come back often.

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  29. Hi, Billy Ray,

    I just read Chapter 9 and enjoyed it very much. A "belt line" is a new one on me. Though, my dad used to start unbuckling his belt when we kids were naughty, and we would straighten up right away.

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  30. Hi, again, Billy,

    Oh, I laughed over Chapter 10. Did you make all that up?

    Actually, my husband does perform A.I. on our cows. Its a fascinating process and it doesn't even make me jealous. Thankfully, he buys the semen in little straws from salesmen.

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  31. Robert, I would rather not re-create the troubles, or is that Billy?

    My friend A.I.'s her goats, Jeannelle. I should have my bucks collected, but I think I'll just make sure I have a few bucks on hand instead. Would be less mouths to feed though.

    Did I see that you read C.S. Lewis, Billy? I do to from time to time. I am not an expert at his books, by any means, just dabble in reading them sometimes.

    Your comments today made me giggle. Yes, there are various breeds. I own Saanans, Alpines, Nubians, and Boers.

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  32. I wish we could edit our comments. As it stands, we have to delete if we don't like how things read. And I am running late for the evening feeding...

    Thank you for the comments on my blog. I try to follow up with everyone. I see that you do too, Billy-Robert.

    Maryat

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  33. Well, Billy Ray, I've read all the way to the end. I am abandoning my attempts to be clever at constructing my comments (hope you have not minded) and just tell you that I enjoyed every word of your stories, and am most impressed, and a bit awed, by your prowess as a poet. Your work is remarkable.

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  34. Jeannelle, I am glad you are enjoying what I wrote, why you are not even halfway through yet, so I hope you will still be enjoying it all the way to the end and even after you finish.

    Maryat, nice to hear from you again, I do get a little confused though when you talk to other commenters and when you respond to comments old rhymeswithplague apparently made on your blog, and speaking of goats, he really gets mine at times. C.S. Lewis doesn't ring a bell, but I do remember Robert Q. Lewis from back in the early days of black-and-white television, he had a quiz show called The Name's the Same, and before that he would substitute sometimes for Arthur Godfrey on his radio program, Arthur's I mean, not Robert Q. Lewis's, and by the way, if you really want to know what I think, Saanans, Alpines, Nubians, and Boers sounds like a law firm.

    Pat, Pat, Pat! Thank you for sticking with my book all the way to the end. A writer can hope for nothing more from his readers. Thank you for your very kind closing comments also.

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  35. No way! A law firm? They do, they do!!! Girls...you have a job to do today, get out your pens, paper, books...you are not going to make milk, you are going to make money!!!By the way, the email that I am sending to you via the newsletter and Annie's Goat Hill has been returned (twice) today. I am receiving an "invalid recipient" error. Maryat

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  36. Maryat, I have just sent you an e-mail on the contact link on your anniesgoathill.com website with correct information for sending us your newsletter. This should stop any more "invalid recipient" errors.

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  37. Thank you...and you need to stop on over and see the weird soap I created today. I am in this crazy soap mood. Have not made plain Jane soap in a few days. Have a good evening!

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  38. So, Billy Boy, what is scuppernong? And, muscadine?

    I failed the Southerner test, obviously. But, why wouldn't I, seeing as the only place I've ever lived is here in Iowa.

    Your book continues to be very entertaining!

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  39. Billy Ray Barnwell here, scuppernongs and muscadines are types of wild grapes, Jeannelle, the scuppernongs are green and the muscadines are purple, and they are slightly larger and not as sweet as the kinds of grapes you are prolly used to buying in your local grocery store, but I challenge you to find out what Hoppin' John is all by yourself.

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  40. Obviously, I need to get busy reading. :)

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  41. Dear Billy Ray

    You and your alter ego have an award at my place. :)

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  42. Well, thank you, Pat - An Arkansas Stamper, I will retrieve the award you have kindly given me and add it quickly to the sidebar area of my blog, posthaste you might say, ha ha ha, I made a little joke, I do thank you for thinking of me, especially after reading my book and all, although I can't imagine why you think I have an altered ego, I do not now nor have I ever had an altered ego, I still have the very same one I started out with originally, but one thing it would be very nice to have at this stage in my life is an enhanced libido, if you know where I might could find one of those I would appreciate it your letting me know, the posthaster the better. This dadblamed computer still thinks I am rhymeswithplague and I most certainly am not, I am me, myself, and I and the three of us are very happy to know one another, I read something the other day about Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) which used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) but the only people I have run across who might could fit that description are that couple who had twins and then had sextuplets, Jon and Kate Plus Eight on the TLC channel, they are really one stressed-out mommy and daddy, I would be too if I had all those kids screaming in my ear all day long, I actually have two ears, I'm not claiming to be Vincent Van Gogh.

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  43. Yes, well, uhm, I came here through Pat from Arkansas, who isn't from Arkansas, and if you don't mind I will join your 'followers' with the intention to read your book because I really like the recommendations on the cover! Can't wait to read more!

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  44. Carolina, welcome, welcome, and the more the merrier, I always say. Well actually I don't always say that, I haven't said it in a long time and if I did always say it I wouldn't get much of anything else said at all, now would I? I see you are in the Netherlands or maybe that is The Netherlands, I for one have always admired the way Queen Wilhelmina abdicated in favor of Queen Juliana and then Queen Juliana abdicated in favor of Queen Beatrix, but Her Majesty Elizabeth II in Great Britain is still going strong at eighty-something after 56 years as monarch, do you think Prince Charles will ever get to be king? I do believe you are the first commenter I have ever asked two questions of, don't you feel special? That makes three. Happy reading!

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  45. Robert, the newsletter has not been sent out yet. I am aiming towards the first issue 2/16/09. But, I did not receive the 2nd email from you. I was not able to verify your email address. When I receive the email, I will be sending the coupon to you for subscribing. Computers...such a blessing, yet such a pain in the hind end. :) I love it.

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  46. Dear Sir,

    In answer to your questions:
    1. No
    2. No (which reminds me: when he's wearing a hat my father always says: "if I didn't have ears I would be blind", or actually he says: "het is maar goed dat ik oren heb, anders was ik nu blind geweest")
    3. Yes

    Thank you :-)

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  47. Carolina, what a pleasant surprise to receive your answers to my questions, I wasn't expecting them, your answers I mean, not my questions, because when I asked the questions I thought they were rhetorical, but this internet thing makes for two-way, if somewhat delayed, conversation, n'est-ce pas?, that last phrase is French for "isn't it so?" and is a very useful phrase that can be added to just about any statement so it can mean "don't you think so?" or "wouldn't you?" or "aren't they?" or just about anything you want it to. I was confused at first about your father's statement but then I figured out after a little while that he prolly wears glasses and the earpieces go over, guess what, his ears, and without his glasses he would be blind, but I am still unsure why he says that when he's wearing a hat, wouldn't it also be true even when he's not wearing a hat? You don't have to answer that one, but I would still like to know whether it is the Netherlands or The Netherlands and where Holland comes into the picture.

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  48. Carolina, P.S., I am even more confused now, what does your father's statement have to do with whether Prince Charles will ever be king of England?

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  49. Usually, if my father says something, everybody is confused. I inherited that gift.
    He means: his ears prevent the hat (from?) covering his eyes.
    And I had this image in my head of Prince Charles wearing a crown and then I thought of his ears. That's why they are the size they are! (Ironically my father is actually going blind, wether he's wearing a hat or not. But that's another story.)
    I'm not so sure if it is The Netherlands, the Netherlands and when it's Holland. I feel so stupid now. We just say Nederland. It's you people outside our borders that make it so difficult! Now I'm confused!

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  50. Carolina in Nederland, I guess that makes you a Nederlander, n'est-ce pas?, and saying Carolina in Nederland strikes me as being almost like saying Alice in Wonderland, I could put another n'est-ce pas? here but I won't, I'm glad you explained the relationship between your father's hat (a hat had not occurred to me) and his going blind and Prince Charles's ears, I suppose that should be among and not between since we're speaking of more than two objects, why, your father's ears alone are two objects unless his name is Vincent Van Gogh, to name a Nederlander of another era, and you don't need to feel stupid unless you have never heard of Vincent Van Gogh.

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  51. Carolina in Nederland, P.S. again, are you saying that the reason Prince Charles's ears are the size they are is to keep his crown, if he were wearing one, from covering his eyes? I guess we in the U.S. are not the only ones with freedom of speech after all, but I would caution you not to say it when you are in England, because even if a huge portion of the English populace would prolly agree with you it is always considered rude to insult one's hosts, at least it used to be.

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  52. Vincent van Gogh? No, doesn't ring a bell.
    (Just joking.)

    I like Carolina in Nederland.

    Do you think saying that someone has big ears, when he actually has big ears, and that they might come in handy some day is an insult? I don't. It's just a practical observation. I can think of other things to say that will be insulting, but I will not put them in writing here because someone once told me that everything you write on the internet or text or say through your telephone is monitored by huge whatdoyoucallthosethings and that the FBI or CIA or MI5 or 6 will be on your doorstep soon afterwards if they think that would be the appropriate action to take. Better safe than sorry.

    What I am sorry for is taking up so much of your time, but the way you write is quite infectious, or is catching a better word? Anyway, chapter three of your writing is on tomorrow's agenda. Like it so far!

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  53. Carolina in Nederland, I think saying that someone has big ears, when he actually has big ears, and that they might come in handy some day is perfectly all right to say to your significant other, if you have one, in the privacy of your own home, if you have one, provided he or she is not the one with the big ears, but it is not something I would recommend you go around saying to people on the street because some of the people on the street might be friends of the person who has the big ears and take umbrage at what you are saying about their friend and you might could find yourself involved in an altercation or worse, that's what I think, I have never been one to say provocative things though, and even though the truth will set you free it can also land you in the hospital or in jail, so a word to the wise [should be sufficient, as we say in English], and please don't be sorry for taking up so much of my time, I love to interact with my readers, maybe I should be sorry for taking up so much of your time here in the comments when you could be reading more of the book proper, not that there is any such thing as a book improper, of mine anyway, but let me warn you if you want to improve your English writing skills I may not be the one you should be emulating, especially in the area of punctuation and sentence length, you might try old rhymeswithplague sometime, he is a bit more conversant with how to turn a phrase than I am even though I hate to admit it.

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  54. Dear Sir,

    I just thought that I should let you know that I have read your book up to chapter 8 now, if this means that I have not yet read chapter 8, because I have not yet done that, I will read chapter 8 and perhaps even more chapters tomorrow, and that I find it very amusing and entertaining and really enjoyable to read.

    Kind regards,
    Carolina in Nederland

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  55. Carolina in Nederland, it is really good to hear from you because when I hadn't heard from you in three days I thought you might have gone off in a huff like Ila Faye Hostetter did and abandoned my book altogether, you I mean, not Ila Faye Hostetter, that is the last thing in the world I would want to see happen, but what a relief to hear from you again, and especially that you find the book very amusing and entertaining and really enjoyable to read, and yes, you are right, "up to Chapter 8" means that you haven't read Chapter 8 yet, at least it means that to me, because if you had already read Chapter 8 you would say either "up through Chapter 8" or "up to Chapter 9" in my opinion, others may disagree, and use of language can be very confusing, don't you think? hey, there's another place where I could have said n'est-ce pas? but since you are not from France I think I will stop saying that altogether, but getting back to what I was saying about use of language can be very confusing, Udella Mabry and I confuse each other regularly with the phrase "next weekend" because when I say it I mean the next weekend we will encounter but Udella thinks that one is "this weekend" and that "next weekend" is the one after that, I call that one "weekend after next" and so we continue in a sort of linguistic dance, do you have this same problem in the/The Netherlands?

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  56. Carolina in Nederland, P.S., you don't have to address me as "Dear Sir" any more, just call me Billy Ray because that is, after all, my name and when you say "Dear Sir" it brings up an image of the young Sidney Poitier surrounded by a bunch of nuns in my mind, it's the image that is in my mind, not the bunch of nuns, although if I had attended a parochial school instead of the public school in Not Grapevine, Texas, they might be.

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  57. Dear Billy Ray, thanks for your help with the 'up to' problem I had. This is a very confusing problem too for people in Nederland. And the 'next weekend'-problem is a familiar one also. It is nice, nice in the sense that I feel some sort of bond between us people, to know that, although there are oceans between us and we speak different languages, we still have the same language-difficulties. And I have not left you Billy Ray, I just do not have the time to visit you more often. If it makes you feel better, I think of you often.

    Confused as ever,
    Carolina in Nederland

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  58. Hey, Billy Ray,

    That is pretty cool in Chapter 17.....about your mama helping author John Howard Griffin figure out the title for his book. Really nifty.....and I think you really did mean to tell us about it. That's a unique memory to have.

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  59. Well, hey there, Jeannelle, I wondered if you had stopped reading out of sheer boredom or possibly exasperation because I hadn't heard from you since January 29th, but here you are all the way up to Chapter 17. I don't know whether you know Pat An Arkansas Stamper but she has read all the way to the end of my book including what Mr. Robert Brague of Truly-Godawful books had to say about it so if you finish the book you might could be in a very exclusive club, more exclusive than Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States of which there have been eighteen, and even more exclusive than Secretaries-General of the United Nations of which there have been eight, and let me just say here for the record that I hope you do, finish my book I mean.

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  60. P.S. to Jeannelle, I am confused by your statement that you think I really did mean to tell you about my mama helping author John Howard Griffin figure out the title for his book, have you read other stuff in my book that you think I really didn't mean to tell you about? and if you do I hope I haven't divulged any deep dark secrets of my psyche which is pronounced SY-kee and if I have I will leave it to you whether to tell me what they are.

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  61. It was because of your first sentence in the second paragraph of Chapter 17.....

    Its been hectic around here......basketball games and swollen tonsils.....and, me wrapped up in writing on my own blog and then getting tired and not making the rounds to other blogs. Its a bad rut I fall into. Boredom doesn't fit into the equation at all.

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  62. Billy....your chapter 19 made me think. You know, you caught that Sean Hannity error about Elvis because you already knew his correct birthplace. You had awareness of the truth. Not always do people have that luxury? Most of the time we just soak in the information offered forth by newspeople and newspapers. We take for granted that its true, unless we have that special circumstance of being aware of a truth before someone tries to tell us otherwise. I don't know what I'm trying to say.....just making an observation, I guess.

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  63. Jeannelle @ 9:41 PM, I see what you mean, I was pulled away from writing about Epititus in Chapter 17 to write you about John Howard Griffin instead and how he came by with the newspaper and sat in a lawn chair under our elm trees and Mama suggested the title for his book, which wasn't exactly what he called his book, but close, and eventually I did tell you about Epititus anyway. I just follow my muse wherever she goes, you'll read more about that in Chapter 20, it's a failing of mine I suppose, not Chapter 20 but following my muse wherever she goes.

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  64. Jeannelle @ 9:59 PM, I'm glad Chapter 19 made you think, we could all do with a little more thinking, I think, and what my Dad used to say was certainly true, about using your or rather my head for something besides keeping your or rather my ears apart, if more of us did that the world would be a much better place, I think, there I go thinking again, but some people are so open-minded they will believe everything you tell them and some people are so close-minded they won't believe anything you tell them, and I think, that's three thoughts in one comment, we should all be aiming for something between those two extremes, the philosopher René Descartes said "Cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am), but to tell you the truth, in my experience it has been just the opposite, Sum, ergo cogito (I am, therefore I think), and that is prolly how I knew Sean Hannity was wrong when he said Elvis Presley was born in Memphis, Tennessee, it's as natural to me as breathing, thinking I mean, not Memphis, Tennessee.

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  65. Billy Ray,

    I just read chapters 20 and 21, enjoying them very much. The info on the Muses was fascinating. As you were not acquainted with the specific Carter family members (I did not, either), I did not know the names and corresponding "arts" of the Muses. I should study more about them, as their influence is everywhere.

    In chapter 21, also, I appreciated the mental image of "you never know what" floating up from the unconscious into the conscious and insisting on being put into words.

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  66. A couple more words that I often hear mispronounced: prostate as "prostrate", and realtor as "realator".

    My daughter and her husband live in a rapidly developing suburban area in prime Iowa farmland. The city planners feel that no residents should be over five minutes away from a large supermarket and other amenities, hence the proliferation of strip malls every few few miles, swallowing up the farmland.

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  67. The swallowing up of farmland is one of my biggest pet peeves. I truly love looking outside in one direction and looking at no buildings at all. Part of our surroundings are in government programs, where the owners are only allowed to bale or mow once or twice a year, fairly secure areas for the time being.

    Mr. Barnwall, Robert, Billy, good seeing your post on my blog today. I had been wondering how you were doing.

    I have been busy, just not able to stop by the blogs that I enjoy visiting from time to time. Today is a good day for it!

    I read your comments to my husband this morning. We both had a deep seated laugh! I bet that applesauce cake changed a few times, surprise cakes they were, as the recipe moved on to different hands!

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  68. Hello there, Jeannelle and Mary, Billy Ray Barnwell here, good to hear from both of you again, the Holstein lady and the goat lady, I'm glad that it's possible for us all to enjoy looking outside in one direction and looking at no buildings at all and that direction would be up, I especially enjoy looking up into the sky at night when the stars and planets are so bright and the distances are so great and for just a second or two I get a little inkling, make that a twinkling, of just how small and insignificant we are in relation to the rest of the known universe, it really makes you stop and think about that verse in the book of Romans in the New Testament in the Bible where St. Paul, the real one I mean, not the city in Minnesota, told us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, which is what all those people who are trying to replace farmland with strip malls have been doing for longer than I care to remember, it's the people on the farmland who are givers for the most part and the people in the cities are takers for the most part, at least it seems that way to me and if it is not that way I would really appreciate your not bursting my bubble, what do you know, I can still put the subject of a gerund in the possessive case with the best of them.

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  69. I will try very hard to not burst your bubble. Your words meant a great deal to me this morning. And, where would we be if we didn't realize that we should always remember to look up?

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  70. Hi, Billy,

    Concerning Chapter 24....my opinion is that likewise men don't want to hear what women think.....men want to hear what they themselves think....in a higher octave. It works both ways.....that is my opinion, yes it is.

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  71. Billy Ray Barnwell here, thank you, Maryat, for your comment about my comment, and thanks also to Jeannelle for your comment about what I said in Chapter 24, but speaking of whether people of whatever persuasion want to hear what they think in a higher or lower octave, your comment reminded me of something I wrote back in Chapter 16 about what would happen if Jimmie Sue Rathbone ever left her husband and went back home to her Mama, and perhaps, just perhaps, I may have gone a little too far in Chapter 24 to have prompted that particular response from you, so I apologize, I suppose you do have a point, but I am not going to go back and change the book now because it is what it is.

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  72. Billy,

    No, you did not go too far. Don't worry about that. Men like to make jokes about women and vice versa. Its your book and you can write whatever you wish, anyway. :)

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  73. Hey, Billy Ray,

    Well, after reading Chapter 25, I looked up "journal" in the dictionary and you are absolutely correct about it being a noun and noun, only. I'll have to watch what I say from now on.....I've been known to speak of "journaling". Yipes.

    Congrats on your Blog Darts Award. I feel for you that you have to share it with that character, rhymsie, but its better than not getting an award at all.

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  74. Hi, again, Billy Ray,

    I'm nosy....who were you traveling with in Chapter 27? Are you married?

    I noticed you received an award from Pat in Arkansas, too. Congrats! Do you have to share that one, too?

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  75. Jeannelle, Billy Ray Barnwell here, good to hear from you again and thanks for your congrats on the Blog Darts Award, I also shared the one from Pat in Arkansas with rhymeswithplague, but that is all right with me, I'm not bothered in the least even though Mama used to say you're known by the company you keep, because as you say sharing an award is better than not getting an award at all.

    It wouldn't be fair to tell you who I was traveling with, I mean with whom I was traveling, you'll just have to keep reading my book until you either find out or give up in disgust or sheer boredom which is a synonym for the French word ennui which is pronounced ahn-WEE, perhaps I was using an editorial "we" as in "we interrupt this program to bring you this special important announcement" or perhaps I was using the royal "we" as in "we are not amused" which Queen Victoria supposedly once said to someone or other, that is one of the few pieces of trivia about which I do not know the complete story.

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  76. I HAVE READ MOST OF THE COMMENTS AND THE PREFACE UP TO THE DEDICATION WHICH TOOK ME AN HOUR AND I CAN ONLY SAY IT SOUNDS LIKE A BOOK AGAINST ME AND ALL THE NONCOFORMISTS IN THE WORLD...A PRIM AND PROPER LITTLE GUY WHO SPELLS WELL, USES GRAMMER WELL, HAS COHERANT THIOUGHTS AND ORGANISED HIMESELF WELL IN HIS OWN WORLD....WHY WOULD I WANT TO FEEL BAD KNOWING THERE IS JUST A PERSON IN THIS WORLD...IF ALL PEOPLE COULD BE JUST LIKE ME....BUT I WILL READ ABOUT BILLY RAY NOT BILLY RQY AS I REFERED TO HIM ONCE IN A GUEST ARTICLE ON YOUR VERY OWN RHYMES WITH BOB BLOG..HE WAS OFFENDED ONCE AGAIN BY MY SPELLING...I THINK HE MUST BE A VERY DANGEROUS INDIVIDUAL OR IS THAT INDIVUAL..I WILL READ THE WHOLE THING OVER TIME...YES I WILL, I PROMISE YOU THAT...I STILL HAVE 800 PAGES OF MY BOOK IGNOBLE ENIGMA TO RECANT BACK TOP THE WORLD...ANOTHER 800 BLOGS WORTH

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  77. ALSO SO VERY MUCH GENEOLOGY....ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE NOT LDS BILLY RAY?????

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  78. Hello there, Mr. Putz, Billy Ray Barnwell here, glad to make your acquaintance once again, I believe you called me billy rqy once over on rhymeswithplague's blog and I told you billy rqy was not my name but you could call me rqy bobby if you like, I was just trying to be funny, oh by the way WHY DO YOU WRITE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS??? IT'S RATHER LIKE SHOUTING if you don't mind my saying so and I truly hope I have done nothing to make you shout at me but I am glad you are reading my blog, er, book, er blog because if one is going to write it always helps to have readers and let me just assure you that no, I am not LDS, and just to clear the record, you are not the David who is a Mormon who lives in Utah who I mentioned in the book, I wrote this stuff a couple of years ago before I had ever heard of David "Putz" Barlow but isn't that a coincidence, and this is Billy Ray Barnwell signing off for now.

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  79. Long time, no heard from me....right, Billy Ray?! I just enjoyed Chapter 28, with the listing of wedding music. I love Rachmaninoff! And, speaking of Tevye....I once sang "Sunrise, Sunset" at a wedding. Keep pushing for those old wedding favorites to be brought back. "Oh, Promise Me" was sung at my wedding.....

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  80. Oh, Billy Ray....Chapter 29 is a hoot! Don't send me that pamphlet, please. Actually, I used to listen every morning to a radio show called, "The Chapel of the Air"....when I was in high school, believe it or not. The show came from Wheaton, IL.

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  81. Billy Ray Barnwell here, hello again Jeannelle, good to hear from you and good to know that you are still reading my book, slow and steady wins the race as The Tortoise and The Hare teaches us, I think Aesop which is pronounced EE-sahp wrote that unless I am sadly mistaken, and when I am on rare occasions mistaken it is usually very sadly, oh by the way did you get the humor in Chapter 29 about Cecil Field which is a real Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, and Tom Bigbee which is a real river in Alabama except it is all one word, Tombigbee I mean, not arealriverinAlabama, maybe you would have to be a southerner to catch those particular subtleties which is pronounced SUTTLE-tees, but if you were a southerner then you wouldn't be Jeannelle of Iowa as old rhymeswithplague likes to call you, you would be Jeannelle of Jacksonville or Jeannelle of Tuscaloosa or something, and it just wouldn't be the same at all, which reminds me of a gospel song that the Reverend Rick Warren included in his Purpose-Driven Live video called "I Will Never Be The Same Again", the song I mean, not the video, and I'm hoping that will be true of anyone who reads my book, especially Chapter 29, and this is Billy Ray Barnwell signing off until next time, if there is a next time.

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  82. Billy Ray Barnwell here to correct my previous comment wherein I said Purpose-Driven Live but meant to say Purpose-Driven Life, please take note, and this is Billy Ray Barnwell signing off.

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  83. Been away for a while, kidding season kicked in 40 days ago. I see you have been busy!

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  84. Hi, Billy Ray,

    Its nice to get back and read more of your book. I found Chapter 30 quite enjoyable. I admire your honesty in telling us your likes and dislikes. Its refreshing when a person such as yourself goes ahead and does that.

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  85. Hi, again, Billy Ray,

    Lots of great memories and info you've included in Chapter 31. I enjoyed the verse from the poem "Renascense".....I'm going to look it up to read the rest. Thank you and good night.

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  86. Well, hey there, Miss Jeannelle, Billy Ray Barnwell here, glad to see that you are moving along in my book but it's sort of bittersweet also, I am all too aware that before long you will have finished reading it and probably won't ever return, I will be just another literary conquest of yours, just another notch on your bedpost, just another footnote in your life, just another memory in your dreams, I weep for all the fictional characters who have been used and tossed aside like old rags, though perhaps something I have said will stick in your mind and I will become a living, breathing human being just like Pinocchio did, he is one of my heroes because in spite of all his foibles and struggles and wrong turns he still came out all right in the end, which was really sort of the beginning, wasn't it?, and this is Billy Ray Barnwell signing off for now.

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  87. I have not abandoned you forever and have enjoyed reading the comments and responses that have been posted since my last visit which was some time ago but I think about Billy Ray exploits frequently and get a smile and chuckle from my remembrances and since these stories make me feel good at least most of the time sometimes a chapter will make me tear-up I shall probably reread the whole thing as time allows because some books are just meant to be kept and reread like Gene Stratton Porter's Keeper of the Bees which has nothing to do with Billy Ray but is a sweet story that I have read many times since I discovered it in the 1940's but didn't get to read the first of the story for years because the copy of the book that was in my daddy's garage had the first 20 pages missing and at the time I was too dense to realize that I could get the book with all the pages from the library and ended up buying a copy of it for $17.50 from Red Bridge books in Kansas City.

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  88. Hello, Miss Pat, an Arkansas Stamper! Billy Ray Barnwell here, how nice to hear from you once again, I started to say "from a former reader" but that does not accurately describe you, does it?, no it doesn't, you are by your own admission more of "an ongoing reader" and if I may say so, I think that is the best kind to be, I'm sorry you had to shell out all that money for the first twenty pages of Gene Stratton Porter's Keeper of the Bees, you might say that Red Bridge books in Kansas City became the Keeper of the Fees, then again you might not but I definitely would, in fact, I just did, well you can prolly tell I am downright giddy to hear from a former, I mean an ongoing reader like yourself, and this is Billy Ray Barnwell signing off in a state of euphoria.

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  89. Billy Ray,

    The solution is for you to keep writing! Write a sequel book or keep posting installments.

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  90. Billy Ray Barnwell here, Miss Jeannelle, you have definitely given me something to think about, something I had not really thought about before, a sequel book! My, my, the possibilities....not saying I will and not saying I won't, but definitely something to think about, and this is Billy Ray Barnwell signing off once again.

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  91. Mr Robert, err...Mr. Billy Ray Barnwell, thank you for sending visitors my way. It is always appreciated.

    One of my loves in life was writing. Well, correction, is writing. I no longer have the time, nor do I want to have a book published, but I appreciate a good read!

    Take care.

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  92. Maryat, a thousand pardons for my having neglected for several days to check whether any new comments had appeared on my blog. It is always good to hear from you. How are you, fine I hope, as I used to write to my aunt in Pennsylvania when I was a child, and how is all the goat-milking and kid-nursing and soap-making going, also fine I hope, that last part was to you and not to my aunt in Pennsylvania, who happens to have been dead since 1988. You are quite welcome for any visitors who were intrigued enough by what they read on rhymeswithplague's blog to want to learn more about the activities going on at your strangely-named law firm, but I had nothing to do with it, well okay, maybe a little, but not very much. Remember, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, and I will try to remember it too.

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  93. My goodness, blogger is allowing me to leave a comment on your blog! Each time I come here I receive an Internet Explorer error and my computer shuts down. All of that aside...

    Thanks for the comments on my blog.

    The cheese recipe is really fairly easy. It sounds a bit complicated but it is not difficult once you make it a time or two.

    Glad you are feeling that perky, being 68, and 18 inside, isn't anything to sneeze at.

    I have friends the same age as I that call themselves elderly and do nothing. Drives me nuts! So much life ahead.

    Take care, Mary

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  94. More than a year has elapsed since the preceding comment showed up, and curiosity, which as we all know eventually killed the cat, finally got the better of me, so using an online translator, I now know who my visitor who speaks Chinese is and what he or she said. Ready?

    Yu-Hsuan Chang Hwa said ... small chat room chat room chat room 080 chat Peas dream element erotic chat areas Mimi Mimi Habib color paste gold bottle adult video adult net exchange area close relative Jinping Mei Matsushima Feng rape free videos Bobo Bobo map area to see beautiful women boxing online network wave wave line upstream of the online game network map area beautiful big breasts video network playing a woman playing a woman playing a woman Look at the film live porn video live free adult erotic video Barbie film Kao Habib kinky color screen Hung Yeh Ha free game porn free porn video movie Hung Hung Yeh Yeh Yeh Hung-color forum free live films making film school girl sex video beautiful couple friendship chat room Peas

    and all I have to say to Yu-Hsuan Chang Hwa is A you have problems and B you definitely could use a good shrink, probably in more ways than one.

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