My 90 year old TBM mother knows that I left the church several decades ago, but she loves to give me copies of Ensign Articles, quote Mormon verses to me, rehearse recent general conference talks, and tell me she has placed my name in the Temple prayer basket. Oh mom.

I respond by having fun with her in subtle ways. Here is our conversation yesterday:

Mom: Recently son, I was reading a talk by the prophet, Russell M. Nelson, and he was encouraging everyone to read and pray…do you read the scriptures anymore?

Me: I don’t mom. I don’t believe that Jesus is a Mormon. Sorry, but thanks for thinking of me.

Mom: Well you don’t have to believe that Jesus is a Mormon in order to read and pray.

Me: Point well taken. Thanks. Hey by the way, mom, how is it going to church these days for only 2 hours on Sunday instead of 3 hours? There has been a lot of changes recently, like no more home teaching or visiting teaching? You can drink coke and pepsi now? I remember that you said you missed drinking a coke with you became a Mormon over 60 years ago, and now Jesus says you can?

Mom: Oh yes, the Lord is making changes in getting ready for the last days.

Me: Really. Huh..well that’s interesting. You know, I was reading the other day how Wendy Nelson, is 26 years younger than Russell. 26 years!! Wow. Russ sort of robbed the cradle there didn’t he? Is that okay?

Mom: Well the Lord prepared her for him, she had never been married. How do you know that anyway, I hadn't heard that?

Me. He did, I mean Jesus did that. That was nice of him. I just got the information off the internet. I was thinking, though, that all of these sweeping changes seem sort of correlated to Wendy and Russel. You know, these beautiful young women, like Wendy, with their fancy hairstyles and stylish clothing – I mean you know they can have a great affect on an old man. Do you think it’s possible that some of these changes are just Wendy having “pillow talk” with Russell? How could he resist? He’s an old man and she’s a beautiful young woman.

Mom: I think you are just “funning” me now. Hush your mouth. He is the prophet, and Jesus tells him what to do, not Wendy.

Me: Ok…ok..all right…just saying.

That is funny and most likely true about Wendy now directing the changes in the corporation.

Especially when she and Sheri can tag-team the old White male prophet...

Sooooo bad....yet, so funny :)

Viagra or Cialis the reaction agent?

...probably a bowl full of both by the conjugal four-poster.

Probably takes the Snackerment using one or the other, followed by a splash diet Coke.

Hmmmmmmmm. I seriously doubt old Rusty is an active participant. But I bet he likes to watch...Wendy and Sheri going at it that is.

Your mother sounds like an exact clone of my mother. How does LDS Inc do that?

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
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> Your mother sounds like an exact clone of my
> mother. How does LDS Inc do that?

Sigh~

Add me to the list as well.

Maybe you two are the same poster?

It will be interesting to see what happens to Wendy once Russ passes on to Kolob. She'll literally be going from the Mormon media darling glued to Russ's arm to Ms. irrelevant. Remember, Dallin Oaks is next in line and has his own black haired polygamous wife. Kristen Oaks will be a perfect Wendy replacement for Mormon PR.

I can imagine Wendy commiserating with Sheri Dew in their shared home about the good old days when Wendy was front page Deseret News and traveling the world.

There is nothing wrong with someone being married with someone twenty six years older if they are both mature adults. It's not as if she was plucked straight out of high school.

Yeah, but it's fun to subtlety poke fun at it with Mormons when they try to shove their cult down your throat..sort of a deflective strategy. All sorts of joke fodder potential there wouldn't you agree...yeah verily the field is ripe all ready to harvest.

I knew a girl, barely out of university, mid twenties who married a guy twenty or thirty years older than her (somewhere in that region), and she got dog's abuse off people on the internet. So much so they moved to another country.

Thing is, they seem to be really happy together. They have a son, and their marriage is intact years later. It seems a bit much, she could have married someone close to her in age and had a bitterly unhappy marriage, but she chose the much older guy, and as far as I can tell it's worked.

The thing which gets me about Wendy is how fast her and RMN got married after he was widowed. And more bizarrely she was a marriage counselor! Very strange.

One of my many pet peeves is the recital of an admitted anecdote as if it were dispositive of a notion favored by the storyteller.

And which of the prior posts seemed to be inclined towards the view that the marriage was/is 'wrong', requiring the need for the defense presented?

I can handle one person doing this on a continuing basis, but it's going to be hard for me to put up with two people routinely doing this.

"which of the prior posts seemed to be inclined towards the view that the marriage was/is 'wrong', requiring the need for the defense presented?"

Describing their marriage as "robbing the cradle" is pretty pejorative, isn't it? She was a mature woman when she married, hardly in the "cradle".

The 'robbing the cradle' remark was reported as part of a conversation the OP was having with his mother, in which he says he was trying to get a rise out of her.

I made an inference; you made an inference. All ghawd's children make inferences, but yours have the tendency to come out of left field all the time.

ALL the time!

If I met a couple in a "May to September relationship", and said "is the older one robbing the cradle?", I think it unlikely they would want to speak to me again.

The real question is how did RMN get married again so quickly? Is he a fast mover or had it been building up for a long time?

I'm still trying to figure out how moving from one country to another is a remedy for attacks conveyed through the internet.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
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> I'm still trying to figure out how moving from one
> country to another is a remedy for attacks
> conveyed through the internet.

The online attacks were made on her by people at the university and at her work. I presume she knew who some of them were and had met them.

I agree, it is not a complete remedy, but it's what they did and they had a fresh start in NZ and they seem to be happy there.