I thought this would be an occasional fun feature. First, I want to thank everyone for the website comments, it keeps a nice sense of community on Amish365.com and I'd like to build on that. If you're like me sometimes you're so busy it's easy to miss comments on favorite posts. So I picked out some fun and/or interesting ones from this past week to highlight so we can all enjoy the answers. I like to hear from everyone whether it is positive, negative, you catch an error or just want to add your thoughts (just be civil and nice and 99.99999999 percent of you are!). I am thinking of building a "forum" section into Amish365 Plus just to further foster community. Heck, there was even an old friend/acquaintance from my newspaper reporter days commenting this week, how cool is that! Shout-out to Tim in Trenton!
Let’s look back at some comments posted on this website over the past week. The comments on Amish365.com, by the way, are set so I manually have to approve each one. I TRY to do it fast, but sometimes I slip a day or two behind. I wish I could set them to just automatically post but there are some “trolls” out there who don’t know how to behave online, so I have everything set so that it has to go through me first before appearing.
ALL OF A SUDDEN…..This comment comes in from Martha Kennedy, one of the blogs I linked to in this post. Martha says: "Thank you for linking to my blog on WordPress! You’re right. I was not very familiar with the Amish when I saw them swimming in Delaware — that was back in 1982. Your blogroll is very interesting reading! (BTW I’m an English teacher… It’s “all of A sudden” not “all of the sudden.” )" Sheesh, folks, I've said before this isn't a grammar blog. That said, I do want to get it right. Problem is I am the writer, the copy-editor, the designer, etc for this site, I wear a lot of hats. I'm prone to typos and I have to ask you to excuse them. But, wow, this one I might just be wrong on...I think I DO usually say "All of the THE sudden"...What do you say? There is some evidence that my all of THE sudden is an ingrained regional variation. You can read more on this obscure topic here. I'm still not sure it settles anything....
SAM MULLET: After I wrote the piece about Sam Mullet's reaction to the Sixth Circuit court tossing his "hate crimes" conviction I worried that I was coming across as too soft on him. That was NOT my intent, I guess I was just making the point that life is complicated and that our job is to often wade through the thicket of haphazard growth to find the true path because it isn't always clear. Marilyn summed it up best in a comment:
Many years ago I use to work for an insurance agency and I can still remember my boss saying there were three sides to an insurance claim : the insured’s, the claimants and what really happened. I feel that may be true on this. I do believe part of it is was the press. I also believe part of it was Sam Mullet backers and what were the real reasons that it happened.
Marilyn
RANDOM FRIDAY PHOTO MASH-UP: Kathy commented: "I really enjoyed these pictures, thanks for posting them. I also enjoy pictures of Aster & your family." Thanks, Kathy. I'll try to post some photos of Aster around her first birthday later this month, that blows my mind. 
This is a photo I to0k this past week, trying to get my grandmother (Aster's great-grandmother) into a photo together. Aster really is too big and squirmy for my 89-year-old grandmother to comfortably hold, so I was trying to get them into a photo alone, but my uncle didn't know how to zoom in, so you're stuck with a photo of the three of us.
Also in the photo mash-up was a photo from an Amish funeral gathering in Berne, Indiana...Judy writes:
The picture from Berne – the people in the picture are not exactly paying their respects. This was done at probably the family home where the body is laid out for viewing, after it is prepared as is normal by the local funeral home. This is likely the burial at an Amish cemetery, which is like a couple I have been to (funeral services) had plain wooded markers. The men in he congregation cover the grave, passing the shovel hand to hand. The interment is simple, with prayers. Not that different from english interments. I cannot speak for all but the couple we have been to is done as described above. Thank you.
I agree with everything Judy describes in her post, although the photo I posted WAS from the house where people had gathered to "pay their respects" or view the body of the deceased (I guess I just thought "pay their respects" sounded better), not at the actual cemetery.
BALING: From 1990 - 2000, as I built The Amish Cook column, I was also editor of a small, weekly farm-type paper in Trenton, Ohio. I wrote about everything, from school board meetings to the county fair. I know Tim from those days and I'm always glad to see him on Amish365.com. On my post "Peaceful Daviess County" scene, there was a photo of a ground baler...Tim wrote: "Kevin Kevin Kevin! I’m surprised. After all the years of doing Edgewood This Week and you didn’t know what a baler was?"
In my defense, I knew it was a baler, I just couldn't remember the type.
Everyone likes good grammar, but I have heard all of a suddent, and all of the sudden. Kevin, you are one writing it the column, thank goodness we get your honest comments
Thanks, Nancy, all of the sudden, I am not sure which is the correct thing to say!:)
Kevin, you do a wonderful job, and you have very GOOD grammar. Too bad we cannot all be as perfect as Martha. Thanks for all you do.
This probably is one of those numerous phrases that vary from region to region. I say "all of a sudden". I grew up in northeast Kansas.
I always forgive grammar (grammatical?) mistakes because I want people to extend the same grace to me. If I use the phrase at all, I say, "all of a sudden," but I don't think there's a hard-and-fast rule either way. As a homeschool mom I can promise you that it's not addresed in any of my children's English textbooks.
Please don't every apologize to us about being in a photo with your baby. I love the picture of three different generations together. It would've been perfect if your mom had been in the picture. Aster is so adorable! It's hard to believe she'll be a year old soon.
this Buckeye has always used A sudden so I am thinking maybe those years in the arab country may have influenced THE sudden. hahahaha
actually want to recommend your family have generational photos taken while the opportunity is there. we had 5 generations and while different members got photos with our 5th member the altogether one never came about. Sadly.
another challenge here with being able to sign up with the amish365 PREMIUM. I hope others are not being discouraged by this and a bad result for your campaign. I think it is so ironic that one of your readers was able to get on prior to the official opening and I cannot get on now. what am I doing ???
I am from East TN and have never heard anyone say "all of the sudden". I had some VERY picky English teachers all through school (even college) and I feel certain that at least one of those dozen or so would have corrected us on this. Perhaps it is a regional type of thing to say "all of the sudden"