—What's in the Wind! DFO 1667 Comp.11/83

1. WE NEED TO BE CHOOSY ABOUT THE WNS WE'RE PUTTING IN, & MINE ARE LITTLE JEWELS OR NUGGETS THAT I HAVE REALLY WORKED ON! I'm picking out what I think is really something pretty important that they really need to know about, both on current events as well as on background material or general information, the kind of stuff I think they would expect to find amongst my stuff.

2. IT SO HAPPENS THAT THE FORMAT OF THE ORIGINALS FROM WHICH I TAKE THESE IS JUST PERFECT GN SIZE, TWO-COLUMN! Those small columns the papers use fit the GN perfectly. So all I do is I take the original & figure out my number of centimeters, 26 centimeters to a page, & I try to cut them down to one-pagers. There are a few pretty important ones that ran over to maybe two or three pages, but most of them I just figure out how to cut'm down & edit them to one page & usually I succeed. That makes them nice little short powerful things!—Or even only one column!

3. YOU'D BE SURPRISED AT THE TIME I SPEND ON SOME OF THESE LITTLE TINY WNS, measuring & deciding on which sentence or paragraph to cut out here or there & how to crop the picture down to fit & all that. It's work! It's just like editing. As they always say, it's a lot easier to talk for an hour than condense a speech to five minutes!

4. THAT'S WHY I NEVER LIKED TO GO ON RADIO, it was too difficult to confine my oratory to only 15 minutes! Can you imagine me talking for only 15 minutes? I don't think we've got hardly a thing in the Books for only 15 minutes! I tried it a few times but I just gave it up. I had a guy give me radio time almost free, he thought it was great stuff‚ but I can't hardly even get warmed up in 15 minutes!

5. WELL, IT'S DIFFICULT TO CUT THESE DOWN TO JUST THE PITH & THE CORE & THE HEART OF THE MESSAGE, even including the title & the picture. But I figure our folks really don't have time to read so much of that stuff, & I imagine a lot of them just skip over'm unless they're awful interesting, especially since they've been in such small print in the FN. Now I'm puttin'm in the GN in just two columns! (9/8/83)

6. IT'S SORT OF LIKE A NEWS DIGEST! You've heard of Reader's Digest?—This is my little News Digest! I figure a lot of the Family might have gotten discouraged looking at the WNs in that microscopic print in the FN, but they need to read some of this news & if I make it short enough, maybe they'll read it! Now the print is not reduced, it's exactly the same facsimile size. Don't you find them easier to read? You figure, "Oh well, I've got time to read this!" And they're only the most important parts of the article‚ I think I've got it boiled down pretty good on those. Since I do so much work on'm, I figured I might as well get credit for them & stick them in my little Magazine! Besides, sometimes they're pretty strong high security materials that are better off in mine than in the FN that has a little larger circulation. Mine goes to pretty sure people! (9/9/83)

7. I DON'T CALL THOSE NEW DISCOVERIES & INVENTIONS NEWS, what I call news are the things that have to do with day-by-day political developments particularly—war & politics & stuff that really influences our day-to-day lives.—But the info articles are sometimes important to know. (9/9/83)

8. I WANT TO WARN YOU THAT THIS NEWSPAPER I GET'M FROM IS STRICTLY ANTICHRIST PROPAGANDA THROUGH & THROUGH! At least it's good to know where the enemy stands & what they're pushin' & what they're against etc., & then you know just where you ought to stand!—Ha! Sometimes they're even on the right side because they're pushing something else they prefer, so you never know. But you know what they're up to by reading this paper! So remember that this paper is strictly their propaganda through & through & you're reading the antichrist opinion! Here's a World newspaper which is the beginning of their final propaganda machine, so watch out for that! Don't let yourself get brain–contaminated by this propaganda! (10/9/83)

9. I WANT TO KEEP THESE WNS MOVING ALONG IF WE CAN, I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO KEEP STOCKING UP A BACKLOG. I wouldn't pick them out if I didn't think they were pretty important. Sometimes they're just interesting & informative, but I think a lot of them are really essential information we need to know! Sometimes they're maybe even a little funny or entertaining, like cartoons & stuff, for a little variety, but I think they're pretty important. (11/9/83)

10. I'M REALLY PAYING ATTENTION NOW TO TRY TO GLEAN & GARNER THESE NEWS ITEMS, MAKING A REAL SCIENCE OF IT! It's sort of a World News Digest, these little one-pagers & half-pagers etc., a few two or three-pagers. I was just sitting there studying the Books & it's sort of like the old amoebic thing, what's now developed into the FN & GN, I advocated years ago! But everyone said, "No, no‚ no‚ no‚ that's not possible, blah blah blah!" Well, you see what happened‚ I finally got my way & it worked out beautifully & was the perfect solution! They said it couldn't be done or was too expensive or this or that or the other. Well, as pig-headed & bull-headed & stubborn as I am, I insisted & finally just took the bull by the horns & went ahead & did it anyhow!

11. NOW I'M SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING DIVIDING THE WNS & GN COMPLETELY! A lot of the Family don't care that much about WNs & they certainly probably won't want to keep them. If it comes to a crunch & you have to decide between the two, you'd rather take the Letters than the WNs, & that's getting to be almost half of the issue! So what I'm thinking about doing is dividing them & putting the WNs in a separate issue entirely. Then the one issue of Letters will be power-packed & really loaded & that's all, including the Letters on interpretation of current events, but I'd like to completely segregate the WNs & clean'm out of the books of Letters.

12. MAYBE WE CAN CALL ONE THE GN ISSUE & ONE THE BN ISSUE—THE BAD NEWS! I thought about that, but a lot of it's good news. A lot of it's informational & statistics & dietary discoveries & computer discoveries, all kinds of stuff that's of importance to the Family, but not as important as the Letters. We could call our WN issue the World News Digest! I never heard of any other magazine called that. I think there's a World News magazine somewhere, but so what? (18/9/83)

13. CHOOSE THE NEWS FIRST!—And then the other material can stuff it. I wouldn't call science discoveries or inventions or information or statistics or the U.S. Census or any–thing like that news, but of course whatever is something that will be dated, try to get it in first & leave purely informational material till next time. When it relates to the news it gets old pretty fast & getting it 2 or 3 months after is old hat! We can just reprint these as fast as we get 64 pages! (8/10/83)

14. I TRY TO MEASURE THOSE & MARK'M TO EXACT MEASUREMENTS, but I may not always hit it exactly right, in which case if it runs short there's no problem, but if it runs slightly over, you'll have to try to squeeze or maybe even do a little editing yourself, just so you don't cut out any of the paragraphs I've underlined. Sometimes it might run a line or two over, so cut out something else in it that's not urgent & then squeeze the columns together so you can get it all on. (9/10/83)

15. THERE'S A LOT COMING OUT NOW ON THE WORLD FINANCIAL CRISIS, THE BANK CRISIS!—IT'S BEGINNING & THEY'RE GETTING THERE! It's moving a little slowly, maybe for our sakes, but it's pretty bad. At the international meeting they had just recently a top expert said, "Well, if one country should default on its loans, just one country, the World might be able to survive it. But if two or more should default on a loan, the whole system would crash!" Well, they're already as good as defaulting on their loans, only the banks are just giving them more time all the time.

16. IT'S ALL HAPPENED ALREADY! They're already bankrupt but the banks & all just don't want to let it happen so they are doing everything they can to keep from facing it, & they have no solution. Just like any family that's been living on credit for years & years & spending more than its income & living on borrowed money & borrowed time for years, they finally get to a state of bankruptcy where it's impossible to pull out. And that's what virtually every single country in the World has done, except some real smart ones like Switzerland. The U.S. is just about the worst of all, but of course people have a lot of confidence in it because it's so big & they think it couldn't possibly fail!—Joke! That's what the biggest news in most of today's paper was! (9/10/83)

17. I'M JUST REALLY EXCITED ABOUT OUR LITTLE NEWS MAGAZINE! It's excellent & I'm really thrilled with it‚ it's a really important project, terrific job! I wrote a note to our WN layout man: "You've got your own pub now! Greetings!—Editor of the WND!"—The not-so–empty wind! That's a good code name for it, huh? We can call it the Wind from now on!—And some of it is a lot of empty wind & kind of a bad wind, bad news a lot of the time, but it's important! (9/10/83)

18. WE'RE PASSING WIND HERE & THAT'S ABOUT HOW MOST OF IT STINKS, BUT ANYHOW, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN! It's not his fault‚ he did a beautiful job! I hope he doesn't spend too much time on it—he fits things in like pieces of a Chinese puzzle, which I wasn't expecting. So it's just beautiful & we've got a new pub! Doesn't it look pretty? And I don't think we need anything on it to ID it or connect it or anything, I think it's better we don't. I was debating about putting some kind of logo or masthead or masttail or whatever at the bottom of the front cover, but I decided against it. We certainly can't put a copyright on it & we don't even need an address or anything else. I think it's safer that way.

19. I WAS THINKING IF WE HAD SOMETHING WITH A GOOD NEWS PICTURE WE COULD PUT IT ON THE FRONT‚ BUT THEN I DECIDED AGAINST IT because the more the officials get interested, the more they're apt to open it up & start reading it! I'd just as soon they'd forget it! I think this is a formal enough front page & it's sufficient. I think it's great just like it is. Stuff we get just at the last minute‚ any up-to-date news‚ rush news that's going to get old or out-dated, just like a newspaper‚ we'll shove something else out & put that in! (9/10/83)

20. I JUST LOVE THIS LITTLE DIGEST, IT'S TERRIFIC! He's really done a beautiful job on it! I mean, as messy as my copy is, it's wonderful he can get it all straightened out & make it all so nice & neat! I'm usually in a hurry & that's why I'm so messy, sorry! But he really put it together beautifully! All I gave him was the pieces & he put the puzzle together! I think this is going to be a great idea! We can get it off so quick & just keep'm going, because whenever we get 64 pages ready‚ that's it! We can just stick it in with any size mailing, big or little. (11/10/83)

21. AS FAR AS THE FUNNY PAPERS GO, I READ'M FOR AWHILE TO SEE WHAT THEY'RE ABOUT & I GOT SO DISGUSTED WITH HOW IDIOTIC & SILLY & INSANE THEY'VE BECOME! They used to be a lot more realistic, but funny & humorous. "Katzenjammer Kids" was pretty violent, but "Mutt & Jeff" had a lot of funny situations, real life & all kinds of things like that. But now it's just insanity, absolute insanity & perversion! The only decent strip is Dr. Rex Morgan, which, by the way‚ is done by a Christian. I think that's why the Lord has them keep taking him, his art is so good. It's the only one that has really realistic art too & always has a message. Right now they're dealing with an alcoholic woman.

22. AND THEN OF COURSE I ALWAYS READ "DENNIS THE MENACE", that's always got something funny & once in awhile we get something good. The only other thing I read on the funny page is the World temperatures. I don't even look at the book reviews, but after someone found that good book review that I missed one time, I've tried to remember to look at the titles at least. I'm sort of trusting her to read those book reviews since she seems to like'm! (17/10/83)

23. I'M JUST THRILLED WITH OUR LITTLE WORLD DIGEST! He sure did a beautiful job, it's just terrific! The beautiful little Table of Contents on the front is so clever. Now that we're getting this out a little faster I'm going to take a risk on trying to get things in which are important late news. A lot of our Family really don't read the papers much & depend on us for information. A lot of them have written & said so, that they sort of depend on us for the most important news, so it is an important little magazine!

24. SO NOW THAT I KNOW IT'S GOING TO MOVE FASTER I'M A LITTLE MORE GENEROUS WITH PUTTING MORE CURRENT STUFF IN! Everybody's raving about it because it's so nice & brief & the pages are small with so little text & lots of pictures, they're just fascinated & they just can't resist reading it. I try to underline all the important points so they don't even have to read the whole article, they can just read the headlines! (22/10/83)

25. I'VE GOT SOME URGENT LAST MINUTE NEWS FOR YOU, & there could be a lot of difference between how helpful it is as to whether it gets in this WND or one a month from now. What I think we're going to have to do is do almost like the newspapers & have a last-minute deadline. I suggested that we not even try to mock it up at all until the last minute!

26. THE LATER THE NEWS WE GET IN THERE & THE EARLIER WE GET IT, THE BETTER! I think it's terrific! Here I am bragging about my own work, but I just love it & I like the way he's doing it & it's so easy to read because everything's so brief & cut down. I really have to sacrifice a lot to cut'm down, sometimes it almost hurts me when I draw the line, that's it, that's the end of the page & period! I figure, well, if that's all we've got room for, that's all they need to know. I try to get the major thoughts, at least, & you can usually get them in just one column. So it's really making news reading the simplest we can possibly make it & actually getting out of those papers all you need to know about the news!

27. THAT WOULD BE A GOOD SUBTITLE: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEWS! In other words, All you need to know—us! This is an especially designed magazine for a particular people. I think they'll get the point, this is all you need to know about the news.

28. WE CAN CALL IT THE DIGEST FROM NOW ON! WN is five syllables, Digest is only two! I'm always revolutin' & using new terms. I was thinking about shortening the title from World News Digest to World Digest. After all‚ it's not too newsy because a lot of it's pretty old, & a lot of it is just information, not actually all news. I still kind of like World News Digest, though, so I'm not too set on it yet. Some people may think, "Well‚ I don't want to digest the World, the news is bad enough!"

29. THAT SUBTITLE REMINDS ME OF SOME TITLES THEY USED TO HAVE IN THE JOKE BOOKS: "ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WOMEN!" I forgot what the joke was now, I'm sorry to say, but you opened the book & it just had one page & said something funny. Here was all I needed to know about women & I've even forgotten what it was! They usually had them sealed up so you had to buy one, & you opened it up & it was only one page! Maybe it said "Nothing!" or something like that!—Or, "How to Read their Minds!" Something funny. Anyhow, there you are: "All You Need To Know About the News!" News also alliterates with Need & Know. It's almost got a rhythm! Maybe somebody will write a song on it: All You Need To Know About the News!

30. THERE WAS THE FUNNIEST GUY ON RADIO WHEN I WAS A KID WHO USED TO SING THE NEWS EVERY MORNING! Oh, he was a genius, one of these country-type singers. He'd take his guitar & he'd sing, "Oh, I see by the paper pum-pum-pum-pum-pum-pum!" I still remember the tune but I don't remember what the words were. And that thing would ring out & he'd sing the headlines every morning. It was really clever‚ he'd make it all rhyme & everything! It wasn't very in-depth‚ it was just the headlines. It was kind of funny, always humorous‚ but he sang it & it was cute. So maybe somebody can cook up a song on our subtitle there! (23/10/83)

31. THE WND IS A MASTERPIECE! I'm just amazed how beautifully he's putting it together! It's really a work of art. If you knew how much trouble it is to piece those things together you'd appreciate it! I'm trying to help him all I can by measuring & getting things as near exact as I can so all he has to do is clip'm out & put'm together, but once in awhile I might miss it & he may have to kind of crop a little or something! (25/10/83)

32. I GOT A BRIGHT NEW IDEA FOR THE DIGEST! Do you know how many mailings we average a month?—At least 3 or 4. Did you see the latest little WND? Isn't it cute?—So small & easy to slip into any mailing! Do you get the point? What about slipping it into every mailing‚ then we could really get it all in & they'd get it hot off the press 3 or 4 times a month, that's almost weekly! This could be practically a News Weekly!

33. OF COURSE IT TAKES AT LEAST AN HOUR OR SO OF MY TIME EVERY MORNING TO PICK'M OUT & EDIT'M, but that's what's worth it, because that's the important part‚ to choose the items & edit them down to size, then all he has to do is slap'm together! I don't mean to say all he has to do, it's a big job, but he doesn't have to pick out the news items or measure the space or anything, I've got all that done for him. All he has to do is slap it together!

34. WE COULD EVEN STICK IN A CURRENCY EXCHANGE REPORT & GOLD RATES! They'd be a couple weeks old by the time they got'm, maybe even a month old, but that's better than nothing!—Because most of those exchange rates don't vary a great deal & they'd have something close & an update on that, a special page every edition!

35. I'LL BET WE COULD GET THESE THINGS OUT ONCE EVERY ONE OR TWO WEEKS! Wouldn't the Family be thrilled to get one of these in every single mailing? It's so small, it can be slipped into any size mailing & it's not going to add that much weight for the postage. I think we're going to run these things through so fast they're going to be amazed!—If he'll stick to the job & keep slapping them out as well as he has & as fast as he has!

36. THIS IS GIVING ME IDEAS ABOUT OUR LITTLE GN TOO‚ about how to get it out faster by splitting it & not waiting for such big ones! This business of letting them stack up is what's holding them back & delaying them. Something else comes up & then we think, "That's so urgent we've got to get it out in the next one" & we backlog stuff.

37. WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO FIGURE OUT SOME CURE FOR THAT & I THINK THE ONLY CURE IS TO DO LIKE WE DO WITH THE DIGEST, JUST KEEP IT ROLLING, KEEP IT MOVING! The minute we hit our limit, that's our deadline, period! We slam the book, that's all that's going in, & we're just going to process it & move it along like we do the Digest. We won't have to worry about shoving late stuff ahead. The next edition will get out soon enough that we don't have to rush it.

38. JUST SET A LIMIT‚ & THE MINUTE WE HIT THAT LIMIT, AWAY SHE GOES! Otherwise we keep adding to the backlog & adding to the backlog & adding to the rush urgent Letters, blah blah‚ & keep building up & building up a mass of material because we're so delayed. But if we'd keep it moving, that wouldn't happen & they'd probably get it just as quick. By the time we finalise all this urgent stuff that we held everything else back for, the backlog could have been mailed long ago & it just takes us twice as long to do the whole thing.

39. WE CAN'T CUT DOWN THE LENGTH OF TIME IT TAKES US TO PROCESS MATERIAL, THAT IS JUST PRETTY WELL STATIC & STANDARD. It takes us so long to read & proofread & correct & photo & everything else, we've got that down to a basic minimum. So the only variable is the amount of material. As far as I can see, we've cut the corners every way we can on the time it takes to process one Letter.

40. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT MATH, YOU'VE GOT TO TAKE YOUR CONSTANTS & YOUR VARIABLES. Constants we can't change. But God help us to change the things that can be changed‚ not try to change the things we can't, & to know the difference!—And the difference is, those constants we can't speed up‚ we're pushing those through as fast as we can. But what we can speed up is the variable, & that is the amount of material that we put in one GN. We can't very well set time deadlines‚ but we could set a material deadline & keep the material moving as fast as we can!

41. WE'RE NOT ACTUALLY GETTING IT OUT ANY FASTER BY WAITING! I'm going to say no to that from now on! No! We push it through the pipe as fast as we've got it, & as soon as a signature is in the pipe, slam the door, cut off the valve & that's it! We just keep everything moving as usual but that's it! That's the limit! Get the point?—And this little Digest gave me the idea!

42. WHY DON'T WE TRY? It's no more work & I don't think it's really going to add to the mailings because we've always got 3 or 4 standard mailings going every month. A mailing is a mailing & a stuffing is a stuffing no matter how many items go in!—And an addressing is an addressing & a stamping is a stamping.

43. LET'S SHOVE'M ALONG & QUIT THIS BUSINESS OF "OH NO, WE'VE GOT TO GET THIS ONE IN TOO so we'll go to another signature, & by the time we've got that signature, we've accumulated enough for another signature! There's no end to that!—When we should have shoved it off the minute we got it finalised. Let's not hang onto them any more! Let's slam the door‚ close the book & ring the bell!—And that's going to keep the candle burning! That's my new ultimatum & I mean it, I want to keep'm moving!

44. JUST LIKE ON THE DIGEST, WHEN IT HITS 64, THAT'S IT! Slam the book & get it off! Let's do the same with the GN! I mean it! And thank God for the little Digest that kind of gave us the system & the idea, because I think that's the only way we're ever going to do it. We can't set a time deadline, but we can set a page deadline! (27/10/83)

45. WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A WEEKLY NEWS MAG! It's kind of pressure at the last minute, but it's fun & I think it's worth it! It's what amounts to a weekly news magazine & they'll get one almost every week if we keep pushing it this way. In this last paper there were so many items on electronics & stuff which is very important to the Family. PTL! (28/10/83)

46. HE WAS TALKING ABOUT PUTTING A DATE ON EACH DIGEST, BUT I DON'T LIKE TO DATE THINGS. I try to choose undated material. The minute you start dating things, then if something does get a little delayed, they look at the date & think it's real old. That's why I've been against doing that on other items that we pub. The only thing they ever get on them is a copyright month, normally, & that's about as close as they come to getting any kind of dated material.

47. I JUST DON'T THINK IT'S GOOD TO DATE THIS STUFF, PARTICULARLY THIS NEWS. They'll have the right order & that's sufficient. If he wants to put the year on, that's okay‚ but we certainly can't put a copyright on it nor an address, I don't think we need either one, nor a date. They'll just have them as they come.

48. PERHAPS HE'S THINKING OF DATING THEM FOR FUTURE REFERENCE. When you're looking back at those items you might be curious to know what month they were, so that might be a help. We could put it right under the number, but always just do like the News Magazines, they pre-date them about the time that they figure they're going to be distributed. They don't put the date that they're pubbing or printing it, they put the date of the week that they expect it to be distributed, so when you get it you often get a date that hasn't even arrived yet because they get it out so fast!

49. ONLY SPRINT WOULD BE ABLE TO DO THAT AT THE LAST MINUTE BEFORE THEY TAKE IT TO THE PRINTER‚ because then they would know within about a week what month to put on. The month is all I would suggest, because then they could go by the numbers as to what part of the month came first, second, third etc. Nearly the whole World gets them within two weeks of mailing, therefore just before they take it to the printer they can figure about two weeks ahead & put that month on there.

50. IF THEY KEEP THESE FOR ANY REFERENCE, IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO AT LEAST HAVE THE MONTH. They could put both the month & the year underneath the number each time, like October 1983. It should be the month that they receive it so it won't sound too old. We're really making progress & learning how to publish a news magazine! Some day maybe we can put out a paper! Ha! I think we're getting pretty close, anyhow, with a weekly News Mag! (28/10/83)

51. IF WE STOPPED BEING RISKY WE'D HAVE TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS! There's an element of so-called risk in everything in this World except for the Lord. (28/10/83)

52. IT'S FUN GETTING OUT A NEWS MAGAZINE‚ GETTING SOMETHING UP-TO-DATE IN A HURRY! And maybe when there are emergency notices or anything we'll stick those in at the last minute too.—Inserts & notices like we've used before, so keep that in mind.—Because this will slip into the next mail, whatever it is. This is a new advantage, a new little bit of progress, so PTL! (28/10/83)

53. I'M REALLY HAVING FUN WITH THIS‚ OUR NEWS SCRAPBOOK! Isn't that funny how I used to do that when I was in high school? I kept a news scrapbook like that. But it sure has come down since then though. It was a huge big paper scrapbook about the size of our first GN & it was fat & loaded by the time the school term was over. So we have really minimised compared to what we're doing now. Of course we're doing this almost one a week now. It may not come out that way but we'll just wait & see! (29/10/83)

54. WE'RE GETTING RAVES ON OUR LITTLE WND!—Even from my own personal staff, my own Family, where usually you're "not without honour except amongst your own kindred & your own house"! (Mt.13:57.) But they're even flipping over it! We really made a hit! (11/83)

55. THE WND IS JUST BEAUTIFUL & I'M REAL PROUD OF OUR WND EDITOR! And I'm a little bit proud of myself too, I have to edit it & measure it! But maybe some day after he sees how I do it, he might be able to take over the job when I'm gone. I don't think we're going to need a WND up there as far as I know! But who knows?—We might in the Millennium! (11/83)

56. WE'RE PUTTING STATS IN THE NEXT WND! There's going to be some figures blowing in the wind! (11/83)

57. NOW THAT I KNOW THEY'RE GOING OUT SO FAST & THEY'RE GOING TO GET THEM SO SOON, I'M PUTTING ITEMS IN WHICH ARE A LITTLE MORE NEWSY, but with sort of lasting news meaning‚ lasting meaning. They're not just today's news, but have lasting influence‚ the various things that are happening that are significant! (11/83)—You like it? GBAKY up on the news!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family