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November 22, 2007

My Thanksgiving rules; Jump-start your dinner conversation: 'Mayor Resigns, Claims Abduction By Satan Worshippers'

I'm the family's matriarch now.

Everybody comes to my house for holidays. After decades of dutiful daughterhood, I rule. These are my rules:

-- Wear what's most comfortable.
-- Come when you want to. Football starts at 1, turkey sometime after 4.
-- There will be three football games today*, and anybody can pause the TV at any time.
-- If you want mudslides or coconut custard pie, bring 'em.
-- Tension kills pleasure. There will be dancing in the kitchen.
-- Nobody minds if you spill something. Enjoy yourself.
-- Come prepared to toast the ancestors and to name something you want for Christmas.
-- Yes, you may smoke.
-- Yes, you may feed the cats turkey under the table.
-- Yes, you may use my computer.
-- Yes, you may spend the night.

* Football schedule:

1 p.m. Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions on Fox
4 p.m. New York Jets at Dallas Cowboys on CBS
8 p.m. Indianapolis Colts at Atlanta Falcons on NFL Network

Small talk: Here's this week's goofiest story, if you need a conversation starter where you're going:

The short version: Mayor Resigns, Claims Abduction By Satan Worshippers:

CENTERTON, Ark. -- The mayor of an Arkansas town resigned on Wednesday, claiming he was abducted and brainwashed by Satan worshippers nearly three decades ago.

Centerton Mayor Ken Williams said he has been living under an assumed name for nearly 30 years. He had been mayor since 2001.

Williams told authorities he was born Don LaRose and that in the mid-1970s, he was a preacher in Indiana. He said he was abducted and brainwashed into forgetting all about his life as Don LaRose.

Centerton is near Wal-Mart's world headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

Emily Anne Crawford / Benton County Daily Record
Ken Williams spoke to reporters after resigning as mayor of Centerton at Centerton City Hall on Wednesday.

The Benton County Daily Record's Eleanor Evans,Tracy Neal and Jennifer Turner are all over it:

Double life: Centerton mayor is pastor who disappeared in 1980
Being Don LaRose
A life in his own words
Williams resigns as mayor
Man on the run

And, by Joe Carlson, The Times of Northwest Indiana

Missing ex-Hammond pastor found after nearly 30 years
Why not contact family?
Grandson skeptical of 'missing' pastor's motives

Don LaRose site -- the main primary source, and smoking gun.
Ken Williams site

From Benton's Being Don LaRose, how the secret came out:

The connection between Williams and LaRose was made when a LaRose family member's Internet search turned up a Web site - www.donlarose.com. Earlier this year, the Web site's domain name was registered. The site claims to share a story "filled with excitement, tension, murder, intimidation and much more."

LaRose's nephew, Ed Miller of Holland, Mich., told The Daily Record that a family member conducted a "whois"search to determine the site's ownership.

That's when they discovered the site was registered to Ken Williams in Centerton, Ark.

Two family members called The Daily Record on Monday afternoon to talk about their discovery.

On Monday evening - when Daily Record reporters asked him about it - Williams denied a connection to LaRose, even though the site bears a striking resemblance to Williams' own site, www.kenwilliamsministries.org.

On Tuesday morning, Williams continued to deny the connections during an interview with two Daily Record reporters. Williams even kept asking the reporters to repeat LaRose's name. "What was his name again ? "Williams asked.

Williams then looked at the Don LaRose Web site, stroking his beard as he pointed out what he thought were the most interesting parts of LaRose's story.

Satanists, eh. Beats, "The pastor went out for a loaf of bread and kept going." That should get you through to dessert.

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 10:47 AM | Permalink