“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” (Mark Twain, attributed)
Inspired by Mark’s valiant struggle with a second division pathology.
(This started, once again, as a comment that got out of hand)
My beloved Oakland A’s left such a significant imprint in my youth with their early 70’s title run that I can never quite abandoned them.
Their 2018 performance, however, gives credence to the notion that irrelevant narratives are given an unencumbered range to unfold naturally, but that the outcomes of key games are foretold. Continue reading “A Fan’s Notes-“
This topic has been in my In box for a while but since Miles’ guest writers/singers were way out west recently, I thought I’d add to the pile now.
When I was looking into Truman Capote and his fictional murders, I took a side trip to get a glance at James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok. One of Capote’s characters was named Hickock and I wondered if there might be a connecting clue to Wild Bill. I couldn’t find any though there was a hint through some tangential Rodeo promoters in the 30’s, but there wasn’t enough to continue that digression.
Later, to streamline that look into Hickok, I decided to list a few basic questions that could be applied to any historical person of interest to determine if they were whom the MSM says they were. These questions by now are familiar, but I am attempting to sift through several people of the 19th century, especially here in the good old U S of A, to get a better grip on, for example, our “special relationship” to Britain and the crown and the methods used by spooks major and minor to keep that relationship intact. Continue reading “Wild Bill and the Dead Man’s Hand”
TCM was promoting the 1967 Richard Brooks film, In Cold Blood, last week and it got me to thinking, given the Zal Rule* at Fakeopedia, that the killing of the Clutter family in 1959, the basis for Truman Capote’s book of the same name and subject, would likely be a hoax.
*Zal Rule: If there is a major motion picture of a “real” event, you can be certain the event is a hoax-
This began as a response to BMSeattle about ‘Wings of Hope’(1998)*, another, IMO, faux TV documentary from Werner Herzog. It got a little long so I’ll post it here and hopefully give some relief to the comments section for Mark’s post, Grizzly Man.
*The film is about a 17 year old German girl, Juliane Koepcke, being the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle in 1971. 92 (11) others on the plane died. The plane was hit by lightening and disintegrated. Given that planes are routinely hit by lightening and don’t do that, there is your first howler to judge this “real life” drama by. Continue reading “Little Werner Needs to Lie”
This post started as a simple comment to Dave about Amy Carter and an allergy she may have related to metal touching her skin. How I got from that to this pile is as confusing to me as it might be to you.
Regarding Amy and the missing wedding band, she never looked all that, um, what would be the best word…? Libidinous? She looks like her “father”* to a degree, but she also looks like her late uncle, Billy. Her “son” looks like the prop husband but nothing like her.
“Quotation marks” you ask? Continue reading “A Fact Check Free Zone”
The royal Chinese courts allowed parallel histories to co-exist. There was an official history issued by the Emperor which was used to determine the value of this and that (laws and customs) by controlling the nomenclature, and a wild history: a mélange of rumors, superstitions and bald faced lies told with real brio that resonated with the peasants, allowing them head space to dream rather than act out.
The following is neither- It is opinion based on contempt for institutions that used to have my admiration. This is me acting out… based on highly suspect information sources, of course. Take any of it with a sea’s worth of salt- Continue reading “Two Arrests- No Crimes Committed”
Home Run Derby was a television show that aired for one season back in 1960, ending abruptly when the announcer died of a heart attack. The show pitted two major league sluggers against each other for a chance to win 2 g’s. Two grand in that era was perhaps 5 to 10 percent of a ballplayer’s salary so the best and the biggest participated. Mickey, Willie, Hank etc. In that arrangement, the pitcher, a retread former hash slinger from the minors, tossed eat me lobs at these hall of famers and in all of the couple dozen or more contests that aired into the summer, no one really went crazy, as Aaron Judge did in this year’s derby at the all star game in wherever the hell it was held. In an hour plus, Judge hit something like fifty homers to win by a wide margin. In 1960, Jackie Jensen, a real piece of work that guy, managed a show best total of only 14 taters in his contest. Continue reading “Tipping one’s hand”
