A while back I was talking to a co-worker about, of all things, the Partridge Family. She mentioned something about the successes and failures of the actors later careers, and “where are they now”. For some odd reason, I told her the youngest boy, Chris, the drummer, not only became a doctor, but he later invented the Balloon Angioplasty . I think I meant to tell her I was bullshitting her, but for some reason I didn’t.
I suppose both the actor and the procedure have the right balance of known / unknown, because she believed me. Either that or she didn’t suspect I’d be such a dick as to flat out lie to her. Anyway, I recently heard her tell another co-worker this story and it got me thinking I may be in on the ground floor of a new urban legend. Please feel free to tell this story to anyone you like. If I ever have someone tell me this story, I’ll consider this experiment a success.
btw- two different actors played Chris, not that it matters.
Chris was played for most of TPF by Brian Forster, who replaced Jeremy Gelbwaks after season one. “Dr. Jeremy Gelbwaks”…sounds convincing to me.
The real inventor, Dr. Thomas Fogarty, came up with the balloon catheter in the late '50s, while still in med school. In fact it’s known as the “Fogarty catheter,” meaning you’d have a hard time foisting your UL off on anyone in or near the profession.
In my circle of friends I’m the guy who debunks ULs. I can’t really do that while propagating them. I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of Dopers are on the debunking side of the equation…you know, fighting ignorance and all.
I only like propagating fictions that are so ridiculous that the people who believe them deserve to be hoodwinked…like how dihydrogen monoxide is a killer and should be banned.
Hey now, it’s true. I haven’t actually gotten my 100 bucks yet, but I forwarded that email about the same time that Vista was originally supposed to come out, so I figure… any day now!
Hey now- I’m all about fighting ignorance. Mostly. I thought this fell under the category of Ludicrous Fiction, no harm done. The reason I posted it was because it got me wondering how Urban Legends are born, is it one person spinning a whopper, or are they slight distortions of truth mutating through countless re-tellings. If y’all disagree, let my little UL die the death it deserves.
When my $100 gets here, we’ll see who’s laughing.