Not bloody likely! (dubious claims to witnessing famous incidents)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
121

[QUOTE=joemama24_98]
Oh, and more Star Wars…I very clearly recall watching a New Hope on cable as a kid and seeing a Tatooine scene where Luke was looking up with his binoculars and seeing a distant version of the opening space battle (mostly light flashes). That’s not in the movie now, but apparently was a sequence that was shot but later cut (and never released)
Everyone thinks I’m crazy…but I’m sure I saw it.
[/QUOTE]

Perhaps you are remembering reading the novelization - because that scene WAS in the book.

122

[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
With the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie being released soon, I’m reminded of one of my least favorite bits of Internet idiocy. Namely, whenever a discussion of TMNT happens, someone will chime in with “Well I think the Turtles are a joke now and I should know because I had the first issue of the original comic! And not a reprint!”

[/QUOTE]

I know I read it, but someone elses copy and it certainly could have been a reprint or a later ed.

I know/knew closely four slightly older than me dudes who served in 'Nam. My Bro, who volunteered for the Chemical Corps and claims he spent most of the war as a Lt supervising stocks of gas masks and the closest he came to combat was rolling drums of Agent Orange out of a C47 into the jungle. Two of his HS shcoolmates also gamed with us- one volunteered for the Motor Minesweepers on the advice of his Father and his Navy buddies only to find himself on a Swiftboat. He won’t say much about combat, but clearly he was in it, he has a Purple Heart with clusters.The other just never came back, he was a Ranger. Another friend of mine has a framed set of his medals from the war- Silver Star, Bronze Star, Combat Infantry and such. He doesn’t talk about combat.

My Dad was a WWII vet, with a chest full of ribbons. He was full of interesting stories about bad officers, Boot camp, the mosquitos, and the chow. He also almost never talked about combat.

Which leads me to my rule of thumb- if they really were deep into combat- they won’t talk about it. Lousy chow, sadistic DI’s, FUBAR situations, sure. But not combat.

123

[QUOTE=DrDeth]
Which leads me to my rule of thumb- if they really were deep into combat- they won’t talk about it. Lousy chow, sadistic DI’s, FUBAR situations, sure. But not combat.
[/QUOTE]

Sounds like a good rule of thumb to me. If they’ve seen the elephant, talking about it to people who haven’t seems to feel like feeding voyeurs, or worse.

124

Chiming in to note that the war veterans I know personally–my dad, who served in Desert Shield, and my uncle who served in Vietnam–also never talk about combat. Actually, now that I think about it, they’ve almost never told me a thing about the wars. My dad had plenty of stories about being at sea, but he was active duty Navy long enough that any of those could’ve happened anytime, and he never explained the context of any of them. My maternal grandfather served in World War II and was run over by a tank in Northern Africa. He survived the war, but died before his daughter graduated from high school. I hear that nobody could ever get him to talk about the war, either, no matter how hard they tried. He raised the kids Catholic, but from the little I know about him he would have been happy to see his daughter’s Jewish wedding and he would have been proud to know that he played a part in making it possible.

125

[QUOTE=DrDeth]
Which leads me to my rule of thumb- if they really were deep into combat- they won’t talk about it. Lousy chow, sadistic DI’s, FUBAR situations, sure. But not combat.
[/QUOTE]

My grandpa loves to tell all sorts of stories about is time with the USO tour near the end of the war (he worked as part of the stage crew). He was a great spinner of tales, and painted the whole experience in a colorful, entertaining (and probably embelished) light for us grandkids. When my grandmother died 13 years ago, we helped him organize and clean out their house. On a shelf at the top of her closet, we found a box with multiple medals in it, including a purple heart. My dad and his siblings had no idea their father had ever seen combat, let alone been wounded. He just shook his head when my father asked questions, said, “It was a very bad time,” and put his medals back up on the shelf.

Now whenever I hear someone bragging about their combat experience, I think about the most long-winded boaster I know, keeping his scars to himself, 60+ years down the line.

126

[QUOTE=joemama24_98]
Oh, and more Star Wars…I very clearly recall watching a New Hope on cable as a kid and seeing a Tatooine scene where Luke was looking up with his binoculars and seeing a distant version of the opening space battle (mostly light flashes). That’s not in the movie now, but apparently was a sequence that was shot but later cut (and never released)
[/QUOTE]

In addition to the novelization/comic, I suppose it’s possible that you DID see that. Studios pretty regularly put deleted scenes back into movies in order to pad their running times to fill television timeslots. I’ve never specifically heard of that happening with Star Wars, though.

I remember discovering that what I considered to be a key scene in Aliens wasn’t actually part of the “real” cut: the part where it’s revealed that Ripley had a daughter, who grew old and died while Ripley was floating through space in stasis, thereby adding a whole new layer to her relationship with Newt. When I first saw the movie on broadcast television, the scene was there. When I saw it on HBO or VHS later, it wasn’t, and I was annoyed. Fortunately, the Director’s Cut was released on VHS and DVD, and the scene’s intact, so I can consider that the “definitive version.”

I’ve also heard that a lot of the Richard Donner-directed deleted scenes made it back into Superman II for some TV broadcasts, and a VHS recording of one broadcast was used by fans to “reconstruct” a Richard Donner “edit” of the movie before the recent official DVD version of a Donner cut was released.

Oh, and thanks for all the welcomes and responses to my Dan The Liar post. :slight_smile:

127

[QUOTE=DrDeth]

Which leads me to my rule of thumb- if they really were deep into combat- they won’t talk about it. Lousy chow, sadistic DI’s, FUBAR situations, sure. But not combat.
[/QUOTE]

My father is the same way. It completely shocked me when a few years ago he told me a single combat story. Only time I have ever heard him speak of being in actual combat in my 31 years. Even in obvious cases, he wouldn’t say anything about combat or killing. Growing up, my father had a gnarled wooden club hanging over the archway leading into the dining room. For a number of years, he would just say “it’s from Nam,” and leave it at that. Then, for a few years it was “my best friend in the army was killed with that club.” Then, a few years later when we started putting the pieces together (we were kids, we were slow), and asked him “how did you get the club?” it was “Somebody killed the guy who killed my friend.” Then, a few years later, the realization came that that somebody, out of all likelihood, was my father. I also remember being four or five, asking my father about war, “Did you kill anyone” and the answer I got was “That’s only for God and me to know.”

It was also my father’s contention that nobody who was in actual combat would talk or brag about it (which is usually how these combat stories come up in bars or sporting events or wherever). I don’t think it’s an absolute rule (like my father does), but it is a very good rule of thumb.

128

[QUOTE=GargoyleWB]
I witnessed each of the original “Gotcha Ya”, “1920’s Death Ray”, and “Rio” SDMB events in real-time as they unfolded.

You may touch me :stuck_out_tongue:
[/QUOTE]

I saw the Marianas Trench event unfold. Just once. However, not in 1960. And probably for more than 20 minutes.

129

[QUOTE=pulykamell]
Add to that the guy claimed to be a metal guitarist and didn’t know the name of the lead guitarist of the band he supposedly loved, one of the greatest metal bands ever? Not bloody likely.
[/QUOTE]

Exactly - that’s why I was so gob-smacked. I just sat there while he made his own bed and then laid right on it.

130

My great-grandfather claimed that he was at Kitty Hawk when the Wright Brothers first flew. Now, it’s pretty well known that he was in NC at the time, and he easily might have been at one of the early flights, but the general consensus was that it was unlikely that he was at the flight.

131

This thread reminds me of the song “Losing My Edge” by LCD Soundsystem.
It consists largely of proclamations of being the first or being there when some seminal event in music happened.

“I was there in 1974 at the first Suicide practices in a loft in New York City.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band.
I told him, “Don’t do it that way. You’ll never make a dime.”
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB’s.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I’ve never been wrong.”

132

There’s this guy on OpalCat’s board who writes all the time about how he’s being tracked by the CIA and other spy agencies from around the world. It almost reads like a diary, and he’s been posting the stuff for years. The detail in his reports is amazing. I’m sure (well, 99% sure) he’s making it up, but the effort is astounding. I haven’t dropped by in a while, so I don’t know whether he still posts there. And I think they’ve moved him off to a forum by himself or something. But it was fascinating reading.

133

No he is still there, and still in the same forum, but he’s confined to one thread (to post about his stuff. He is of course free to participate in other threads on other topics, but at the beginning he was starting a new thread for each update, and we put a stop to that.)

Him, though… I think he’s not so much “making it up” as “batshit crazy”. He posts his stuff on dozens of message boards and I really think he believes the government is trying to kill him.

134

[QUOTE=joemama24_98]
Oh, and more Star Wars…I very clearly recall watching a New Hope on cable as a kid and seeing a Tatooine scene where Luke was looking up with his binoculars and seeing a distant version of the opening space battle (mostly light flashes). That’s not in the movie now, but apparently was a sequence that was shot but later cut (and never released)
[/QUOTE]
There was also a radio adaptation that I remember from around 1983; that scene was definitely in the radio version, so possibly you’ve taken a memory of hearing that and conflated it with the movie.

135

[QUOTE=OpalCat]
No he is still there, and still in the same forum, but he’s confined to one thread (to post about his stuff. He is of course free to participate in other threads on other topics, but at the beginning he was starting a new thread for each update, and we put a stop to that.)

Him, though… I think he’s not so much “making it up” as “batshit crazy”. He posts his stuff on dozens of message boards and I really think he believes the government is trying to kill him.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve long wanted to tell you that what you’ve done for that guy — giving him a place to express himself despite his obvious imbalances and lack of contribution to anything else — says a lot about you. You are a kind and caring person whose heart goes out to people whom others consider to be basically just garbage. Every time I think about that aspect of you, it reminds me of the words of Jesus: “Whatsoever you do to the least of these my brothers, you do also to me.”

136

Oh, I just remembered one of the funniest: there was this man who posted onto the Snopes message boards multiple times claiming that he had invented Mario and his pals from the Nintendo video games and that the characters were stolen from him. It sounded somewhat plausible…except for the fact that the guy could never spell “Luigi” correctly.

137

[QUOTE=Liberal]
I’ve long wanted to tell you that what you’ve done for that guy — giving him a place to express himself despite his obvious imbalances and lack of contribution to anything else — says a lot about you. You are a kind and caring person whose heart goes out to people whom others consider to be basically just garbage. Every time I think about that aspect of you, it reminds me of the words of Jesus: “Whatsoever you do to the least of these my brothers, you do also to me.”
[/QUOTE]

Well thank you. I feel sorry for the guy, and wish there was a way to help him. I understand why other boards ban him but he isn’t doing us any harm, so I don’t see the need.

138

[QUOTE=Stinkpalm]
For me the most irritating dubious claim comes from Vietnam Vets. I’ve been on active duty for 12 years now and have spent a fair amount of time volunteering at the DAV, VFW and other events where old time Vietnam Vets congregate and it never fails, EVERY time one of them starts talking to the young GI (me) they claim that ther were Special Forces, Sniper or Green Beret. Every time. Apparently every army infantryman from that era is convinced that they were spec-ops.

I’m not saying none of them were telling the truth, but I’ve heard that claim from AT LEAST 200 different vets. The only person to ever tell me they were anything other than a trained killer in Vietnam is my gramp. He was a mess Sgt.
[/QUOTE]

I ran into a guy like that, over breakfast in Chapel Hill, N.C., in the early '80s. Claimed he was a sniper in Nam with a 1:1 kill ratio.

I believed him then, but in my defense, I was a college student, and he talked a great line.

139

[QUOTE=joemama24_98]
Oh, and more Star Wars…I very clearly recall watching a New Hope on cable as a kid and seeing a Tatooine scene where Luke was looking up with his binoculars and seeing a distant version of the opening space battle (mostly light flashes). That’s not in the movie now, but apparently was a sequence that was shot but later cut (and never released)
Everyone thinks I’m crazy…but I’m sure I saw it.
[/QUOTE]

Many have speculated, but I know the truth.

The “Star Wars Storybook” which came out a year after the movie was released, included those scenes in its abridged text, plus images from the scene - including one of Luke looking up at the sky, with his macrobinoculars, and another of him and Biggs standing on the wall of Toshi Station.

This is far and away the most likely explanation of why people think they remember seeing these scenes in the film - they have filled in blanks with the vague promotional imagery they had seen in other places.

140

[QUOTE=appleciders]
My great-grandfather claimed that he was at Kitty Hawk when the Wright Brothers first flew. Now, it’s pretty well known that he was in NC at the time, and he easily might have been at one of the early flights, but the general consensus was that it was unlikely that he was at the flight.
[/QUOTE]

Was anyone at that flight, other than the Wright Brothers’ sponsors? I’d be surprised if they were, because at that point, they were probably not sure the thing really would fly, and as such, would not have let word get out.

And that reminds of another anecdote. Not a person bragging, but an author who did not do her research, and it irritates me just as much. In one of M.E. Kerr’s books, there’s a character who is a rock star, starting in the late '60s. I think he’s supposed to be like Jim Morrison if he’d lived. Anyway, the guy’s son states that Dad was not there when he was born, because that was the same day John Lennon married Yoko Ono, and Dad was “in Spain for the wedding.”

Sorry, try again. John and Yoko’s wedding ceremony was not an event. The honeymoon bed-in was, but not the wedding itself. They had a private ceremony in Gibraltar, not Spain, and the only guest was a member of the Beatles’ crew who acted as a witness.

Now, I can forgive the Spain/Gibraltar goof, although it was specified in the lyrics of “The Ballad of John and Yoko” – Peter Brown called to say/You can make it okay/You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain – but not the claim that Dad made a special journey to Spain or anywhere to attend the wedding. No one was invited, and in fact, few people outside of the Beatles’ circle even knew they were going to get married. If, OTOH, she’d claimed that Dad had gone to the bed-in, and sung along on “Give Peace A Chance,” which was recorded there, I could buy that. But as written, it’s simply not possible.

P.S. Word to what Liberal said about kathaksung, Opal.