# Saddam has ugly, old-lady eyeglasses **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 20, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755 "2003-03-20T06:48:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lucki\_Chaarms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lucki\_Chaarms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucki_Chaarms)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/21 "2003-03-20T20:02:45Z")
Link? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/22 "2003-03-20T21:36:12Z")
I repeat, Saddam has to . . . _Jazz up his lingerie! Just like a melody! Be happy—choose snappy Music to wear!_ ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/23 "2003-03-20T21:40:31Z")
_Holy Cow!!!_ ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/24 "2003-03-20T21:43:16Z")
I watched the speech/tape/whatever and couldn’t help thinking of the skit Letterman does sometimes called “What’s the deal with old men and enormous glasses?” Think Harry Caray, Larry King, Calvert Deforrest (aka Larry “Bud” Melman), Martin Landau, &c. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/25 "2003-03-20T21:45:57Z")
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t pre-taped. If it had been pre-taped, Saddam (or his double) wouldn’t have worn glasses. I don’t think it looked like the Saddam that Rather interviewed, but that could be due to having just had the s#!t knocked out of him by a nearby explosion. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/26 "2003-03-20T21:47:53Z")
Huh? [Harry Carey](http://www.harrycareyjr.com/)? ---
**Author:** ![Squirebob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Squirebob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squirebob)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/27 "2003-03-20T22:22:42Z")
Good god. So does my Grandmother. She said she was making jam in the laboritory under the stairs. It was Apple flavoured Chutney Anthrax. The bitch. ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/28 "2003-03-20T22:33:11Z")
[You got the wrong Harry](http://www.powermaxconsulting.com/harrycaray.htm) ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/29 "2003-03-20T23:03:24Z")
perhaps he got a bit of building dust in his eyes and couldn’t wear the contacts. the beret does need a bit of help though. perhaps a peacock feather. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/30 "2003-03-20T23:24:57Z")
You would think that he could’ve had a teleprompter or something. All that fumbling and flipping of the notebook was sooooo “public access.” He’s the tyrannical dictator of an oil-rich nation. Underground bunker or no, get some friggin cue cards fercryinoutloud! ---
**Author:** ![AveDementia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@AveDementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AveDementia)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/31 "2003-03-21T01:29:39Z")
I doubted it was him when I saw the clip, but I had to think for a moment why I thought that. It wasn’t the glasses, or the bad notes, or the too-small beret. It was that his neck was bundled up. Am I just imagining things? He always seems to have the neck of his shirt open in the pictures I’ve seen of him, and even collars that I do remember being fastened didn’t get halfway up his neck. But this Saddam looked like an old man in winter. Why would you bundle up in an underground bunker? In the desert? Come on, Dopers, what’s the deal here? ---
**Author:** ![Igloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Igloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Igloo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/32 "2003-03-21T01:41:39Z")
Saddam Poindexter The only thing that was missing was the plastic pocket protector. Seriously, this is the first thing my husband and I noticed this morning… What’s up w/the glasses? and this thread title gave me a chuckle in an otherwise really horrible reality. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/33 "2003-03-21T04:16:01Z")
I think most of you have your logic wrong. If it were an imposter, his handlers would do everything to make him look like the “conventional” image of Saddam Hussein, e.g., no reading glasses. Only the real Saddam Hussein would be given the leeway to look puffy, tired, and farsighted. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/34 "2003-03-21T07:12:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pierre72 \* > \*\*Definitely an impostor - in a really bad Groucho Marx glasses-and-moustache disguise that fooled nobody. \*\* Nice to know I’m not the only one who thought that. So the question of the day. Saddam: Sleeping with the Fishes or Hiding in the Basement? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/35 "2003-03-21T09:16:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\*I think most of you have your logic wrong. If it were an imposter, his handlers would do everything to make him look like the “conventional” image of Saddam Hussein, e.g., no reading glasses. > > Only the real Saddam Hussein would be given the leeway to look puffy, tired, and farsighted. \*\* Unless it was a double-bluff, and the glasses were to further disguise the double. ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/36 "2003-03-21T15:46:31Z")
[WillFarrel]{Harry Caray}Hey, Norm!{/Harry Caray}[/Will Farrell] ---
**Author:** ![bayonet1976](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bayonet1976](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bayonet1976)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/37 "2003-03-21T15:51:17Z")
It’s possible that the glasses were for fooling face recognition software that tends to use the area around the eyes and the relationship with the rest of the face to derive an identification. Usually wearing large glasses and a hat will fool those systems. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/38 "2003-03-21T15:55:46Z")
So apparently the Old Navy lady has a new gig? ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de053/32.png) [@Umbriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/39 "2003-03-21T18:27:08Z")
He reminded me of Eugene Levy as Sid Dithers on the old SCTV show. “Baghdad? Did you drove or did you flew?” ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755/40 "2003-03-21T21:08:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BrotherCadfael \* > \*\*So apparently the Old Navy lady has a new gig? \*\* For those who don’t know: [Carrie Donovan](http://quickjerk.com/images/oldnavy_150_146.jpg), God rest her soul. Thought of her instantly when I saw Saddam in those glasses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-has-ugly-old-lady-eyeglasses/162755.md?page=3)