# Shagnasty, Can We Get Some Clarification? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 28, 2008, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157 "2008-04-28T00:27:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/1 "2008-04-28T00:27:25Z")
In [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=465508), you claim that you are friends with the son of “Secret Service agent” James Brady and that you attended elementary school with him when the assassination attempt was made on Reagan and Brady “took a bullet just like his position required him to”. There are two problems with your story, though. The first, as identified by **Szlater** , is that James Brady was a White House Press Secretary, not a Secret Service agent as you claim, and the second is that Brady, according to his Wikipedia profile, only has one son and he was born in 1978, when his father was shot in 1981. I know of no elementary schools that accept students at only three years old. I would say you’re confusing Brady with McCarthy but surely you wouldn’t confuse a friend for a stranger like that and, besides, \*\*Szlater \*\*already asked you if you maybe meant the latter in the original thread and you already denied it. Can you explain these discrepancies? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/2 "2008-04-28T00:48:45Z")
[QUOTE=Aesiron] In this thread, you claim that you are friends with the son of “Secret Service agent” James Brady [/quote] That’s not what he said. He said he was friends with the son of **a** Secret Service agent. At the time of the shooting there was confusion over who actually got shot, whether it was his friend’s father or someone else in the entourage. It turned out to be someone else, James Brady (whom Shagnasty misidentified as an agent, but hell, 1981 was a long time ago, I thought he was an agent too. I mean Brady, not Shagnasty). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/3 "2008-04-28T01:10:20Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s not what he said. He said he was friends with the son of a Secret Service agent. At the time of the shooting there was confusion over who actually got shot, whether it was his friend’s father or someone else in the entourage. It turned out to be someone else, James Brady (whom Shagnasty misidentified as an agent, but hell, 1981 was a long time ago, I thought he was an agent too. I mean Brady, not Shagnasty). Personally, I remembered that Brady was a Press Secretary not a Secret Service Agent but I was older in 1981 and the facts might have been clearer to me at the time. So I can see where some people might be fuzzy on the details. However, I agree with the OP that it’s unusual that somebody who knew the family would be that unclear on what happened. If I said that I thought Joe Namath led the Pittsburgh Steelers to their victory in Super Bowl III, it would just be indicative that I’m not a big football fan and my memory’s not what it used to be. But if I claimed that Joe Namath’s son went to school with me and we were sitting in class together in Pittsburgh the day his dad led the Steelers to victory, people would legitimately question my story. People rarely forget the major details of public events that personally involved them. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/4 "2008-04-28T01:12:18Z")
You know, you’re right. I went so far as to reread what he wrote two or three times and was about to show you where he said just that but read it one last time just to make sure and it looks like I parsed it wrong. That said, I’m still dubious of the story’s veracity for both the reason that **Little Nemo** stated and **Shagnasty** ’s history of grandiose tales. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/5 "2008-04-28T01:16:10Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] If I said that I thought Joe Namath led the Pittsburgh Steelers to their victory in Super Bowl III, it would just be indicative that I’m not a big football fan and my memory’s not what it used to be. But if I claimed that Joe Namath’s son went to school with me and we were sitting in class together in Pittsburgh the day his dad led the Steelers to victory, people would legitimately question my story. People rarely forget the major details of public events that personally involved them. [/QUOTE] Well it sounds to me like (a) Shagnasty met the guy years after the event and heard it only in the retelling, and (b) from the storyteller’s perspective, it was a childhood memory of which chaos and confusion were the defining characteristics (who got shot, who didn’t, what’s going on). The post was really just a litany of dangling antecedents but I had no trouble whatsoever sorting it out on the second reading. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/6 "2008-04-28T02:48:31Z")
[QUOTE=Aesiron] You know, you’re right. I went so far as to reread what he wrote two or three times and was about to show you where he said just that but read it one last time just to make sure and it looks like I parsed it wrong. That said, I’m still dubious of the story’s veracity for both the reason that **Little Nemo** stated and **Shagnasty** ’s history of grandiose tales. [/QUOTE] Also, someone corrected **Shagnasty** in that thread, and he replied, with a link to James Brady’s Wikipedia page, insisting that Brady “took a bullet just like his position required him to.” That is, he continued to insist that Brady was a Secret Service agent. Then, someone else pointed out that **Shagnasty** ’s link correctly identified Brady as Reagan’s Press Secretary and not a Secret Service agent. Since being corrected for a second time, **Shagnasty** has made 9 posts to the SDMB (over a period of 9 hours) without addressing this rather glaring error in his story. He might well know a guy whose father was a Secret Service agent, but his factual accuracy sucks. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/7 "2008-04-28T03:02:26Z")
I read Shagnasty’s post, and I understood it as this: He went to school with the son of Secret Service Agent X. Agent X was on the Presidential protection detail. The news reports came in that the President and an Agent were down. Shagnasty and his friend were worried that it was Agent X. It was not, it was Agent McCarthy (who Shagnasty misidentified as James Brady). ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/8 "2008-04-28T03:07:37Z")
OK, I’m confused. I read the original thread and this one. Why is this a Pit thread? Why not just question him in the other thread? If he doesn’t return to that thread it’s not like he broke a board rule or anything. It doesn’t seem like he is refusing to answer, he just hasn’t. Maybe PM him and ask him to come back into the thread and clarify. I’m not trying to put down the OP, I’m just confused. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/9 "2008-04-28T03:33:36Z")
[QUOTE=jtgain] I read Shagnasty’s post, and I understood it as this: He went to school with the son of Secret Service Agent X. Agent X was on the Presidential protection detail. The news reports came in that the President and an Agent were down. Shagnasty and his friend were worried that it was Agent X. It was not, it was Agent McCarthy (who Shagnasty misidentified as James Brady). [/QUOTE] That was my initial reading as well. The only thing that causes me to question this interpretation is that **Shagnasty** , after being corrected regarding the McCarthy/Brady error, specifically denied that he had been wrong about it. [QUOTE=Loach] OK, I’m confused. I read the original thread and this one. Why is this a Pit thread? Why not just question him in the other thread? If he doesn’t return to that thread it’s not like he broke a board rule or anything. It doesn’t seem like he is refusing to answer, he just hasn’t. Maybe PM him and ask him to come back into the thread and clarify. I’m not trying to put down the OP, I’m just confused. [/QUOTE] People did question him in the other thread. He first denied any discrepancy, then when questioned further about it, he failed to answer. No-one said he broke a board rule; since when is that a necessary condition for a Pit thread anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/10 "2008-04-28T04:24:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Well it sounds to me like (a) Shagnasty met the guy years after the event and heard it only in the retelling Rereading his post, you’re right. Shagnasty says that his friend was in elementary school when he heard about the shooting but he doesn’t say that he was there with the friend at the time. So it may have been something a friend told him years later in which case it’s more plausible that his memory of the details were fuzzy. That said, he was wrong about the details and when this was pointed out to him he stuck by his version of the facts. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/11 "2008-04-28T04:35:16Z")
Even if he did screw up, why the pitting? If everyone on the SDMB was hauled forth for a screwed up or mis-remembered historical note we’d be in sad shape. Why is he being singled out for this level of attention on a fairly inconsequential mistake? It seems kind of wankishly petty and piling on. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/12 "2008-04-28T15:38:41Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] That was my initial reading as well. The only thing that causes me to question this interpretation is that **Shagnasty** , after being corrected regarding the McCarthy/Brady error, specifically denied that he had been wrong about it.People did question him in the other thread. He first denied any discrepancy, then when questioned further about it, he failed to answer. No-one said he broke a board rule; since when is that a necessary condition for a Pit thread anyway? [/QUOTE] I have a problem with something that Doors said in that thread and questioned him about it. Should I open a Pit thread too? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/13 "2008-04-28T15:51:06Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] I have a problem with something that Doors said in that thread and questioned him about it. Should I open a Pit thread too? [/QUOTE] Knock yourself out. Why do i give a shit? And anyway, don’t ask me; ask the OP. I merely saw this thread, opened it, and made a response based on my reading of the OP, and of the other thread. **Aesiron** seems to have some backstory with **Shagnasty** , suggested by his assertion regarding “Shagnasty’s history of grandiose tales.” Perhaps this was, for him, the straw that broke the camel’s back. And while there’s no rule against not returning to a thread, there’s also no rule against opening a new thread to call someone out. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/14 "2008-04-28T16:18:06Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] **Aesiron** seems to have some backstory with **Shagnasty** , suggested by his assertion regarding “Shagnasty’s history of grandiose tales.” Perhaps this was, for him, the straw that broke the camel’s back. And while there’s no rule against not returning to a thread, there’s also no rule against opening a new thread to call someone out. [/QUOTE] Could be. I know the name but I don’t have mental notes about him as a poster. It just seemed like a strange subject for a Pitting. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/15 "2008-04-28T17:15:49Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] I have a problem with something that Doors said in that thread and questioned him about it. Should I open a Pit thread too? [/QUOTE] I suppose you could, but I think we’ve been able to work it out, or we could still work it out, in the other thread. I don’t really have any issue with what you said. Too many Pit threads are started over things that could just as easily be worked out in the original thread. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/16 "2008-04-28T18:01:48Z")
This is a pitting only insofar as it’s a thread in the Pit. I suppose I could have opened it in MPSIMS but I originally intended to include the bit about his grandiose tales in the OP and if I am going to imply that his anecdotes are embellished, this seemed the more appropiate forum. I don’t have a history with **Shagnasty** and wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t even recognize my username. I just wanted some clarification on the topic and thought a new thread here would draw his attention more quickly than another reply to a thread he seems to be ignoring. Lame? Maybe. Petty? Possibly, but I don’t think so. And for it to be a pile on, there’d have to be a number of people attacking him when my OP isn’t even that confrontational and neither are any of the replies that agree him sticking by his story is weird. Mostly, it’s that I didn’t read what he wrote right and it looked like he was caught in a lie. I’m just not the type to creatively swear in an attempt to be popular or work up outrage to try to be entertaining so instead of channeling **VCO3** , I thought I’d ask him publically and give him the chance to explain and/or defend himself. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/17 "2008-04-28T19:13:19Z")
[QUOTE=Aesiron] This is a pitting only insofar as it’s a thread in the Pit. I suppose I could have opened it in MPSIMS but I originally intended to include the bit about his grandiose tales in the OP and if I am going to imply that his anecdotes are embellished, this seemed the more appropiate forum. I don’t have a history with **Shagnasty** and wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t even recognize my username. I just wanted some clarification on the topic and thought a new thread here would draw his attention more quickly than another reply to a thread he seems to be ignoring. Lame? Maybe. Petty? Possibly, but I don’t think so. And for it to be a pile on, there’d have to be a number of people attacking him when my OP isn’t even that confrontational and neither are any of the replies that agree him sticking by his story is weird. Mostly, it’s that I didn’t read what he wrote right and it looked like he was caught in a lie. I’m just not the type to creatively swear in an attempt to be popular or work up outrage to try to be entertaining so instead of channeling **VCO3** , I thought I’d ask him publically and give him the chance to explain and/or defend himself. [/QUOTE] Well it seems like you’ve been very polite about the whole thing. You’re lack of swearing is an indication, at least to me, that you seem to be asking for a clarification more than anything else. I think that \*\*Shagnasty \*\* must not have seen this yet or he might have stopped by to clarify his intent. I don’t know the protocol for pitting some one as I haven’t had the call to do so before. Perhaps he’s totally insulted that you’ve said anything at all, feeling he adressed it to his satisfaction in the original thread. Time will tell. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/18 "2008-04-28T19:41:24Z")
I’m interested in getting a fact check on his Louisiana public high school where they spent a year engaged in public masturbation and penis-length contests with the teachers (or whatever the most recent incarnation of this story is). :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shagnasty-can-we-get-some-clarification/447157/19 "2008-04-28T20:00:05Z")
I agree with your moderate tone, Aesiron, I like reading **shagnasty** ’s posts. In fact he is one of the few usernames I always recognise, on account of his relentless bullshitting 😃 It’s probably not worth a pitting - I think he just enjoys telling stories. He’s assuredly not the only one on here who likes to spin a yarn.