I saw something about the window that lee harvet Oswald leaned out of, when he shot president Kennedy. It seems that the windo was removed and displayed in a museum, only it was the wrong window. Now there is a lawsuit, and the “right” windoe is to be sold o EBAY (rumor is that i is worh $3 million).
My question: since the assassination is now 46 years in the past who really cares which window is which? And, since the depository building still stands, what does it matter.
Finally, would somebody really pay $3 million for an old window?
ralph, old buddy, old pal. This ain’t a General Question. It needs to go somewhere else. I think MPSIMS will do.
Please work on your spelling also.
And, don’t slouch.
samclem Moderator, General Questions
I’ve often been idly fascinated by such ‘relics’, things that seemingly are thought of as carrying some sort of connection to special circumstances they once experienced – having been present at some historically important event, or having been touched/created/in the presence of some special, often revered, person. Valuing those over virtually identical counterparts points, in my opinion, to some deep seated belief in a kind of quality that transcends the physical, that establishes some sort of permanent link between the object and its past circumstance. If one were to make a perfect molecular copy of such a thing – say, a Van Gogh painting --, it wouldn’t fetch nearly as high a price at an auction as the original (provided it were known to be a copy). It is a kind of symbolic, intangible (perhaps sentimental?) value, though not in the same way personal as, for instance, your three year old kid’s drawings on the fridge, which probably nobody else attaches any value to, yet may mean the world to you. It’s slightly odd in being so apparently universal, yet so completely immaterial – it doesn’t appear to give any thing some objective reason for being preferred to a similar thing lacking that connection.
Then again, I suppose all value is symbolic in some way, as long as it’s not directly related to sustenance/survival (and even that could be argued to presuppose an intrinsic value of human life), so maybe this is just a natural extension of modern-day luxury.
If I had three million extra, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
There are dozens of identical windows in this building. I’m sure you could buy one of the others for much less, say only a quarter-million dollars. Then spend a few thousand to get the building janitor or others to write out ‘authentication letters’ for you, and you have a window just as good as that one.
Nitpick: Oswald stayed inside the window; just the end of his rifle was outside the frame, according to witnesses.
I am sure someone would see through that.
Damn, I thought this was an *Encyclopedia Brown *thread.
What a transparent pun! I like the way you framed it. I am in pane!
Don’t be sill (e).
All this is making me shutter.
Fortunately for any prospective buyers there’s several of the original, one of a kind, unique to history windows for sale. That should help keep the price down by what… about a third?
If only there were a window from the grassy knoll up for bid. Or a fence slat. Something.
And yet blinded by the sheer genius.
Might as well bid on the window. Someone’s already got the Ruby slippers.
You don’t know Jack. What are you trying to make a case for?
Why don’t you just go there and pluck a blade of grass?
Dealey Plaza hasn’t really changed much in the last fifty years - all the buildings and the street layout are much as they were in Kennedy’s time. When you go there you feel as if you’re stepping into the Zapruder film yourself - which is a creepy experience, believe me.
When one leans out a window, isn’t the “window” by definition a hole?
I’m reminded of a story related by Stephen Jay Gould in The Flamingo’s Smile. The National Air and Space Museum was consulting with an organization for blind people about how to make their exhibits accessible. For example, could they provide a small wooden replica of the Spirit of St. Louis for visitors to touch? The blind people thought about it, and answered yes, as long as it was placed directly below the real Spirit of St. Louis. They couldn’t see, touch, or interact with the original, but just the fact of being in the same place was highly significant.
Then blind folks should or shouldn’t bid heavily on the actual window?