[Rhodes22-list] "The Hook", sea stories, grains of salt , and Truth (Politics)

[Ben Cittadino]

Dear Rhodies;

When I was in high school a classmate told me the story of "The Hook".  He
knew it was absolutely true because it had happened to a friend of his
cousin. It seems this teenaged couple found a secluded spot off the road to
do what we used to call some "necking".  They were listening to the radio
when they heard a report of an escaped mental patient, who was a notorious
"lover's lane killer".  He could be identified by the hook that had replaced
his right hand after a farm accident.  He was completely insane and the
tales of his murderous ways were chilling.  The couple discounted the story,
but something made them uneasy and they became so frightened that the young
man quickly turned on the engine, threw the car into gear, and floored the
accelerator to get back to the main road.  When they reached the young
woman's  house they laughed about how silly they had been to get so
frightened, but when the young man got out of the car and went around to
open his girlfriend's door, he screamed in terror.  There, hanging from the
handle ( car doors had handles then ) was
The Hook, which had been ripped from the killer's arm just as he had been
reaching for the door.  I believed the cautionary tale, until I heard the
same story, with slight variations many times thereafter, and ultimated
learned it was completely false.  It was an "urban legend", one of those
tales of modern folklore that get repeated, and believed by those who tell
them, but which have little or no basis in fact.

When I was in the navy, the salty old Chiefs would pass time on the late
night watches telling "absolutely true" sea stories, always in good faith,
always with a straight face, but, almost always, not true.

Much of the political discourse in our little cozy sailor's bar incorporates
sources from the web.  Many posts are sprinkled with citations to
"authorities" gleened from various web sites.  The purpose of this post is
to gently and respectfully suggest to posters and readers alike, that just
because something appears on the "internet" as fact, the source is not
necessarily reliable.  In fact, those who complain about the main stream
media ought, in my opinion, to consider that the main stream media became
main stream precisely because they tried to adhere to generally accepted
standards of journalistic practice.  They make mistakes, but not nearly so
often as their "fringe" competitors.  

So when I see some outrageous statement about one or the other candidate,
that a poster claims has been "ignored by the MSM", I chuckle alittle, take
a grain of salt or two, and think about "THE HOOK".

best,

Ben C. s/v susan kay highlands nj

PS- Happy Birthday Brad! (I mean it. No kidding.)


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