This short video has it all: diseased relatives, a dying spouse, a dead media format, a dying mid-century American retail chain, and the internet to the rescue.
We even stumble upon a brief cameo by a soon-to-be well-known “girl comedian” on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Houdini On Magic by Houdini himself has a large section where Houdini discusses his work exposing fakes. I’ve had this book since I was a kid, and it’s fascinating. My edition was edited by Walter B. Gibson, and has an introduction by him.
I sympathize with Houdini, a lot. I know exactly where he was coming from with wanting to believe, but being unable to when you can’t trust it to be real.
Conan Doyle wasn’t stupid, but he was gullible. That itself likely played into Houdini’s distrust: if someone who was smart could fall for obvious frauds, then what good was mere faith, if it could be so easily manipulated? Even his break with Doyle wasn’t strictly over spiritualism, it was that the medium tried to weaponize Houdini’s memories of his mother, botched it spectacularly by using Christian statements a Jewish woman would never say, and Doyle tried to defend the medium, trampling all over Houdini’s mother’s existence and Judaism in the process. Which, I would say, is a damned good reason.
Houdini’s downfall, of course, was his ego. He did, on occasion, plant evidence of fraud when he couldn’t prove it. Which is not to say fraud wasn’t happening, but rather that he resorted to framing the guilty party because he couldn’t admit to not knowing how the trick was done.
He has his problems (name a major Victorian figure who didn’t), and I grew up on the Holmes stories, but damned if I am not firmly Team Houdini.
What I really want to get my hands on are good translations of the guy he named himself after: Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (Houdini being “little Houdin”).
Floating there alone
The station humming
All systems are go
The bank is now convinced
And the computer
Has the evidence
No need to abort
The Transfer starts
Going through accounts
Lite Colonel watching
Nothing left to chance
All is working
Trying to pay bills
Up in the station
“I could use a drink.”
Thinks Anne McClain
Transfer goes on…
Q: Have you seen more cases since then?
I know we’ve seen a case [of alveolar hemorrhage syndrome] that we published, and in polling some colleagues we think we’ve probably also seen [cases of] cryptogenic organizing pneumonia as well as lipoid pneumonia and acute eosinophilic pneumonia. Yeah, we’ve certainly seen at least probably four forms of lung disease from vaping.
Q: Do you have a theory of what might be causing the lipoid pneumonia cases? Do you think there may be certain chemicals that are irritants?
We need a strong multidisciplinary team to understand the real etiology and cause of lung injury from inhalation. I think it could be any number of components in the mixtures. Lungs don’t like oil, in general, and probably the most specific agent that’s been studied recently is diacetyl, which was studied in popcorn-flavoring lung disease.
You can probably follow those breadcumbs through pubmed.
Um. Wow. Just wow.
Did not know such a book existed… I bet this went over much better in Russia, as Putin has a Stalin rehabilitation program that’s on going…
Wow, indeed. I didn’t think Stalinists still existed. I find it interesting that an out-and-out fascist like Putin would be trying to rehabilitate Stalin. Of course, Stalin was a fascist who coopted the existing economic framework in the USSR - just substitute state ownership for private, and high party officials for crony capitalism’s owner class.
Stalin was local mobster before he went pro, nothing similar at all to what’s going on today.
You mean that Trump and Putin aren’t local mobsters? I thought that the organisational principle of fascism was organised crime.
I’d call them more “regional” mobsters than “local” ones. Local suggests something more, well, localized.
I keep reading that as “monsters” but I guess that’s accurate too.
You mean that Trump and Putin aren’t local mobsters?
My sarcasm usually comes through better.
This video illustrates the British museum’s awkward relationship with guns. The titles seemed out of place-- imitative of a very different style of video.
Yes, the titles were jarring.
And I’m sure most firearm afficianados would have much to “well, actually…”
The only thing I’d have to “well, actually” is not all revolvers use cartridges. My father had a black powder revolver where you would set primer, powder, wad, ball in each of the five chambers and then place the cylinder back in the frame. Is that being too pendantic?
Is that being too pedantic?
I’m beginning to think that gun pedantry is too often a deflection method used to assuage the conscience after yet another mass shooting.
Excuse me, most of these massacres have used small arms or mortars… /s
Also, if that was a matchlock rifle, it was probably for hunting rather than battle.