| Apocrypha Now! Archive | |
Good luck, Mr. ... Liebowitz???
08/16/01: British columnist John Humphrys, reflecting upon the insoluble mysteries of life in last Sunday's Times, posed the peculiar question: "Why were the first words of the second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin: 'Good luck, Mr Liebowitz'?"
It's peculiar historically because, of course, NASA recordings prove Aldrin uttered no such words. It's peculiar folklorically because Humphrys would seem to be delivering a brand-new variant of a well known urban legend: that Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, purportedly made the puzzling statement, "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky," when his feet touched the lunar sand.
What did Armstrong (or Aldrin) supposedly mean by either of those statements? If you don't know the answer, click here.
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Survey: Skepticism is a must on the Internet 08/15/01: Pollsters at the Markle Foundation report that 70 percent of those surveyed said Internet users must question what they read online (nobody asked me, but I wholeheartedly agree). Forty-five percent said they see the Net as a "source of worry," but in contrast to sentiments on Wall Street the vast majority of users still have a positive view of cyberspace. We're not sure why. |
Yet more media attention for G.W. Bush IQ hoax
08/14/01: Matthew Norman, author of the Diary column for the Guardian in London, was the first of several journalists to bite on the Bush IQ hoax and, to his credit, the first to retract. "We've let Scranton down, we've let President Bush down, we've let the Guardian down," wrote Norman this morning, "but most of all we've let ourselves down. Poor show." No contrite words yet on the Turklebaum fiasco, however.
In a similar vein, the Wall Street Journal anointed Gwynne Dyer the "World's Laziest Columnist" on its Opinion page for the same flub. "It turns out even in being duped he was merely being derivative," opined James Taranto, noting that the Guardian beat Dyer to the misinformation by several weeks.
More media hand-wringing:
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FTC copes with 'Opt Out' credit misinformation 08/13/01: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission says it has received more than 10,000 hits since July on its Web press release debunking an email rumor about credit bureaus and consumer privacy. "People are getting worried that their neighbors or others could obtain information about credit history, and that's just inaccurate," Claudia Bourne Farrell told Newsbytes today. "I've even gotten calls from the Justice Department and the Pentagon on this issue." Actually, that ought to be non-issue, but in any case: |
