Boy did I get stuck in a Wikihole....

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 13:26:07 GMT

High time I did some more blogging.

So I went from a song I quite liked to the death of RFK on the Wikipedia. Let me tell you what happened.

I quite like the song "The Silent Boatman" by Parliament, which is relatively out of character for them, being better known as a Funk band. It's themes are a little too christian for an atheist like myself, but I still quite like it. What is it that Tim Minchin said? "Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords but the lyrics are dodgy." As one sometimes does, I decided I wanted to learn more about the song, so I started on the Wikipedia entry for the album Osmiun. And it turns out the song was actually written by a young British woman called Ruth Copeland! She indeed recorded a version of the song for one of her few albums.

In fact, this was the first song she write entirely by herself. Sadly, she left the music industry entirely in 1976 after her singles failed to sell...

And this is where I started to get lost into a Wikihole. Ruth was briefly married to the NFL player Karl Sweeten. Which lead me to read about a film he appeared in, called Paper Lion, which is based on a book and articles written by George Plimpton. The film, and the book, tell the story of Plimpton attempting to actually play as a member of an NFL team, despite being 36 and by no means an athlete. As an aside, I dimly recall reading one of the original stories in a collection of New Journalism writings - a genre that Hunter Thomson was also known for.

Plimpton, it seems, was good friends with Robert F . Kennedy, and was not only present when RFK was assassinated, but was one of the people who tackled the assassin and disarmed him! Which of course led me to read up on Sirham Sirham, who at the time of writing is still in prison. And that lead to me reading about other people with duplicated names. And the notable inmates of California State Prison, Corcoran - currently including the Golden State Killer. Also took diversions off to read about the assassination of Heuy Long, all the members of the US congress who have almost been assassinated and... well, I went on, but can't remember where after that. I would have read up on Gabby Giffords, except I already know how she was nearly killed in a shooting in 2011...

So apparently this how I'm spending this lockdown. I will try and find the film Paper Lion, it sounds interesting, and perhaps will keep me away from what I now realise is a fairly morbid series of clicks...

comments

Send My Conscience Home in a Taxi

Boy did I get stuck in a Wikihole....