Day 980 “They say”

Day 980 “They say” and the Birth of an Urban Folk Tale

Thursday September 12, 2019

419 Days until the 2020 election and 501 days until the Inauguration

I remember at the beginning of a book on DeSoto, (the conquistador not the car), it started off with a sentence that went something like “It’s not often that one man gets to wipe out an entire civilization…”

Yeah, well, we are in such times where we can start lots of sentences with “It’s not often …”

However, I digress. Not really but sort of.

Let me take you back to a skit on The Smothers Brothers Show. It started with an office door inscribed on which in a curve of letters were the words “THEY SAY.” Inside Tommy and Dick were sitting with their feet up on a desk. The conversation they were having went something like this:

“They say a rock rolling down hill picks up no grass.”

“They say a stone tumbling doesn’t let moss grow on it.”

etc. etc. etc.

It took awhile to understand that the joke was they were trying to come up with a clever saying people would repeat. In this case, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” (Do I have to tell you who the Smothers Brothers were? No wait, you have google, look it up.)

The skit ended on a double entendre joke with a woman with large breasts standing close to one of the brothers and the talk was about how big they were, but not referring to the breasts but something else. The camera angle made it clear what was going on. (This sight gag was also used by Johnny Carson.)

Okay, so why bring this up?

Ah Grasshopper, I thought you’d never ask.

Well, I was preparing a talk and doing research on Richard Halliburton when I ran across a little tidbit. This at about the same time as I came to understand Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. Let’s start with Halliburton. It might be the easier of the two. 

Have you ever heard the comment that “The Great Wall of China is the only man made thing you can see from space.”? (No? They get out. Stop reading. This screed is not for you. Commie.)

Sorry, where was I?

Oh yes, The Great Wall is the only man made thing you can see from space. Not true. But where did it come from? Turns out, Richard Halliburton once wrote:

“Astronomers say that the Great Wall is the only man-made thing on our planet visible to the human eye from the moon.”*

*Richard Halliburton, The Complete Book of Marvels  of The Orient, page 284.

My dad was an astronomer. He knew and worked with all the big name astronomers of the day. He was starting his career about the time Halliburton died in 1939. I’m sure he would have heard one of them say something about this. I don’t know if he did, but I never heard any talk of it. Not in our household, but I remember hearing and repeating in grade school that bit about The Great Wall being the only thing you can see from space (or the moon.) 

It seems Richard Halliburton started it! Ah, the birth of an urban legend.

There are so many that seem to start in innocent ways. What made Halliburton write that? We’ll never know, unless there is some note in his voluminous correspondence. But think of this. He had to have written that before he died in 1939 and no one had been to space, much less the Moon.

For an object to be seen it take one degree, for it to be recognized takes two degrees, or so my Industrial pych professor, Ivan Chapanis, said. I’ve always accepted that statement as true. I doubt the Great Wall seen from the Moon takes up one degree. 

But there you have it.

Now?

Now the “They sayers” are churning out stuff at an alarming rate and putting it on social media. Without any editorial constraint. No fact checking. “Sound good, I’ll ‘share it’ “

This is where we are.

This is America.

This is the world.

In other news, Trump did something idiotic yesterday.

Details? You don’t need no stinkin’ details.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll explain Special Relativity.

(I know. You can’t wait.)

419 Days until the 2020 election and 501 days until the Inauguration

PS Ommmmmmmmm