Friday, September 08, 2006
Who Do You Want To Be Today?
I was at the Borders store in Eugene earlier this week, sitting in the coffee area, trying to make headway on my novel when a woman introduced herself as the late Robert A. Heinlein's wife and listed off some of the novels she'd ghostwritten, including Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Now I'm no Heinlein buff, but I was (to carry over from yesterday's post) incredulous. Still, no need to be rude, I told that was cool and went back to my manuscript. (I was under the gun from a different encounter earlier in the afternoon.)
According to Wikipedia (and Google +Heinlein +ghostwriter), the woman I met was not who she claimed to be ... unless she put the ghost in ghostwriter: Heinlein's wife at the time SiaSL and TMIaHM were written--as well as the time of his death--died three and a half years ago.
Dina had a similar experience when we lived in California. A co-worker claimed to be the first wife of then Oregon senator Mark O. Hatfield. Now this was in the pre-Internet years, so no googling or wikipedi'ing, but Dina was nonetheless skeptical. Back then we came up to Eugene every Thanksgiving, so it wasn't that difficult to drive another hour north to the Mark O. Hatfield Library at Willamette University (Dina and Mark's alma mater) and discover that he'd been married a) a total of once, b) to a woman he was still married to, c) who wasn't Dina's co-worker. I don't think Dina ever confronted the woman; it was more fun to let the tall-tales spin.
If I lived on the other side of the Rockies, I might be tempted to lay claim to the title "scion of the Mike-sell's potato chips dynasty." Out here that'd get a who-of-the-whattely-what-now? reaction. But somewhere where the brand is better known (but not too well-known) I might be able to pull it off.
Who would you claim to be if being exposed as a fraud wasn't an imminent threat?
According to Wikipedia (and Google +Heinlein +ghostwriter), the woman I met was not who she claimed to be ... unless she put the ghost in ghostwriter: Heinlein's wife at the time SiaSL and TMIaHM were written--as well as the time of his death--died three and a half years ago.
Dina had a similar experience when we lived in California. A co-worker claimed to be the first wife of then Oregon senator Mark O. Hatfield. Now this was in the pre-Internet years, so no googling or wikipedi'ing, but Dina was nonetheless skeptical. Back then we came up to Eugene every Thanksgiving, so it wasn't that difficult to drive another hour north to the Mark O. Hatfield Library at Willamette University (Dina and Mark's alma mater) and discover that he'd been married a) a total of once, b) to a woman he was still married to, c) who wasn't Dina's co-worker. I don't think Dina ever confronted the woman; it was more fun to let the tall-tales spin.
If I lived on the other side of the Rockies, I might be tempted to lay claim to the title "scion of the Mike-sell's potato chips dynasty." Out here that'd get a who-of-the-whattely-what-now? reaction. But somewhere where the brand is better known (but not too well-known) I might be able to pull it off.
Who would you claim to be if being exposed as a fraud wasn't an imminent threat?
Mikesell
1 Snarky Remarks:
Angie Poole, at 10:47 PM
My
Gosh
I bought those Mikesell chips in Kentucky because of you!
The jalepeno ones because you're a little saucy ;-)
Of course in that context I suppose the barbecque ones would've worked just as well but I don't think they have your bite.