7/28/2019 Mental Gymnastics Fact Checking Myself v1.0

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Fact Checking Myself: Mental Gymnastics v1.0 Sunday, June 23, 2013

Copyright 2013, David M. Sherr |1P a g e

At the beginning or end of daily walk I wind up at the local Starbucks for a session with the usual gang of

old farts. We talk of the banalities of life, our aches and pains and remembrances.

And, of course, we discuss politicsthe bulk of these guys being retired policemen, they are

conservatives as currently defined by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. We have negotiated a dtente to

peaceful co-existence so that the air doesnt get too befouled with vitriolic language.

Last week, we took up the actions of NSA activity exposer Edward Snowden and whether he is a traitor

or not. Is he a Benedict Arnold or a Daniel Ellsberg? Given that he is on the run and appears to be a

Man without a Country as long as he can, I posited he has become a man without a country.

This comment evoked a puzzled look from some and a nod from others. Rattling around my head was

the Edward Everett 1863 Atlantic Monthly story I read in 10th

grade English in 1960. But that is the fact,

not the remembrance in the discussion that day.

Asked what I meant, I explained the gist of what I confusedly named Philip, no, Thomas Marlowe (Philip

Nolan is correct) as the man banished to a ship at sea never hearing of the US again. It is a narrative forSnowden, but now that he seeks asylum in Ecuador, well see.

No one questioned me on the name as they didnt know the famous Christopher Marlowe forerunner to

Shakespeare. I had converted Christopher into Thomas. Read too much Dashell Hammitt and Raymond

Chandler since 1960. Philip went straight to Marlowe.

In my defense, I noted my uncertainty at the time. Upon researching when I got home, I discovered all

the facts and saw that I was really addled on this one. Marlowe and Literature went to Christopher

Marlowe with the Christopher fuzzed as Thomas (from Thomas Moore, I guess, keeping the M

connection.)

Without recapitulating my research, when I confessed this fact yesterday, they didnt give a shit, but,

tweaked my nose, YOU made a mistake? My answer: Yes. Hard as it is to believe. Sometimes wrong

but rarely uncertain.

Smiles all around.