Crackpots

Actually above freezing today, first time since the MLK '07 Ice Storm hit the nation but only brushed northern Illinois. Still, it's been cold enough since then here, and the inch of snow on the ground that's been hanging around for a couple of weeks hasn't melted much, until today. Forecast calls for much colder days ahead.

Today I did some research into the death of Nelson Rockefeller, to post on DP Daily. Such a search uncovers a number of things, such as crackpot web sites. The Rockefellers still have the power to excite crackpots, which you can take as a measure of their lasting influence.

Looking into the death of Rockefeller -- and speaking of crackpots ­- reminded me of the time that Dick Gregory, who was billed as "comedian and former presidential candidate Dick Gregory," appeared at Vanderbilt (he was nominated by the Freedom and Peace Party in 1968, not to be confused with the Peace and Freedom Party that same year, which slated Eldridge Cleaver for the top spot). I think Gregory did his show at VU just ahead of the 1980 election, but I might be wrong by a year either way. I don't remember much of what he said exactly, but he did tell some jokes, including one about the time he parked in a handicapped space, only to return to find his car surrounded by "angry white guys in wheelchairs."

"We saw it was a black guy, but we didn't get a look at his face," one of the white guys said. "But we got some guns, and we're gonna get him good when he comes back."

"I'll help you out," I told him.

"You'd do that for us white guys? Against another black guy?"

"Sure," I said. "Happens all the time." [laughter at that]

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna steal his car."

I cleaned that up some, but I remember it got a pretty big laugh. Besides jokes, he also offered nuggets from an assortment of conspiracy theories and some quack nutritional advice. Pantyhose, if I remember right, was part of a conspiracy to make black women less fertile; and Nelson Rockefeller didn't die during sex (I'm cleaning up again). That that's what they want you to think, because you're obsessed with sex, he said, attributing the former vice president's death to a "bullet in the brain." He didn't elaborate, and it isn't a theory I've heard much about since.