a mysterious disappearance

        The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie makes me think of this movie title.

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

1938

Screenplay written by Sidney Gilliat, Alma Reville, and Frank Launder

(Alma Reville was Hitchcock's wife.)

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        Recently some podcasters have speculated that the puzzling event in Tucson was a murder, "staged" to look like a kidnapping.

        I have listened to some lengthy podcast conversations about the case on a You Tube channel called "The Interview Room."

The front door;

the back doors;

the porch guy;

Nancy's pacemaker;

Nancy's medications;

the reward money that has been offered;

a nine-second phone call to Nancy's son-in-law;

the hoax-y ransom notes...

        The commentators on The Interview Room go over and over these things and trade ideas back and forth.  It makes me think, maybe this is one of the ways crimes get solved - just keep going over it and going over it, analyzing possibilities, until something pans out.

The sentence, "It doesn't make sense" has been said - multiple times, on all the podcasts, and in the Comments.

Rincon Peak Sunrise, Tucson, Arizona

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the lady vanishes

TUCSON - month 9.  It was at the beginning of February of this year when Nancy Guthrie disappeared.  Still no answers.  And the latest thing is, people seem to be under some kind of direction to Not Talk About Nancy.  

        From Kathie Lee Gifford to the local church ladies in Tucson, people answer, "I can't talk about that."  Or, "We've been asked not to talk about Nancy."  Or, "That door is closed."

And Sheriff Nanos showed up at a press conference with a piece of paper in his hand, and opened by saying, "I have some talking points from the family.  I'm not very good with a script..."

Since when do civilians dictate "Talking Points" to law enforcement?

Well - Nancy Guthrie, a widow, has a son and two daughters - one of those daughters is Savannah Guthrie, who is on a morning show on the NBC network.  Because she has a TV job, she is rich and famous, in addition to that, she is married to a man who worked in public relations for Bill Clinton.

        So there is a sense, among podcasters who comment and speculate on the case, that there are concerted efforts to "control the narrative" because Savannah and her husband together have knowledge and "clout" in the area of narratives.

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over in Palm Beach

 

"that big society murder over in Palm Beach"

eight words

        Referring to it as that big society murder brings the idea of the subject close to the listeners, implying their pre-existing familiarity with it.  ("you know the one!")  Capturing their interest.

        Calling it "big" communicates that it's an important murder; and using the further modifying word "society" says it's a classy murder.

        The word "murder" is powerful by itself - shocking, attention-grabbing.

And then the remaining four words:  "over in Palm Beach" -- Palm Beach means it's a classy and important location, as well as wealthy and glamorous.

        The words "over in" tells the listener that this glamorous, classy murder location is away from us, (over in; over there), but simultaneously lets us know that although this mysterious, scary, rich place is away from us, it isn't that far away, 'cause it's - right over there....

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that big society murder over in Palm Beach

 On Monday when I re-printed that Comment about The Golden Girls here, the reason I liked it was the way the speaker used the English language.

...when one of his uncles "traveled to the US for his higher studies"

his uncle was "excitedly talking" about his life in the United States

"Cut to 13 years later" (!)

..."to my luck, the show was aired..."

"Oh! How excited I was"

        excitedly talking

        to my luck

        higher studies

        cut to 13 years later!

I just love this guy's enthusiasm - both expressed and implied.

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As I was reviewing that Internet comment which I just had to sit down and type out, I noticed a three-by-five index card where I had noted a phrase from the show:  Blanche Devereaux hurries into the room with a newspaper in her hand, telling the other ladies about a local report on "that big society murder over in Palm Beach."

        That phrase packs a lot of information and atmosphere.

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picture it. 1989....

[comment on a You Tube video] ------------------- I am from India.  It was in the year 1989 when one of my uncles travelled to the US for his higher studies.  A month later I spoke to him on the phone and he was excitedly talking about his life in the US.  

Among the various things he mentioned was this sitcom Golden Girls.  

        He said he is watching a show on American TV named Golden Girls and it's one of the best comedies he'd ever seen.  As a 15 year old, I was so curious to watch it but unfortunately I had no way to.   It was before the Internet era and I did not have any way to find out more about this show.

Cut to 13 years later.  2002.  I was posted to Ohio for an assignment from my company.  By then the 29 year old me had forgotten all about the golden girls and what my uncle had said.  But to my luck, the show was aired on TV (a re run) and all the memories of my uncle talking about this show came back to me.  

Oh! How excited I was.  I absolutely loved it.  These ladies are lovely.  I am sure all 4 of them are entertaining the Gods above in heaven with their humour.

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origins of inspiration

 Toward the end of the book, Tina has left Ike and is in the process of rebuilding a career on her own, with her manager Roger Davies.

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        Roger Davies:  They said, "Hello, we need to get some names on your guest list - there'll be sixty-three people from Capitol coming down to the show tonight."... They asked David Bowie what he was doing that night, and he told them, "I'm going to see my favorite female singer."  They said, "Who's that?"  He said, "Tina Turner."... 

It was perfect for us.  David brought Susan Sarandon, who had starred with him in The Hunger, and he brought Keith Richards and John McEnroe - it was the weirdest combination of people.  And the show that night was fantastic - Tina had the place standing on its head.  Incredible.  It was a real event, exactly what we needed.

        Tina:  David and Keith and I posed for all kinds of pictures, and David asked when I'd be doing a new record.  We started talking about material, and after a while he said, "Let's go back to Keith's and listen to some songs."  

So around three in the morning we all headed over to Keith Richards' apartment in the Plaza Hotel.  He had this great big tape machine set up there, and you could see that he used it constantly.  

We had some champagne, and Keith cranked up his machine and started playing all this old music, and suddenly it dawned on me:  This was what these guys did.  They would go back to all this old music that they loved - blues and R and B - and they would change it around and make something of their own out of it.  

        Because the feeling that was in that old music was something they felt, too.  But they made it new again, and that was what had always attracted me to the Rolling Stones' songs.  I had never actually realized it before.  That was a magical evening.

Keith Richards at the piano, in the early days

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carrying on as usual

[excerpts from I, Tina - written by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder.  William Morrow; Harper Collins; Copyright 1986 and 2010, Tina Turner.] -------------------------

Ike's marathon stints in the studio were fine with Tina, however, as long as she didn't have to participate.  By now it was his presence at home that she dreaded.

        Tina:  It was real hard by then.  Ike got worse and worse.  You never knew what you were getting hit for; only Ike knew.  He'd just say you were "messing" with him.  He'd lock the door, and then you knew you were gonna get it.

        Bob Gruen:  Ike said that Tina was leaving him.  I said Nadja was leaving me, so we sort of had that in common, and we were discussing it.  

He said he didn't understand why.  I said, well, women today don't want to be a shadow to a man - they want to be their own individual person and pursue their own destiny.  And if you're not up to making those life-style changes . . . I mean, instead of being home with my wife and kid, I was always out somewhere drinking with some band.  

And so we were splitting.  

But I understood that Nadja wanted to live a more stable life, one that had more feeling and more meaning than a rock 'n' roll-show biz kind of scene.  I knew how happy John [Lennon] was about coming back to Yoko and stopping the drinking and the drugging, and those were things I was starting to learn, too - although it took me five years, and in the meantime I lost my wife.  But at least I knew why.  

        And I was trying to explain this to Ike - about this new feminist movement, that you can't just boss a woman around and expect to be considered a powerful man.  That you have to respect a woman, and really believe that she is an equal partner in life.  

This was something that he had never heard before, and it didn't make much sense to him.  Particularly since he was so successful in using women as sex objects, and having many of them enjoy it.  

It just didn't make sense for him when all of a sudden his own wife says, "You can't treat me like that."  He was saying that she had never acted like she was feeling bad before, and that this was the way guys were.  He just didn't get it.

        Ike attempted to carry on as usual. 

-30-