[Tektalkdiscussion] Fw: [mediareq] today's phrots

[Bob Acosta]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Edwin Cooney 
To: Bob Acosta 
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 5:09 PM
Subject: Re: [mediareq] today's phrots


Bob,

Below is my comment to Nancy Lynn on the latest "Rest of the Story" story.

Thanks for your thoughtfulness in sending it on to me.

Warm Regards,

Ed

Yes Nancy, not many people know that story, although some of us do.  When the story first began, I didn't recall it right away because the name Duff Armstrong wasn't a name I remembered.  However, as the part about the full moon was revealed, I knew what and who the story was about.

Listening to the standard close of the story the following thought occured to me:  "To know the rest of the story is irrelivant.  To know any of the story is to know the whole story or none of the story."

Hence, my problem with these "rest of the Stories."  As interesting as some of them are, they aren't really stories that are puzzles because they're only partly known, they're often stories that are totally unknown until they're told.  True, not everyone knows that Albert Einstein was a poor student, but that's because they've never been told the whole story of Einstein's life.  I mean, it isn't as though Paul Harvey and Paul Harvey Jr have discovered unknown facts about people, it's just that most people don't know everything that's available about promonant people.  In order to hear the rest of the story Paul Harvey Jr. told today, one would first have to know that there was a man named Duff Armstrong who had been accused of murder or that Abraham Lincoln had once defended an accused murderer but be ignorant of the details.

Another thing that bothers me about these stories is how they'll tell a story and sometimes use the middle name of the key figure to obscure the significance of the story they're telling.  For instance, I could tell a story about Babe Ruth and obscure it simply by referring to Babe Ruth as George--which was Ruth's first name.  The Harveys often do exactly that.

Having written all of the above, I don't deny the value (entertainment wise and informational) but the purpose of these stories is distorted by calling them "The Rest of the Story."  They might be called:  "Compelling Stories," "Telling Tales," or "Fascinating Fables," etc. etc.  I should look up the meaning of fable, but my point is that "Rest of the Story" is misleading.

Now I've vented!

E.C.
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