The Straight Dope 05/13/2005

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

You are subscribed as: [[email protected]]

To unsubscribe CLICK on the URL below this line:
mailto:[email protected]
If you can't "click" above, then send a blank email to:
[email protected]
____________________________________________
THE STRAIGHT DOPE 05/13/2005

Dear Cecil:

Many years ago I was told there were Nike missile sites
along the Chicago lakefront. Supposedly they were
scattered from Grant Park to somewhere north of Lincoln
Park, and consisted of underground bunkers that would
open to let the launching platform rise up and fire the
missile. Was that a cold war urban legend? --Larry Cywin,
Gainesville, Florida

~~~~~~
Looking for the perfect gift for that wedding, birthday,
or bar mitzvah? Straight Dope books are the very thing! 
See http://www.straightdope.com/store.html
~~~~~~

Cecil replies:

Nope, that was cold war reality. Chicago's lakeside
rockets were more conspicuous than most, but in the 1950s
and '60s every American city of consequence was
surrounded by Nike missile batteries, the better to fend
off Soviet bombers. Soviet bombers, you say? What about
the USSR's far more fearsome intercontinental ballistic
missiles? Just so, which explains why nobody remembers
Nike missiles today. They date from an era when people
still believed it was possible to mount an effective
defense against nuclear attack--in fact, the Nike
batteries near some cities replaced antiaircraft guns.
Then along came the ICBM, which rendered the whole thing
quaint.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050513.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC #1 - 10/23/1987

Dear Cecil:

I have long been interested in the "Philadelphia Experiment,"
which was supposedly conducted by the U.S. Navy during
World War II as one of the three "city projects."   The 
Manhattan Project, of course, was the development of the
atomic bomb. The Philadelphia Experiment supposedly
involved the use of magnetism to bend light rays and thus
make objects invisible. Legends and sketchy reports have
it that objects could be transported from place to place by
the use of strong magnetic fields.   I grew up around
Portsmouth, Virginia, and have long heard rumors that the
degaussing facility at the mouth of the western branch of the
Elizabeth River was the "receiver" facility for this project, and
that a destroyer was briefly transported here before being
returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard.   Is this true?
--John H., Norfolk, Virginia  

Dear John:  

Right, John, another world-shattering secret that the military 
has managed to keep hushed up for 50 years. Betcha they
store the giant magnets right next to the Roswell alien
spacecraft. Even the author of one of the better-known
books about the Philadelphia Experiment has backed off on
his more outrageous claims, although he still maintains
an experiment of some kind did take place. 

The whole thing first came to light in the mid-1950s,
when someone variously identifying himself as Carlos
Allende or Carl Allen wrote several strange letters to a
UFO writer named Morris Jessup. Filled with misspellings
and stylistic eccentricities, the letters told of a U.S.
Navy destroyer that in October 1943 had been subjected to
a force field in an effort, apparently successful, to
make it invisible. Somehow the ship was also teleported
from the Philadelphia Navy Yard to Norfolk, Virginia, and
back, all within a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, the
experiment also had the side effect of rendering half the
officers and crew insane, with some of the crewmen
unpredictably becoming invisible or bursting into flame
years later. Since this had a decidedly negative effect
on morale, the Navy halted the experiments and hushed up
the whole affair. Or so the letter writer claimed.

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_293.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC #2  - 11/06/1987

Dear Cecil: 

This may sound off the wall, but how about the straight
dope on the Trilateral Commission? All my life I've heard
about this "secret" organization that supposedly actually
runs the world. What's the real story? --Alton F., San
Antonio, Texas  

Cecil replies:  

Alton, you wound me. You should know by now the only
person remotely together enough to run the world is ... well,
modesty forbids, but you just wouldn't believe what you can
accomplish with a home computer these days. (Sorry about
that blip in the stock market, by the way--I definitely gotta keep
those floppies out of the taco sauce.)  

But on to the Trilateral Commission, or TLC, as it's often
coyly referred to. For starters, unless you're a lad of very
tender years, it's a safe bet you haven't been hearing
about the commission all your life, inasmuch as it was
founded in 1973. Second, as you probably already
recognize, an organization that everybody already knows
about hardly qualifies as "secret." They're in the New
York phone book, and if you ask they'll send you a bunch
of literature about the organization. Third, while it's
your constitutional right to be paranoid, you might at
least try to be paranoid about something reasonably up-
to-date. The TLC-as-world-conspiracy theory peaked during
the early 80s, and has now pretty much gone the way of
the hula hoop. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_295.html

____________________________________________
Here's how you can get your OWN FREE Subscription:
Send a blank mailto:[email protected]
____________________________________________
Copyright 1995 - 2005 Chicago Reader, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
You may forward this document by email ONLY if you
include the entire document INCLUDING the information
at the bottom of this publication
____________________________________________
Visit our good friends at Joke A Day
http://www.jokeaday.com
They're kind enough to mail THE STRAIGHT DOPE for us.
Join the World's Largest Daily Humor List and receive
daily laughs in your email by sending mailto:[email protected]