The Straight Dope 05/02/2003

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 05/02/2003

Dear Cecil:

What is the straight dope on Martin Luther King Jr?
Did he plagiarize most of his writing, including
his PhD thesis? Was he a communist? Did he really
use donated money for prostitutes? These allegations
are brought up at www.treykorte.com/politics/MLKJR.html,
"[not] to bring down MLK, Jr." but to "subject him
to the same sort of dirt-digging that leaders
such as George Washington, Christopher Columbus,
Thomas Jefferson, and other dead white guys have
suffered." The same contentions are cited at
christianparty.net/mlktruth.htm, and probably
other Web sites. If anyone can shed light on this,
oh Master, it is you; please edify us.
--Roy Greene, Frederick, Maryland

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Cecil replies:

Edifying" is not the first word that comes to mind in
this context. However, one must face the facts.

Considering how he was vilified while he was alive,
Martin Luther King Jr. has gotten off easy since his
death, despite some embarrassing posthumous revelations.
Partly that's because he's been embraced by
conservatives, who now point to him as a symbol of
moderation and self-reliance, in contrast to the likes
of Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton. Still, as you say,
certain questions arise. 

Was he a communist? 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html


STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

Often in TV and movie westerns, when mourners gather
around a fallen friend, the Native American of the
bunch will say that the departed has gone to the
"happy hunting grounds." Is this a true Native
American belief or script-writer fiction?
--Jeff Larsen

SDSTAFF bibliophage replies:

You're right to be skeptical, but wrong to blame
it all on Hollywood. "Happy hunting grounds" has
been part of the English language for close to 200
years. But it might still be a fake. If it's the
real deal, it's an "Indianism," that is, a word or
phrase characteristic of the English now or formerly
spoken by Native Americans. Indianisms are often
literal translations from one of the estimated 350
Indian languages that were spoken in what is now the
United States and Canada. (In another context, the
term can also refer to usage characteristic of the
English spoken in India.) Unfortunately, it's not
always easy to tell a genuine Indianism from the
invention of a novelist, scriptwriter, or amateur
jokester.

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhappyhunting.html


STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 09/16/1977

Dear Cecil: 

I was recently told that McDonald's serves about
600 million burgers every year. Out of idle,
perhaps morbid, curiosity, I wonder just how many
unfortunate cows much die each year to fill this
incredible demand. --Michael J., Los Angeles

Dear Michael:  There are a lot of variables in
this question, so the answer isn't going to be
very exact, but here goes: your average cow (as
opposed to my average cow) weighs somewhere in
the neighborhood of 1,000 to 1,200 pounds when
it's ready for slaughter. Once it's been butchered,
about 700 to 800 edible pounds remain. Depending
on how the carcass is divided up, some 12 to 15
percent of that total weight becomes hamburger
meat--which means roughly (very roughly) that one
cow is good for some 100 pounds of burger meat. 
You were probably floored when you heard that
McDonald's pushes 600 million burgers a year, right?
Well, you better sit down, pal, because the actual
sales figure as of 1993 (the last time I checked
was more like five and a half billion burgers a 
year. That's through the entire worldwide McDonald's
system, of course, not just in the United States.  

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_186.html

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