CAPITALIZING ON GLENN MILLER'S DEATH

One of my non-computerized friends, JP recently made fun of me because I used the word "mellow." I used it to describe the calm on my drive home from work. I guess I got defensive when he said, "Mellow disappeared from the English language when the last hippie went corporate!" So I said, "No, no it's true. After work (4:AM-4:30) its nice to air-out and drive home with the road all to myself. It gives me time to phase back into my Steve-Mode by communing peacefully with my thoughts."

This mellowing process is aided by several "go-to" options on the car radio like; classical music, rock or oldies. Other times I listen to sports talk and still other times I get a kick out of "COAST-TO COAST AM" with George Noory.

Noory's show airs in this part of South Jersey at WOND 1400-AM and it overwhelmingly deals with the para-normal. The hottest subject these days is the interpretation and speculation over the Mayan calendar's supposed red-flag...to mark the 2012 end of mankind. Other shows highlight UFO's, ghosts, re-incarnation, Big Foot sightings etc. When those topics aren't at least entertaining to laugh at, I switch it off. However, it should be noted that sometimes legitimate scientists come on and discuss interesting things such as; the dangers of asteroids, natural resource conservation or alternatives for the over-population and food shortage problems.

THERE'S ALWAYS PLENTY OF KNUCKLEHEAD AUTHORS TRYING TO PROFIT FROM PEOPLE'S FEARS AND/OR URBAN LEGENDS. HOAXES LIKE THE "LOCH NESS MONSTER" ARE PRIME "COAST-TO-COAST" FODDER.

George Noory's best guests are the crackpot authors who write over-sensationalized books that try to justify wild theories. One such guest was a gentleman proclaiming to be the kidnapped, 20-month old (slain in 1932) Charles A.Lindbergh Jr...a.k.a. the "Lindbergh baby."

FOR "THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY," BRUNO HAUPTMANN WAS CONVICTED AND ELECTROCUTED FOR THE KIDNAPPING AND MURDER OF THE LINDBERGH BABY.

In addition to promoting his book to generate interest and sales, this Charles Lindbergh's ultimate aim was to lay claim to the Lindbergh family fortune. Its all funny to me because we can hardly confirm one hour-old tidbits our friends say...let alone the unsubstantiated rantings of someone trying to generate a conspiracy theory in order to disprove a firmly accepted truth from 75 years ago.
IN 1927, CHARLES "LUCKY LINDY" LINDBERGH EARNED A TICKER-TAPE PARADE DOWN BROADWAY AS THE FIRST PILOT TO FLY OVER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN .

An even better crackpot, author/journalist/investigator Hunton Downs came on "Coast-to-Coast" last week to hawk his book on the death of Glenn Miller.

Glenn Miller was a jazz musician and big-band leader of the early 1940's. A celebrity and national icon of my parent's generation, Miller went to Europe and cemented his superstar status by entertaining allied troops during WWII. Unfortunately, he died under mysterious circumstances...because his body was never recovered, he is still listed as; "Missing In Action." Thus prompting (66 years later) a supposedly non-fiction book about the...covered-up...circumstances of his death.

GLENN MILLER (above) WAS PORTRAYED BY ACTOR JAMES STEWART IN THE 1954 MOVIE, "THE GLENN MILLER STORY."

The widely held notion of Miller's demise was; he was being flown from the U. K. to entertain GI's in newly liberated Paris. In route over the English Channel, his plane encountered a terrible storm and inadvertently veered off course. Simultaneously, a bomber squadron returning to Britain from raids in Germany were ordered to jettison there unused bombs, in a safe section over the Channel. It is believed that these bombs were accidentally dropped on the small, low flying plane carrying Glenn Miller and his entourage. Adding to the mystique, no trace of the plane, its crew or passengers were ever found.

Hunton Downs had a better explanation and he used a simple ploy to lure readership...celebrity espionage agents. You may recall that; Moe Berg a major league baseball player (chiefly with the Washington Senators) spied on the Japanese prior to and during WWII. The famous chef Julia Child was pressed into covert activities in England and comedian Harpo Marx during the early days of the Cold War, served as a courier smuggling documents out from Russia.

Downs combined this celebrity spy appeal with researching old records and came up with this; Glenn Miller spoke fluent German and was being groomed to lead an Allied group to "diplomatically" convince Hitler's underlings to sabotage Germany's war effort to end WWII early. Hitler found out and formed a counterattack. He enlisted his most reliable operative (a German with an Italian last name...it started with an "S." Sorry, I only heard it once on the radio. This theory does appear in print...however, the spy's name does NOT).

According to Hunton Downs, Hitler's secret agent...with James Bond-like precision, kidnapped Glenn Miller. In captivity, Miller was threatened with torture...in order to entice him to serve as the key figure to reach and subsequently assassinate General Dwight D. Eisenhower...the commander of our European theater. Miller refused the indoctrination and was indeed tortured. Glenn Miller withstood hours of agony and eventually died. His captors then smuggled his corpse into Paris and dumped his body in a brothel that had been used by German officers. Hitler's propagandists counted on the embarrassment factor...so in order to save the dead superstar's image from scandal, the US military concocted the story of Miller's plane succumbing to "friendly fire."

So if you love mellowing-out to outlandish stories as much as I do...I recommend "COAST-TO-COAST AM" with George Noory. You might get lucky and hear the eye-witness accounts of the 15-foot giant our Air Force personnel captured in Afghanistan last year or the guy who wrote the book about the "SHADOW PEOPLE." If you stick with that author, at least he can help you clarify the difference between; sprites, elves, pixies, brownies, leprechauns, fairies, gremlins, trolls, gnomes and imps.

Don't be an ogre, those faces on Mars are watching you...even if you don't work "swing-shift" set your alarm clock and check out the show and share your revelations with us.