Join Early Retirement Today
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 09-28-2009, 12:13 PM   #21
Moderator Emeritus
CuppaJoe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: At The Cafe
Posts: 6,873
Quote:
Originally Posted by donheff View Post
Now I will have to remember to bump it once a year. But what if we find out in 2022 that this guy's story is a hoax? You guys will come after me with pitch forks
Mark your calendar to batten down the hatches in 2021.
CuppaJoe is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 09-28-2009, 12:17 PM   #22
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,323
Grrrr...I cannot seem to get your link to work. I really need to have someone look at this computer.
However, RonBoyd, can you give a very brief description of what that article says?
I tried pulling it up other ways, but no go. Frustrating. I am really curious what is in there.
__________________
Please consider adopting a rescue animal. So very many need a furr-ever home and someone to love them! And if we all spay/neuter our pets there won't be an overpopulation to put to death.
Orchidflower is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-28-2009, 12:31 PM   #23
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
RonBoyd's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Denver, Colorado
Posts: 6,256
Quote:
Originally Posted by Orchidflower View Post
However, RonBoyd, can you give a very brief description of what that article says?
Here is the whole article: (http://webpages.charter.net/boerad/N...erFall2005.pdf

Michener’s Egyptian Princess
by Stephen J. May

James A. Michener can rightly take his place among some of the best selling authors of the twentieth century: Agatha Christie, Taylor Caldwell, Stephen King, and more recently J.K. Rowling, who has literally transformed publishing with her exploits of a boy wizard. Unknown to many readers is that Michener followed the teachings of his own wizard—a fortune teller in actuality.

When I first became involved writing Michener’s biography, Michener: A Writer’s Journey, I interviewed many people and uncovered a myriad of tales surrounding the distinguished author. Perhaps no tale was as strange as that of Michener’s relationship with a woman he referred to simply as "The Princess." He detailed this bizarre relationship in a 120-page (typed and double spaced) manuscript, which was held for many years by his agent Owen Laster. In 2003 Special Collections at the University of Northern Colorado acquired it. To a lesser degree, Michener wrote about her in his memoir, The World is My Home (pages 407-11).

Jim first met The Princess in 1933 while he was a research student in Scotland. He was in his mid-thirties and she was in her sixties. Stranded in Cairo, Egypt, "awaiting the arrival of a group I was to accompany up the Nile to Luxor and Aswan," Michener found The Princess in a smoky tavern nestled close to the right bank of the river. "I could not see her well," he recalled. "Her face was in shadows but I did catch a glimpse of a tall woman … black haired, with deeply lined face and piercing eyes. I imagined that she knew exactly what she was doing and that she intended me to visit her table."

Michener soon became involved in her complex method of fortune telling, a method so accurate that it was to ensnare the curious student and beguile him for the rest of his life.
Although the gypsy woman’s system is far too lengthy to relate here, suffice to say, it took Jim several years and countless hours to figure it out and put it into practice. She told him: "You must remember that when you have mastered the system I use, you will have in
your hands a powerful tool. The beauty is that it’s so much subtler than the others are. It combines the best of numbers, the best of astrology, and the best of cards."

After I studied The Princess’s intricate and lengthy system for several hours, one question persisted: Why was a reasonable, intelligent man such as Michener so captivated by the work of a fortune teller he met in a Cairo bar? The answer came slowly: Michener loved games involving logic and mathematics. The more challenging they were, the better he liked them. The Princess’s system was probably one of the most clever and demanding he had ever encountered.

Twenty years after his encounter with her and after Michener had achieved notoriety as a writer, a friend, Bill Vitarelli from George School, Newtown, Pennsylvania, suggested he use his "psychic" powers and become "Mitch the Witch" at the local arts festival in eastern Pennsylvania. "With some trepidation I reported to the festival," Michener noted, "found thirty people in line waiting for me, and at fifty cents a fortune, earned the festival some sixty dollars and myself a rasping larynx."
In the years that followed, as Jim became an expert on the method, a curious thing happened: what he considered entertainment, his clients viewed as deadly serious. He began to feel guilty for using such an accurate way to predict people’s tragedies and failures. "When I saw the eagerness with which otherwise sensible people sought me out to read their cards, and particularly when I began to listen seriously to the questions they wanted me to answer, I began to see that they were taking this frolic much more seriously than I, and the consequences startled me."

Eventually, he gave up his role as "Mitch the Witch" at the festival and temporarily renounced fortune telling as entertainment. Over the years, however, as he traveled throughout the world writing his books, people urged Jim to tell them their fortunes. On most occasions, he good-naturedly consented.

After their initial encounter, Michener never saw The Princess again. In the 1960s, while traveling through Egypt, he happened to stop into the Cairo bar and found out from the owner that she had died.

As for her method, Michener remained a staunch advocate:


"If there are people who illogically insist upon consulting fortune tellers for guidance that they should be getting elsewhere, I can state confidently that this is the best and most helpful system so far devised."
__________________
"It's tough to make predictions, especially when it involves the future." ~Attributed to many
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." ~(perhaps by) Yogi Berra
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge."~ Lau tzu
RonBoyd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-28-2009, 02:52 PM   #24
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,323
That must be it and much thanks, RonBoyd!!!!!!!!! I only remembered it after reading that article in Parade because I was SO interested in learning how to do it.
When Michener died my first thought was, "Whoopie! Now I'll learn the secret of giving psychic predictions..." Alas! He didn't do what he promised. Thanks alot for nothing, James Michener....and I even read "Hawaii" when it first came out, plus, some of his other stuff, too.
__________________
Please consider adopting a rescue animal. So very many need a furr-ever home and someone to love them! And if we all spay/neuter our pets there won't be an overpopulation to put to death.
Orchidflower is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Something for retirees to ponder. UncleHoney Other topics 17 02-26-2008 11:39 AM
Another Value vs Growth article to ponder mickeyd FIRE and Money 1 08-18-2007 04:43 PM
Question(s) for RSS Readers BigMoneyJim Forum Admin 2 04-12-2006 08:29 PM
Speaking of writers, how 'bout readers? ronin Other topics 40 12-08-2004 10:23 AM

» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:04 AM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.