Al Pacino and John Travolta meet the Giancana Myth

[James DiEugenio]

It is unfortunate I think that with all the attention and analysis that people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and Oliver Stone and Jeff Morley have managed to give the missing documents, and the CIA's reluctance to comply with The JFK Act, and good books like that of Jim Douglass, that two stars have signed up for what is essentially a diversion on the Dan Moldea order.  In this two parter I analyze the producer's-Nick Celozzi--prior attempt at a documentary on the subject.  And I found some real problems with it.  And, as noted, he has changed that already for the feature film script, which makes even more problems. Rosselli as a shooter! Nicolleti with Tippit chasing Oswald? Please.

  Read it and weep.  If one can make a documentary this poor, I can imagine the feature film.

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/al-pacino-and-john-travolta-meet-the-giancana-myth

Edited June 1, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Mark Ulrik]

Being Danish, I can't help but notice that you misspelled Viggo Mortensen's name. You see, our patronymic surnames typically ends in -sen, and his father was born in Denmark. It's the same with Norwegian surnames, by the way, and corresponds to the Swedish -son.

You also have an unfortunate aversion to the vocative (or direct address) comma. This is perfectly fine in informal chat, but in a published article?

Quote

Is that what you do Mr. Giancana?
I thought only little girls giggled Mr. Giancana.

I mean, how do you actually giggle Mr. Giancana?

Should I use a comma before and after vocative?

Edited June 1, 2023 by Mark Ulrik

[John Cotter]

39 minutes ago, Mark Ulrik said:

Being Danish, I can't help but notice that you misspelled Viggo Mortensen's name. You see, our patronymic surnames typically ends in -sen, and his father was born in Denmark. It's the same with Norwegian surnames, by the way, and corresponds to the Swedish -son.

You also have an unfortunate aversion to the vocative (or direct address) comma. This is perfectly fine in informal chat, but in a published article?

I mean, how do you actually giggle Mr. Giancana?

Should I use a comma before and after vocative?

At the risk of appearing to be a punctilious prig, Mark, I would suggest that those kinds of pedantic points would have been better made in an addendum to a substantive commentary on the article.

[Mark Ulrik]

1 minute ago, John Cotter said:

At the risk of appearing to be a punctilious prig, Mark, I would suggest that those kinds of pedantic points would have been better made in an addendum to a substantive commentary on the article.

That's great advice, John, but I've never met an author who wasn't grateful for free proofreading.

[David Von Pein]

4 hours ago, Mark Ulrik said:

You also have an unfortunate aversion to the vocative (or direct address) comma. This is perfectly fine in informal chat, but in a published article?

Along these same "grammar" lines....

In his latest two-part essay on Pacino & Travolta, I see that Jim DiEugenio still hasn't managed to correct his persistent habit of misspelling the word it's as its (sans the apostrophe). (See Part 2 of the article for multiple examples.)

I've noticed in recent months that multiple other Education Forum members (besides just Jim D.) also have that same habit of refusing to spell that particular word correctly. Which seems very curious to me. Is Jim's longtime grammar affliction contagious?

 

Edited June 2, 2023 by David Von Pein

[John Cotter]

Mark and David,

At the risk of appearing to be a pernickety nitpicker, may I be so bold as to suggest that the author be advised of these apostrophic and other peccadilloes by private message?

Pointing them out publicly in the forum makes it look like one is trying to score cheap points in order to compensate for being unable to logically rebut his article. 

Edited June 1, 2023 by John Cotter

[David Von Pein]

50 minutes ago, John Cotter said:

At the risk of appearing to be a pernickety nitpicker, may I be so bold as to suggest that the author be advised of these apostrophic and other peccadilloes by private message?

Pointing them out publicly in the forum makes it look like one is trying to score cheap points in order to compensate for being unable to logically rebut his article. 

Oh, I assure you, I didn't read any of the two-part article. (~Shuddering at the thought.~)

I merely searched both parts and used the handy "Word Find" tool to search for "its" and "it's". That's all.

Edited June 1, 2023 by David Von Pein

[Mark Ulrik]

51 minutes ago, John Cotter said:

Mark and David,

At the risk of appearing to be a pernickety nitpicker, may I be so bold as to suggest that the author be advised of these apostrophic and other peccadilloes by private message? Pointing them out publicly in the forum makes it look like one is trying to score cheap points in order to compensate for being unable to logically rebut the article. 

Doing my humble bit to save one of the most endangered fish in the language sea, the vocative comma, and I get accused of trying to score cheap points. Outrageous.

[Bill Brown]

54 minutes ago, John Cotter said:

Mark and David,

At the risk of appearing to be a pernickety nitpicker, may I be so bold as to suggest that the author be advised of these apostrophic and other peccadilloes by private message?

Pointing them out publicly in the forum makes it look like one is trying to score cheap points in order to compensate for being unable to logically rebut his article. 

 

It's a credibility thing.

 

[David Von Pein]

2 minutes ago, Mark Ulrik said:

Doing my humble bit to save one of the most endangered fish in the language sea, the vocative comma,

The "Vocative comma" and the dreaded "Comma immediately following a sentence-opening prepositional phrase" are things that I have been advocating and fully supporting for years now. 😇

In fact, when I was proofreading the text of the book I helped Mel Ayton write a few years back, I had the darndest time convincing Mel that many additional commas were needed in our manuscript before it went to press. I succeeded in getting most of them added.

For some odd reason, it seems that there is a paucity of commas being utilized in books written by many British authors (like Mr. Ayton). I've yet to figure out why this is so. ~shrug~

 

[W. Niederhut]

James DiEugenio is the ultimate JFK Truth warrior.

Am I the only one around here who is annoyed by his moronic nit-picking detractors?

As for the substance of DiEugenio's latest on-target commentary, the last thing we need in the U.S. is another bogus, pseudo-historical film about the JFK assassination.

I wonder if a CIA shell company is funding this film about the Mafia killing JFK.

[David Von Pein]

6 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

James DiEugenio is the ultimate JFK Truth warrior.

Many people (numbering in the millions) disagree very strongly with your above assessment.

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by David Von Pein

[W. Niederhut]

3 minutes ago, David Von Pein said:

Many people (numbering in the millions) disagree very strongly with your above assessment.

 

I don't base my opinions on propaganda and mass delusions.

Never have.  Never will.

I learned in medical school to trust my own perceptions.

Amazingly, many people disregard the evidence of their own eyes and ears in order to follow the crowd, the mass media, and alleged authority figures.

Nixon once marvelled, perceptively, that, "People will believe anything they hear on television."

[David Von Pein]

25 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

Nixon once marvelled, perceptively, that, "People will believe anything they hear on television."

And, along those same lines....

Anybody will believe anything they see on the movie theater screen---if it's an Oliver Stone production.

Sad, isn't it?

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by David Von Pein

[W. Niederhut]

3 minutes ago, David Von Pein said:

And, along those same lines....

Anybody will believe anything they see on the movie theater screen---if it's an Oliver Stone production.

Sad, isn't it?

 

What amazes me, after studying the bona fide JFK research literature in recent years, is the remarkable accuracy of Oliver Stone's JFK films.

He used the most knowledgeable people on the planet for those screenplays-- including a lady from Yale, (for JFK) and DiEugenio.