Advanced search  
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Down

Author Topic: Betty's Notes - 158 mi.  (Read 40649 times)

david alan atchason

  • T3
  • ***
  • Posts: 113
Re: Betty's Notes - 158 mi.
« Reply #15 on: May 05, 2011, 04:53:01 PM »

I just checked on Betty's Notes, and she has written that the transmissions went on after 5:15 when she presumably called her father. But there is no assertion that her father listened and He thought he heard or likewise the neighbor listened or anything like that. I know I'm nitpicking and in the big scheme of things this means little. Did the neighbor ever comment on this incident? Or did he just go back to eating his dinner? I don't see anything in her account that reveals any detail that she couldn't have heard on the news or just made up. I have a family member who is given to the behavior named as pseudologica phantastica (I didn't know it had a name) and I concluded long ago it is pointless to argue with someone like that about these fabrications,  it just causes hard feelings.

Maybe there is a more detailed version of this story that would be more convincing. I'm just being a skeptic. I welcome any corrections to my view that anyone wishes to make.
Logged

Ted G Campbell

  • TIGHAR member
  • *
  • Posts: 344
Re: Betty's Notes - 158 mi.
« Reply #16 on: May 05, 2011, 08:15:36 PM »

Remember Betty's Dad did take the info to the local Cost Guard station.
Ted Campbell
Logged

h.a.c. van asten

  • T4
  • ****
  • Posts: 322
Re: Betty's Notes - 158 mi.
« Reply #17 on: May 05, 2011, 11:01:01 PM »

D.A.Atchas. The syndrome is pseudologia phantastica (not ..logica ) , I myself usually make the spello myself. Name origines from gr. logos = to speak + pseudo = untrue.
Logged

Roger Ward

  • T1
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Re: Betty's Notes - 158 mi.
« Reply #18 on: May 06, 2011, 07:37:14 AM »

I just checked on Betty's Notes, and she has written that the transmissions went on after 5:15 when she presumably called her father. But there is no assertion that her father listened and He thought he heard or likewise the neighbor listened or anything like that. I know I'm nitpicking and in the big scheme of things this means little. Did the neighbor ever comment on this incident? Or did he just go back to eating his dinner? I don't see anything in her account that reveals any detail that she couldn't have heard on the news or just made up. I have a family member who is given to the behavior named as pseudologica phantastica (I didn't know it had a name) and I concluded long ago it is pointless to argue with someone like that about these fabrications,  it just causes hard feelings.

Maybe there is a more detailed version of this story that would be more convincing. I'm just being a skeptic. I welcome any corrections to my view that anyone wishes to make.

Skepticism can be a good thing, and I think that a certain amount of it is even encouraged here. In regard to Betty's notebook, we have seemingly three options that I can think of: First, accept it and her account at face value; Second, assume it is a hoax; Third, accept the possibility that it is the result of delusional thinking. I have long been a proponent of Occam's Razor. When looking for an explanation, that which is the simplest and requires the least number of assumptions is most likely true. Much of the information in Betty's notebook simply seems to corroborate information that exists exists elsewhere.

Until or unless someone familiar with Betty could show or even assert that she has suffered from some form of mental illness, I tend to assume there was none.
Logged

david alan atchason

  • T3
  • ***
  • Posts: 113
Re: Betty's Notes - 158 mi.
« Reply #19 on: May 06, 2011, 10:02:56 AM »

I've thought some more about Betty's notes. If the father reported to the Coast Guard, when did he do it? A day later? A week? If he reported it expeditiously, he should have remembered it was two days ago, or last Thursday or whatever. The story almost makes it sound like he waited a good while. And it doesn't seem like he told the C.G. "I heard it, too". Of course maybe the account from 75 years ago left a lot of details out. Betty could have been listening to a hoax, although apparently no one else reported it. I just read some of the Caroline Dow material, and that speaks of a yacht race nearby where a boat sank. If Betty was fabricating her notebook account, I can certainly see her father humoring her and telling her, "I will pass this on to the Coast Guard." That they apparently disregarded this story may have been because they genuinely felt the story was not valid, not because they were careless. Besides, it gave no pertinent information for them to act on. If Betty's Notes were a fabrication, then that solves all the mysteries of her account in one fell swoop.
Logged

Ted G Campbell

  • TIGHAR member
  • *
  • Posts: 344
Re: Betty's Notes - 158 mi.
« Reply #20 on: May 06, 2011, 12:08:10 PM »

Do your homework before you make a fool out of yourself.

Lookup "Betty's notebook" in the history of this site.

Ted Campbell
Logged

Chris Johnson

  • T5
  • *****
  • Posts: 1069
  • Trying to give a fig but would settle for $100,000
Re: Betty's Notes - 158 mi.
« Reply #21 on: May 06, 2011, 12:43:59 PM »

Do your homework before you make a fool out of yourself.

Lookup "Betty's notebook" in the history of this site.

Ted Campbell

Link http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Notebook/notebook.html

Quote
The transmissions continued to come in, off and on, for about three hours until 6:15 p.m. At 5:15 her father came home from work and Betty excitedly told him to come listen. After a few minutes her father ran next door to see if his neighbor could also hear it on his radio, but perhaps because his neighbor did not have a long antenna, nothing was heard on the neighbor’s set. Later that evening Betty’s father reported the event to the local Coast Guard station but he was told that the government had ships in the area and everything was under control. Betty kept her notebook and, over the years, occasionally tried to get someone to pay attention to her claims of having heard
Logged

Cynthia M Kennedy

  • T1
  • *
  • Posts: 33
Re: Betty's Notes - 158 mi.
« Reply #22 on: May 20, 2011, 11:17:21 PM »

I recently ordered the Betty's Notebook DVD and what comes across is exactly as you say--"had a story that haunted her and that she wanted to share."  It is truly fascinating to hear her tell the story of what she heard.

Cindy
TIGHAR #3167


Chris' post - "Link http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Notebook/notebook.html"

Thanks Chris - just stumbled into this string and was aching for this to turn up.

Indeed - homework will be most helpful to those pursuing this - TIGHAR did an excellent job in its review of Betty's story and her notes.  The reader can of course judge for himself, but the questions raised in this string have been well considered.

Betty's story is fascinating - and one thing that struck me is that she never seemed focused on self-aggrandizement or gain, just had a story that haunted her and that she wanted to share - and the credible evidence of her notebook from so long ago.  It is also true that kids in her time were strongly encouraged (and graded upon) neatness in handwriting, etc. - things that are not stressed strongly enough today.  People born after the '50s at least seem to know little of such skills and their importance to an older generation unless they paid close attention to elder's stories and writings.

Whatever Betty heard, I am for one convinced that it was 'real' at least in terms of how it came across the airwaves.  I am also personally confident that what was described is consistent with a real transmission from AE and FN, but that is admittedly a personal conclusion that cannot be proven.  I remain haunted by the use of numbers and letters and the reference to what may have been the shipwreck - but read for yourselves via the link above.

LTM -
Logged

Ted G Campbell

  • TIGHAR member
  • *
  • Posts: 344
Re: Betty's Notes - 158 mi.
« Reply #23 on: May 21, 2011, 08:06:03 PM »

What you may find interesting is reading Betty's notebook in two methods: 1) what you see is what you get and 2) try putting words to the numbers you see - e.g. is 2 a number or is it two, to, or too!  If you do this you will see a differant story emerge.  Also try rhymes with the words e.g. N.Y N.Y vis Newark Newark
Ted Campbell
Logged
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Up
 

Copyright 2024 by TIGHAR, a non-profit foundation. No portion of the TIGHAR Website may be reproduced by xerographic, photographic, digital or any other means for any purpose. No portion of the TIGHAR Website may be stored in a retrieval system, copied, transmitted or transferred in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, digital, photographic, magnetic or otherwise, for any purpose without the express, written permission of TIGHAR. All rights reserved.

Contact us at: info@tighar.org • Phone: 610-467-1937 • Membership formwebmaster@tighar.org

Powered by MySQL SMF 2.0.18 | SMF © 2021, Simple Machines Powered by PHP