Wanted: For atrocious fashion sense.
It was on November 24, 1971 that one of the most bizarre unsolved crimes in American history happened in the Pacific northwest. A man bought a ticket under the name of Dan Cooper for a commercial flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. After takeoff, he flashed what appeared to be a bomb to a flight attendant and then made a list of demands for $200,000 in cash, several parachutes, and that the plane be refueled in Seattle and be flown to Mexico City. These were all met, but on the flight south, Cooper opened the rear exit and cash in hand, leaped into the night……. never to be seen again.
Surely you can’t be serious!
Over the past fifty years, the incident has become a pop culture phenomenon… though with a few misconceptions that have become a part of the lore. First, the suspect’s alias is widely known as “D.B. Cooper,” not “Dan Cooper” as was used at the ticket counter. This was due to a mistake by a newspaper reporter who mixed up the name of an early suspect actually named D. B. Cooper with the perpetrator… which was picked up by other journalists and became perceived fact via fake news! Second, the police sketch above, maybe the second most famous police sketch in American history next to the infamous hoodied Unabomber, is actually a preliminary and largely inaccurate sketch of what Cooper really looked like.
Before I get into this week’s Share Your World questions, I just learned for myself (since I tend to skim the intros) that long time hostess Melanie B. Cee passed away earlier this month. Melanie’s fresh and interesting take on coming up with SYW questions compared to her predecessor, along with the fact that she was one of the few people who “got”, could tolerate, and actively encouraged my bizarre and sometimes inappropriate humor, were the whole reason I joined this challenge almost four years ago. She will be sorely missed by myself and many others in the WordPress community.
And another thank you is in order to Di from Pensitivity for keeping the SYW alive in Melanie’s memory. As they say in the business, the show must go on…
One of the many custom SYW banners Melanie created.
As a child, did you prefer to watch TV, play games outside on a nice day, or read?
I did plenty of the first two, and as a child of the 80’s, I had video games to keep me occupied as well.
Ah, the wonderful days of gaming before there were walkthroughs!
What would you rather do now, read a book, watch a movie at home, dine out with friends, or go down the pub?
Sit at my computer and do computery things….
I think I’ll take over the world tonight….. just as soon as I pick this week’s Saturday Squirrel.
Are you fashion conscious?
If jeans and solid color polo shirts with velcro tennis shoes are ever in vogue, then yes, I am very fashion conscious!
I’ll always look better than this…
Do you wear slippers, clogs or go barefoot indoors?
Socks in winter, barefoot in summer.
And usually shirtless in summer as well, but you don’t need that visual…
Gratitude Section Retro Comic:
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
that is so very sad…… :o(((
Sorry to hear about Melanie…..SYW is tons of fun and it’s wonderful that Di is carrying on. The ‘toon today is a reminder of the horror coming tomorrow on Black Friday when everyone in retail wears their body armor and hopes not to get trampled. Stay safe! A crate of man-eating otters at the front door of Mecca might be a good move.
Pam
Eh, it ain’t what it used to be. I remember last year, after about an hour, it was just like any normal morning. Neither of the two mini “events” we held earlier this month drew much of a door crashing crowd either (and a lot of that crap is still sitting around unsold!)…
I’ve never forgotten d.b. Cooper
Apparently neither had the FBI. I was surprised it was still an active investigation until just a few years ago…
Oh, black Friday. I do not miss thee. I remember we had a new DM one year and he didn’t see what the big deal was with opening the door. So we let him have at it. The crowd launched the door open and pinned him between the door and the wall for at least 15 minutes. Meanwhile, I stood in the safety of the McDonald’s dining room laughing at him.
It ain’t nothing like that anymore. Back in the door rush days, my crew rarely worked that night/morning, and the only two I was there for, I was in the back of the store… so I never got to witness the madness. These days, it’s almost a non-event now. I used to like working Thanksgiving night (even though I’m supposed to be off Thursdays) because it was a change of pace and an interesting to watch the human train wreck. Now it’s practically another night of the usual grindstone…
Glad I’m not going shopping for bargains ES. Thanks for joining in. That last picture gave me a bit of an OMG moment.
I miss Melanie too and have copied your SYW logo to use on future posts if that’s OK.
The logo was created by Melanie for a themed SYW sometime about a year ago, Pioneer Day or something like that. She made a number of the SYW logos I (and others) use for our answers, but I know some were created by others too… so I chose one for this post that I know for a fact was hers. That last picture of the fat man…. well, Mel was probably cringing from above, as that pic used to be on my sidebar and she was THRILLED when I removed it. There’s a long story behind why it was there….
So sorry to hear about Melanie. Her SYW was hilarious.
Indeed. Her flavor of question writing was unique and will not be duplicated…
Your childhood activities sound like my childhood activities.
On the subject of that Cooper fellow, you didn’t mention if he was wearing one of the parachutes when he leapt out. Inquiring minds wanna know!
According to the story, he left two of the four parachutes he requested behind. Only the four members of the crew were on the plane with him at the time, and they were all in the cockpit. They weren’t even aware he had jumped until they stopped to refuel… so nobody knows. No trace of parachutes (or Mr. Cooper) were ever found other than some of the ransom money about 8 years later….
This is sad news indeed. She had such a huge community. I spoke about her at a talk I gave at a WordPress conference in 2018.
I just heard a friend of mine I’d been out of touch with since the pandemic passed away in August. Lately I’ve been trying to check bloggers I follow more. I’ve also started check in on others as well.
Don’t go anywhere and keep the squirrels and humor and music coming our way. xoxo
The internet community for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that I’ve been a part of for over 20 years lost three long-time members in a span of six months a year ago… so it’s been an unfortunate fact of life for me lately. I’m still very much a baby relative to them, and even my group here now… though that doesn’t mean there aren’t times I’m sure the guy with the sickle is stalking me. Time goes by way too fast…
“Shirley” you jest…hope you survived Black Friday.
It’s easy to survive Black Friday when you get banished to the backroom. Right now, I’m just trying (and failing) to keep my days straight this week after working Thursday night…