Classic Conversation Thread

[AJG]

5 minutes ago, Eric Atreides said:

 

He's driving that White Bronco in the sky

 

SOMEBODY GET THIS MANS BRAIN TO THE CTE DOCTORS IMMEDIATELY.

[filmlover]

I remember watching The White Bronco Chase as it was happening with my family gathered in front of the TV like it was yesterday.

 

Can't quite claim to have a "RIP" for this one.

[grim22]

13 minutes ago, Eric Atreides said:

 

He's driving that White Bronco in the sky

Now he will never find the real killers.

[AMC Theaters Enjoyer]

Obligatory:

 

 

 

[Eric Furiosa]

 

[DAR]

In my mind this is how he went out.

 

 

 

[Maggie]

 

[Eric Furiosa]

 

[filmlover]

 

 

No really, look up the story of how Dominos profited off of the chase. They claim they made more off of that than they did the Super Bowl that year. There's even a scene in People v O.J. - a terrific series that perfectly captures the insanity of the whole saga, from the chase to the trial, for those who weren't around to witness it btw - of a pizza shop frantically trying to keep up with the demand.

Edited April 11 by filmlover

[Porthos]

So not only is Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter and very much ex-best friend Ippei Mizuhara the World's Worst Degenerate Gambler, he apparently isn't very bright, either:

 

 

Brah.

 

Bro.

 

Just...

 

 

All part of an indictment that came down from Feds today that accuses Ippei of stealing *16 million dollars over three years*.

 

Indictment can be read here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24542204-usa-v-mizuhara-complaint

 

===

 

Does really seem that Ohtani really is "for real innocent" to use Shawshank terminology.  As I've opined (though maybe not here) wouldn't be the first rich person to get conned out of a lot of money by a trusted person and certainly won't be the last.

 

BTW.  Just how much of a Degenerate Gambler was Ippei?  Allegedly, of course.

 

This much:

 

 

Bets ran in the range from the small to the... not so small:

 

 

 

 

 

NYT broke a story last night that Ippei is (or at least was attempting to) negotiating a guilty plea over all of this and I... Yeah, I can see why he might be given the copious amount of evidence the Feds are bringing down here.

 

@TwoMisfits @4815162342 @cannastop @BoxOfficeFangrl @Webslinger @Inceptionzq (plus various others who might be interested in this)

Edited April 11 by Porthos

[Porthos]

Oh my:

 

Trust sure is an... interesting phenomenon at times. 

 

This sounds insane.  No, it is insane.  But it's also a pretty good example of how modern society will often just go with the flow if everything on the surface looks fine.  Or an example of Douglas Adams' Somebody Else's Problem Field in action.  Everything seemed fine, so why go the extra mile and add in your own interpreters?

 

This is gonna make a crazy movie/miniseries one day.

[dudalb]

On 4/10/2024 at 1:57 PM, Porthos said:

 

Juliet is *also* supposed to be 13 years old in the play!

 

PROB-LEM-A-TIC!!!!

Olivia Hussey was just 16 when she playe Julite in the 1968 Franco Zeffereali film..which I condisider to still be the best film of the play.

I generaly prefer my Shakspeare to be stright up, without gimmicks.

[4815162342]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

So not only is Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter and very much ex-best friend Ippei Mizuhara the World's Worst Degenerate Gambler, he apparently isn't very bright, either:

 

 

Brah.

 

Bro.

 

Just...

 

 

All part of an indictment that came down from Feds today that accuses Ippei of stealing *16 million dollars over three years*.

 

Indictment can be read here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24542204-usa-v-mizuhara-complaint

 

===

 

Does really seem that Ohtani really is "for real innocent" to use Shawshank terminology.  As I've opined (though maybe not here) wouldn't be the first rich person to get conned out of a lot of money by a trusted person and certainly won't be the last.

 

BTW.  Just how much of a Degenerate Gambler was Ippei?  Allegedly, of course.

 

This much:

 

 

Bets ran in the range from the small to the... not so small:

 

 

 

 

 

NYT broke a story last night that Ippei is (or at least was attempting to) negotiating a guilty plea over all of this and I... Yeah, I can see why he might be given the copious amount of evidence the Feds are bringing down here.

 

@TwoMisfits @4815162342 @cannastop @BoxOfficeFangrl @Webslinger @Inceptionzq (plus various others who might be interested in this)

 

This is one of those stories that is so freaking unbelievable in how stupid or oblivious various people were that it almost has to be true

[dudalb]

1 minute ago, 4815162342 said:

 

This is one of those stories that is so freaking unbelievable in how stupid or oblivious various people were that it almost has to be true

Benjamin Franklin's staetment that a Fool and his Money Are Soon Parted is as true today as it ever was.

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

Oh my:

 

Trust sure is an... interesting phenomenon at times. 

 

This sounds insane.  No, it is insane.  But it's also a pretty good example of how modern society will often just go with the flow if everything on the surface looks fine.  Or an example of Douglas Adams' Somebody Else's Problem Field in action.  Everything seemed fine, so why go the extra mile and add in your own interpreters?

 

This is gonna make a crazy movie/miniseries one day.

I'd have figured that any agency/law firm/etc working with such a big-time athlete would hire Japanese speakers just to make him more comfortable and ingratiate themselves with him. Even if it's a contractor rather than someone full-time, make the effort. But Ohtani seems like he'd delegate dealing with money to others even without any language barriers.

 

*

 

The OJ Simpson chase/trial was just such a circus and dominated American culture for a year and a half. I wonder if people who didn't experience it can really understand the scope and craziness of it all. "Nice guy" athlete turned pitchman turned actor OJ a double murderer?

 

The NBA Finals got shoved to the side of the screen to show the freeway chase. Soap operas were often preempted for the televised trial. CNN basically morphed into the OJ Network with the coverage even having its own intro/outro theme music. The trial became a referendum on race and LAPD corruption rather than the killings.

 

Friends, hangers-on and lawyers on both sides became household names, and the judge was most infamously parodied by The Tonight Show's Dancing Itos.

 

 

Edited April 11 by BoxOfficeFangrl

[dudalb]

One thing the OJ ttial did. You have seen very, very few major trials televised live in the US since the OJ trial.

Good thing too, since of the lessons learned is that televising live totally distorts the whole trial process.

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, 4815162342 said:

 

This is one of those stories that is so freaking unbelievable in how stupid or oblivious various people were that it almost has to be true

 

 

24 minutes ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

I'd have figured that any agency/law firm/etc working with such a big-time athlete would hire Japanese speakers just to make him more comfortable and ingratiate themselves with him. Even if it's a contractor rather than someone full-time, make the effort. But Ohtani seems like he'd delegate dealing with money to others even without any language barriers.

 

 

You are a good judge of character!  (or at least can read/look for tells 😉)

 

Finding primary sources on this is difficult, but I can confirm that when he was first signed to pro ball in Japan, he had his mother oversee his finances:

 

Quote

 While earning a $2.4-million (U.S.) salary from the Fighters, Ohtani’s parents oversaw his finances. His mother Kayoko deposited around $1,000 into his bank account every month.

 

that part is relatively easy to source (it's from a biography about him).  How long his mother kept control of his finances while he played in Japan is less clear, but I get the impression he had her control it for a very long stretch of time, if not his entire playing career there. Spent some time trying to chase down actual verifiable info that doesn't look to be just sloppy regurgitation of the above but didn't come up with much that I could actually track down and verify.

 

Now he was 16 at the time when that arrangement started, so that does make sense.  And once an arrangement starts, it's easy to keep it going simply due to inertia (plus family ties in this case).  But, yes, the read that he'd just as well prefer that someone else take care of money issues seems to be well founded.

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

2 hours ago, Porthos said:

 

 

 

Finding primary sources on this is difficult, but I can confirm that when he was first signed to pro ball in Japan, he had his mother oversee his finances:

 

 

that part is relatively easy to source (it's from a biography about him).  How long his mother kept control of his finances while he played in Japan is less clear, but I get the impression he had her control it for a very long stretch of time, if not his entire playing career there. Spent some time trying to chase down actual verifiable info that doesn't look to be just sloppy regurgitation of the above but didn't come up with much that I could actually track down and verify.

 

Now he was 16 at the time when that arrangement started, so that does make sense.  And once an arrangement starts, it's easy to keep it going simply due to inertia (plus family ties in this case).  But, yes, the read that he'd just as well prefer that someone else take care of money issues seems to be well founded.

 

This is like the celebrity version of staying on your parents' family cell phone plan even after you've moved out and gotten married. At least his mom wasn't scamming him!

 

Shohei seems to live a pretty sheltered, uneventful life off the field, yet he's still lost millions like the pro athletes who were partying it up and paying hush money to Instagram models.

[filmlover]

4 hours ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

The OJ Simpson chase/trial was just such a circus and dominated American culture for a year and a half. I wonder if people who didn't experience it can really understand the scope and craziness of it all. "Nice guy" athlete turned pitchman turned actor OJ a double murderer?

 

The NBA Finals got shoved to the side of the screen to show the freeway chase. Soap operas were often preempted for the televised trial. CNN basically morphed into the OJ Network with the coverage even having its own intro/outro theme music. The trial became a referendum on race and LAPD corruption rather than the killings.

 

Friends, hangers-on and lawyers on both sides became household names, and the judge was most infamously parodied by The Tonight Show's Dancing Itos.

 

 

I don't think they can tbh. You truly had to be there. Watching the Bronco chase as it was happening in 1994 was such a surreal experience. Imagine if social media had existed then.

 

And then there's the fact so many people from that trial would end up becoming celebrities-through-circumstance and reality TV stars. The "reality" TV boon of the early aughts doesn't explode the way it did (or at least occurs more slowly than it did) without that entire case.

 

People like to claim that that saga, along with the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan scandal just months before, were the downfall of the media and gave them the idea to embrace sensationalism, but come on now. How could these tales not be sensational when authorities in these cases had such...characters...that they had to work with?

 

[filmlover]