Re: Houdini

[gallaher@MOLLYBLOOM.msfc.nasa.gov (Mike Gallaher)]

Stuart Castergine says:
>Houdini's wife isn't Rosabel. I forget her name, but "Rosabel Believe" was
>the name of their favorite song or something like that. That's how it got
>chosen as the code.

I'm tempted to claim that I knew that, but I didn't.  The (evidently wrong)
version I related was what was passed on every year on a TV show called
"Magicland," which was the longest running magic show on television (it was
a local program).  Thanks for setting us straight on that.

Regarding Houdini's death, again I may be relying the the "Magicland" 
version, but my understanding was that he never had to be saved from
an escape act due to his ruptured appendix.  That scene was invented to
provide a more dramatic finale to the movie with Tony Curtis.  Which, if
indeed a myth, is a poor way to glamorize the man: showing him failing
in his last performance.  If true, I'd think such a humiliating demise
would be better known.  I'll try to check on it.

Finally, your explanation for the source of Aaron's confusion was
enlightening.  That certainly explains it.  I never interpreted the
line about "hoping you'll do something wrong" as referring to anyone
but the crowds, so I was mystified as to why anyone would conclude that
she hated him.  Quite an understandable and forgivable misinterpretation.
I've made plenty myself (I had figured out that Cloudbusting was about
a woman giving birth to a mutant baby!)

-----Mike Gallaher