Bobbi's on vacation, which kinda puts Roseholme Cottage on Vacation Time.
So, a slow start this morning, compounded by the fact that I have only just now heard about the most fascinating case of Munchausen By Internet evar.
(WARNING: That wordpress blog at the link is a time sink par excellence. I am only just now starting to struggle back up out of that rabbit hole.)
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8 comments:
Great googly-moogly. I had to pull up and out of that story before I wasted an entire day at work.
How strange that just this weekend I was at the video store looking for The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen.
Through one breath
Through one blow
You will know
Synchronicity...
gvi
Truly sad, mainly for those who bought into it, but that anyone would WILLINGLY do something like that is just beyond the pale.
Damn you Tam, now I'm stuck in the rabbit hole too... the breadth of it is just mind blowing.
Don't worry about the late start; if it's one thing I've learned from (watching) sports, it's not whether you win or lose, it's where you place the blame.
Location of Rabbit Hole duly marked for future exploration.
I want my half hour back.
What's the TLDR Cliff's Note's version?
The first post is obviously referring to something I should already know, but don't...
Wow, what a sad, screwed up story.
TLDR version (based on about 30 min of "research"/my life I'll never get back, so take it for what it's worth): a Canadian guy "JS Dirr" (who is a Royal Canadian Mountie) blogs about his surgeon wife Dana getting killed in a car crash. Dana survives long enough for the couple's 11th child to be delivered in hospital. This tragedy is on top of the couple's 7th child, Eli, having died of cancer earlier. The Dirrs had directed supporters to send contributions to a charity in memory of "Warrior Eli" and gave out free Livestrong-type armbands in memory of Eli.
Someone gets suspicious of all this tragedy happening to a single family and checks for news reports. None. Soon JS's social media accounts shut down/disappear. Turns out the Dirrs (and a whole ecosystem of hundreds of Facebook friends, etc, going back for 11 YEARS) seem to have been the work of a single woman, a 22-yo then-medical student named Emily Dirr, living in Ohio. No JS, no Dana, although "JS" was active in social media for years, and had had cyber affairs with actual women, claimed to have knocked up multiple prior girlfriends (hence the 11 kids), and claimed to have had a twin brother who was killed (knife in throat) by a jealous or whacko girlfriend. So he didn't like to talk about his past, please don't ask.
Emily Dirr quit medical school and I didn't try to find out what if anything she is doing now. What scared and disturbed me deeply is that on some medical-school fora people were defending Emily Dirr's actions, "it could happen to anyone," "everyone deserves a second chance," "I'd hate to think this would impact her medical career" and so forth. Yeah, she almost certainly has serious psychiatric issues and it's sad, but I would NOT want someone like this involved in my (or anyone's) medical care, and I definitely would not want someone like this as a colleague. I was horrified by people (at least purporting to be) in the medical school pipeline thinking this was no big deal and "poor Emily." I am just becoming (more of) a curmudgeon, or have the ideas of accountability and personal responsibility just gone down the toilet with the latest generations?
Oh, apparently the "Warrior Eli" money went to a real charity (which has offered to refund donations to people who feel tricked). Doesn't appear that Emily Dirr made money off this whole thing.
Eleven children? Only two early deaths (historically, a low rate despite appearing otherwise)? It still appears to be K-selection strategy instead of r-selection strategy:
http://www.bio.miami.edu/tom/courses/bil160/bil160goods/16_rKselection.html
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