April 4, 2014
Dear Everyone:
Four weeks ago, a
Malaysian Airliner took off from
Kuala Lumpur on a
routine flight to Beijing. A
few hours later, it disappeared over the
South Pacific, or maybe the
Indian Ocean. No one is
really sure.
Except CNN (Cable News Network) which was sure it was
ratings gold.
CNN has been clinging to the story with the tenacity of a toddler
holding on to his security blanket.
“Breaking News!!! We haven’t
seen anything! We haven’t
heard anything! We don’t
really know anything! And we
simply can’t wait to tell you all about it!”
“Live” coverage from many parts of the globe and the inside of a
flight simulator, where a reporter has been stuck for so long that it’s
inspired a Twitter Campaign:
“#FreeMartinSavidge”. (Let
the poor guy out; he’s suffered enough already!)
In the meantime, my personal thinking is:
This is one more for The Basket of Great Unsolvable Mysteries of
Time. You know:
Who Really Shot JFK?
Who Bumped Off King Tut?
How Did Amy Dudley Wind Up At The Foot Of Those Stairs?
Who Was “DB Cooper”?
Who Was Jack the Ripper?
Who Was The Man In The Iron Mask?
Who Was The Tylenol Killer (and Who Was His or Her Real Target)?
How Did Marilyn Monroe Die Of a Drug Overdose With No Pills and No
Injection?
Was King Henry VIII of England
Rh Negative?
What Really Became of
Amelia Earhart?
What Really Became of Jimmy Hoffa?
What Really Became of the (So-Called) “Princes in the Tower of
London”?
These are all Mysteries that will most probably never be solved.
Let’s take Amy Dudley as an example.
Queen Elizabeth I of England had a pretty tough childhood.
“Princess” one minute, “possible traitor” the next.
One historian commented that keeping her head was a remarkable
accomplishment in itself, let alone surviving to succeed to the throne.
Nevertheless, she did it.
And found that, while she had lots of “new” friends, she had very few
“old” friends. But she did
have
Sir Robert Dudley. Like
Queen Elizabeth, Sir Robert had (barely) evaded the headsman’s axe.
They could almost be considered childhood friends.
Queen Elizabeth liked Sir Robert and made him a favorite
courtier.
Sir Robert lived at court because that’s where the Queen was, and that’s
where the money was. His
wife, Amy, lived at their country home.
It was rumored that Queen Elizabeth and Sir Robert were lovers, a
fact that Amy could hardly have avoided (the rumors, that is.)
It was widely known that Amy was Not a Happy Camper.
One day, there was a Fair at a nearby village.
Amy graciously and generously gave all the servants the whole day
off, so they could go to the Fair.
“Go to the Fair,” she said.
“Have a wonderful time”
Everyone went to the Fair.
Everyone had a wonderful time.
At the end of the day, they all came home, bubbling about what a
wonderful time they had all had, what a wonderful, gracious and generous
Mistress they all had. And
when they reached the house, they found Amy lying at the foot of the
stairs, dead as a doornail.
Sir Robert was at court, miles away with dozens of witnesses.
Sir Robert himself ordered an
inquest.
Everyone agreed that Amy died of a broken neck.
But the question that will never be answered is:
Did she trip, did she jump, or was she pushed?
Here’s what we do know:
Queen Elizabeth dropped Sir Robert like a hot rock.
It took him years to claw his way back into court and even then,
he never enjoyed the power and prestige that he’d had before.
If Sir Robert paid someone to kill his wife, it blew up in his
face. If someone else did
it, it rendered Sir Robert unsuitable as a possible consort to “The
Virgin Queen”. If Amy
committed suicide, it looks like she got her revenge.
Ultimately, we will never know which it was.
That’s what makes it one of the Great Unsolvable Mysteries.
The answers will never be found; but it’s fun to take one out and
bat it around for a bit.
Only, always be sure to put your Great Unsolvable Mysteries back in the
Basket when you’re through.
Don’t leave any Unsolvable Mysteries lying around for someone else to
trip over in the dark. We
call that “Responsibility”.
Love, as always,
Pete
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