The Starr that unlocks the poem

If you have been reading this blog, it won’t be a big surprise to notice that I am an tangential aberration interceptor based on Mr. Fenn’s statement, “There are nine clues in the poem, but if you read the book (TTOTC), “…there are a couple of good hints and there are a couple of aberrations that live out on the edge.”

So EC Waters mentions today that this line in The Thrill of The Chase is a spelling aberration, “One morning I sat down to rest on the curb in front of Scaggs Grocery Store when my boss just happened to drive by in his big, yellow Cadillac,” because it is actually Skaggs Grocery. So the question is why is he bringing attention to scagg or Skagg? A scag is slang for a homely girl or heroin; a homely girl is something that grabs our attention because that is what is written on the crude grave stone marker of the French soldier “… smile at a homely girl.” That statement in itself is an aberration because it is based on Forrest's quote, “FORGIVE A SINNER AND SMILE AT A HOMELY GIRL” which is drawn from the epitaph of H.L. Mencken, "forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl". So that brings our attention to wink and smile. That is a bigger story so I will save it for another day but I will touch on sinner, smile and grin.

There is a hint in that aberration that directs us to where to investigate. Forrest says “boss,” who sounds like Boz or Boz Scaggs who is a legendary singer who started his career with the Steve Miller Band. He met Steve Miller when he was 12 in Madison Wisconsin (Madison has a nice chase ring to it). They originally played in blues band the Fabulous Knight Trains. For those who have read my book or this blog, the word “knight” (give title to the gold) and “a little past midnight” or mid-knight should catch your attention.

One of the songs Steve Miller sings that resembles the poem and his memoir is The Joker (“Fate deals you four cards and a joker”), and words like: midnight toker (Forrest hints a lot at marijuana), grinner, sinner, “music in the sun” are chase related. Forrest loves poetry and songs are really poems put to music and listen good is something that is distinctly related to music. When Forrest emphasizes he makes up words, The Joker song uses a words “pompetus of love” which does not exist and no one really knows what that means. So what else is in that song that catches out attention? “Space Cowboys” is one which again was not known when the song was created. Since then a movie was created by that title and it definitely describes Fenn’s character as he is from Texas (the Lone Star state), wears the cowboy hat and in the flying world "cowboy" is often referred to a maverick. In Tom Wolfe's (cool name) book, The Right Stuff, Chuck Yeager was a cowboy when he took the Lockheed F104 Starfighter out of the hanger in an attempt to break the altitude record and it stalled, and he lost control of the jet-plane and ejected. Chuck Yeager made a cameo appearance as "Fred," a bartender at "Pancho's Place" in the movie. Why does Fred sound so familiar?

The other aberration in that line is Forrest said his boss drove by in a yellow Cadillac. Forrest said he was selling newspaper in Yellowstone and that he only weighed 80 pounds, which means he was likely between the ages of 9 and 12 or 1939-42. The problem is, Cadillac did not use yellow in its paint scheme until 1969 and when they started using that colour they named them Colonial, Harvest, Casablanca and Apollo, which are all very interesting words that I feel have chase related meaning especially Apollo (see my Right Stuff post).

One last thing to consider is big yellow and Cadillac has a subliminal meaning. In the B-52 song they refer to the 70's Chrysler as "big as a whale" which makes me wonder if that is not why Forrest talked about the B-52 and chose Moby Dickens for his book signing. Those large 1970s vehicles are often referred as "boats" and a boat in naval terms is really a submarine which cries Yellow Submarine, a Beatles song. Since the word Colonial is related to this aberration and Forrest encourages us to roll over a log and see what is underneath, why don't we roll the log over and examine all the dispersing Beetles and see which one catches our eye. Keep in mind Forrest has hinted about the Sacred Beetle before.

The first thing that comes to mind is one of Mr. Fenn’s book titles containing the words “Beat of the Drum,” which screams Ringo Starr. Ringo’s real name is Richard Starkey. For those experienced searchers this should be screaming major clue! Why? Well the poem hints of riches new and old and I suggested previously that "rich" is actually the name Rich. This could be the elusive new Rich or Richard. Not convinced yet? Consider Ringo’s name is Star-key with Fenn’s words, “tight focus with a word that is key.” Considering the words Apollo and Space Cowboy tight focus suddenly takes on new meaning and that is through the lens of a telescope (see Word that is Kea), which are used for “midnight” star gazing (defining the word gaze from the poem) and the star in this case is hinted by Starr, Ringo Starr.

Sure I know what you are thinking, "There goes Wolf stretching a tangent again." Well you are correct one can't stretch a tangent unless it intersects with another aberration. In The Stellar Solution SB 151. the poster's created name is "Stern" (meaning star in German) and remember Forrest suspiciously mentions his first dog's name was Reddigo and considering we should listen good, "Reddigo" sounds very similar to "Ringo," and it really was a silly reason for naming his first dog!

Starr "rings a bell," so why is star important? The biggest aberration as described in my book is the incident that changed Forrest’s life, which was the flight over Philadelphia in his T-33, which is known as the Shooting Star (Silver Star in Canada). So is this also related to the Lockheed XF-104 Star Fighter as well? Forrest suggests the poem requires a key to unlock it and Lock-heed is possibly the lock we need to heed.

If star is in fact the word that is key, then maybe there are more stars waiting to be unlocked… Maybe this explains why he uses a suspicious * in his book and talks about asterisks in his memoir and used them as bullets in his Mysterious Writings Weekly Words. It also sheds some light on the mystery of Stella (Italian for Star) which is coincidentally the name of the lake that the floating hat was taken in SB 126. In which case we need to follow the stars to the 9th star - Iota Piscium, an F-type star in none other than the constellation Pisces (fish) which means Thunderbolt. Or, possibly even Iota Orionis - "the Bright One of the Sword," in the constellation Orion.

#star #Ringo