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but behind shaking fingers they're whispering your name
I had the All-Star Game on for a little while last night and did I really see a commercial for a movie version of Moneyball? Starring Brad Pitt as Billy Beane? I... They seriously made a movie about baseball stats? Starring Brad Pitt? I don't even know what to do with that.
Before I realized the game was on channel 5, I put on ESPN, just in time to hear Coach Taylor give this speech:
I might have cried a little. Could have been allergies. I knew ESPN was going to be rerunning the series, but I didn't realize it had started last night. I still haven't watched the last two episodes. Until I do that, it can't really be over.
I found last night's White Collar amusing for several reasons, some not really related to the actual show, but there were also a couple of things that made me look askance. So Nazi loot is okay, but using a dead baby's birth certificate - which I believe is the time-honored way of creating new identities and has been for a long, long time - is a line Neal won't cross? Really? I mean, it's not like they were going to kill the babies themselves or something.
Also, I can't believe that the Moreau thing is a coincidence or that Neal would go for it. Or that Mozzie would! Is Mozzie setting Neal up? Is that why he's been so... weird this season? Weirder than usual, I mean. In an unpleasant way.
That was one ugly crotch rocket, and also one ugly bustier. Maybe they should have let that guy (Robin Hoodie! I admit it, I laughed. And also now I kind of want to watch Robin and the Seven Hoods, which I haven't seen in forever.) keep stealing ugly stuff. I'm not sure him turning himself in felt really earned. And I guess Neal's "I haven't hit bottom yet" was a warning to Peter. But Peter's way ahead of you, Neal. I have no doubt about that.
Otoh, I did love Peter trolling Neal during his morning after with Sara, and Peter sure that he's not the Sheriff of Nottingham (he's not!) and the Peter/El bro-fist in the kitchen after El explains the clue to them.
I also loved Diana being all "I want to break down the door!"
Basically, I will say what I say every week: Peter Burke, you are my favorite. And also El. And Diana. And Jones.
***
Before I realized the game was on channel 5, I put on ESPN, just in time to hear Coach Taylor give this speech:
We will all at some time in our lives, fall. Life is so very fragile, we are all vulnerable, and we will all at some point in our lives, fall. We will all fall.
We must carry this in our hearts, that what we have is special, that it can be taken from us, and that when it is taken from us, we will be tested. We will be tested to our very souls. We will all be tested.
It is these times, it is this pain, that allows us to look inside ourselves.
I might have cried a little. Could have been allergies. I knew ESPN was going to be rerunning the series, but I didn't realize it had started last night. I still haven't watched the last two episodes. Until I do that, it can't really be over.
I found last night's White Collar amusing for several reasons, some not really related to the actual show, but there were also a couple of things that made me look askance. So Nazi loot is okay, but using a dead baby's birth certificate - which I believe is the time-honored way of creating new identities and has been for a long, long time - is a line Neal won't cross? Really? I mean, it's not like they were going to kill the babies themselves or something.
Also, I can't believe that the Moreau thing is a coincidence or that Neal would go for it. Or that Mozzie would! Is Mozzie setting Neal up? Is that why he's been so... weird this season? Weirder than usual, I mean. In an unpleasant way.
That was one ugly crotch rocket, and also one ugly bustier. Maybe they should have let that guy (Robin Hoodie! I admit it, I laughed. And also now I kind of want to watch Robin and the Seven Hoods, which I haven't seen in forever.) keep stealing ugly stuff. I'm not sure him turning himself in felt really earned. And I guess Neal's "I haven't hit bottom yet" was a warning to Peter. But Peter's way ahead of you, Neal. I have no doubt about that.
Otoh, I did love Peter trolling Neal during his morning after with Sara, and Peter sure that he's not the Sheriff of Nottingham (he's not!) and the Peter/El bro-fist in the kitchen after El explains the clue to them.
I also loved Diana being all "I want to break down the door!"
Basically, I will say what I say every week: Peter Burke, you are my favorite. And also El. And Diana. And Jones.
***
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‘Moneyball’ Trailer Is a Little ‘Oceans Eleven,’ a Lot ‘Friday Night Lights’
So... yeah. You might want to give it a chance :-)
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(Honestly, I only like baseball movies to see who in Hollywood is reasonably athletic and who isn't. This is why I will watch The Rookie any time it is on television, and sometimes when it's not: even at 50-something, Dennis Quaid could pitch a pretty good fastball, and he could do it left-handed.)
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Presumably you can still pull the dead baby trick for anybody born before 1985 (IIRC, that's when all children started getting socials within the first year of life; I remember being hauled to the SS office with my sister and us both getting SSNs), but the supply of dead babies of the right age has got to be awfully low. Imagine if your dead baby of choice had already been used by a previous fraudster!
I don't know what's replaced/replacing the dead baby trick, now that it's harder to pull off. More dangerous forms of fraud, I suppose: two or three people using the same SSN, or taking up identities of adults who have died.
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I don't know what's replaced/replacing the dead baby trick, now that it's harder to pull off.
The guy in this episode created fake people from infancy - getting fake names SSN numbers as babies, setting up fake school records and bank accounts in their names etc., so there were paper trails as if they had actually been real. It was interesting - I don't know if it would work, but it was plausible enough for this show.
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Indeed, a low bar. That kind of paper trail is awfully labor-intensive, and rather a lot of it unnecessary (anybody who's an adult now is pretty likely to have finished school before any computerized records-keeping worth a damn existed, to say nothing of the privacy laws; and honestly, if they're looking into your schooling records, chances are they've caught you already).
It sounds like they basically "twinned" existing real children (presumably via fake name-change paperwork, or that quasi-secret loophole that can get battered women and their children new SSNs), and just held onto the false identity, updating every now and then, for 20 years till needed? Talk about your long con. You could sell each identity for millions and millions: your market for that kind of thing would be the sons of dictators, and like that.
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Given the labor intensive nature of it, it's more the realm of some bored low-level agent in Tel Aviv - or maybe one of the more organized Russian mobs, than anything a small-timer could pull off.
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