NOT good for what ails you
May 23, 2012 7:11 PM   Subscribe

 
As far as I can tell, the only thing that oil and snake oil have in common is...well...the word oil.
posted by nosila at 7:20 PM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]


but much more effective in homeopathic form...
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:23 PM on May 23, 2012


My maternal grandfather worked directly for one of the Rockefellers at the home office of SOHIO (Standard of Ohio after the breakup) until his heart attack at the age of 48 in 1945 (years before I was born). My grandmother got almost nothing in 'survivor's benefits' and had to go to work at a Cleveland department store for 20 years until she retired on Social Security and the store's pension plan... all she ever said about "Mr. Rockefeller" was that he liked my granddad... while he was working for him.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:35 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


One of the ideals this country was built on is not judging men by their fathers, fuck that noise. Rockefeller built his own legacy that we can judge him by.
posted by Blasdelb at 7:41 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


Really effective snake oil salesman don't limit the price of elixir with a trades-mans two months salary. DeBeers measures ones love and affection with three months because it confirms the status of one lessor.

Status looks shiny, just like the future on nice days.
posted by vozworth at 7:45 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


One of the ideals this country was built on is not judging men by their fathers, fuck that noise.

When you inherit a dynasty from your father, it's hard to avoid.

Rockefeller built his own legacy that we can judge him by.

Which Rockefeller?
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:58 PM on May 23, 2012


I have to imagine that it's pretty difficult to get much ethanol out of sumac. Not a lot of sumac liquors out there...
posted by maryr at 8:09 PM on May 23, 2012


The Wikipedia article makes no mention of his quack hucksterism, though earlier versions did, it was deleted. Conspiracy?
posted by stbalbach at 8:30 PM on May 23, 2012


charlie don't surf, there are only two Rockefellers referenced in the post, John D and his father who had no dynasty to impart.
posted by Blasdelb at 9:13 PM on May 23, 2012


William Avery Rockefeller sounds like a classic sociopath, a rapist, remorseless, who preyed on the most vulnerable people, seeking out those with cancer to cheat, a chronic liar, sadistic and smug about it, basically your run of the mill monster. Curious what his mother looked like and his grave.

I can only imagine what agonies he must have inflicted on his various spouses and children, not just the abandonments but also the betrayals of trust, the wake of legal messes wherever he went, the public humiliations, chaos, endless dramarama, gossip, hurt.

Any child of such a person was likely going to be very wounded for life.

To me it makes sense that his son acted out with money too, obsessively.

In the Wikipedia entry it says:

Scandal

After hearing rumours that the richest man in the world — then at the height of his notoriety as a monopolist — had a shameful family secret, the press went into a frenzy. Joseph Pulitzer offered a reward of eight thousand dollars for information about "Doc Rockefeller" who was known to be alive and living under a false name, but whose whereabouts were a family secret. Despite slender clues picked up from interviews with family members and an eighteen month search, the journalists failed to track him down before he died, and the full story wasn't exposed until two years later.

Death

William Rockefeller had spent some time in Park River, North Dakota under the Levingston alias. He died on May 11, 1906, in Freeport, Illinois and was buried there in Oakland Cemetery. John Rockefeller never publicly acknowledged the truth about his father's life as a bigamist, and William's grave marker was paid for out of his second wife's estate.


I do think the world will be a better place when the world's major fuel and other materials used to make packaging etc are not petroleum based. It's always exciting to me when there are practically viable innovations in any of these areas.
posted by nickyskye at 10:04 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


The YouTube journalist's gravitas is considerably lessened by his half-in, half-out collar and the soft-focus green-screened "newsroom" deal he has running behind him. No doubt, snake oil salesmen in their various incarnations have caused a lot of misery, but this "report" doesn't impress me much.
posted by SenorJaime at 10:28 PM on May 23, 2012


Sorry Blasdelb, there are a lot of Rockefellers, I always think of Nelson.
posted by charlie don't surf at 10:50 PM on May 23, 2012


Isn't it generally understood that every great family fortune is based on some great crime?
posted by fredludd at 11:59 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


sn't it generally understood that every great family fortune is based on some great crime?

In France, yeah, probably. In the US, across the board? Probably not so much.

For example, this was the first that I (a US cictizen) had ever heard of the alias-using elder Rockefeller and his dastardly exploits. And if it's the first time *I* ever heard of it, I'd bet dollars to dunkin' donuts there's lots of Americans who'd never heard of it.

History needs to be taught and retaught, over and over. Little by little people learn the truth. With any luck.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:05 AM on May 24, 2012


The YouTube journalist's gravitas is considerably lessened by his half-in, half-out collar and the soft-focus green-screened "newsroom" deal he has running behind him.

Seriously lessened, eh? By a collar, huh? And a video backdrop?

Yeah, well, gotta admit, guess you won't see an askew collar on FOX News. They've got teams of wardrobe people to keep that shit right, so you're sure that their message is true, and worthy of your attention.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:09 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


It's always exciting to me when there are practically viable innovations in any of these areas.

Make it out of something that's not food and I'll be impressed! The sooner we can get fuel and plastics from sources other than petroleum or food the better!

Yeah, well, gotta admit, guess you won't see an askew collar on FOX News. They've got teams of wardrobe people to keep that shit right, so you're sure that their message is true, and worthy of your attention.

I agree that his message was well written, presented, and on point, but the wardrobe malfunction does tend to give the video an air of the self-made in mom's basement which I think was what he was avoiding by wearing a tie and all in the first place. Appearance, while annoying and a distraction from the importance of the message, is still an annoying distraction from the message and in this case easily rectified.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:56 AM on May 24, 2012


annoying distraction from the message

Yeah, whatever. I dunno, I guess I'm just a dinosaur from another era where someone's collar position would, like, really, have less than zero percent to do with what they were, um... saying.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:16 AM on May 24, 2012


To be honest, my desire to reach into the screen and pull the shoulders of his sweater up may have actually made me pay attention more!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:22 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


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