Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Apocrypha Now

Well, it turns out this is an urban legend. I'm somewhat disappointed by this, because if it was true, it'd be funny as hell and just plain awesome-- to whit, the story is this:
When Apollo Mission Astronaut Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, he not only gave his famous "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" statement but followed it by several remarks, usual com traffic between him, the other astronauts and Mission Control. Just before he re-entered the lander, however, he made the enigmatic remark "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky."

Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut. However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs. Over the years many people questioned Armstrong as to what the "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky" statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled.

On July 5, 1995 (in Tampa Bay, FL) while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26 year old question to Armstrong. This time he finally responded. Mr. Gorsky had finally died and so Neil Armstrong felt he could answer the question.

When he was a kid, he was playing baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit a fly ball which landed in the front of his neighbor's bedroom windows. His neighbors were Mr. & Mrs. Gorsky.

As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky, "Oral sex! You want oral sex?! You'll get oral sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!"

True story.

Turns out the whole thing was a joke that Armstrong heard by California Comedian Buddy Hackett, but even so- it makes me a little sad when cool things like this are revealed to be totally and utterly apocryphal. But kudos to Buddy Hackett for one heckuva good joke- and double kudos for actually getting people to believe that it was for real! (Granted, I'm probably the last person in the world to realize that this isn't, in fact, true- but still...)

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