Tuesday Titter... Doppelganger Issues

[MoeFOH]

When it gets so bad you have to get a t-shirt made... thoughts & prayers are with you, Dave 🙏 ❤️. (Oops, I mean, old mate). 

 

[Ford2112]

I get that only Brad Pitt...

[MoeFOH]

3 minutes ago, Ford2112 said:

I get that only Brad Pitt...

No one gets the "Not Brad Pitt" t-shirt. 

[Ford2112]

I was going to mention that. Unfortunately I resemble Larry the Cable Guy more 😵‍💫🥴

[Ken Gargett]

many years ago, when in was studying in London, a group of us went across to Russia (still the USSR then) for ten days. different world. amazing trip and incredible fun (even survived an encounter with the KGB though that was a bit embarrassing and a story for another day) but we had very little sleep - as students might do occasionally - and when i got back, i was utterly exhausted and had a heap of overdue work. so i shut my doors for three days and took the phone off the hook. this was pre laptops, internet, mobile phones etc.  i lived in a place called London House - a sort of dorm for post grads and pretty close to as much fun as i have ever had in my life). when i emerged, a heap of messages from my parents. what the hell was going on? why was i on the front page of the Brisbane Courier Mail with my Scandinavian wife and was i radioactive? i thought my parents had gone stark staring. 

turns out that just before we headed home, Chernobyl blew up. there was absolutely no news of it in Russia (we'd met a fabulous Canadian girl who was just travelling around on her own. she caught up with us a few months later in London and had almost no time left - looked appalling - as she had been in that region for three weeks post the explosion and no one said a word. i have always believed that the death toll was so much higher than was ever officially released. the locals were not told anything). we were incredibly lucky as the week before it blew, we were in the region, less than 100 kms from it. in Leningrad, as it was then, when it went off.

so, i am talking to my parents having zero knowledge of anything happening and they are asking about the nuclear explosion - news was a lot more blurry in those days - and i am telling them that they are mad. nothing has happened. i had not seen a newspaper or tv in the time i had been back. whoops. 

but the photo (they posted it across to me and even i could not have told you it was not me). just a pic of some random bloke and his wife getting off a plane in Sweden or somewhere after fleeing Russia. it was truly the spitting image. my folks had endless phone calls from old friends and relatives wanting to know if i was okay and when did i get married. it took a lot of convincing to get them to accept it was not me. spooky. 

[MoeFOH]

27 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

many years ago, when in was studying in London, a group of us went across to Russia (still the USSR then) for ten days. different world. amazing trip and incredible fun (even survived an encounter with the KGB though that was a bit embarrassing and a story for another day) but we had very little sleep - as students might do occasionally - and when i got back, i was utterly exhausted and had a heap of overdue work. so i shut my doors for three days and took the phone off the hook. this was pre laptops, internet, mobile phones etc.  i lived in a place called London House - a sort of dorm for post grads and pretty close to as much fun as i have ever had in my life). when i emerged, a heap of messages from my parents. what the hell was going on? why was i on the front page of the Brisbane Courier Mail with my Scandinavian wife and was i radioactive? i thought my parents had gone stark staring. 

turns out that just before we headed home, Chernobyl blew up. there was absolutely no news of it in Russia (we'd met a fabulous Canadian girl who was just travelling around on her own. she caught up with us a few months later in London and had almost no time left - looked appalling - as she had been in that region for three weeks post the explosion and no one said a word. i have always believed that the death toll was so much higher than was ever officially released. the locals were not told anything). we were incredibly lucky as the week before it blew, we were in the region, less than 100 kms from it. in Leningrad, as it was then, when it went off.

so, i am talking to my parents having zero knowledge of anything happening and they are asking about the nuclear explosion - news was a lot more blurry in those days - and i am telling them that they are mad. nothing has happened. i had not seen a newspaper or tv in the time i had been back. whoops. 

but the photo (they posted it across to me and even i could not have told you it was not me). just a pic of some random bloke and his wife getting off a plane in Sweden or somewhere after fleeing Russia. it was truly the spitting image. my folks had endless phone calls from old friends and relatives wanting to know if i was okay and when did i get married. it took a lot of convincing to get them to accept it was not me. spooky. 

You were in Russia when Chernobyl blew up? That answers so many questions. 

Did KBG ever come onto the KGB's radar? I guess one never knows... until they do. 

[Chas.Alpha]

Fortunately, nobody looks like me. Nor should they ever want to…

[riderpride]

6 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

many years ago, when in was studying in London, a group of us went across to Russia (still the USSR then) for ten days. different world. amazing trip and incredible fun (even survived an encounter with the KGB though that was a bit embarrassing and a story for another day) but we had very little sleep - as students might do occasionally - and when i got back, i was utterly exhausted and had a heap of overdue work. so i shut my doors for three days and took the phone off the hook. this was pre laptops, internet, mobile phones etc.  i lived in a place called London House - a sort of dorm for post grads and pretty close to as much fun as i have ever had in my life). when i emerged, a heap of messages from my parents. what the hell was going on? why was i on the front page of the Brisbane Courier Mail with my Scandinavian wife and was i radioactive? i thought my parents had gone stark staring. 

turns out that just before we headed home, Chernobyl blew up. there was absolutely no news of it in Russia (we'd met a fabulous Canadian girl who was just travelling around on her own. she caught up with us a few months later in London and had almost no time left - looked appalling - as she had been in that region for three weeks post the explosion and no one said a word. i have always believed that the death toll was so much higher than was ever officially released. the locals were not told anything). we were incredibly lucky as the week before it blew, we were in the region, less than 100 kms from it. in Leningrad, as it was then, when it went off.

so, i am talking to my parents having zero knowledge of anything happening and they are asking about the nuclear explosion - news was a lot more blurry in those days - and i am telling them that they are mad. nothing has happened. i had not seen a newspaper or tv in the time i had been back. whoops. 

but the photo (they posted it across to me and even i could not have told you it was not me). just a pic of some random bloke and his wife getting off a plane in Sweden or somewhere after fleeing Russia. it was truly the spitting image. my folks had endless phone calls from old friends and relatives wanting to know if i was okay and when did i get married. it took a lot of convincing to get them to accept it was not me. spooky. 

Comrade Ken blows up Chernobyl to cover his true purpose in the Soviet Union. So what about this run-in with the KGB, and was this the basis for a Bond flick?

Apparently I have a doppelganger in Calgary. A fair amount of my friends have seen him. One said he's a friendly guy because he waived at her- I then told her she's an idiot because that was me.

Cheers!

[Ken Gargett]

2 hours ago, MoeFOH said:

You were in Russia when Chernobyl blew up? That answers so many questions. 

Did KBG ever come onto the KGB's radar? I guess one never knows... until they do. 

it was most certainly not the basis of a bond flick. it was accidental, seriously terrifying and just so embarrassing. 

rob and i have a vid scheduled for tomorrow morning. if someone reminds him, or if i remember (the latter being way less likely than the former), i shall try and relate the story. 

[Drguano]

I have been told on a number of occasions that I bear a close resemblance to my favorite guitarist. I once fooled 10,000 deadheads during a New Years Eve concert at the Oakland Coliseum…

  

[Drguano]

From http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/12/grateful-dead-new-years-eve-opening.html 

"The Flying Karamazov Brothers were a troupe of juggling performance artists who had started out in 1973 in Santa Cruz. There were four of them, all long haired and goofy, and they would do amazing feats of juggling while carrying on amusing patter with the crowd (I should add that they were neither brothers nor Russian). It sounds really dumb, but in fact it was really impressive and funny, and they quickly won over the revved-up New Year's Eve crowd in Oakland. Part of their act was to juggle all these crazy objects--champagne bottles, bowling pins, meat cleavers, burning torches--while carrying on with funny dialogue. By the end of the show, there would be four guys spread out on stage about 30 feet apart, juggling a combination of a dozen or more completely insane objects. As their New Year's Eve show peaked, with objects flying all over the stage, and half of them constantly in the air, Jerry Garcia appeared from stage left with his guitar and casually walked across the stage, passing right through the semi-circle of juggling Karamazovs. The Brothers never missed a beat, as no objects hit either the ground or Jerry, and he casually sauntered off on stage right. The crowd, needless to say, lost their minds."

Only it was not Jerry Garcia, it was me.