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Waldo, Judge Crater, and Joe Dimaggio

Thu, 11/06/2003 - 15:54 — Dean Landsman

Waldo, Judge Crater, and Joe Dimaggio

People wonder about their whereabouts. Where's Waldo? He's hidden, but he's always in the picture. Yes, do chuckle at the entendre. Where's Judge Crater? I always suspected he and Amelia Earhart were off somewhere, perhaps Tunisia or maybe just outside of Newfoundland, having a drink and getting cozy. Paul Simon posed the musical question, "Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you." We knew where Joltin' Joe was, we were just awaiting his return.

I've been away, hanging with the spirit of these mysteriously missing souls, for a little while.

...........hmmm. Where's Waldo? Would it be a truly sick and macabre joke for the publishers and the author of this wildly popular children's book series to put out a book --- with no Waldo in any of the pictures?


Once the most noted and notable missing man in America, we wonder whatever became of the judge ..... ?


The original and most famous female Aviator (aviatrix?) of all time, Amelia Earhart went down in her plane and was never heard from again. Curiously, the popular assumption that she was flying solo on that final flight is incorrect. There was a co-pilot. He, too, was never heard from again. Lacking the fame, that co-pilot remains lost, and overlooked in what has become legend and lore.


The Yankee Clipper, once the greatest ballplayer of his day. We had the good fortune to be at the last Yankee Stadium home game of the year the season when Joe D was honored for the final time. He drove in from Center Field in a snazzy 57 Chevy convertible, and just before the cermonies, Paul Simon sang Mrs. Robinson standing smack-dab in CF, where The Yankee Clipper had patrolled for all those years. Joe D, what a legend! He fell ill, then died shortly after that. But the Yanks feted him one more time while he still had his health and his wits.



Hanging in the metaphysical sense, anyhow. But how can one, actually, hang in the metaphysical with those who have long since vanished into only the ethereal? Ah, life's intangibles.

Next thing you know, I'll be quoting Edgar Cayce.

Well, maybe not.