Art Bell

[GuerrillaUnReal]

I feel like I'm watching a series of hockey fights break out.

[SciFiAuthor]

Thanks, Fucko--I've had that guy on /dump for a year. Now I need the eyewash.

you owe me

Stop it, Jack. You owe me. I can accept payment in Taco Bell Taco Supremes, which by my count, you owe me 14 million of them as per our agreement. Don't make me employ a collections agency.

[paladin1991]

Stop it, Jack. You owe me. I can accept payment in Taco Bell Taco Supremes, which by my count, you owe me 14 million of them as per our agreement. Don't make me employ a collections agency.

Collect the Supremes.  I'll bring a couple of bottles of Scotch.  And straws.

Annnnnd goodnight.

[Jackstar]

You owe me.

[SciFiAuthor]

Deadbeat.

[Jackstar]

Deadbeat.

[SciFiAuthor]

I want my fucking tacos.

[GuerrillaUnReal]

I'm genuinely disturbed that you want to be paid in the worst Mexican food in existence. But I think that's because I take my Mexican food goddamn seriously.

[SciFiAuthor]

I'm genuinely disturbed that you want to be paid in the worst Mexican food in existence. But I think that's because I take my Mexican food goddamn seriously.

Don't stick up for him. I want my tacos.

[trostol]

I'm genuinely disturbed that you want to be paid in the worst Mexican food in existence. But I think that's because I take my Mexican food goddamn seriously.

whats wrong with tacos?

[GuerrillaUnReal]

Don't stick up for him. I want my tacos.

At least roust the fucker for some tacos of quality. That's like beating someone with a baseball bat to collect a debt and taking their used underwear to sell at a 2nd hand store. I mean, yeah you could do it but do you really want to?

(these thoughts are heavily under the influence right now)

[Jackstar]

Don't stick up for him. I want my tacos.

[GuerrillaUnReal]

whats wrong with tacos?

Dude I'm going to tell you right now. You're taking to a man who takes tacos very seriously. Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to Taco Bell unless too drunk or too stoned to notice?

[trostol]

Dude I'm going to tell you right now. You're taking to a man who takes tacos very seriously. Why anyone would willingly subject themselves to Taco Bell unless too drunk or too stoned to notice?

i would never subject myself to taco hell...i am not a huge mexian food person but tacos have to be home made

[SciFiAuthor]

You don't have any tacos, do you Jack?

[GuerrillaUnReal]

i would never subject myself to taco hell...i am not a huge mexian food person but tacos have to be home made

You can be my wingman. Anytime.

[SciFiAuthor]

i would never subject myself to taco hell...i am not a huge mexian food person but tacos have to be home made

A proper real Mexican taco is fucking delicious.

[trostol]

A proper Mexican taco is fucking delicious.

i believe it..but again..not big on mexican food..most i do is taco's and quesadilla

[SciFiAuthor]

i believe it..but again..not big on mexican food..most i do is taco's and quesadilla

If you can find the real stuff, they have really awesome cheese.

[trostol]

If you can find the real stuff, they have really awesome cheese.

i'm picky when it comes to food lol

[SciFiAuthor]

i'm picky when it comes to food lol

No, I'm serious, they have it together when it comes to the cheese, way better than grated cheddar like at taco bell.

[trostol]

No, I'm serious, they have it together with it comes to the cheese, way better than grated cheddar like at taco bell.

i know..but again..i am really picky lol i dont eat taco's a lot ..like..once..twice a year maybe

[Jackstar]

Most of what you think of as "Mexican food" is actually Tex-Mex, and it sucks.

[SciFiAuthor]

i know..but again..i am really picky lol i dont eat taco's a lot ..like..once..twice a year maybe

Hehe, I'm picky too. Nite nite. See ya soon.

[trostol]

Hehe, I'm picky too. Nite nite. See ya soon.

lol later man

[Value Of Pi]

How real men say goodnight -- with tacos.

[Gumby, Dammit]

Bellgab, yer late-night taco stand.
The place to be.
People come from miles around.
And the Chupas' they lurk...

[Jackstar]

The place to be.

www.battlecam.com

I feel like I'm watching a series of hockey fights break out.

[SredniVashtar]

The problem being that any of the alternative hypotheses regarding Art's motives for leaving require certain assumptions to be made. These range from assuming he wanted to leave the show to assuming he's in a relationship with (Redacted) that's more than a professional mentorship. All of the hypotheses are driven by various collections of assumptions. Assumptions, assumptions, assumptions.

Yes, that's why they are called 'hypotheses'.  :  No one is saying that they know what is going on; they are simply taking the limited information available to them and using that as a basis for interpretation. In my experience, people are very often as dishonest with themselves, regarding their own motives, as they are with other people. It's like doing an equation when you know the values of a, b and c and are trying to determine the value of x: given what we know about the man (and human beings generally), what is the more likely explanation? The 'stalker' story, to me, has always sounded like a lie told by a not particularly bright guy. When painted into a corner, your garden variety dumbass will say almost anything to get himself out of a bind, and feign outrage if it isn't believed. It's trailer trash bluster and rhetoric.

Assumptions are bad things

You will make multiple assumptions throughout every day of your waking life. You can't navigate your way through a typical day otherwise. If you constantly need verification and reassurance over every detail of your existence then you might as well shut yourself in all day.

so when one applies Occam's razor, they all fall flat against the official story Art has given. His is the story that requires only one assumption: that he's telling the truth. To question that, one needs a basis for doing so. I have yet to see anything that would suggest to me that this isn't exactly as he's claimed.

It sounds like your razor needs the strop. I don't see a great deal of difference with Art's story than with any other tale that rests on the supposed veracity of the teller rather than the details of the story itself. We are in religious belief territory here. Are you telling me that the only reason that I am supposed to believe it is because I can't prove it's false? Unfalsifiable theories are always weak, as you ought to know.

It's no stretch for a celebrity to have a stalker. It commonly happens, even Hoagland has one (talk about wasting one's life, Jesus). It's no stretch that a stalker might try to scare or harm a celebrity, again, this commonly happens to the point of being expected.

No, but people don't usually roll over in that situation either. Be honest, wind the clock back twenty years when he was building the show and hungry for success, and imagine someone gave him a similar ultimatum. Would his response be 'fuck it, I guess I'd better go on welfare then and throw away all I've worked for because of some lone weirdo'? We hear about celebrity stalkers because they find themselves slapped with a restraining order. Maybe there are hordes of celebrities who run and cower in the corner too, but we would be guilty of making nasty old assumptions, wouldn't we?

I think we involve fewer assumptions if we simply assume that an elderly man (who had already shown signs of iffy judgement in previous months) got tired of a gig he wanted out of, and threw out an excuse because he knew that he had used up most of the other ones and needed something a bit more convincing. It's handy because it can't be easily disproved, but also relies on the good faith (some might say 'pathetic credulity') of his audience to accept it.

I just don't see the need to go off into the weeds and wildly speculate when the original story, sad as it is, hasn't presented anything to question without the need for a bunch of assumptions to be made.

Oh, you're obviously new here. Welcome to BellGab. Post often.

The simplest answer here is that Art told the truth as he saw it, and then completely blew it over and over when dealing with the fallout.

At least we have a point of agreement here. It's certainly a 'simple' explanation, in the sense of being naive and credulous. I don't think it's particularly sophisticated either. You are also guilty of making an assumption about Art. Multiple assumptions in fact, about his character and motives that you are not entitled to make. As this is Burns Night, I should point out that the Scottish courts have three possible verdicts in trials: 'guilty', 'not guilty' and 'not proven'.  Art hasn't proved his case, that's all, and all you are doing is assuming that he's being honest because you like him on the air.

This scenario is has been backed by a number of people close to Art with no apparent inconsistencies.

For 'a number of people' read 'employees'. What would we do when faced with this story coming from a man we never knew? Well, give them the benefit of the doubt, I guess, up to a point; but that benefit wouldn't extend as far as believing everything without corroborating evidence.

I think people felt the need to overanalyze because they were angry that Art left the air. But I don't think that overanalysis was ever anything close to valid. People should be asking themselves why they engaged in it in the first place when the simplest answer was clear the whole time. Art told the truth and made a bunch of bad decisions in response to it.

I think people are analysing this because it looks like the old boy has gone off his onion, and people are perplexed by it all. And before Onan puts his cleats on and starts treading on my face again, I am not all that interested in Art himself, but in the responses that this whole thing brings out from people. I stopped listening to the show weeks before he quit, so it's not as if I am working through the stages of grief. It was solid, but no more than that. He's like an old sports star who suddenly finds out that he should have quit while he was ahead.

People make weird, unaccountable decisions all the time, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that Art would do something silly. 'Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive etc...' I was trying to recall a crazy story that happened over here a while back, of a man who faked his own death - with the connivance of his wife - to claim on the insurance. The lie extended to their own children, and the husband lived for years in disguise before miraculously reappearing. It's an odd story. Coincidentally, when he was released he ended up marrying a Filipina woman several decades younger than him. I'm trying to remember who that reminds me of...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Darwin_disappearance_case

[inuk2600]

It is interesting that the Cumulus deal was the last peice of the broadcast puzzle Art was working to put together and it sounded like he was about to get it, possibly on his terms. Remember the legal back and forth between Art and (supposedly) Cumulus (remember Big Puffy Clouds?) was a huge stumbling block during the run up.
The timing makes it seem like Art finished the puzzle and then it becomes a case of boring maintenance and polishing the brass vs. the excitement of empire building. More speculation but it does kind of seem like the task of polishing the brass was handed over to the bellboy.