MOON CONSPIRACY & HOAX: CHARLIE DUKE - Family Abuser, NEIL ARMSTRONG - Reclusive, GENE CERNAN - Puppet, EDGAR MITCHELL - Hell Guy, BUZZ ALDRIN - Abandons family, ALAN BEAN - Jelly Beans

MOON CONSPIRACY & HOAX: CHARLIE DUKE - Family Abuser, NEIL
ARMSTRONG - Reclusive, GENE CERNAN - Puppet, EDGAR MITCHELL -
Hell Guy, BUZZ ALDRIN - Abandons family, ALAN BEAN - Jelly Beans




http://groups-beta.google.com/group/FOOLED

AUGUST 22, 2005 =B7 Editions: Edition Preference

IDEAS -- BOOKS

After The Moon -- What?

MOONDUST
In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth
By Andrew Smith
Fourth Estate; 372pp; $24.95
..=2E.........
Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth
The Good A spellbinding tale of what has befallen the Apollo astronauts
since they walked the moon.
The Bad Smith may exaggerate the difficulties that the men had in
readjusting to life on Earth.
The Bottom Line Fascinating for its historical detail, engaging
writing, and wistful meditation on space travel.

..=2E..........


Such is life for the nine surviving moonwalkers from NASA's $24
billion, 1963-'72 Apollo program. Men who once ruled the heavens -- and
who, upon their return, were granted rock-star-like status -- now
inhabit a perplexing galaxy. One day they're ignored, the next heckled
by conspiracy theorists or pursued by nostalgia-addicted fans. In the
spellbinding Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth, Andrew
Smith investigates just what has befallen the astronauts since their
glory days. .......

[CHARLIE DUKE - Family Abuser]
Apollo 16's Charlie Duke, who in 1972 became the 10th of only 12 humans
to stride the lunar surface, illustrates the spacemen's predicament.
One minute, says Smith, Duke was up there looking down at Earth, which
seemed "like a jewel, so colorful and bright that you felt you could
reach up and grab it." Then he was back here, sensing "that his life
could only be one long, slow anticlimax." Numerous business offers came
his way, allowing him to set up a San Antonio beer distributorship,
which in time produced wealth. But that didn't make him happy, and he
abused both his family and the bottle before turning to Jesus.

[NEIL ARMSTRONG - Reclusive]
Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, became a professor and
corporate board member but also a near-recluse. ...

[GENE CERNAN - Puppet]
Gene Cernan, captain of Apollo 17 and the last to visit the moon,
became a "professional Moontalker," making a living from speeches and
by promoting Omega watches.

[EDGAR MITCHELL - Hell Guy]
Edgar Mitchell, who experienced a religious epiphany during his Apollo
14 flight, founded a "consciousness studies" organization, the
Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Life crises were common, many featuring alcohol and divorce. (One
wonders if the author doesn't overemphasize them. Were the astronauts
more troubled than any other group of middle-aged men?) ...

[BUZZ ALDRIN - Abandons family]
Aldrin, for example, "came back and blew like a supernova." After
undertaking a disconcerting public-relations tour of the globe, he
abandoned his wife and family for another woman, then suffered an
alcohol-fueled breakdown before entering psychiatric treatment. Aldrin
comes across as one of the more engaging of the men. Like Apollo 16
Commander John Young, Aldrin's life now is devoted to proselytizing for
further space travel. Among the projects he favors is a "cycler" that
would travel perpetually between the Earth and Mars, exploiting gravity
for fuel.

..=2E...........



[ALAN BEAN - Jelly Beans]
Apollo 12 veteran Alan Bean says he was a different person when he
returned, having realized that "we have never seen anything as
beautiful as what we see when we walk out the front door." Would anyone
suggest that such a realization wasn't worth $24 billion?