Oy! The Isle of Wight is a great place, and has lots of gardens. The
Ventnor Botanic Garden was on TV on Thursday with that Rachel de
Wotsit bird.
Mike "Walter Mitty" Crowe lives under the railway line in Lake. If you
go past on the train you can look down into his 'garden'. That's not a
gnome on the lawn - that's MC.

Excuse me, but why have I been compared to "Walter Mitty"?

For your education I post the following and I look forward to your apology.

Walter Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's short story "The
Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in The New Yorker on March 18,
1939, and in book form in My World- and Welcome to It in 1942. It was made
into a film in 1947.

Mitty is a meek, mild man with a vivid fantasy life: in a few dozen
paragraphs he imagines himself a wartime pilot, an emergency-room surgeon,
and a devil-may-care killer. The character's name has come into more general
use to refer to an ineffectual dreamer, appearing in several
dictionaries.[1] The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Walter Mitty as
"an ordinary, often ineffectual person who indulges in fantastic daydreams
of personal triumphs". [2] The most famous of Thurber's inept male
protagonists, the character is considered "the archetype for dreamy,
hapless, Thurber Man".[3]

Although the story has humorous elements, some critics[who?] see a darker
and more significant message underlying the text, leading to a more tragic
interpretation of the Mitty character. Even in his heroic daydreams, Mitty
does not triumph, several fantasies being interrupted before the final one
sees Mitty dying bravely in front of a firing squad. In the brief snatches
of reality that punctuate Mitty's fantasies we meet well-meaning but
insensitive strangers who inadvertently rob Mitty of some of his remaining
dignity.


[edit] Use of the term
When referencing actor Errol Flynn, Warner Brothers studio head, Jack
Warner, noted in his autobiography, My First Hundred Years in Hollywood, "To
the Walter Mittys of the world he [Flynn] was all the heroes in one
magnificent, sexy, animal package".

In his 1992 biography of Henry Kissinger, Walter Isaacson records that on 6
October 1973, during the 1973 Arab Israeli War, Kissinger urged President
Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff General Alexander Haig to keep Nixon in
Florida in order to avoid "any hysterical moves" and to "keep any Walter
Mitty tendencies under control".[4]

In 1990, American soldier Teddy Temish was described as a Walter Mitty-like
figure by a panel of Army psychiatrists who examined him after he had been
suspected of committing espionage for the Soviet Union, when his
self-created persona as a spy was discovered to be an elaborate fabrication.

In the 1997 text, 'Into Thin Air' by Jon Krakauer- where the author
personally recounted the events of the 1996 Everest disaster- Krakauer
states: "Walter Mittys with Everest dreams need to bear in mind that when
things go wrong up in the death zone (above 26,000 feet)- and sooner or
later they always do- the strongest guides in the world may be powerless to
save a clients life; indeed as the events of 1996 demonstrated , the
strongest guides in the world are sometimes powerless to save even their own
lives". (page 275)

In 2002, Philip Sessarego, a novelist and conman was described by the press
as a Walter Mitty character and SAS fantasist when he was exposed as a fraud
by the BBC in 2002.

In 2003, Tom Kelly, a spokesman for British prime minister Tony Blair,
publicly apologised for referring to David Kelly as "a Walter Mitty
character" during a private discussion with a journalist.

In 2007, Automaker Ford admitted that it had to exclude from the list of
potential bidders "Walter Mitty" types who had dreams but no experience,
prior to the sale of their Aston Martin British GT car brand to a consortium
of business interests from America and the Middle East, headed by Prodrive
founder and world rally championship owner David Richards.

Later in 2007, Conservative British Member of Parliament Sir Peter Tapsell
backhandedly complimented outgoing Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair for
portraying ".despite the deep disillusionment of his fellow countrymen with
his premiership, an optimism that eluded King James II and would have
delighted Walter Mitty".[5]

In 2008, Jim McAuley, a soldier who boasted on Facebook that he had served
with the SAS and killed more than 100 people, was termed a "Walter Mitty" by
genuine soldiers who exposed him as a fantasist, forcing his resignation
from the army.[6]

In 2008-2009, James Shortt, the Baron of Castleshort, Director General of
the International Bodyguard Association, claiming SAS and Parachute Regiment
service, was outed as a "Walt" by the British Army Rumour Service (ARRSE)
website and subsequently reported on by Private Eye and The Sun.[7][8]

In February 2009 George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said the prime
minister Gordon Brown was "still living in his Walter Mitty world where his
system of banking regulation didn't fail, where boom-and-bust had been
abolished and where Britain is best placed to withstand the recession".[9]

The Guardian newspaper reported on 20 April 2009 that a leaked British
National Party training manual described some members as "liars oddballs and
Walter Mitty types".[10]

In his book on selection for the Special Air Service (SAS), Andy McNab wrote
that people who give away the fact that they want to be in the SAS for
reasons of personal vanity are labelled as 'Walter Mitties' and are quietly
sent home.




Also, there is a military slang term, "Walt", which is an abbreviation of
the name 'Walter Mitty', which refers to someone who has aspirations to
become a soldier, but none of the necessary personal qualities. This bit of
slang can also refer to someone who poses as an (ex-)soldier but who isn't a
soldier (serving or former), or who poses as something he isn't or wasn't;
for example, regular army soldiers who pose as SAS troopers. The term is
often used to describe people who participate in "war games" such as
Airsoft, Paintball, Military Re-enactment and individuals who are not
serving/never served in the Armed Forces but have an obsession with Military
Surplus, Regalia, Weaponry etc but subconciously does not understand the
difference between Civilian and Military life.


[edit] References in popular culture
The character was played by Danny Kaye in the 1947 film version, and is
scheduled to be played by Mike Myers in a future film version. Thurber
opposed the 1947 production. Kaye's Mitty is a more comedic character than
the original, who is unmarried, gets drawn into a farcical adventure in real
life, and triumphs in ways that the original character does not, even in his
fantasies.

Walter Mitty is referenced in the lyrics to the songs "T&P Combo" by 311,
"Vacation" by Alabama, "Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll" by Ian Dury, "Kitty
Ricketts" by Radiator, "In The City" by Madness, "Dreams" by The
Descendents, "All Dressed Up For San Francisco" by The Philosopher Kings,
and "Sammy Davis City" by Joe Strummer and Brian Setzer. Mark Lindsay
referred to "Walter Mitty mind" in his song "Silver Bird." Although the
character is not specifically referenced within its lyrics, the concept
album Eldorado by Electric Light Orchestra focuses on the exploits of a
Walter Mitty-style persona.In 2008 South East London's Finest Skiffle Punk
outfit The Early Swerve(www.myspace.com/theearlyswerve) recorded the track
"I'm not Walter Mitty". Lyrics written By David McKinnon & Essex Moorcroft
it tells the story of a doomed relationship between a lad whose dad had done
bird, and a girl whose dad co-ordinates the neighbourhood watch. They never
liked him from the start and he knew it. he knows it aint beautiful, he
knows it ain't pretty, he knows it's not working! He ain't no dreamer! He's
not Walter Mitty!

Stephen King in his novel, The Stand describes the character of Paul Burlson
as a "Walter Mitty outlaw daydream" when Paul tucks a revolver into the
waistband of his dress pants.

The Police Academy series character Eugene Tackleberry is a trigger-happy
police officer who is obsessed with firearms and the military and lives out
his special forces fantasies by wearing camouflage for police work but
doesnt understand the difference between Military and Law Enforcement making
him a "Walt".

The 1975 movie Paper Tiger Starring David Niven as retired British Army
Major Bradbury, sent as a tutor to the son of a Japanese politician Koichi
Kagoyama (played by Ando). Mr Bradbury tells him heroic "War Stories" to
make his military service sound adventurous, but ends up doing his best to
match up his 'action man' image when Koichi is kidnapped by revolutionaries.

The official Peanuts website describes the character of Snoopy as "... an
extroverted Beagle with a Walter Mitty complex", a reference to the many
fantasy segments in which Snoopy imagines he is a World War I flying ace
battling the Red Baron.

The BBC TV series Keeping Up Appearances character "Daddy" is a senile, old
man with bizarre habits who still thinks World War II is going on.

The children's television programme The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty parodied
the story as well as many others, with a mix of live footage and animation
featuring anthropomorphic animals.

Jim Rockford asks his farther Rocky in the Rockford Files if he is Walter
Mitty (series 2 episode 3).


[edit] References
1.. ^ "Walter Mitty". dictionary.com.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/walter%20mitty. Retrieved on
2006-06-15.
2.. ^ walter mitty. (n.d.). The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved May 29, 2007, from
Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/walter_mitty
3.. ^ King, Steve. ""Thurber: Mitty and Dangerous."". Today in Literature.
todayinliterature.com..
http://www.todayinliterature.com/sto...Date=3/18/1939. Retrieved
on 2008-07-14.
4.. ^ "The October War and U.S. Policy", October 7, 2003 National Security
Archives
5.. ^ Prime Minister's Questions for 9 May 2007
6.. ^ "'Walter Mitty' soldier's Facebook bragging exposed", The Guardian,
July 9, 2008.
7.. ^ Dunn, Tom Newton (29 Jan 2009). "Fake SAS man given Cabinet security
job". The Sun (www.thesun.co.uk).
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle2183915.ece.
Retrieved on 6 February 2009.
8.. ^ Squarebasher. "Cabinet Security A Shortt story". Private Eye.
9.. ^ The HeraldFebruary 19 2009
10.. ^ BNP says some members are oddballs and liars. The Guardian. 20
April 2009. Retrieved 01 May 2009.

--
Mike

The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rneba.org.uk
Luxury Self Catering on the Isle of Wight?
www.shanklinmanormews.co.uk