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© Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
I was considering perpetrating a scam. I was going to claim that I predicted the tragic events of Sep. 11, 2001. I was going to do that just to show how people would be willing to believe a lie. But then I would be branded a liar for the rest of my life. That was too great a price. Actually, this is more or less what I really did predict:
Some day soon, some terrorist will fly a light plane, loaded with explosives, into a nuclear power plant, and cause massive death and destruction.
That sounds slightly close, now that I think of it. If I were a fraudulent psychic, I might have said it like this:
Some day soon, some militant organization will fly a plane into a critical structure, in or near a large city, and cause massive death and destruction.
You see, I made it more vague. And it fits the Sep. 11 catastrophe very well. It sounds just like the "psychic" predictions that you see in the tabloids.
Make it vague. That is the secret to being a successful psychic.
Incidentally, "Sept." is the standard abbreviation for September. "Sep." (which I have been using for decades) is also acceptable, according to my dictionary. I think it is about time that "Sep." becomes the standard abbreviation.