Mnytime

[John B]

I don't know if anyone here was still in touch with Mnytime, but I saw this posted on another board and thought some of you would want to know what has happened:

"Awhile back when my brother Karim’s Cancer condition became very serious he asked his fiancée Shannon to have someone go to the homepage on his computer if anything happened to him that warranted a posting.

On July 28, Karim was in a major car accident in which his car was rear ended at a red light and sandwiched into the car in front of him. Totaling the car he was in. In normal situations the accident would have been very serious. Though with all the radiation and chemotherapy treatments he has had it was the worst possible time.

The accident broke his neck and 3 places in his back. If not for the fact that his back was held together by two rods and I don’t know how many screws already it could have been even worse. Karim is also currently in a Coma and the Doctors believe if and when he awakes that he might be paralyzed. They really can’t be sure since my brother has had nerve damage that has caused numbness in several places from his first accident. Also, the test they give that test the electrical signal really doesn’t work this soon after such a trauma.

The one thing I can say about my brother is that if there is anyone I know that can find a way to survive something like this he is the one. In term of severity this does not compare to his injuries from his first accident. It was the first of 3 times they pronounced him dead. When they discovered the Cancer a year ago the Doctors told him he had 6 months. Karim has never been a person that gives up on anything.

Our youngest brother or I will attempt to keep you updated as Karim requested. I can’t say how often or when the next update might happen. We are all spending a great deal of the time at the hospital."

[Brian Olewnick]

If "misterioso" is routinely posting on other boards (as I've been told), you needn't worry about this.

mnytime = misterioso.

There's a whole history of misleading and downright false posts on his part. Until confirmed otherwise, I wouldn't put too much stock at all in the accident story (or the cancer one).

Very sad news. He had just finished a courageous battle with cancer. Terrible luck continues to plague Mnytime to an incredible degree. My prayers are with him.

[Ron Thorne]

Originally posted by Brian Olewnick
If "misterioso" is routinely posting on other boards (as I've been told), you needn't worry about this.

mnytime = misterioso.

There's a whole history of misleading and downright false posts on his part. Until confirmed otherwise, I wouldn't put too much stock at all in the accident story (or the cancer one).

Brian, that's quite alarming, if true. Interestingly, yours is the only post of this type I've seen on three different jazz boards. That's merely an observation, not an accusation, by any means. You realize that the post shared above (post #1) was posted yesterday, ostensibly from Karim's (Mnytime's) brother, Sharif, right? Why should we doubt the authenticity of it? Am I missing something here?

If more appropriate, a PM would be fine.

Some interesting facts:

The last post by Misterioso on AAJ was on March 5, 2003.
The last post by Mnytime on AAJ was on July 9, 2003.
Misterioso is not registered on Organissimo.
Mnytime hasn't posted at Org since about July 25th, as far as I can tell.
freejazz.org - Mon, 08 Jul 2002 13:19:36 -0700

SDC Steve, can you add to or clear up anything here?

[moneyp]

Originally posted by Ron Thorne
Brian, that's quite alarming, if true. Interestingly, yours is the only post of this type I've seen on three different jazz boards. That's merely an observation, not an accusation, by any means. You realize that the post shared above (post #1) was posted yesterday, ostensibly from Karim's (Mnytime's) brother, Sharif, right? Why should we doubt the authenticity of it? Am I missing something here?

I'll confirm Brian's statement. I've received e-mails from both Mnytime and "Misterioso" and have confirmed that they generated from the same IP address. I also have my own doubts as to the veracity of Mnytime's previous claims of illness and the validity of that post to Organissimo, but I'll reserve further comment until I have more information.

[Jon Abbey]

yes, he swore to me at one point that he was a QB for the University of Miami Hurricanes, and was slated for the starting job over Vinny Testaverde, before a car accident knocked him out for the season. "he took my Heisman" was the exact quote, I believe. at the least, he's not a very good driver.

he also claimed to be one of the top heart surgeons in the country, and played free improv during all of his surgeries, Evan Parker, Cecil Taylor, even Weather Sky.

I also think he stopped hanging out here around the time a couple of people called him on the misterioso/mnytime thing (which was obvious even without the IP addresses, the writing styles and content were identical).

anyway, I hope he's really OK and comes back to talk about music, movies and basketball, because he knows quite a bit about all three topics. that's what I know about it.

[bluenoter]

There's a whole history of misleading and downright false posts on his part. Until confirmed otherwise, I wouldn't put too much stock at all in the accident story (or the cancer one).

Brian, that's quite alarming, if true. Interestingly, yours is the only post of this type I've seen on three different jazz boards. That's merely an observation, not an accusation, by any means. You realize that the post shared above (post #1) was posted yesterday, ostensibly from Karim's (Mnytime's) brother, Sharif, right? Why should we doubt the authenticity of it? Am I missing something here?

If more appropriate, a PM would be fine.

What Ron said, but I'd like to know too.

Edit: Just saw the last two posts. IMO, falsely claiming to be seriously ill or to have had a serious accident would be of a different order of magnitude than taking on two screennames or even making the dubious claims cited above.

[Jazzooo]

My memory is pretty bad, but wasn't it also mnytime who posted that he had lost some family at the World Trade Center during 9/11?

[Ron Thorne]

To answer your question, Doug, ... Yes!

I've also had personal, detailed e-mail discussions which I had hoped were meaningful and realistic, of course.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

OK, Ron -- Here's what I know.

First of all, I always greatly enjoyed my interactions with mnytime, and consider him a friend on this board; and so it is with reluctance and regret that I post this. But with this much confusion and concern regarding his status, I feel I have to do what little I can to clear the air.

I have no doubt that misterioso IS mnytime. At the time these suspicions were first brought to my attention, it had never occurred to me, primarily because although I had a lot of back and forth with mnytime, I hadn't payed nearly as close attention to misterioso, who was still a fairly new poster.

One of my idiocyncracies (as a writer, former editor, language geek) is noticing people's grammatical and spelling errors, stylistic quirks, etc.

So when these suspicions were raised, I immediately looked for some of the consistent spelling errors I had long before noticed that mnytime made, misspellings (or incorrect usages) which he used every time. They were part of HIS language. The three that I immediately remembered were "loose" for "lose," "then" for "than" and "where" for "were."

A bit of scouting revealed the same three consistent misspellings in misterioso's posts. It seems inconceivable to me that this is a coincidence.

I have no idea what's going on in his life. I hope he's OK, and I hope he's not playing with the feelings of people here. It would be great to have the truth out, the air cleared, and mnytime back.

[Ron Thorne]

My feelings, exactly, Steve!

[bobetterblues]

Hmmm, this is some interesting stuff.

Here's what I remember and know of mnytime.

He claimed to play basketball at Pauley Pavillion at UCLA with a lot of NBA and college players. He always seemed to have first hand accounts of any of the various NBA player's game's we used to discuss. He never said he had too much game, and said that he had bad knees and was a little old to hang with the young guys. I never once considered any of it to be untrue, exaggerrated maybe...

I do distinctly remember him being muslim and offended at some of the comments on this board following 9/11, and I know Monte pissed him off. I did think at the time he was being a little super sensitive, and by no means did I think it warranted him leaving the board. He did post about leaving the board and as far as I know he did because of those comments.

Also around this time, he posted about losing his brother in the World Trade Center as far as I remember. It may have been a cousin, but I'm pretty sure my memory wants to say it was his brother. Now, I'm also remebering that brother or cousin may have been plural.....

He could have a mental disorder. I know a guy who sounds utterly convincing of the numerous lies he tells, becasue he really believes them I think. When I first met him, I really thought he was J Lo's brother and used to be in the Wu Tang Clan. That was until he told me later numerous other things. He told me he was a vampire, a doctor, a drug dealer, and a pro football player... The guy was pretty convincing at first at I can smell bullshit pretty well I think.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

It was two cousins that supposedly perished at the World Trade Center. Don't forget the stories about his family's friendship with Muhammad Ali.

Knowing that Brian is not the type of person that would make false accusations, I was shocked to read his post yesterday. I don't read any other boards so there's no way I would have read anything that Mnytime posted on those other boards. I refrained from posting anything until I saw more posts here. It's looking as if our friend Mnytime is obviously suffering from some type of pathological condition..................

[Brian Olewnick]

I'd refrained from posting anything publicly before, when he first sent out e-mails about his cancer, though I wrote privately to some posters here who expressed sympathy at the time. The main issue was: if (as I believe to be a certainty) mnytime =misterioso, you had mnytime sending out a mail about his disease and his projected absence from the boards etc. at the same time as he was posting merrily away as misterioso for quite some time. I found this playing on people's sympathies absolutely unconscionable though I still have a real reluctance of calling such a person out in public. My guess at the time was that Karim wanted to do away with the mnytime persona (and all the absurd biographical claims that went with it) and start a new one. John B's initial post on this thread seems to indicate otherwise. (Incidentally, we confirmed that Karim was working in a real estate office, not operating as a cardiac surgeon).

Now, of course, it's possible that all my speculations are true and he was still in a car crash. It's possible I'm entirely wrong, but I seriously doubt it. If so, my most abject apologies will be offered. But I really think we're dealing with someone with serious psychological problems and, while sympathetic to an extent if that's the case, don't see any reason for other posters and e-friends to get upset for fictional reasons.

[Gary Sisco]

I have no idea. I received email about cancer and other stuff and not having any reason to disbelieve them, didn't. Then I started hearing from other people about it. Frankly at this point, I simply don't know what to believe. He does know more about Islam than most Americans, for sure. And, as Brian said, regardless of anything else, it's still possible that he's had an accident. Still, the message as posted seems a bit terse in its wording, coming from a sibling. Whatever. Here, there's only pixels.

[Gary Sisco]

Speaking of disturbing personalities ...

[Brian Olewnick]

Gary, don't you just love it when people delete dopey posts, ones that have already been responded to? (There existed, briefly, a typically snide Uli-post between Gary's last two)

[Gary Sisco]

Well, if I were revealing such psych symptoms (and for all I know perhaps I am) I'd delete them, too. After all, anyone with a computer can read them. Uli has become an obsessive cyberstalker when it comes to you and Msr Abbey and has had precious little else to say for what must be years by now.

Brian: As for my post that followed yours, I decided to delete it because I wrote it at the same time as your post, and didn't yet have the information that you conveyed.

I also don't know what to believe any more.

[Gary Sisco]

Not to play Miss Manners, since I've already indulged the thread, but actually it's probably not a good thing to develop threads about specific people. It can't do any good, in the end.

[bluenoter]

The folks at Organissimo have posted a link to this thread. Their reactions to the idea that Mnytime's accident and illness could be fabrications are very similar to the reactions that some of us have had--they don't know what to believe.

Gary--John B. started this thread to announce that Mnytime had (apparently) had a life-threatening accident. He had no way of knowing that it would turn into a thread about Mnytime's behavior and personality.

[John B]

Originally posted by Gary Sisco
Not to play Miss Manners, since I've already indulged the thread, but actually it's probably not a good thing to develop threads about specific people. It can't do any good, in the end.

based on what has been posted since I started this thread I'm starting to agree with you. I don't know Mny personally, other than a few emails back and forth a while back, and have no reason to disbelieve what I saw posted. If the story is true, I hope for a speedy recovery for Mny. If this has all (cancer, accident) been bs, then I hope he finds some peace because only someone very disturbed would create stories like these and try to dupe people who care about him.

[Pete C]

Well, I certainly hope he's OK. And I do miss his input on music. And I can't blame a Muslim for not wanting to be in the same room as Monte.

But if he really is a realtor, I don't want him performing heart surgery on me.

[Monte Smith]

Miny used to send out emails trying to get people barred from posting. He emailed me several times--and this is before 9/11--trying to get me to complain to Lois about racist posts someone had made contra Islam. I always demured from joining Miny's censorial schemes, explaining that I valued the honest exchange of views even more than I did the flower of Mohommedan religion. And of course after his entire family of Heisman trophy winners was massacred in the WTC by his co-religionists, he no longer spoke to me.

This is a great thread, by the way.

I now recall that Karim became upset with me (on a BBS far, far away) when I fell in line with those who thought his claims of receiving e-mailed death threats were, at best, exaggerated. I still think they were--in fact, they may well have been pure attention-getting fabrication. Karim eventually connected with me again, and we have had many interesting and pleasant exchanges, both on and off the boards.

Still, having said all that, and having carefully considered the odd "coincidences" (Mysterioso) and inconsistencies, I do lean towards the skeptics, but I also wish Karim well, for--either way--he needs our well wishes.

[Ed Swinnich]

Holy smokes. I don't know what to think. I'd had many encounters with Mnytime at the Blue Note Board and at Organissimo - both through posting and PMs. He seemed like a decent guy, though I do recall him trying to get me involved in an effort to ban a particular poster. As obnoxious as this poster is, I'd rather just ignore him than ban him, so I never bit. But even after that, I'd exchange some emails, especially after I found out he had cancer.

At the same time, I had an ongoing feud with Misterioso after he labelled me an a-hole and some other various uncomplimentary terms for posting a heads up about a Larry Young Mosaic set that was flying under the radar on ebay.

It never once struck me that they could be the same person, so the post yesterday really had me scratching my head. The evidence, as well as the allegations you all have presented is pretty compelling, particularly the IP addresses

Still don't know what to think, but it's looking like many of us may have been duped.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Just so people have some additional info...

I am prepared for anything when it comes to people and technology. Mnytime may be a whacko. Misterioso may be Myntime. His illness, family tragedies, sports career, car accidents, etc may be made up.

However, it should be noted that IP addresses can and have been cloned. Identities can and are stolen (just ask the guy recently registered as "underwoodwhipsitout" on the Organissimo board). E-mails can be faked.

No matter what is the real deal here, I'll deal with it.

One thing this has done for me is to take a deep breath, look around, and once again thank the powers-that-be for keeping me here another day.

I'll deal with that too.

Later,
Kevin

[Brian Olewnick]

What Kevin says above is certainly true. There are, however, some facts here:

1) I've seen a personal check from Karim with, of course, his last name (which I won't post here, though I assume many know it) and his home address.

2) There's no surgeon, cardiac or otherwise, by that name whom I could locate on the web. (most surgeons are listed somewhere).

3) There is someone by that name (not a common one) working in a realty company in the same (small) town listed on the check.

4) There's no one by that name listed in any collegiate athletic records that I could find.

While it's no crime to make up things about oneself (dishonesty not being a crime) it's certainly something to consider when other, more extreme claims are made. While I always harbored doubts about anything mnytime said about his personal life, it wasn't until the cancer letter followed by the continued, unabated posting by his alter-ego misterioso that my suspiciions darkened. There's someone else here with info on his 9/11 claims who may post if he chooses to. All of this makes me view any subsequent post of mnytime/misterioso with severe skepticism, no matter how awful it might sound.

Originally posted by Kevin Bresnahan
However, it should be noted that IP addresses can and have been cloned. Identities can and are stolen (just ask the guy recently registered as "underwoodwhipsitout" on the Organissimo board). E-mails can be faked.

• It should be pointed out that the veracity of claims by "underwoodwhipsitout" is also in serious doubt.

Note: color-emphasis in Kevin's quote is mine.

This was just posted on Organissimo:

• I came back to this thread to update you and it appears I should not have bothered.
  
  Of course this does not compare to the thread on the other board that is linked into this thread.
  
  If anyone cares at this stage, Karim is dying and we have flown him back to our parents home from the state the accident occurred in per his earlier legal request. He never wanted to die in a hospital.
  
  I am not sure anyone will be coming back with any updates at this stage.
  
  Sharif

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