I think nearly every aspect of human activity is filled with hidden agendas but this seems especially rampant in "scholarship" of all kinds. One can't become a noted scholar simply by parroting what others have said, one must add to the existing pile in some noticeable way; either by new discoveries or by new theories about old discoveries. If a scholar proposes a new theory, then all existing knowledge in the field---or at least the results of contradictory research---must be recast (spun) to support the new theory. The scholar must be successful in spinning everything his or her way or find some other line of work (or at least come up with another theory).

Sometimes it can take me a very long time to realize what a song is really about. I rememer driving Chicago's Kennedy Expressway many years ago passing the time by singing old songs and eventually I found myself singing "The Blue Tailed Fly." Suddenly, like a bolt from the sky, I realized the song is being narrated by a slave who has just killed his master. I'd been singing that song since I was five years old and never realized what it was really about. Talk about slow! Somehow that aspect of the song had never been discussed around me.

Now would you like me to put the Shroud Of Turin controversy to rest once and for all? My own research in this area is particularly extensive and insightful.

      - Mark