Them on Us: Famous Finkelstein; you can’t fix ‘stupid’

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

By Jake Nichols

We’ve been keeping an eye on reviews for Wilson, Wyo. - author Alexandra Fuller’s latest book, “The Legend of Colton H. Bryant.” The novel chronicles the real life story of Bryant, a Wyoming roughneck who was killed on the job. It has the power to influence readers outside of Wyoming and America.

Take for example the superb write up from Melanie McGrath in The Scotsman earlier this week: “When Americans feel uneasy, they turn to westerns. The theory is that the western is a nostalgic reaffirmation of what makes America great: rugged individualism, the pioneer spirit and a God-given sense of being in the right.”

But Scotland readers’ impression of Wyoming will likely be soured when McGrath delves further into the sad tale. She calls Wyoming “a state controlled by corporate oil interests” and Bryant “one of the thousands of semi-skilled grunts or “oilfield trash laboring in Wyoming’s prodigious oil and gas fields.”

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Local urologist Dr. Lisa Finkelstein has now been on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno twice more than most of us. Finkelstein’s latest print ad was fodder for Jay Leno’s “Headlines” segment on Monday. Again!

In January, Finkelstein’s classic ad, “If you sprinkle when you tinkle ... come see Dr. Finkel,” showed up on Leno’s radar as he lampooned the ad on national television. Leno held the newspaper ad to the camera and cracked: “If you have some problem, and you go to a urologist - maybe it’s me - I want a mature urologist. I don’t want a jokey urologist. I don’t want a cute urologist.”

Finkelstein took it all in stride but countered by using the likeness of Jay Leno in her latest ad, which, incidentally, was censored by this paper for fear Jay would sic his lawyers on us. The valley’s other weekly ran the ad and not only did Leno not sue, but he called Finkelstein’s office and told her she might want to be watching the show Monday. Leno extended the good pee doctor’s 15 seconds of fame and furthered the friendly exchange of jabs with another retort.

Will this end up being an ongoing thing? By the way, Finkelstein offered Jay a prostate exam. He declined.

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New York City papers were abuzz with the arrest of Tammy Mitchell. Mitchell goes by the name “Jillian” when she’s working and, judging from the police report, that’s apparently quite often. The midtown fortuneteller opened a little shop on East 32nd Street and proceeded to bilk gullible customers out of their money, promising to rid them of evil spirits.

“The money I gave to Tammy Mitchell was all the money I had,” Douglas Lonneker said. Lonneker is a former Wall Streeter and investment manager living in Wilson, Wyo. Lonneker, who advises people on how to invest their money, handed over a half million dollars to the bogus black-magic seer. Mitchell told Lonneker that his Wyoming home had an “evil design.” Lonneker only balked after Mitchell said she needed another $1 million to finish the exorcism. He then went undercover for the Manhattan DA’s office.
“Telling someone on the street that a psychic stole half a million dollars from me, they’re going to think that you’re a crackpot,” Lonneker told WABC-TV in NYC. “Tammy Mitchell used my faith in her for the sole purpose of separating me from my money. She deserves to go to jail.”

Mitchell was arrested for grand larceny. The ‘Flim-Flam Ma’am’ was featured as a fraudster in a 2006 segment of ABC’s “20/20” called “Duped in America: Why We Believe.” She has faced similar charges in at least four other states.

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We caught North Carolina’s take on the monumental Boy Scout undertaking going on locally at various sites in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The five-week service project is called ArrowCorp5 and is wrapping up this weekend. The effort to repair trails and improve campsites is considered the most extensive of its type since the organized labor efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. We saw the television news report on WFMY News 2 in Greensboro.
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Them on Us: Famous Finkelstein; you can’t fix ‘stupid’ | Planet JH News Article: General News

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