PATTERN 2-43

LOGGED OCCURRENCES

1. c. 480 BCThe dropped shuttle

   Zeng Shen's mother, told a third time that her son had killed a man, dropped her shuttle and fled over the wall. First filing of the pattern: belief arrives by count, not by proof.

2. c. 340 BCThe Wei market tiger

   A minister of Wei demonstrated to King Hui that three reports would place a tiger in the market. The demonstration was flawless. It was also useless: on his return, the gate stayed closed. Filed as ENTRY 004/64.

3. 1938THE RUMOR THAT ACQUIRED A BORDER

   The German Propaganda Ministry, Foreign Office, and Army High Command repeated the same claim: three million Sudeten Germans were persecuted by Czechoslovakia. The Propaganda Ministry reported it. The Foreign Office cited the Propaganda Ministry. The Army confirmed from multiple sources. The Munich Conference awarded the Sudetenland to Germany.

4. 1954THE LIST THAT CHANGED LENGTH NIGHTLY

   Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed to hold a list of communist agents in the United States government. The list length changed with each speech. The number was printed on his committee stationery. The tiger was not the list — the tiger was the faith that the list existed.

5. 2003THE CITATION THAT HAD NO ORIGINAL

   The CIA, the UK Joint Intelligence Committee, and the Australian Office of National Assessments published assessments of Saddam Hussein's weapons. Each cited the other's reporting. The shared finding was aluminum tubes certified by the agencies as centrifuge components. The tubes were certified for conventional rockets by the manufacturers. One reed, two tongues, three reports — and no weapon.