MJJG: the 3 wise men again

[Raphael Saltwood]

PaPa LaBas - fictional
Black Herman - factual
Sufi Abdul Hamid - factual person with fictional characteristics


LaBas lingers in the doorway of a back room, where Black Herman is seated playing solitaire and Abdul Hamid is standing against the wall watching the dancers in the other room.

They are listening to a Jes Grew situation report on a “Kathedral radio”

(Cathedral radio
https://images.app.goo.gl/yizq7Unf5juqNg3U6 )


Black Herman description’s a bit weird:

...the famous batwinged eyebrows, goatee, and narrow mustache which travels from the bridge of his nose to the top of his upper lip...

https://images.app.goo.gl/Q8CZ254LhumidScD7

You can definitely see one of the batwinged eyebrows and a dark shadow running from the bottom of the outside of what mayyyybe you could call the bridge of his nose. None of these photos is high-def...

the placement of the mustache is jarring

And so is making Sufi Abdul Hamid a magazine editor.
 Contradicts what we know about Abdul Hamid (community organizer, womanizer, charismatic leader, not famous in publishing)

and about mustaches (they don’t ordinarily emanate from the bridge of the nose)

A churlish quibbler might assume one or both of these to be mistakes, a credulous fan might impute artistic meaning -

I’m a little bit country, a little bit rock’n’roll.

Since I read fiction to be entertained, it seems reasonable to return the favor and entertain both possibilities. Maybe more data will be forthcoming.