{"id":1373,"date":"2023-06-28T21:20:50","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T21:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/2023\/06\/28\/nyad-verses-nyad\/"},"modified":"2023-09-20T00:53:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T00:53:30","slug":"nyad-verses-nyad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/nyad-verses-nyad\/","title":{"rendered":"Nyad Verses Nyad"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image from Diana Nyad\u2019s June 2023, 2017, Facebook post<\/a> about her appearance on Gupta\u2019s podcast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the latest episode of CNN\u2019s \u201cChasing Life,\u201d<\/a> Gupta recalls how Nyad marks the time during long swims:<\/p>\n

You\u2019d sing songs. And if I remember correctly, \u2018Me and Bobby McGee\u2019 2000 times was eight hours and 45 minutes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr. Gupta has a good memory (or a good researcher) because that\u2019s just what Nyad said at TEDX-Berlin in 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Nyad interrupts to correct him: \u201c1000 times,\u201d she says, \u201cnine hours and 45 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nyad has claimed that, too, always preceding it by saying that she sings the song exactly the way Janis did:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If I take a song like Janis Joplin\u2019s version of Bobby McGee, okay? So if I sing that song, and I hear it exactly the way Janis sang it with her voice, her breaths, the guitar strums exactly the way I know it. And if I start from the beginning.\u2026 If I get to 1000 Bobby McGee\u2019s just like that, it will be to the second nine hours and 45 minutes. (CSF\/SPF presentation<\/a>, Sep 2014)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But Joplin\u2019s \u201cMe and Bobby McGee\u201d<\/a> lasts more than four-and-a-half minutes. Singing it 1000 times would take 75 hours.<\/p>\n

I wrote about this and many more of Nyad\u2019s math problems in \u201cUnreliable Natator: Omissions, Exaggerations, and Lies in Diana Nyad\u2019s Find a Way<\/em>.\u201d<\/a> So, she corrects Gupta one more time:<\/p>\n

I take my own version. . . . I would take Janis Joplin\u2019s \u2018Bobby McGee.\u2019 I know that song very well from the first note to the last, but in order to get it to 1000 verses [sic], I curtailed it somewhat. I took a couple of stanzas out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a small thing, but I\u2019m pleased to know she\u2019s paying close attention.<\/p>\n

Still, to cut \u201cBobby McGee\u201d enough to get through it 1000 times in 9 hours and 45 minutes, she\u2019d have to sing it once every 35 seconds. That calculation is also in \u201cUnreliable Natator,\u201d so she wasn\u2019t paying that\u00a0<\/em>close attention.<\/p>\n

Update, June 29, 2023:<\/strong> An astute reader pointed out that Nyad always uses \u201ctimes\u201d or \u201ctimes through\u201d rather than \u201cverses,\u201d as in \u201c1000 times through.\u201d\u00a0 The phrase \u201c1000 verses\u201d connotes something much shorter than \u201c1000 times through,\u201d especially when you consider that \u201cverse\u201d and \u201cstanza\u201d are synonyms.<\/em><\/p>\n

~\u00a0~\u00a0~<\/p>\n

h\/t KH and JA, who tipped me off about Diana\u2019s \u201cBobby McGee\u201d problem.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Diana talking about \u201cMe and Bobby McGee\u201d:<\/p>\n