Being the parents of two children, our son, who was born in 1993 and our daughter in 2008, it was inescapable that my wife and I would be introduced to SpongeBob Squarepants. As a matter of fact, my fellow Observers, I consider it to be a cosmic, or rather submerged, certainty. Not only to be made aware of the show and it's characters, but also them becoming endeared to us as much as a group of cartoon friends can be. I know for myself that among the aquatic cast that have established a permanent place in my heart, I'm sure I'm not alone in stating that I have come to cherish Patrick most of all. His childlike indifference to societal status quo, what people expect from him in his actions or his statements reflects an attitude that is refreshing and hilarious. No more so than in his verbal exchanges with Squidward. One of my favorite episodes involves Squidward posing the question, "Patrick, just how stupid are you?". A true fan of the show knows full well that Patrick replies, quite matter of factly, "It varies.". In watching the show, over the years, I have noticed in my Observations that although being the somewhat mentally challenged, animated echinoderm that he is, Patrick has shown himself to be smarter than some of our fellow homo sapiens.....Ok...more than a few.... Well, now that I really think about it..... a lot.
For those of you that may have missed the story, a little over a week ago Priscilla Kelly Delmaro, after serving eight months in prison and agreeing to serve 4 years probation all because she attempted to reunite a man with the woman he loved, was a free woman again. Confused? What could she have done, you ask? Why was she in jail? Where is the problem in all his? Well, my loyal reader, there are some teensy complications surrounding this story that call for an elaboration on what exactly is considered "reuniting". First of all, the woman in question for the reunion did not return the man's affection. Then there's the awkward fact that the two met at a drug treatment clinic. Finally and not beneath notice is the small hitch that she's dead.
If you've been able to put the pieces together (and I'm sure you have) it comes as no surprise that Ms. Delmaro claims to be a psychic. She was held in custody, unable to make bail, until her trial, accused of fleecing one Niall Rice of over $550,000.00 in order to play a mystical reanimating matchmaker for him and a woman known only as Michelle by using special crystals, a time portal and an eighty mile bridge made of gold. Sounds reasonable, believable and any one of us could fall for it, don't you think?..... Yeah... me neither.
Let's continue with the "elaboration" by using our crystal ball to go back in time, shall we? Gaze into the crystal... Look closer... closer.... Wait a minute..... An image is starting to appear.... It's getting clearer....I think I see it now.... Yep... it's an idiot! Alright, hold on. I suppose the man deserves us all to examine the whole story, sans the turban and tarot cards, so for your carnival sideshow swami entertainment, here goes. In 2013, after earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions from consulting search engine optimization, Niall Rice fell prey to addiction, as many overnight successful people do, and flew from England to Arizona to enter a rehabilitation facility for acute anxiety, according to him. There he met and fell in love with another patient named Michelle. A shaky relationship ensued but ended a short time after both left rehab, when Michelle relapsed and returned to treatment. She then ended the relationship noting that she had to fix herself before she could give anything to another. Although he understood and agreed it was the best for both of them, Rice sat in his New York apartment pining away for Michelle.
Enter psychic #1 named Brandy who Rice claimed "knew a lot of stuff" and told him that she "saw" he was "connected to this girl". Brandy then asked Rice, "If you could choose, would you want to be back with her?". Whoa... I could see how he could be taken.... and taken to the casting stone cleaners he was. That first week Rice gave Brandy 12 grand. The next week he bought Brandy a $40,000.00 ring from Tiffany's in order to "ward off evil spirits". All in all he handed Bunco Brandy over $160,000.00 in just under a couple of months.
Disheartened by the disappointing results he was receiving from Brandy and shopping around New York brought Psychic #2, Christina (Delmaro) into his Michelle void life. After meeting with her in her Times Square shop and having his palm read, the pimple patterns on his pointed head mulled over or "whatever" coaxed him into thinking that "somehow she said all the right things" (sounds pretty close to "knew a lot of stuff" but I'm probably nit-picking) and proceeded to feed Delmaro large amounts of cash to psychically obtain Michelle's elusive love. After paying Delmaro $90,000.00 to build a bridge... made of gold... in another dimension... to trick an evil spirit that was haunting Michelle.... Rice, wanting to contact Michelle, discovered from her social media sites that Michelle had died of a drug overdose. I thought for a moment while reading about this that Rice would finally wake up and smell what Delmaro was shoveling all over him from the beyond... but no such luck. Upon telling Delmaro the grim news, Delmaro told Rice not to "believe it" citing "If you believe it, it's true". There really isn't too much in our lives that is truer than death, but again... nit-picking..... after all, who am I to say? It just turned out to be another tipping domino in the line of mistakes that Rice made by continuing to supply information to Delmaro. Like any good huckster, Delmaro immediately told Rice that she could get Michelle back. Claiming that she could reincarnate Michelle into another woman's body... if he was willing to pay, that is. Might as well... after all, he did just build a bridge for her to get here.
A short while later Rice moved to California, but could not escape Delmaro who pursued him with a barrage of emails, texts and phone calls about visions she was having about Michelle. She told him that she "saw" her in a supermarket and various other places around his new home. When Rice started seeing a local woman, Delmaro led him to believe his new girlfriend was indeed Michelle reincarnated. Buying the possibility, Rice started questioning his new sweetie looking for "Michelle" like traits. Big surprise everyone... the woman ended the relationship. Rice even admitted to the press that he "was being weird". Something tells me that the "new" Michelle broke the current quarter mile record. While convincing Rice that metempsychosis Michelle had dinner with him last night, she also mentioned that she was having a hard time of it in the Big Apple because she had no time for other clients, was homeless, in severe credit card debt and lost everything... for him. So, he sent her $100,000.00.
Eventually (Finally!) feeling like a blockheaded buffoon, he returned to New York and with what little money he had left, hired a private investigator who uncovered that Delmaro had a record in Florida for a similar situation. He decided to press charges against her this past May for fraud. After all the scams this woman pulled, after all the lies she told and the psychic promises she made you would think that Rice would finally get some justice or at the very least, some piece of mind. Well... you could think that, but you would be mistaken, sorry to say. Due to misstatements that Rice made to prosecutors that left out critical information that would have made him look even more ridiculously rubeish than he already was including, but not limited to, his payments to Psychic #1, Brandy and the trivial fact that he slept with Psychic #2, Christina (Delmaro) ultimately led to the plea agreement that granted Delmaro's release and her not being ordered to pay restitution to Rice. He is now broke, lost his apartment in Manhattan, has sold his remaining assets, has had to borrow money from his family and has started drinking again. He plans to start a website and online service that will expose psychic scams. I doubt that it will be successful once potential patrons realize how much trouble he seemed to have exposing his own shakedown experience with the other side.
Wow.... all I have to say is where the hell was this guy when I was selling Christmas cards in 1979? Forget that cheap telescope and the crappy Kodak Hawkeye 110 camera I got for busting my butt riding my tag sale bike all over New Milford, Connecticut, knocking on doors, being scared by a few large dogs and a couple of guys that looked like they may have been related to the banjo player in Deliverance. I could have gotten my whole family 10 speeds by telling this moron that if he purchased enough cards he could build a glittery tower to the heavens with them. Then there was that candy drive in high school... I would have scored that sweet pop-up camper just by making the suggestion that chocolate can open up dimensional portals... as long as you eat enough. It probably wouldn't have happened that way though. Knowing my luck, it's more likely that this perfect example of a P.T. Barnum axiom, spitting image sap would have been too busy conversing with a Nigerian prince, entering the Australian sweepstakes and calling Miss Cleo every other hour instead of buying into what I was hawking. More is the pity for my camper and ten speed teenage delusions of grandeur.
Everyone, at one time or another, has felt hat they have been taken advantage of.... everyone. It's part of life. It's part of the human condition. It's part of learning. It sharpens our wits to not be fooled twice and to be aware that scams abound on the street, over the phone and online. These transgressions can be committed, at best, by total strangers and at worst, by friends or even family and the betrayal by the latter can hurt more severe than physical pain as well as emotionally scar us. It can be a hard lesson to learn and in some cases money isn't what has been taken. Sometimes it's our dignity, our innocence, our trust. The more important problem we have is that some of us don't learn from our mistakes. Some are incapable of comprehending they are being manipulated or simply refuse to believe or acknowledge the fact. Some are too ashamed to admit it. Some deny they were swindled because of pride. Some are too stupid to stop and need some kind of intervention from those closest to them to keep them from throwing good money after bad or allowing a "friend" to continue to use them as a doormat. And some will insist on continuing to be used by others and are sadly beyond help in their endeavors. Please don't misunderstand me. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wishing upon a star. At any age, a person's dreams are important to aspire to and I would never deny anyone their hopes. What we have to be aware of is the threat of others exploiting our desires in order to serve theirs. Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, I have a question for the Magic Conch.
View my other articles, posts and Like Strictly an Observer on Facebook
View all Strictly an Observer articles on Tumblr
Strictly an Observer is on My Space
Strictly an Observer is on Pinterest
Follow Strictly an Observer on Twitter
Follow Strictly an Observer on Google+
Contact Strictly an Observer. I welcome all correspondence.
