Word: falconer
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...circled overhead in the widening gyre. There were power lines to worry about; some planes heading into Denver were rerouted. The cable-news anchors called in experts to speculate about how high the balloon might drift, how cold it could get inside, how fast it might fall, the odds Falcon would suffer hypoxia, or worse. But the only thing you could think as you watched, was how frightened that child had to be, how crazed with fear his parents, and how there seemed no way that this could end well. (See the top 10 conspiracy theories...
...that, at least, there was a glimmer of truth. When the balloon landed in a soft, freshly ploughed field north of Denver International Airport, there was a leap of hope; when the rescuers found no one inside to rescue, a second, sinking fear took old. Had Falcon fallen out, or tried to jump; would his body be found broken somewhere near his house...
...says something about either our goodness or gullibility, or both, that when Falcon was found to have been hiding out in the attic the whole time, we still sought the gentle explanation. Maybe it was an accident? He'd unleashed the balloon and then hidden out, for fear of getting in trouble. On Oct. 16, Larimer County sheriff Jim Alderden announced that he was "convinced" the parents were telling the truth about thinking their son was truly in peril; so were many other people when they heard the frantic father and sobbing mother on the 911 call. But this time...
...computers and financial records. But by then we already knew. We had watched the family ricochet from one talk show to the next like marbles in the pinball machine, tripping the lights, ringing the bells, savoring the spotlight until the moment on Larry King Live when Richard asked Falcon why he hadn't come down from the attic when called, and the child murmured, inconceivably, devastatingly, "You guys said that, um, we did this for the show." (Read "Balloon Boy on Larry King: 'We Did It for the Show...
...another chance to appear on Wife Swap maybe? Or the new show Richard was trying to develop, called Richard Heene: Science Detective? When it was the morning shows' turn to ask what had really happened, Falcon left the screen to go be sick; eventually he vomited on camera on Good Morning America. Richard, insisting this was no hoax, on Oct. 17 announced he would only answer questions submitted in writing and left in a cardboard box outside his home. It turns out that he and his wife had met at the Lee Strasberg acting school in Los Angeles. ABC News...