Bloggity bloggity blog. So my mate Steve's girlfriend's name is Barbara Manning. I've just uploaded a whole shiznitload of stuff to my 'Pod, including some compilation CD's I'd never really bothered to listen to. One of them features an artist by the name of Barbara Manning. Both Barbara Mannings (Barbaras Manning?) are from San Diego.

So I'm reading the entry for Ms. Manning (the singer) on AMG and it mentions her obsession with baseball, and it namechecks one Dock Ellis, "the first man to pitch a no-hitter while tripping on acid" ("Ellis, D."?).

Intrigued (nah, make that astounded) I Google him and find his entry in the Urban Legends Reference Pages. Decide for yourself.

Sorry, no big pay-off - just an interesting little trail. But, there is a bonus item: Barbara Manning (again, the singer) is described in the opening paragraph of her AMG entry as "a little too spiky and odd to fit comfortably in the Lilith Fair crowd" - an odd mental image for someone who later collaborated with Seymour Glass as Glands of External Secretion to produce the album Northern Exposure Will Be Right Back", an album described by the good people at Trouser Press as both "a self-indulgent mess" and as "completely charming and engaging" in their review of the artist and her oeuvre.