Two Things Found In Barthelme's 40 Stories

1.
Not long after reading this 2001 Harper's piece attempting (in a half-serious, half-fanciful way) to link Donald Barthelme with the Dan Rather "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" incident using "clues" from Barthelme's stories (and some biographical overlap between Barthelme and Rather), I came across something that I couldn't believe Paul Limbert Allman, the author of the piece, had missed.  Allman mentions the famous "Courage" signoff that Rather adopted for a brief period in September 1986, a few weeks before the "Frequency" incident, but doesn't cite this passage from Barthelme's "The Catechist":

He reads: "A disappointing experience: the inadequacy of language to express thought. But let the catechist take courage." He closes the book. 
I think: courage.

The inadequacy of language to express thought.  If, in fact, Rather's attackers were attempting to convey a message to him in some kind of Barthelme code, perhaps Rather's "Courage" served as a (unintentional?) "trigger word".  Wheels within wheels...

2.
In the story "110 West Sixty-first Street", there is a black man named Tiger who only sleeps with white women.

What Did Kyle MacLachlan Know...And When Did He Know It?

I enjoyed John Hodgman's remarks at the recent White House Correspondents' Dinner, but after reading this BBC story about a Dune-loving conspiracy theorist, I began to wonder, could Hodgman's whole routine have been, in fact, a series of coded messages revealing the secrets of a dark government conspiracy right under the President's nose???

Or perhaps "Kwisatz Haderach", far from being merely an innocent, if spectacularly nerdy, Dune reference, was actually a "trigger word" intended to "activate" the one-man sleeper cell otherwise known as our 44th President. And you thought McCain was the Manchurian Candidate!

I also found this passage from the BBC News story quite interesting:

"A document on Muad Dib's website reveals he believes he is the Messiah and that George Lucas wrote Star Wars after being told telepathically what to write, by the very 'Force' to which the films refer."

[insert your own Phantom Menace/Jar Jar/Xmas special/Kessel Run joke here]