Friday, October 20, 2006

“Hm. How About ‘Tickle Rod’?”

Got a new dictionary today and immediately looked up the word “dildo.”

How’s that for the start of an entry? The lookup was unintentional, I swear. My place of work finally ordered the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary for everyone in my department, and because I’m the kind of person who will even flip through a phonebook as long as it’s new, I started flipping through the dictionary.

The first page I landed on was page 350, and there it was in the second column, four words down, between “dilatory” and “dilemma.” Did you know “dildo” was coined in 1598? Its origins are unknown, though. Very disappointing.

So while Ben Jonson was being charged with killing Gabriel Spencer and the Seven Year War between Korea and Japan was winding down, someone somewhere said, “Hey, that thing needs a name.... What should we call it?” But we’ll never know who.

Not to revisit the whole movie quotation blitz or anything, but what made me smile about this little incident was that it reminded me of Otis’s line in Kicking and Screaming when Chet gives the boys a dictionary as a housewarming gift: “Cool! A dictionary! I’m gonna look up ‘blowjob.’ ” One of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. As well as one of the most authentic and wistful (relationships-wise).

(P.S. “Blowjob” was coined in 1942, just in case you wanted to know.)


A Brief List of Books to Be Found in My Father’s Winter Library

(Or, “Wow, that dude Torrey sure could write a page-turner!”)

Balme and Lawall: Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek, Books I and II
J. T. Hooker: Linear B: An Introduction
Autenrieth: A Homeric Dictionary
Ventris & Chadwick: Documents in Mycenaean Greek: 300 Tablets from Knosos, Pylos & Mycenae
Herodotus (in ancient Greek)
Plato: Apology (in ancient Greek)
Plato: The Last Days of Socrates (in ancient Greek)
Lehmann: Historical Linguistics
Herbert J. Muller: The Loom of History
Georges Roux: Ancient Iraq
Turnbaugh, Jurmain, Nelson, and Kilgore: Understanding Physical Anthropology and Archaeology
Walton: Elementary Quantitative Analysis
Frankel: Gravitational Curvature
Goldstein, Lay, Schneider: Calculus and Its Applications
Goodwin Quimby Morgan: Physical Foundations of Radiology
DeGown: Bedside Diagnostic Examination
DiFiore: Atlas of Human Histology
Artwright: Disease and History
Torrey: Morphogenesis of the Vertebrates
Brock: Biology of Microorganisms
Bold: Morphology of Plants
Besey Dexter Dyer: A Field Guide to Bacteria
Coma: Preparing the Thoroughbred: A Trainer’s Guide
Lungwitz and Adams: The Complete Guide to Blacksmithing
Lasley: Genetic Principles in Horse Breeding, Revised
Adams: Lameness in Horses
Henry Bromze: Treasury of American Turf
James Gill: Bloodstock
The Duke of Beaufort: Fox Hunting

If one were so inclined, one could deduce from this list (a) my father’s occupation, (b) a current hobby of his, (c) a past hobby of his, and (d) a field of study he’d wanted to pursue before he settled on his course of action in college. Then there are a few that don’t fit comfortably in any of those four molds, but which lend further evidence that my father is more of a Renaissance man that I will ever be.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Answers to the Last Annual Movie Quotation Matchup Game

Although I tend to let a week or two pass between my diary entries, I realized I had to follow up my last few posts within a few days because I know it would really piss me off good if someone else had concocted a quiz that I bothered to take, and then left me hanging, answerwise, for weeks on end. So here are the answers to the quiz (and to make it slightly more interesting than just a plain ol’ list, I’ll mention the context of the quotations—if the context matters):

1K. Bring that shit to me, man! / Cerrano (Major League) Yelled after Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn (or maybe it was Jake—I haven’t seen this movie in years) got a little “chin music” from the asshole Yankees pitcher.

2PP. Cheerleaders are dancers who have gone retarded. / Sparky Polastri (Bring It On) To Torrance and her pals (natch) right before he teaches them how to make “poetry with the human body.”

3G. Not bad for a human. / Bishop (Aliens) To Ripley, who just kicked the Queen Alien’s ass and blew her out of “the god-damned airlock!”

4I. Learn it. Know it. Live it. / Brad Hamilton (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) To Spicoli and his stoner pals in reference to the sign, “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Dice.”

5JJ. Shit! Fucking limey cement. / Otto (A Fish Called Wanda) Right before he gets steamrolled at Heathrow Airport.

6C. I have no response to that. / Angelica (Joe versus the Volcano) She said this a lot in the movie. And thus it’s a great thing to say when you can’t think of anything to say.

7E. Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb! / Batman (Batman: The Movie) Said straight to the camera (in the 1966 Batman movie) when Adam West runs around with a lit bomb for at least three minutes of screen time, but can’t get rid of it because everywhere he goes there are either nuns, Boy Scouts, or ladies pushing baby carriages around, etc.

8M. What are the odds of the Russians attacking on a Thursday night? / Cooper (The Man with One Red Shoe) Exclaimed when Cooper decides to use the U.S. government’s nuclear missile-tracking machinery to track Richard Drew (Tom Hanks), a man he suspects of being a spy who is, in actual fact, merely a concert violinist.

9Y. Sorry about the mess. / Han Solo (Star Wars) To the cantina bartender, right after he shoots Greedo.

10Z. Ugh. I thought they smelled bad on the outside. / Han Solo (The Empire Strikes Back) When he puts Luke inside the Tauntan he just sliced open with a lightsaber.

11OO. I want more life, fucker. / Roy Batty (Blade Runner) To Tyrell, just before he pokes the old bastard’s eyes out.

12O. Help! Help! I’m being repressed! / Dennis (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) Cried by the anarcho-syndicalist communist peasant whom King Arthur mistakes for an old woman (Dennis is neither a woman, nor is he old—he’s 37).

13BB. You fool! I could have killed you with a karate chop! / Inspector Clouseau (A Shot in the Dark) Said to his assistant, Hercule, after bumping into him and thus scaring the shit out of himself.

14S. Anybody want a peanut? / Fezzik (The Princess Bride) The rhyme to Vizzini’s pissed-off demand, “No more rhyming, I mean it!”

15X. I'll be taking these Huggies and whatever cash you got. / H. I. (Raising Arizona) When H. I. robs the convenience store while his unsuspecting wife and their kidnapped baby sit in a car outside.

16NN. I can't think of anything original! I'm only good in support. / Rosencrantz (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) As with Angelica’s line in Joe versus the Volcano, this line is great when you can’t think of anything else to say.

17N. It's such a fine line between stupid and clever. / David St. Hubbins (This Is Spinal Tap) Ditto on this one.

18SS. Ray, when someone asks if you're a god, you say yes! / Winston (Ghostbusters) Right after Gozer nearly sends the Ghostbusters off the roof of the Dana’s apartment building.

19KK. Ned, I would love to stay here and talk with you...but I'm not going to. / Phil Conners (Groundhog Day) When Phil and Rita want some alone time in the penultimate scene of the movie.

20R. You killed the car. / Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) His answer to Cameron’s horrified question, “What did I do?” after he kicks his dad’s 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California into the trees.

21GG. Haven't you seen Boyz N The Hood? Now one of us is going to get shot! / Mike (Swingers) After Sue pulls a gun on the House of Pain guys (as Trent facetiously calls them).

22P. A life without cause is a life without effect. / Dildano (Barbarella) Perhaps the one line in the movie that actually means something, since the rest of the movie is preoccupied with Jane Fonda’s naked body (in a “rated PG” kind of way).

23T. Can I borrow your towel for a sec? My car just hit a water buffalo. / Fletch (Fletch) When he walks in on Gail Stanwyck wearing nothing but a towel.

24CC. Chaos was what killed the dinosaurs, darling. / J. D. (Heathers) Said while he and Veronica discuss their fellow high school students banding together in the cafeteria for the sake of the camera crews.

25TT. Girls have no sense of adventure. / Xavier (The Doom Generation) It’s a sex thing. Der.

26MM. Ugh, I can actually hear you getting fatter. / Richard (Tommy Boy) When Tommy squirts some sauce packets directly into his mouth.

27Q. If he's so weird, why is he wearing Nikes? / Enid (Ghost World) Sagely reacting to a stand-up comic who is billed as “the weirdest man in America” (or something like that).

28AA. I refuse to discriminate between modes of knowing. / Henry (Henry Fool) Explaining to the convenience store clerk why he insists on reading pornographic magazines in the store.

29W. I'm a teacher, not a Holiday Inn. / Grady Tripp (Wonder Boys) Reacting to the possibility that the trashed James Leer might need to crash in his house for the night.

30DD. Your looks have become a problem! / Jeff (Almost Famous) Revealing the least of Stillwater’s infighting gripes with lead singer Russell.

31D. Do we look like the kind of store that sells “I Just Called to Say I Love You”? Go to the mall. / Barry (High Fidelity) Chewing out a businessman trying to buy Stevie Wonder’s “sellout” record for his daughter.

32B. If you're just operating by habit, then you're not really living. / Andre (My Dinner with Andre) Trite, but true.

33L. If Plato is a fine red wine, then Aristotle is a dry martini. / Chet (Kicking and Screaming) Preceded by Chet saying, “I’m paraphrasing myself here...” Chet is the bartender and chronic college student.

34LL. No, I don't feel lucky to be alive! I feel lucky I'm not dead. There's a difference. / Raymond Stoller (Breaking Away) Stated after his heart attack when his son allowed a customer to return a used car to their dealership (the other classic Ray Stoller line from the movie is “Refund? REfund?! REFUND?”).

35HH. On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. / The Narrator (Fight Club) Also trite, but also true. So go ahead and punch the guy sitting next to you.

36J. Sorry, baby, but I had to crash that Honda. / Butch (Pulp Fiction) Explaining to his girlfriend why he returned to the motel on a motorcycle (“It’s a chopper, baby.”) instead of in her Honda.

37A. I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle. / Ajax (The Warriors) Taunting one of the Baseball Furies (who swing like the Yankees but connect like the Mets).

38RR. We all have it coming, kid. / William Munny (Unforgiven) Reminding the Schofield Kid of the truth when the Kid says, “Well, I guess he had it coming” (regarding the man in the outhouse that the Kid shot point blank).

39EE. I’m making my lunch! / Jingle Dell (Wild at Heart) His response when his terrified mother finds him in the kitchen at 3 a.m. surrounded by hundreds of baloney sandwiches and asks him what he’s doing.

40H. At least she had good taste. / Blood (A Boy and His Dog) The double-entendre that ends the movie.

41II. I’m a fuel-injected suicide machine! / The Night Rider (Mad Max) Part of the Night Rider’s rant, just before Max plows him into a tanker truck coming the opposite direction.

42FF. Whatever it is, it’s warm. / Logan 5 (Logan’s Run) Said while he and Jessica try to puzzle out what the big yellow ball in the sky is (i.e., the sun).

43U. I shouldn’t have written all those tank programs. / Flynn (Tron) What the hotshot programmer said while trying to outrun a bunch of tanks on his lightcycle.

44QQ. We have all become God’s madmen. All of us. / Dr. Van Helsing (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) Response to the carnage at the end of the movie.

45V. Dick Laurent is dead. / Fred Madison (Lost Highway) The mysterious phrase that begins and ends the movie, connecting it into a Moebius strip.

46F. Goddammit, I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it'd do any good! / General Beringer (WarGames) In exasperation, while everyone else tries to figure out how to shut down the computer program, Joshua (a.k.a., WOPR).

Monday, October 9, 2006

Better than Pig Latin

One of the things I miss about hanging out with my brother all the time is being able to quote movies endlessly and for no reason whatsoever. For a while there, while he and I were in our early teens, we’d practically devised a new mode of communication that no one else in our family could decipher. In the course of any given day we heard the phrase “What the hell are you talking about?” more than once from bewildered family members. Ahh, good times.

Over the weekend, I was relaxing on the couch and watching Pulp Fiction on AMC. I would’ve just taken my DVD off my shelf and watched it sans commercials but it’s always fun to see what kind of voice-over insertions a “family friendly” station like AMC will add to a movie that uses the word “fuck” every six seconds. (FYI, in AMCland Vincent Vega resolves to go home after his dinner date with Mia and “cool off” instead of...well, if you love the movie as much as I do, you know what he’d really said instead.)

Anyway, as I found myself talking along with Jules and the rest of the characters I got to thinking about all the movie quotations my brother and I used to use back in the day, as well as some more recent quotations I’m fond of, and an informal list began forming in my head. But merely listing quotations on a diary page is no fun at all, and virtually guarantees no one will read them. Turn it into a game, though....

So below you will find a list of unattributed quotations (on the left) and a list of attributions (on the right). Believe it or not, my brother and I were capable of using these quotations (or at least the ones from movies pre-1995) in everyday conversation (one of my favorite quotation-related recollections is when my brother caught his foot up in a stray comforter on the floor of the living room and muttered, “Shit! Fucking limey cement.”). I’ll post the answers list in the next day or two. In the meantime you can email me or post your answers in Haloscan if you want. But it’s not necessary. After all, winners will receive absolutely nothing. Enjoy!

Last Annual Movie Quotation Matchup Game
1. Bring that shit to me, man! A. Ajax (The Warriors)
2. Cheerleaders are dancers who have gone retarded. B. Andre (My Dinner with Andre)
3. Not bad for a human. C. Angelica (Joe versus the Volcano)
4. Learn it. Know it. Live it. D. Barry (High Fidelity)
5. Shit! Fucking limey cement. E. Batman (Batman: The Movie)
6. I have no response to that. F. General Beringer (WarGames)
7. Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb! G. Bishop (Aliens)
8. What are the odds of the Russians attacking on a Thursday night? H. Blood (A Boy and His Dog)
9. Sorry about the mess. I. Brad Hamilton (Fast Times at Ridgemont High)
10. Ugh. I thought they smelled bad on the outside. J. Butch (Pulp Fiction)
11. I want more life, fucker. K. Cerrano (Major League)
12. Help! Help! I’m being repressed! L. Chet (Kicking and Screaming)
13. You fool! I could have killed you with a karate chop! M. Cooper (The Man with One Red Shoe)
14. Anybody want a peanut? N. David St. Hubbins (This Is Spinal Tap)
15. I'll be taking these Huggies and whatever cash you got. O. Dennis (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
16. I can't think of anything original! I'm only good in support. P. Dildano (Barbarella)
17. It's such a fine line between stupid and clever. Q. Enid (Ghost World)
18. Ray, when someone asks if you're a god, you say yes! R. Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
19. Ned, I would love to stay here and talk with you...but I'm not going to. S. Fezzik (The Princess Bride)
20. You killed the car. T. Fletch (Fletch)
21. Haven't you seen Boyz N The Hood? Now one of us is going to get shot! U. Flynn (Tron)
22. A life without cause is a life without effect. V. Fred Madison (Lost Highway)
23. Can I borrow your towel for a sec? My car just hit a water buffalo. W. Grady Tripp (Wonder Boys)
24. Chaos was what killed the dinosaurs, darling. X. H. I. (Raising Arizona)
25. Girls have no sense of adventure. Y. Han Solo (Star Wars)
26. Ugh, I can actually hear you getting fatter. Z. Han Solo (The Empire Strikes Back)
27. If he's so weird, why is he wearing Nikes? AA. Henry (Henry Fool)
28. I refuse to discriminate between modes of knowing. BB. Inspector Clouseau (A Shot in the Dark)
29. I'm a teacher, not a Holiday Inn. CC. J. D. (Heathers)
30. Your looks have become a problem! DD. Jeff (Almost Famous)
31. Do we look like the kind of store that sells “I Just Called to Say I Love You”? Go to the mall. EE. Jingle Dell (Wild at Heart)
32. If you're just operating by habit, then you're not really living. FF. Logan 5 (Logan’s Run)
33. If Plato is a fine red wine, then Aristotle is a dry martini. GG. Mike (Swingers)
34. No, I don't feel lucky to be alive! I feel lucky I'm not dead. There's a difference. HH. The Narrator (Fight Club)
35. On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. II. The Night Rider (Mad Max)
36. Sorry, baby, but I had to crash that Honda. JJ. Otto (A Fish Called Wanda)
37. I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle. KK. Phil Conners (Groundhog Day)
38. We all have it coming, kid. LL. Raymond Stoller (Breaking Away)
39. I’m making my lunch! MM. Richard (Tommy Boy)
40. At least she had good taste. NN. Rosencrantz (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)
41. I’m a fuel-injected suicide machine! OO. Roy Batty (Blade Runner)
42. Whatever it is, it’s warm. PP. Sparky Polastri (Bring It On)
43. I shouldn’t have written all those tank programs. QQ. Dr. Van Helsing (Bram Stoker’s Dracula)
44. We have all become God’s madmen. All of us. RR. William Munny (Unforgiven)
45. Dick Laurent is dead. SS. Winston (Ghostbusters)
46. Goddammit, I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it'd do any good! TT. Xavier (The Doom Generation)