Mission

David Prowse, Alec Guiness... folks more interesting to us mid-aged people. As for getting credit...well, being recognized as an expert by other experts is about the best praise I think one can receive. The flash-in-the-pan fan worship...that's just so much noise.

For some reason, the Dremel reminds me of that old Operation! game commercial..."It takes a very steady hand..." No, no, no! I work with big stuff - lathes, band saws, power grinders and cordless...well, cordless everythings. I bought the Dremel to work on my resin gremlin model that is sadly languishing. (I swear if I put half as much energy into working on that thing as I do whinging about it, it would have been finished two years ago.) If I remember, I'll post a pic of the sort of things I design and sometimes build (although I typically farm most of the work out) as soon as I think to actually take a picture of one. (Honestly, they're not all that exciting to look at - really). Boy, that will just fit right into this thread, it will. For now, enjoy this - my own form of dental surgery from deep in the bowels of my web site. At least it sort of fits into this topic:

Can you show me how to use a Dremel? I've had one for years and never used it. Maybe you can give a class using your roll of nickels. Hopefully you've got a roll of the right year. I don't know the above quote. Mick Belker on Hill Street Blues? Mine was from The African Queen. You gotta love Kate Hepburn. How about this one (it should be easy): "You Idiots! You've captured their stunt doubles!"

Buffalo nickels are the coolest. I used to collect them when I was a kid. (I bought them at a coin store! I'm not that old!) That also happens to be (just noticed this) the extremely rare 3 legged buffalo nickel produced in '37. Spend it wisely, they sometimes go for tens of thousands of dollars. That beach scene also harkens to a scene in Zatoichi where the masseur faces the samuri. Interesting. I've read that, in addition to making really strange game shows, Takeshi Kitano is a huge samuri film fan. How about this one: "I ain't got that old engine so clean in years; inside and out, miss. Just look at her, miss! She practically sparkles. Myself too. Guess you ain't never had a look at me without whiskers and all cleaned up, have you, miss? Freshens you up, too; if I only had clean clothes, like you. Now you: why you could be at high tea."

Your virtual nickel, madam: Now, honestly, how did you know that? I only remember it from seeing it on network TV! I thought it was such an odd line that I still remember it. Is it on the DVD or something? Is Google really that powerful? Or are you just a vast font of useless movie knowledge like I'm? (Speaking of prehistoric, I only have a raggedy old VHS copy of Ghostbusters, so I don't know what's on the DVD.) I never saw Screaming Tiger. It reminded me of the scene in Zatoichi where the Bodyguard/Samuri went back to his teacher to fight him to regain his honor from losing an earlier fight and discovered that the teacher didn't own an actual sword. This despite the teacher's earlier line, "Using sticks isn't the art of combat. A true samuri will use his sword."

The first one is The Big Lebowski I don't know that second one. Ok, a virtual nickel to anyone who gets this one. I believe it's extremely tough. This was a replacement line used in the TV version of this movie back when (first clue!) you couldn't say 'ass' on prime time. If I gave you the actual line, you'd know instantly as it's practically synonymous with the film. It is not (second clue) anything Diego says. I'll even give you the lead in lines used in both versions: "What happened? Did you see it? What is it?" "What a knockabout of pure fun that was!"

Geez, Bess! This is the kind of cra- er, collectible that is really worth something! Anything that is odd, contains errors or is not produced is immediately worth loads of money in the collectible market. No matter how useless or silly it is. You would not believe what people pay for a vintage prototype rocket-firing backpack Boba Fett fig... You should have asked them if you could buy it before they put it on eBay. Then you could retire in luxury.

Yes, that's it. The original... *sniff* ...not that...new...thing.

No, no, no, no! This is from Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: "What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved Mozart and Bach, the Beatles, and me?"

Ok, one more and then it's someone else's turn to submit a quote: "They're after us. They know we're still in here." "They're after the place. They don't know why, they just remember. Remember that they want to be in here." "What the hell are they?" "They're us that's all, when there's no more room in hell."

I've been watching eBay for one of those little cheap chests to replace the little, sadly abused chest that I bought at a garage sale decades ago, when I came across this odd thing. It's apparently the prototype for a Disney pirate jewelry box due out in August. Disney seems to be running the auction, so I guess it's legit (hard to tell, though). What an odd thing! It combines the old skull and swords used in some of the 70's Disney POTC models (from the ride, I believe) with an ornate claw-footed bowl. A very odd mixture of styles...

Yep. Gotta' love Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn doing GBS. "Look at her a prisoner of the gutter! Condemned by every syllable she utters! By rights she should be taken out and hung! For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue." Anyone know this one? "This is... impossible." "Those pajamas are impossible. This actually happened." "A bazooka?" "I have a permit for that."

Well if Duchess doesn't know it, I doubt anyone's going to get my quote. It was from the 2003 version of Zatoichi. I recommend it, although I understand that many people who liked the original movies don't like this one much. It's a wonderful paean to sound. I suppose that befits a movie whose central character is blind. Mallrats is my favorite Kevin Smith movie. Snoochie boochies! How about these: "Are you a man of good character where women are concerned?" "Have you ever met a man of good character where women are concerned? Well I haven't. I find the moment that a woman makes friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. And I find the moment that I make friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical." "The question is not whether I've treated you rudely but whether you've ever heard me treat anyone else better."

Say, are those real movies? I don't recognize either of them. Or did I miss the joke?

Nope, neither are correct, Hetha. I don't know what your quotes are from.

Jeez you guys! Where's the next quote? This should be easy for anyone who's seen the movie: "Don't think of him. Better to think of your future." "(to girl) You could settle down here. (to boy) You could become a man again." "This way suits me just fine." (laughter) "Where did the masseur go off to?" "He's off wandering somewhere..."

Dead Poet's Society! Don't you just love the word "mawkish"? Ok, how about this one: "A fellah, a quick fellah, might have a weapon under there. I'd have to pin his head to the panel."

They should really seperate true science from liberal arts in colleges. I have never understood how math and sociology can share the same school. The hard sciences should join engineering or be put into their own school. I never saw Real Genius. The one science that explains all the other hard sciences...would that be math? (No, that's the language of science, not the explanation of it...) Physics? (Sociology? ) Chaos theory? I tried reading Gleick's book on chaos, but I didn't get through it. (Not because it wasn't interesting, but because I couldn't find any intrinsic use for the information. I'll bet you never let that stop you. Sometimes I wish I were like that...) So all I have is distilled popular cultural references and some old issues of Scientific American. "If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories. It crashes through barriers. Painfully, maybe even..dangerously, but and...well, there it is." My favorite Malcolm quote: "You egomanical idiot! Do you have any idea what you are talking about? You think you can destroy the planet? My what intoxicating power you must have. You can't destroy the planet. You can't even come close." "Most people believe that the planet is in jeopardy." "Well, it's not." "All the experts agree that our planet is in trouble." "Let me tell you about our planet. Our planet is four and a half billion years old. There has been life on this planet for nearly that long. Three point eight billion years. The first bacteria. And, later, the first multicellular animals, then the first complex creatures, in the sea, on the land. Then the great sweeping ages of animals - the amphibians, the dinosaurs, the mammals, each lasting millions upon millions of years. Great dynasties of creatures arising, flourishing, dying away. All this happening against a background of continuous and violent upheaval, mountain ranges thrust up and eroded away, cometary impacts, volcanic eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving...Endless constant and violent change...Even today, the greatest geographic features on the planet comes from two great continents colliding, buckling to make the Himilayan mountain range over millions of years. The planet has survived everything, in its time. It will certainly survive us." Funny how that sentiment didn't find its way into the movie. Oh. Sorry, I'm off topic. We need another quote.

While that's an entertaining quote, I can't place it. I mustn't have seen the movie it's from. Jill?

Perhaps that is too hard. Let me add another quote from the movie that might make it easier: "One can strike an enemy at 100 paces, even with bare hands. Swordsmanship's ultimate achievement is the absence of the sword in both hand and heart. The swordsman is at peace with the rest of the world. He vows not to kill and to bring peace to mankind."

Is that from Mars Attacks? (I only saw it once... The thing I remember most about that movie was the old woman watching TV and saying, "The blew up congress!" And then laughing like crazy.) Presuming I got it right (let me know if I didn't)... This is from the American dubbed version. I guess that's a hint. "Permission to execute! Permission to execute! Permission to execute! Do not spare him! Execute! Execute! Execute!"

Life of Brian (Which I actually liked better than the more widely quoted Holy Grail. At least it had an ending... Always look on the bright side of life! De dum, de dum de dum de dum.) Yes, TGB&TU does have great lines, doesn't it? I like the premise postulated in the Dollars films (and in their inspiration - the Kurosawa samuri films) that the main characters are like gods who interact in the world of men only to amuse themselves on the way to achieving their personal goals. There's a bit (actually two of them) that were almost certainly the inspiration for the part of POTC where they are reading off Sparrow's crimes and he smiles at one of them: "Wanted in fifteen counties, standing before us, ah, sitting before us, Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez, has been found guilty by the District Circuit Court of the following crimes: murder, assaulting a Justice of the Peace, raping a virgin of the white race, statutory rape of a minor of the black race, derailing a train in order to rob the passengers, ... robbery, highway robbery, robbing an unknown number of post offices, breaking out of a ..., counterfeiting and passing counterfeit money, and the accused... promoting prostitution ...high places of authority... illegal postal pick up... intention of selling black fugitive slaves... the sheriff in Sonora... hired himself out as guide on a wagon train, after receiving his payment in advance, he deserted the wagon train in the hunting grounds of the Sioux Indians... misrepresenting himself as a Mexican general in order to receive a salary and living allowance from the Union Army..." Now that I've gone on and on (and on and on), here's the new quote at the bottom (so no one can find it): "Well, if you must know, it was because he was very jealous, and I had these days of the week underpants." "Ehhhh. I'm sorry. I need the judges ruling on this. Days of the weeks underpants? " "Yes. They had the days of the week on them, and I thought they were sort of funny. And then one day Sheldon says to me, 'You never wear Sunday.' It was all suspicious. Where was Sunday? Where had I left Sunday? And I told him, and he didn't believe me." "What? " "They don't make Sunday." "Why not?" "Because of God."

(I do hope that y'all realize that I was kidding. I steer clear of on-line games...they look awfully addictive.)

Well, my quote was from The Hudsucker Proxy. I don't know where the above quote is from. Here's a couple from a fun movie: "One, two, three, four, five, and six. Six, the perfect number." "I thought three was the perfect number." "There's six of you." "Never have I seen so many men wasted so badly." "Doc...Doc-tor. Can you keep me alive a few more minutes? I expect good news..." "God is on our side because he hates the Yanks!" "God is not on our side because he hates idiots."

I got an inside peek at one of the characters for the game: