My ability to do math may be slightly inpaired by the late hour, but here is direct evidence of the Not That Long Ago Effect:  "Thirty years ago, after the USSR came to an end..."  "1971?  That can't be right.  I must have forgotten to borrow a one.  1981's not right either.  But that means... 1991 was thirty years ago!"

MORE
12/9 '21 1 Comment
"Holy shit, remember physical instrumentality? That stuff was... well, it was stuff."

"What's grandblox nattering on about now?"
 
 

"Black Widow" passes early, with a brief conversation between Alexei and Dreykov about a MacGuffin.  Alexei later talks a little bit with his arm-wrestling buddies and guards too.  That's... maybe it?

MORE
7/17 '21 2 Comments
I was just recently made aware of the “named character” addendum, so that may disqualify everything except that first MacGuffin conversation.
It’s a fun thought experiment, although as I understand it the point isn’t that every movie needs to pass the original test, it’s that the bar is so low and yet so few do. Since there’s no such problem in the inverse… but we know this.
 
 

Do any of you remember this song that popped into my head this morning?

"They played jump rope, but the rope, it broke.
So they just sat around telling knock-knock jokes..."

MORE
4/29 '21 2 Comments
Absolutely! They only ever released a handful of classic Sesame Street episodes on VHS, but "the ladybugs twelve" was on Vol. 1 when the teens were sproglings...
OH. Ladybugs 12 At The Ladybug Picnic!
 
 

Katie Couric:  "This member of the weasel family, whose name begins and ends with the letter E, is known for its white winter fur."

Me:  "Ermine!"

All the Jeopardy contestants:   <crickets chirping>

Me:  "C'mon, it's ermine!"

Wife:  "I didn't know that."

Me:  "But it's in the weasel family!"

Wife:  "Sorry, I married into the weasel family."

MORE
3/16 '21 1 Comment
I knew you'd ferret it out.
 

My change included several hexagonal brass coins that were called pennies after the currency revaluation.  They had collectible reverses, including such states as Hawaii and Antigua.  I had purchased water in comically-small one-ounce bottles.  A teenaged beggar asked me for one of them.

MORE
3/2 '21 1 Comment
"See a penny, pick it up! All day long you'll be a schmuck." — Chris Adams

I went to Antigua once. It was a business trip that thankfully didn't pan out, the whole concept of offshore banking made my skin crawl. The intriguing things were just beyond my grasp on that trip because of the schedule and the company I was keeping. But I did see some sort of traditional British colonial judicial ritual unfold in the street. And at the airport, grasping for an authentic souvenir, I found just one: a sampler of local candy.
 

I dreamed that I was watching hundreds of pages flash before my eyes.  Some had only slight differences from each other, as if they were evidence of the multiple-worlds hypothesis.  When the changes slowed enough for me to get the gist of one article, I memorized the details.  It was written by someone with the unusual name of "Jicknicy" and it was about Penn State athletics in the 1950s.  When I awoke, I actually FOUND that article, and showed it to my wife as proof of my psychic abilities or photographic memory or something.

Except... THAT didn't happen, and when I awoke for real I found only trace references to obscure usernames on sketchy websites.

So... if someone reading this is one level up from me, I'm ready for that kick to wake me up again.

Failing that, you could try identifying the source of these lines that I probably didn't make up entirely, and which Brett also vaguely remembers in this reality:

"Oh, what shall I do?  Oh, where shall I go?  The streets are sloppy and full of snow!  My boots are old and full of feet, and I must face everyone I meet!"

MORE
2/2 '21