Tuesday, January 30, 2001

Man, that's quite the Onion today!
posted by MES 5:50 PM ET | discuss | link

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Right after I saw the Pepsi Rollercoaster Ad during the pre-game of the Super Bowl, I turned to Andrew and said, "I think that was the Alpengeist." I had no idea why I thought that, but I just had a feeling. His response was something along the lines of, "No way. What are the odds of that? Why would they come all the way to Virginia to film that? Why wouldn't they film it in California?" All good points, but I was still convinced. So, we subjected the commercial to a thorough re-analysis, thanks to TiVo, and we were able to prove conclusively that it was, indeed, the Alpengeist. The clincher was one particular frame where you could clearly see the very distinctive Loch Ness Monster in the background.

If you missed the ad, check it out. It's very funny.

While you're there, check out this Smirnoff ad that CBS pulled from the Super Bowl.
posted by MES 3:22 PM ET | discuss | link

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This is mainly for Mike, but if anyone is looking for a really good place to start, as far as Vietnam reading goes (and you can trust me on this one, as I've read pretty much everything that's out there), I highly recommend you start with Dispatches by Michael Herr. Herr was a war correspondent who spent a lot of time in combat during the tough later years of the war. He was even drafted to help out in some of the tougher Marine engagements, including Hue and Khe Sahn, where he briefly manned a recoiless rifle during a nightime attack on the base. Later, he would write the narration for Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. Indeed, many of the scenes in FMJ come directly out of this book, and some of the lines are quoted verbatim from his stories. Fascinating stuff and a quick read.

My favorite story. It was early in the morning and Herr was riding a chinook back to Khe Sahn with a young Marine who'd been out on night patrol. He didn't really know what to say to the kid, who looked exhausted and was covered with mud and others people's blood. So he used the standard journalist's question, "how long you been in country." The Marine looked at him and, dripping with irony, said... "all...fucking...day."
posted by LT2 11:38 AM ET | discuss | link

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Monday, January 29, 2001