Sunday Burst of Weirdness

Oddities abound!

:: Last night, as a Family Movie Night, we watched The Wizard of Oz, in the brand-spankin’ new deeveedee I bought The Wife for her birthday. This has always been one of her favorite movies — mine, too, actually, but she really digs it. And we’re watching it and having a great time, but then something odd happened. No, not a Munchkin actor committing suicide in the background of the forest scene — we all knew about that — but something else I noticed. A little detail I’d never, ever picked up on before, even though if there’s a movie I’ve seen in my life a number of times that rivals the number of times I’ve seen Star Wars, Wizard is it. And that goes back all the way to my childhood years, when Wizard would air on CBS one time a year.

And I’d never noticed this detail before.

What detail was it?

Well, remember when Dorothy and friends finally get in to meet the Wizard in the Emerald City? And after insulting them all, the Wizard says “I have every intention of honoring your requests,” making Dorothy and friends happy until the Wizard further says “But first, you must bring me the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West!”

So, cut to the forests near the Witch’s castle, where Dorothy and friends are creeping along, trying to figure out how they’re going to accomplish their mission. And they’re armed for the job: one of them has a big butterfly net, another has a really big mallet (presumably to whack someone on the head with), and Scarecrow is carrying…and my disbelief herein was such that I had to back the movie up and freeze-frame it to make sure…a pistol!

Scarecrow is carrying what looks to be a silver revolver!

I swear I am not making this up.

(By the way, am I the only person who wonders, at the very end of the movie, when Dorothy’s awoken back up in Kansas, what happens next? I mean, that horrible old woman is still going to want to kill Toto, isn’t she? After Dorothy’s final utterance “There’s no place like home!” before the final fade to credits, would Auntie Em’s next line be, “That’s beautiful, dear, but the dog’s still gotta go”?)

:: Ever work in “customer service”? Or have you ever worked in any field or endeavor that gives you cause to realize the truth behind the statement “The customer is always right”? Then notalwaysright.com is the site for you!

:: This isn’t safe for work, but it’s certainly fairly odd: Naked Girls Reading. It’s exactly what it says it is.

More next week!

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