I have been quoting a variation of the phrase for years, and couldn’t remember where it was from. However, the other day, Plains, Trains & Automobiles (1987) was playing and Del Griffith uttered the line.
I am listening to The Wright Brothers audio book by David McCullough. I have really been enjoying it. You may remember his voice from The Civil War series by Ken Burns.
Listening to the book reminded me of a talk I heard earlier by Simon Sinek where he compared the resources of the Wright brothers to Samuel Langley. In the book, McCullough noted that Langley had over 50K and a dream team for his work. Meanwhile, the Wright brothers spent less than $1000 of their own money on the entire venture.
I have wanted (needed) this for years, so I figured I would finally create a post. In many situations, a movie quote or a scene from a Seinfeld episode will go through my head. I figured I may as well link some of them somewhere, so here it is. These are not in any order and I have made no effort to prevent spoilers.
Somebody was going on and on the other day about how one thing affected another thing, and yet another thing. All I could think of was this old commercial where they are standing on the Sears tower and they say, “off the expressway … over the river … off the billboard … through the window … off the wall … nothing but net
This movie has so many lines, I should probably create a separate page for it. It is some early Michael Keaton at his best. It wasn’t easy to see Henry Winkler in this role, since he was the Fonz in my mind. However, he delivers some pretty good lines too.
Prostitution scene
By 1982 standards, I would guess this should have a viewer warning but if you have watched TV in the past 10 years, I am pretty sure you have seen much worse.
This clip is full of great lines. Jessep: You want answers? Kaffee (Tom Cruise): I think I’m entitled to them. Jessep: You want answers? Kaffee: I want the truth! Jessep:You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives…You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty…we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use ’em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I’d rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to!
Kaffee: Excuse me, sorry I’m late. Capt. Whitaker: That’s alright, Danny, I know you don’t have a good excuse, so I won’t force you to come up with a bad one. Kaffee: Thank you, sir. top
In a recent Yammer discussion, a supervisor type person asked for feedback on an idea. While the easy (and possibly wise) thing to do would have been to keep my opinion to myself, I went a different route. I prefer open and honest communication. It doesn’t have to be brutal truth, but things just seem to function so much better when we can freely share ideas. Afterwards, I sort of felt like Jack in this scene.
This reminds me of the saying, “Salute and Execute”. There are times where this is the only right answer. I guess I had never really thought about this until I heard this line. The brave men and women that defend our country follow orders. Life in the military is far from democratic, but that is exactly what they fight to defend.
Bravo Hunter…You new to shut up and enjoy the view
I am often reminded of this scene when I in a room and somebody else walks in. Most people feel some form of “small talk” is required. It isn’t by me. If I had something I wanted to say, I would say it. But, I don’t feel the need to talk about the weather just because we happen to be in the same room, elevator, or whatever.
It is strange that this is how I felt after I got my internet working again at home. I was getting 4-5 Mbit and living with it. Once I found and replaced the bad switch, I was back to 60-70 Mbits! It reminds me of the time I was able to get nearly all the 640K of RAM in my computer and I was so excited I want to share the good news with my wife. She just shrugged. 🙂
Anyways, after being on a crawling network for a few days, it is awesome to be back to “normal”.
