Monday, December 3, 2007

A Bowl of "Duck Soup", Please


[As new Prime Minister of Freedonia, Rufus T. Firefly, in Duck Soup. In an interchange with stuffy, wealthy widow, Mrs. Teasdale]:
WIDOW: As chairwoman of the reception committee, I welcome you with open arms.
FIREFLY: Is that so? How late do you stay open?
WIDOW: I've sponsored your appointment because I feel you are the most able statesman in all Freedonia.
FIREFLY: Well, that covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself. You'd better beat it. I hear they're going to tear you down and put up an office building where you're standing. You can leave in a taxi. If you can't leave in a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. You know, you haven't stopped talking since I came here? You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.
[Still as Firefly, in an interchange with snooty Sylvanian Ambassador Trentino]:
FIREFLY (to Mrs. Teasdale after a marriage proposal): All I can offer you is a roofus over your head.
MRS. TEASDALE: Your Excellency, I really don't know what to say.
FIREFLY: I wouldn't know what to say either if I was in your place. (To Trentino, also after her for her money:) Maybe you can suggest something. As a matter of fact, you do suggest something. To me, you suggest a baboon.
TRENTINO: What?
FIREFLY: I'm sorry I said that. It isn't fair to the rest of the baboons.
TRENTINO: I did not come here to be insulted. . .I shan't stay here a minute longer.
FIREFLY: Go, and never darken my towels again!
MRS. TEASDALE: Oh!
TRENTINO: My hat!
FIREFLY: My towels!

4 comments:

Martin LaBar said...

Ah Groucho!

They don't do humor like that any more.

C. Marie Byars said...

So true, so true. Will have more to follow over time!

Martin LaBar said...

This doesn't have anything to do with your post, but with a comment you left on a post of mine.

Before rejecting "evolution," (or accepting it) the first step should be to define what is meant by the term. I have never read a scientist, of any religious persuasion, who doubts that natural selection works, at least in the development of new varieties or races over time. Therefore, evolution, in that sense, at least, must be true. There are other senses, and perhaps they aren't.

Thanks for your comments.

C. Marie Byars said...

Thanks for visiting & commenting. I left a fuller comment on your site. Basically, I used the sloppy vernacular use of "evolution" to cover "MACRO-evolution". "Micro-evolution" is changes within a species, and creationsist accept this, also. But MACRO-evolution, which involves eventually changing into other species, runs seriously afoul of some important laws of genetics.