Sunday, October 07, 2007

Famous Last Words- Round 1, Week 2

Plenty of you were able to pick out the first week's quote, which of course was taken from the Coen brothers' cult classic The Big Lebowski. As one participant submitted, who else would have a character talking about sarsaparilla? To be precise, Sam Elliott's (not Sam Shepard, as one of you thought) enigmatic, formidably-mustachioed Stranger was often seen swigging Sioux City Sarsaparilla out of the bottle, and it must be said that the man has fine taste in beverages. As another folksy philosopher might say, gosh it's tasty.

Lebowski has amassed quite a following over the years, with its off-kilter humor, hazy plotting, and gallery of strange characters. One of things I love most about the movie is how it imagines Los Angeles- or "Loss Ang-uh-less"- as a kind of real-world Island of Misfit Toys. In the Coens' all-embracing L.A., there's always room for an unreformed hippie, a hawkish Vietnam vet, a purple-jumpsuited pederast, or even a schlubby landlord with a yen for interpretive dance. Why not a cowboy who might have just stepped off the prairie?

But look at me... I'm rambling again. Moving on- this week's Famous Last Words is actually an exchange:

“Don’t shoot- they’re in Switzerland.”
“All the better for them.”

This one should still be fairly easy for you. I hope to make them progressively more difficult as the round continues, although who knows if I'll succeed? Send your guesses to this address by 11:59 pm (Eastern Daylight Time) next Saturday night. Good luck.