This morning while eating his breakfast Howard looked up at me and said:
“We need to rent Fiddler on the Roof so that we can yell ‘The Gripping Hand!’ at Reb Tevya.”
“What?”
“In the movie Reb Tevya says ‘on one hand, on the other hand, on the other hand’ we need to yell ‘The Gripping Hand’ at him.”
Howard’s train of thought runs through some very odd places.
Would you worry if I said I understand exactly what he’s talking about in this case? 🙂 I use the gripping hand a lot myself.
Been reading Niven/Pournelle lately, has he?
I haven’t been reading Niven/Pournelle lately. It’s been years. Mostly what was funny was that OUT OF THE BLUE it was suddenly relevant for ME to say this to Sandra.
The train of thought started with pros-and-cons of sharing soft-boiled eggs with my youngest two children.
The dialog in my head:
“On the one hand, they’re eating well, but on the OTHER hand, they’re making a mess, and by helping them with this meal my own food is getting cold. But on the OTHER hand [yo, Howard… you sound like Reb Tevya. It’s not the OTHER other hand, it’s the GRIPPING hand] you’re spending quality time with them blah blah blah… what was that gripping hand bit again? Howcome it’s never occurred to me to juxtapose the Gripping Hand with Reb Tevya. I need to see that movie again.”
And then I spoke up.
–Howard
I like your train of thought, howard. It runs rather like mine does.
Nope, not worried at all. I got all the references it just took a minute for me to make a connection between them. Even then I didn’t understand where the train of thought had come from until Howard explained it in his comment below.
It was kind of like walking through a field of flowers and getting nearly missed by a high-speed, high-tech train barrelling through.
“But on the other hand — no! There is *no* other hand.”
That’s a good play. 🙂
Re: “But on the other hand — no! There is *no* other hand.”
I’m never going to be able to watch that scene without thinking about that. And somehow, that isn’t a *bad* thought. 🙂
Now I have to go rent “Fiddler on the Roof”…
*leaves some food out along with his broken computer in the hopes it’ll be fixed in the morning*
oooh! My husband just bought me a copy of Fiddler on the Roof! Wanna come over and watch it? 🙂 We can play games afterwards! Boggle? Monopoly? Poker? Rummy?
I can sympathize with odd trains of thought. At least you could follow it! Most times I make a random comment there is no way anybody but a mind reader can tell what planet I was just visiting.
{big smile} I gotta say, though, my husband and I are on the same wavelength at the moment, and it’s a wonderful fuzzy feeling when we catch each other finishing the other’s sentences or answering questions without them being asked. {contented sigh}
Your computer will be fixed. It will run faster, support more software, and have a sleek ergonomic casing which seems to have no access whatsoever. It will also make toast.
When Howard and I do that we look at each other and say “Get out of my brain!”
As for watching Fiddler on the Roof, I have a hard time picturing Howard actually sitting through the whole thing. He’d probably want to fast forward so he could yell at Reb and then put in Spiderman 2.
woo!
now i have to worry about is the eventual overruning of the human race by a species that can outthink, outbuild and outspawn our very own 🙂
Spiderman 2 is out? Where have I been?
In Germany I think. Do they even have movies over there? 😉
Oh, yeah, right. Fortunately, Hollywood is a world-wide phenomenon. We rented Spiderman II last night, and it is definitely the king of all comic-book remake movies. Absolutely fantastic!