Taboo Monkey on Three Novels:
1. The Sun Also Rises
2. A Farewell to Arms
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls

Suggested Reading Index

2. A FAREWELL TO ARMS:

A Farewell to Arms was first published in 1929. In the discussion of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, I referred to a common critical debate concerning the redundancy of that novel's first chapter. The first chapter of A Farewell to Arms, however, introduces the reader to the story with writing as potent as any other novel within the body of American Literature. By bringing together the primal vibrancy of the landscape with the numb, powerless perspective of a disheartened, ex-soldier, Hemingway offers the reader a glimpse of the irrevocable wound inflicted on young men fighting in wars they couldn't possibly understand.

Unlike the hopeless love story that narrator Jake Barnes tells in The Sun Also Rises, the narrator of this novel, Lieutenant Frederic Henry (Signor Tenente), describes the discovery of hope in his loving of an English nurse, Catherine Barkley. Lieutenant Frederic Henry is a young American who was living in Italy when the war began, and enlisted as an ambulance driver in the Italian army. His friend from the army, Rinaldi, introduces Frederic to Catherine, and Frederic responds by waging a steady but aggressive campaign to bed the nurse. She demonstrates that she can "play" as well; therefore, initially, Frederic sees their courtship as a game, but an injury and a growing uncertainty about the purpose of war inspires new, unnamed urgency inside him, and he places all of his hopes for wholeness on his relationship with Catherine.

After his recovery, the Lieutenant realizes that he has become dependent upon this shared fantasy the two of them are developing; but he is abruptly called back to the front, and he finds himself mired in the results of the Battle of Caporetto (Follow link to an Answers.com analysis).

Italian losses were disastrous in the Battle of Caporetto: the Austro-Hungarian military, organized and supported by German forces, crashed through the Italian front and took approximately 275,000 prisoners, killed 40,000, and wounded many more. The Italian army was completely routed, and when the soldiers fell into a chaotic retreat, the Italian commanders attempted to restore order by way of severe punitive measures. Because the bulk of the Italian infantry was comprised of untrained farmers who understood very little in the way of military protocol, these punitive measures resulted in numerous executions of both grunt soldiers and officers.

The remainder of A Farewell to Arms deals with Lieutenant Henry's reaction to the Battle on all levels: his active, physical reaction; his intellectual reaction; his emotional reaction as he reconsiders his relationship with Catherine; and, finally, his spiritual reaction.

A Farewell to Arms fulfills all of the depth and complexity promised by the paradoxes established in the first chapter: the unchecked horror of the war within the pastoral beauty of the Italian countryside; the necessity of order in any military system conflicting with the spiraling chaos of violence; the unquenchable need for love trying to surface from a bottomless need for numbness and emotional oblivion.

Readers can find hints of the many thematic elements that were later to become Ernest Hemingway trademarks within The Sun Also Rises, but here, in A Farewell to Arms at the age of thirty, Hemingway demonstrates a marked maturity and depth of thinking through the extension of thematic conflict and inevitability.

One such motif is Hemingway's notion of masculinity, and the respect Hemingway pays to characters who fulfill certain masculine obligations: virility, assumption of command, competence, acceptance of violence's necessity, and a certain level of justice that accompanies the dictates of loyalty.

In A Farewell to Arms, loyalty takes center stage as Lieutenant Henry descends into a world of spiraling horror and chaos, and loyalty as a force of justice is confronted, then overwhelmed by the opposing force of abandonment and isolation. If, as a young, inexperienced soldier, his sense of morality fell in line with his acceptance of the "masculine code," then, later, as a tired, desperate man, he discovers that such sensibilities are only euphemisms for instinctual, universal cruelty--results of the universal condition of abandonment.

With this idea, Hemingway brings us back to the necessity of love. Throughout their courtship, both Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley acknowledge that their relationship is like a game, a diversion from reality--and this idea is the matured, complex development of a similar concept found in The Sun Also Rises. At the end of the first, Brett Ashley tells Jake that they "could have had such a damned good time together," to which Jake responds, "Isn't it pretty to think so?" There, the reader touches the conflict between loveless reality and the human compulsion to love.

Consider the larger, encompassing scope of the exact same conflict, as the story develops in A Farewell to Arms. Frederic Henry's compulsion to love escalates into a dire need for Catherine Barkley. As his compulsion escalates, his initial impressions of the nurse--she's unstable, a woman psychologically lost in the trivialities of mental games and diversions--experience a radical change. As his perspective changes, the reader begins to see the unique, conflicted wholeness of Catherine Barkley's character. Critics often compare the fullness of her character to that of another of Hemingway's female characters, Maria (I examine this crucial comparison from Maria's angle in the discussion of For Whom the Bell Tolls).

Unfriendly critics argue that Catherine Barkley represents one of the two female portraits created by Hemingway throughout the sum of his fiction. The first portrait includes characters such as Brett Ashley from The Sun Also Rises: these are aggressive, disconnected women. The second portrait includes characters such as Maria, from For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Catherine Barkley: these are simple, submissive stereotypes of women who can only be completed by men.

Without a doubt, there is a strong structural similarity between Maria and Catherine: both represent women who suffer as a consequence of men who intrude upon their lives. Both are Hemingway vehicles for developing lines of thematic tension. However, there is nothing flat or subversive about the way Hemingway portrays Catherine Barkley. She does develop a fantasy of wholeness, of completion, that requires Frederic's presence; but this fantasy is not a pathetic, subconscious diversion for Catherine. She foregrounds the diversion herself, and is thoroughly complicit in creating the illusion of submission. Her motivation is to create the diversion.

In fact, by showing how Catherine's wholeness is driven by her need for diversion, Hemingway completes the wholeness of A Farewell to Arms. If the dream of love within the reality of abandonment inspires the hopeless, dreamless world of The Sun Also Rises, then in A Farewell to Arms that dream, still a fantasy, becomes a requirement of survival, an obligatory diversion.

In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway expands the game metaphor exponentially to incorporate all of humanity's futile motions--such as war and love (you might find this to be an appropriate time for reflecting on how both motions are intertwined in the novel's title). The Lieutenant Frederic Henry, who introduces himself to the reader in the first chapter as the experienced, disillusioned, distant narrator of our story, is a man who devoted himself to the fantasies forced upon him by the simple fact of his existence. He is a man who was forced to confront the fleeting, temporary, but equally necessary nature of masculinity, loyalty, war, and love. These motions, he now believes, are only temporary diversions; but they are a requirement of survival.

Book Search for Farewell to Arms

Taboo Monkey on Three Novels:
1. The Sun Also Rises
2. A Farewell to Arms
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls

Old Man Discussions:
1. The Story Before the Story
2. The Simple Story
3. Critics, Symbolism, Shit

Read Five Hemingway Stories
Full Text Stories

Suggested Reading Index

Taboo Monkey on Three Novels:
1. The Sun Also Rises
2. A Farewell to Arms
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls

Suggested Reading Index

2. A FAREWELL TO ARMS:

A Farewell to Arms was first published in 1929. In the discussion of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, I referred to a common critical debate concerning the redundancy of that novel's first chapter. The first chapter of A Farewell to Arms, however, introduces the reader to the story with writing as potent as any other novel within the body of American Literature. By bringing together the primal vibrancy of the landscape with the numb, powerless perspective of a disheartened, ex-soldier, Hemingway offers the reader a glimpse of the irrevocable wound inflicted on young men fighting in wars they couldn't possibly understand.

Unlike the hopeless love story that narrator Jake Barnes tells in The Sun Also Rises, the narrator of this novel, Lieutenant Frederic Henry (Signor Tenente), describes the discovery of hope in his loving of an English nurse, Catherine Barkley. Lieutenant Frederic Henry is a young American who was living in Italy when the war began, and enlisted as an ambulance driver in the Italian army. His friend from the army, Rinaldi, introduces Frederic to Catherine, and Frederic responds by waging a steady but aggressive campaign to bed the nurse. She demonstrates that she can "play" as well; therefore, initially, Frederic sees their courtship as a game, but an injury and a growing uncertainty about the purpose of war inspires new, unnamed urgency inside him, and he places all of his hopes for wholeness on his relationship with Catherine.

After his recovery, the Lieutenant realizes that he has become dependent upon this shared fantasy the two of them are developing; but he is abruptly called back to the front, and he finds himself mired in the results of the Battle of Caporetto (Follow link to an Answers.com analysis).

Italian losses were disastrous in the Battle of Caporetto: the Austro-Hungarian military, organized and supported by German forces, crashed through the Italian front and took approximately 275,000 prisoners, killed 40,000, and wounded many more. The Italian army was completely routed, and when the soldiers fell into a chaotic retreat, the Italian commanders attempted to restore order by way of severe punitive measures. Because the bulk of the Italian infantry was comprised of untrained farmers who understood very little in the way of military protocol, these punitive measures resulted in numerous executions of both grunt soldiers and officers.

The remainder of A Farewell to Arms deals with Lieutenant Henry's reaction to the Battle on all levels: his active, physical reaction; his intellectual reaction; his emotional reaction as he reconsiders his relationship with Catherine; and, finally, his spiritual reaction.

A Farewell to Arms fulfills all of the depth and complexity promised by the paradoxes established in the first chapter: the unchecked horror of the war within the pastoral beauty of the Italian countryside; the necessity of order in any military system conflicting with the spiraling chaos of violence; the unquenchable need for love trying to surface from a bottomless need for numbness and emotional oblivion.

Readers can find hints of the many thematic elements that were later to become Ernest Hemingway trademarks within The Sun Also Rises, but here, in A Farewell to Arms at the age of thirty, Hemingway demonstrates a marked maturity and depth of thinking through the extension of thematic conflict and inevitability.

One such motif is Hemingway's notion of masculinity, and the respect Hemingway pays to characters who fulfill certain masculine obligations: virility, assumption of command, competence, acceptance of violence's necessity, and a certain level of justice that accompanies the dictates of loyalty.

In A Farewell to Arms, loyalty takes center stage as Lieutenant Henry descends into a world of spiraling horror and chaos, and loyalty as a force of justice is confronted, then overwhelmed by the opposing force of abandonment and isolation. If, as a young, inexperienced soldier, his sense of morality fell in line with his acceptance of the "masculine code," then, later, as a tired, desperate man, he discovers that such sensibilities are only euphemisms for instinctual, universal cruelty--results of the universal condition of abandonment.

With this idea, Hemingway brings us back to the necessity of love. Throughout their courtship, both Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley acknowledge that their relationship is like a game, a diversion from reality--and this idea is the matured, complex development of a similar concept found in The Sun Also Rises. At the end of the first, Brett Ashley tells Jake that they "could have had such a damned good time together," to which Jake responds, "Isn't it pretty to think so?" There, the reader touches the conflict between loveless reality and the human compulsion to love.

Consider the larger, encompassing scope of the exact same conflict, as the story develops in A Farewell to Arms. Frederic Henry's compulsion to love escalates into a dire need for Catherine Barkley. As his compulsion escalates, his initial impressions of the nurse--she's unstable, a woman psychologically lost in the trivialities of mental games and diversions--experience a radical change. As his perspective changes, the reader begins to see the unique, conflicted wholeness of Catherine Barkley's character. Critics often compare the fullness of her character to that of another of Hemingway's female characters, Maria (I examine this crucial comparison from Maria's angle in the discussion of For Whom the Bell Tolls).

Unfriendly critics argue that Catherine Barkley represents one of the two female portraits created by Hemingway throughout the sum of his fiction. The first portrait includes characters such as Brett Ashley from The Sun Also Rises: these are aggressive, disconnected women. The second portrait includes characters such as Maria, from For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Catherine Barkley: these are simple, submissive stereotypes of women who can only be completed by men.

Without a doubt, there is a strong structural similarity between Maria and Catherine: both represent women who suffer as a consequence of men who intrude upon their lives. Both are Hemingway vehicles for developing lines of thematic tension. However, there is nothing flat or subversive about the way Hemingway portrays Catherine Barkley. She does develop a fantasy of wholeness, of completion, that requires Frederic's presence; but this fantasy is not a pathetic, subconscious diversion for Catherine. She foregrounds the diversion herself, and is thoroughly complicit in creating the illusion of submission. Her motivation is to create the diversion.

In fact, by showing how Catherine's wholeness is driven by her need for diversion, Hemingway completes the wholeness of A Farewell to Arms. If the dream of love within the reality of abandonment inspires the hopeless, dreamless world of The Sun Also Rises, then in A Farewell to Arms that dream, still a fantasy, becomes a requirement of survival, an obligatory diversion.

In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway expands the game metaphor exponentially to incorporate all of humanity's futile motions--such as war and love (you might find this to be an appropriate time for reflecting on how both motions are intertwined in the novel's title). The Lieutenant Frederic Henry, who introduces himself to the reader in the first chapter as the experienced, disillusioned, distant narrator of our story, is a man who devoted himself to the fantasies forced upon him by the simple fact of his existence. He is a man who was forced to confront the fleeting, temporary, but equally necessary nature of masculinity, loyalty, war, and love. These motions, he now believes, are only temporary diversions; but they are a requirement of survival.

Book Search for Farewell to Arms

Taboo Monkey on Three Novels:
1. The Sun Also Rises
2. A Farewell to Arms
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls

Old Man Discussions:
1. The Story Before the Story
2. The Simple Story
3. Critics, Symbolism, Shit

Read Five Hemingway Stories
Full Text Stories

Suggested Reading Index

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BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
Today & tomorrow the ‘Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Museum Sale’ by Christie’s in NYC includes more than 300 lots from the shuttered museum devoted to the TV cowboy, including his trusty horse ‘Trigger’ – who is now stuffed (NET: http://www.highnoon.com/hn-rrauction.htm) . . . A real estate agent is suing former Spice Girl Melanie Brown for $1.5 million, claiming he was attacked by the singer, her husband, and another man while sitting in his car shooting photos of neighborhood properties (apparently mistaken for a paparazzo) . . . Bidding is said to have topped $500,000 for TV rights to a pre-jail interview, prison diary, and the first post-release interview with 24-year-old Lindsay Lohan (once again the media is enabling her ludicrous behavior) . . . Soon-to-be-18 Disney TV star Selena Gomez has announced she’s quitting her role on “Wizards of Waverly Place” when the show’s 4th season ends (now the tough transition from kid star begins) . . . Billionaire composer Andrew Lloyd Weber has had his offer to buy Highclere Castle in Berkshire, England as a place to house his $150-million art collection rejected, snooty – but cash-strapped – owner Lord Carnarvon insisting the property is not for sale (instead he’s okayed a housing development on the grounds) . . . The late Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning role as ‘Joker’ in the ‘Batman’ film franchise will not be replaced, director Christopher Nolan saying ‘it wouldn’t feel appropriate to readdress that character’ (what actor would actually want to take it on?) . . . And word has it reclusive actor Joaquin Phoenix has been approached by Marvel Studios to take on the role of ‘Bruce Banner’/’Incredible Hulk’ in the upcoming comic book movie adaptation “The Avengers” (he could rap the soundtrack as well!).

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated/A Channel) – Carrie Underwood (“Play On”).
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/CityTV) – Korn (“Remember Who You Are”).
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – OK Go (“Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky”).
• “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/A Channel) – MIA (“Maya”).
• “Late Show With David Letterman” (CBS) – Laurie Anderson (“Homeland”).
• “Live With Regis & Kelly” (syndicated/CTV) – Melanie Fiona (“Give It to Me Right”).
• “Lopez Tonight” (TBS) – Big Boi (“Sir Lucious Left Foot, The Son of Chico Dusty”).
• “So You Think You Can Dance” (FOX/CTV) – The top 7 contestants perform 2 routines each.
• “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” (NBC/A Channel) – Flo Rida (“The Only One”).

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Black Eyed Peas – Will I am could soon be reunited with his Apple iPad, which was stolen from his Bentley in June. Cops have used the gizmo’s built-in tracking device to hone in on the perp and some of the estimated $10,000-worth of personal items have already been returned.
• Christina Milian – It’s been announced her 10-month marriage to rapper The-Dream ended ‘months ago’, but they’re trying to keep the split as amicable as possible for the sake of their 5-month-old daughter Violet.
• Kenny Chesney – Tonight he serves as a presenter on the 18th annual “ESPY Awards” (ESPN). He’ll also appear on a special pre-show edition of “Mike & Mike”, no doubt promoting “The Boys of Fall”, his upcoming documentary about high school football.
• Michael Jackson – Security has been stepped up around his tomb in Glendale, California after vandals defaced it with permanent ink tributes, including ‘Miss you sweet angel’ and ‘Keep the dream alive’.
• Pearl Jam – Frontman Eddie Vedder has announced at the Optimus Alive music festival in Lisbon, Portugal that the concert would be their ‘last in a long time’. There was no further explanation.
• Santana – Guitar great Carlos Santana has proposed to his girlfriend, drummer Cindy Blackman, while onstage at a concert in suburban Chicago. She said ‘yes’.
• Sugarland – They’ll release their new single, “Stuck Like Glue”, to radio on July 26th but the new album, “The Incredible Machine”, won’t be out until October 19th.
• Travis Tritt – He’s set to launch his own record label soon, joining the list of country artists who are also label owners such as Toby Keith, Ricky Skaggs, and Steve Wariner.

TODAY’S MOVIE OPENING:
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” ( PG Disney Action Adventure ): Nicolas Cage stars as ‘master sorcerer Balthazar Blake’, who recruits a seemingly everyday guy (Ottawa-born actor Jay Baruchel) in his mission to defend NYC from his arch-nemesis, ‘Maxim Horvath’ (Alfred Molina).
NET: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/sorcerersapprentice/

BS BUZZWORDS:
New cutting-edge vocab …
• ‘Cryptomnesia’ – Believing a thought or idea is original when, in fact, it has been generated by a forgotten memory of something similar. Musicians who steal songs often claim this is how it happened. (“Yeah, this tune just came into my head and so I wrote it down ….”)
• ‘Daycation’ – A day-trip or other short vacation that does not require an overnight stay. (“Don’t think of it as not having a Summer vacation this year, think of it as 8 daycations at the mall.”)
• ‘McDonalds Arches’ – Cosmetic surgery lingo for over-arched eyebrows. Botox injections between the brows without equal treatment to the forehead leads to the upside-down ‘V’ shape. (Unkind observers might recommend taking a look at Nicole Kidman, Kate Gosellin, or Kate Walsh … but that would just be cruel).

GREEN IS GOOD:
Marketing research shows that health conscious consumers are likely to think that any food – from cookies to cheese – is probably good for them as long as it comes in green packaging. People aged 18-to-34 are especially likely to link green to images of health, ecology, and nature. (Is that the reason they can actually sell green bacon in the discount bin?)
– PA News

WAYS TO FIT IN BREAKFAST:
Breakfast should be a non-negotiable part of our morning routine, but many people feel too crunched for time. Think you’re too busy for breakfast? Try these tips …
• Prep It the Night Before – While cleaning up after dinner, take a few minutes to put tomorrow’s breakfast together.
• Pack It Up – Assemble a meal that you can tote to work, ie: fresh fruit, leftovers, or homemade breakfast sandwiches, which you can microwave at the office.
• Think Outside the Cereal Box – Expand your morning menu with delicious time-saving ideas, such as fruity muffins, muesli, or an antioxidant-rich coffee smoothie.
• Raise the Bar – Healthy cereal and breakfast bars are now common in most supermarkets and health food stores. Pick bars that are low in sugar, sodium, and fat but high in fiber.
– Condensed from BestHealthMag.ca

SUMMER OFFICE ETIQUETTE:
• It may be boiling outside, but it’s inadvisable to wear anything too revealing to work. Save the low-cut strappy tops and micro-minis for the weekend.
• Flip-flops, unless they coordinate perfectly or are elegantly adorned, are probably one step too casual for most workplaces.
• Never wear sunglasses inside, even if your desk is in a bright and sunny area.
• Don’t brag about vacations and weekends. There’s nothing worse than becoming the office bore who has always had the best holiday, craziest Summer weekend, etc.
• Ask before turning up the air conditioning. You may be roasting, but others may not welcome blasts of freezing air.
• If work colleagues are on your Facebook friend list, censor your snaps before posting pics of your Summer romance, hedonistic rock festival weekend, or skimpy bikini shots.
– Excerpted from ChinaDaily.com

PRETTY PEOPLE SUFFER:
Attractive people seem to be at a disadvantage in interview situations, especially if they’re being evaluated by someone of the same gender. Although physical attractiveness should have little to do with the way people evaluate scholarship applicants or job candidates, a new Munich University study has found that both are affected by their level of physical attractiveness. While an interviewer’s conscious mind may be considering an applicant’s skills and background, the unconscious mind seems to be sizing up the applicant as a romantic competitor. (Bottom line: If you’re hot, only schedule job interviews with someone of the opposite sex.)
– “Miller-McCune Magazine”

FROM THE BS POLL VAULT:
A statistical breakdown of life by the numbers …
• 74% of work PCs still use Windows XP as their operating system, according to Microsoft.
• 62% of us delete email first thing when we get to work.
• 36% of us say a ‘slow printer’ is the most annoying thing at work.
• 34% of users have had second thoughts about something they’ve posted on Facebook.
• 20% of wives wish their husbands would say “I love you” more often.
• 10% of us ‘enjoy’ the taste of glue on envelopes.

DID YOU KNOW?
• According to research from the American School of Metaphysics, being naked in a dream is quite normal and actually very common. (If you’re naked and livestock is involved … would that make a difference?)
– “Social Studies”
• Back-to-Earth types claim a sure cure for Summer sunburn is … your own urine! Yep, a mixture of pee and olive oil applied overnight is said to sooth pain, reduce redness, and prevent peeling. And, they say, there’s no odor. (When it comes to tinkle treatment, we say piss on it!)
– “Natural Health”

BS CHRONOMETER 07.14.10

TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1960 [50] Jane Lynch, Dolton IL, TV actress (‘Sue Sylvester’ on “Glee” since 2009)  BS FACTOID: She tells Eonline.com, “I’m going to have a little pizza party, very low-key. Everything in my life has just been huge lately so we’re going to have like 9 people over for pizza.”

1960 [50] Kyle Gass, Castro Valley CA, rock musician/comedian (Jack Black’s partner in Tenacious D)

1966 [44] Matthew Fox, Crowheart WY, TV actor (“Lost” 2004-10, “Party of Five” 1994-2000)

1975 [35] Jamey Johnson, Enterprise AL, country singer (“In Color”, “The Dollar”)/songwriter (“Honky Tonk Badonkadonk”, “Give It Away”)

1975 [35] Taboo (Jaime Gomez), LA CA, hip-hop musician/MC/dancer (Black Eyed Peas-“I Gotta Feeling”, “Where Is the Love?”)

1984 [26] Chris Steele, Hamilton ON, rock bassist (Alexisonfire-“Young Cardinals”, “Rough Hands”)

TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Bastille Day”, the national holiday of France that commemorates the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789, when patriots stormed the Bastille prison. Off with their heads!

• “National Nude Day”, a serious celebration of the ‘naturist’ lifestyle.

THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
2000 [10] “X-Men” opens in theaters with a then-record take of $57.5 million, the largest non-sequel, non-holiday movie opening (in an even-numbered year, during a month that begins with ‘J’ …)

TODAY’S FIRST . . .
1972 [38] The ‘Honda Civic’ is introduced into the auto market (one of the all-time most successful car models)

TODAY’S RECORDS . . .
1990 [20] Prince Edward Island’s ‘Fast Eddy’ McDonald completes record 8,437 loops with a yo-yo in 1 hour

1990 [20] World’s ‘Largest Cherry Pie’ weighs in at 37,740 lbs (17,119 kg) and is served up from a 20-ft-diameter (6-m) pan in Oliver, British Columbia

COMING UP . . .
[Thurs] Gummi Worm Day
[Fri] “Inception” opens in movie theaters
[Fri] Hot Dog Night
[Sun] Ice Cream Day
[Mon] Hug Your Kid Day
[Thurs, July 22] “General Hospital” series finalé
This Week Is … Mosquito Week
This Month Is … Share a Sunset With Your Lover Month

BULL’S BITS

BS SFX THEATER:
You tell the story, while a listener, guest, or crew member provides the sound effects in any way they can. Today’s story is called “Summer Vacation” . . .
The family was all EXCITED about their summer vacation [SFX]. Father HONKED the horn at the neighbors as he backed out of the driveway [SFX]. Mother SIGHED [SFX]. “Wow,” she said. “Do I ever need a break!” The family drove 15 hours on the busy highway with the kids YELLING in the back seat the whole way [SFX]. When they arrived, father cranked up the CREAKY pop-top camper [SFX]. The first night it RAINED [SFX]. The 2nd night it RAINED [SFX]. The 3rd night there was a severe THUNDERSTORM [SFX]. Father had had enough! He cranked down the CREAKY pop-top camper [SFX], drove 15 hours on the busy highway back home with the kids YELLING in the back seat the whole way [SFX]. As they turned into their driveway, Mother SIGHED [SFX]. “Yikes,” she said. “Do I ever need a break!”

BS ‘CASTING CALL’:
We tell you the names of 3 stars, you tell us the movie in which they acted together …
GAME #1 …
• Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver [“Avatar” 2009]
• Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe [“Finding Nemo” 2003]
• Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Benicio Del Toro [“Traffic” 2000]
• Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Paul Bettany [“The Da Vinci Code” 2006]
• Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan [“The Godfather” 1972]

GAME #2 …
• Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston [“Bruce Almighty” 2003]
• Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton, Tim Allen [“Toy Story 3” 2010]
• Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie [“Kung Fu Panda” 2008].
• Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson, Marisa Tomei [“Anger Management” 2003]
• Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway [“Alice in Wonderland” 2010]

GAME #3 …
• Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Donald Sutherland [“The Italian Job” 2003]
• Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan [“Mamma Mia!” 2008].
• Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane [“Titanic” 1997]
• Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Heather Graham [“The Hangover” 2009]
• Queen Latifah, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger [“Chicago” 2002]
– Stats from BoxOfficeMojo.com.

BS PHONE STARTER:
What should be the ‘8th Deadly Sin’?

BS RANDOM JOKE:
Marriage really begins the day you merge bank accounts.

BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Today’s Question: Men, statistically, make more money if they do THIS but women don’t.
Answer to Give Out Next Show: Get married.

BS DEEP THOUGHT:
Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your kids.

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