"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
My Boog Pages
Thursday, February 9
Something I Never Knew
I followed pro football from the mid-70s, watching with my dad, who was a huge fan of the Dallas Cowboys. I always admired their coach, the only one they'd ever had at that time, Tom Landry. But today I watched "Ball Turret Gunners" on the History channel, and learned something I never knew.
Landry was a pilot in World War II. He flew B-17 bombers, and successfully completed over 30 missions (where "successfully" means he survived).
This is more proof of my theory that, in any generation that went off to war, you can't swing a stick without hitting a hero.
I didn't see the episode of Grey's Anatomy that was on after the Super Bowl - the "Code Black" one - but a friend of mine told me about it the next day. Apparently some weekend warriors built a backyard bazooka, and one of the ended up with a live shell in his body. When I heard this, I though, Damn, that was one hell of an episode... when I saw it on M*A*S*H twenty five years ago.
I remember it clearly because Radar brought an X-Ray over to Hawkeye, and Hawk said, "Radar, get that grenade out of his pants!" Radar just sort of looked up at hime and replied, "He's not wearing any."
I have heard that executives in Hollywood today don't care about anything back beyond last weekend's receipts/ratings, but damn, people, try and get an original idea. Those are the first questions I ask myself when I start on a story: Has it been done before? Why is my version different? If it's not, I put it aside until I can come up with something new. Apparently Hollywood doesn't bother.
