HTGSC – Favorite Scenes

How The Grinch Stole Christmas is full of hilarious scenes, made possible by the random freedom of Dr. Seuss style storytelling.  Aside from the words themselves, which are so fantastic they make me smile every time, the images are so over-dramatized they become unmistakably wonderful.  The drawing of the characters manages to walk the fine line of the insane, without resulting to unnecessary over-dramatization.  Here are some of my favorite parts:

• The scene with the Whos carrying platters in the style of Russian nesting dolls, perfectly timed to the music.

• The Grinch’s fantastic billiard skills, where he manages to knock all of the ornaments into the drain and into the garbage bag laying outside of the house.

• All of Max’s emotions:

• And most importantly, this face:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) is easily the best Christmas special in existence.  As I have much to talk about, I will split it up amongst the next three days’ posts.  In the mean time, if you haven’t watched the film in a while, you can watch it by clicking on the picture below:

Hangman Victory Guide

Because of the Christmas season, I was thinking about gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  As I thought about the word myrrh, I decided that it would be an excellent word to use in a game of hangman.  As a result, I am going to provide a quick guide of how to win at hangman.

For those of you who are unaware, hangman is a game where one player thinks of a word, then writes out blanks corresponding to the letters of that word.  The second player guesses one letter at a time that they think are in the chosen word.  If the letter is part of the word, the first player fills in all corresponding blanks with that letter.  If the letter is not part of the word, the first player draws a part of a stick figure, who is going to be hanged.  If the first player manages to draw an entire stick figure before the second player guesses the word, the game is over.

As far as guessing letters, the best starting options are vowels.  The most common are “a” and “e”.  After that, the best options are usually “s”, “r”, “y”, “t”, and “m”.  When trying to picture the larger word, avoid getting into a certain mindset.  For example, if I know that the first letter is “c”, then I am inclined to think of words that start with a “c” sound.  However, the word might be “Christmas”, which does not start with the traditional “c” sound.  Also, guess common parts of words.  If you know the third-to-last letter is “i”, guess “n” in hopes that the word ends in “-ing”.

While guessing is a refined art form that cannot merely be summarized in a short paragraph, deciding on the right word can make all the difference.  When thinking of a good hangman word, it must be obscure, so it isn’t in the common vocabulary of your opponent.  (Warning: Using technical terms or words they have never heard of makes you a jerk.)  Also, avoiding commonly guessed letters can start you with half of the stickman already constructed.  Although a slightly more in-depth strategy, a word with a few filled-in letters that makes the opponent think it’s something else can occasionally prove successful.  “Myrrh” is a perfect example of a great word because chances are your opponent will guess all five vowels before selecting “y”, and if they manage to guess “r” they will be severely confused.

Some suggested words include: myrrh, zephyr, quorum, pizzaz

Villages

I once had a discussion with someone who adamantly believed that their hometown was not a city, but rather a village.  Technically, yes, the official name of the city was of the form “The Village of Riverville”.  However, it was definitely a city, and I will explain why.

Although South Korea is technically “The Republic of Korea,” it is still a country.  It’s not a continent; it’s not a city; it’s not an animal, and it’s not a vegetable.  Officially a republic, it is still a country.  Similarly, a “village” is not a type of plant or variety of laundry detergent, but is under the categorization of a city.  A golden retriever is still a dog.  Yes, technically it is a specific breed, but that doesn’t make it any less of a dog.

Upon any research into the nomenclature of cities, you will find that there is a general order of town naming based on the size of the population.  The general order is:

Hamlet < Village < Town < City

However, I would argue that besides being a specific part of the order, the word “city” is also an overarching category to describe all four words in the list.

Also, if you say you are from a village, I think of mud-stick houses or igloos.  If you live in a modern house with indoor plumbing and electricity, in close proximity with lots of other houses, you live in a city.

Public Stare-downs

If I am bored in a public place, one thing I enjoy doing is staring down unsuspecting people.  The amount of people in the vicinity has to be fairly large, or else it becomes too creepy and the person might confront you.  The best targets are usually middle-aged white men, especially insecure ones.

One time while sitting in an airport, a woman sat down directly across from me.  I was currently bored with the book I was reading, and decided to stare directly at her and see if she would notice.  She looked up from her phone once, and awkwardly adjusted her place in her seat, then pretended to be preoccupied with her text messages.  Feeling bad for her, I continued reading and minded my own business.

Easily the best success I’ve had was in a theater lobby, waiting for the doors to open for a performance.  I was sitting on a bench, while a 40-year-old man stood in the decently sized crowd, waiting for his wife to go through the absurdly long line for the women’s bathroom.  I looked up once, and noticed that he was looking at me, and he quickly looked in a different direction, trying to cover up for his accidental staring.  In return, I focused intently on him.  I watched him turn around, pretend to check his phone, and look back at me.  Upon realizing my stare, he became uneasy, making awkward, jerky movements.  At one point he attempted to glare back at me, hoping that I would realize my stare and look away, but I persisted.  I won the stare-down like a football player beats a cheerleader in an arm-wrestle.  He became especially nervous until his wife returned; after which he ignored me.

I find it interesting how people create an awkward situation because they care about the opinions of a stranger, someone who they have never met, and probably will never meet.

When I’m in an airport a long ways from home, I figure that the chance of seeing someone I know is very low, so I walk backwards on the moving walkways.  Once I was eating McDonald’s french fries while walking backwards on a long moving walkway – the looks I got were hilarious.

Equestrian

I don’t understand horse riding. How can some people be better than others?  The whole point is that the horse is riding around and jumping over gates, not the rider.  Yes, you would have to learn how to ride horses and direct them to take certain actions, but its not like hurdles where you have to train and perform at the peak of physical ability.

I feel like it’s similar to arena robot fighting.  As long as you have the best robot, you could give it to some random kid, and by teaching them how to work it, they could win every competition.

I say we give the medals and awards to the horses, not the riders.  The horse is doing all the work, while the rider just sits on top.

Well then, for NASCAR, why don’t we give the trophies to the cars?  Surely the cars are doing all the work, all the driver has to do is sit down and push buttons and turn a wheel?  I say we give medals to the pit-stop workers.  The real engineering feet isn’t that we can build cars that make wide left turns, but that a car can be refilled and have its tires changed in under five seconds.