41-11-05 Vic's Christmas Gift List Too Long

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNARDINE FLYNN

Vic accidentally left his Christmas gift list lying around and Sade saw it.  Immediately, she begins to question Vic, just as she did in an earlier episode about Vic's Christmas card list.

Kangaroo?

The questioning is relentless.  Sade doesn't seem to understand that Vic's confederates need a little axle grease come Christmas time.

By the end of the episode, Vic is beaten and wore down.  Sade, the harping nagger, is victorious.

WHAT MIS' CROWE SAYS:

Vic must send gifts and grease palms; the ever-frugal Sade doesn’t understand why he has to grease so MANY. She ought to disdainfully label it “guy stuff.” She really won’t leave him alone or accept any answers without question, so much so that Vic shuts down and goes into a kind of weary state of serenity.  I especially love his little “Gus Fuss give me a necktie” fugue state.

Sade wonders what kind of Christmas present Vic could possibly get for fifty cents, and I wondered, too, because that sounds like a fair amount of money in 1941 dollars. So I looked it up. DollarTimes says fifty cents was worth about $8.45 in 1940, which would be easily enough for the kind of trinkets you get your work buddies – a small box of chocolates or a Starbucks gift card (not that they had those, but whatever the equivalent would have been) or a nice pen or something like that. A Hershey bar only cost five cents, so think of the kind of luxury chocolate you could get for 50! A model plane was only 23 cents – I don’t think Vic would have been getting model planes for his business associates, but just an example of the kind of lovely merchandise you could get for 50 cents in 1940. I think Vic could have kept them very happy for 50 cents or even less. 

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Rush (not in this episode) is at the YMCA watching the fat men play handball, so other than Sade complaining about the gift list, there's not a whole lot going on.

One of the more interesting things though is that Rooster Davis talks to Vic on the telephone! To top it off, Vic is nice to him. You'd figure he'd say something to Rooster that would show his disdain for calling, but that certainly doesn't happen!

Trivia:

+ Sade mentions Miller Park Lake. We now know that Miller Park has a zoo, a picnic area and lake.

+ Gus Fuss was on Vic's Christmas gift list.  He's from Consolidated Kitchenware Plant Number 17 in Dubuque, Iowa. He sometimes wears ear muffs.

+ L. Wylie Phapp was on Vic's Christmas gift list.  He is also from Plant Number 17.  When Vic visited the plant in Dubuque, Phapp bought him a chocolate bar.

+ U.F. Beakley is an Exalted Big Dipper of the Purple Prairie Popinjay chapter of the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way, in Moline, Illinois.

+ Other people on Vic's gift list include: T.W. Weatherwax, Howard S. Montgomery,  I. Edson Box,  Sam Shout and Percy X. Snoot.

+ Robert Price and his wife Laura Stein-Price are mentioned by Sade as people she wants to buy a Christmas gift for.

+ Chuck and Dottie Brainfeeble (two people who play much bigger parts in episodes ahead) were mentioned for the first time and are also on Sade's gift list.

+ Sade also mentions the following people as those she'd like to purchase a Christmas gift for: Bess and Walter (Helfer), Fred and Ruthie Stembottom, Mr. and Mis' Donahue, Uncle Fletcher, Mis' Harris, Vic and Rush.

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41-02-25 No Marching for Me

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNADINE FLYNN

H.K. Fleeber shares with Vic his intention of starting a Sacred Stars Honorary Ladies' Auxiliary Marching Team. This would include the female loved ones of the current Marching Team - and Sade.

Sade insists she has no plans for marching and doesn't want to be on the team but when she realizes that this upsets Vic and that she actually won't have to do any marching, she concedes.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
The Lodge has decided to organize a Ladies Auxiliary Marching Team; Sade makes her feelings on marching absolutely clear.

I’ve always believed that a good couple should have mostly shared interests – if not, what are you going to talk about together? Still, individuals in a couple must remain individuals, and it would be boring if there weren’t a few points of contention between them. In a relationship, there’s always something that’s just “my thing” or “his/her thing.” My mother, for example, is an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Occasionally she’ll suggest that my father dress up in Medieval garb and accompany her on one of her trips. He reacts much as Sade does here. I got a similar (but polite and entirely reasonable) reaction when I suggested we attend a weekend adult summer camp based on my favorite podcasting network. We all have interests that no one’s as enthusiastic about as we are, and trying to rope our loved ones into them is sometimes an exercise in futility. Vic, with his enthusiasm for parades, understands this very well, and isn’t really asking anything of Sade besides permission for her name to be on a list, but she’s so afraid of getting roped into marching that she feels she must draw a thick line in the sand right away to head off any possible threat of marching.  My favorite line: “I’m glad to get included in your nice Lodge trash.”

In a previous commentary I wondered why Homer U. McDancy knows so little about modern women. We get one possible answer to that question in this episode: it turns out that he has only one female relative, his grandmother, a healthy and active ninety-year-old (and I think we can safely presume he has no female friends). Sade worries that the Ladies’ Auxiliary is going to be a pretty motley crew, but meeting such a wide variety of women could only do Homer good – if they ever manage to get everyone together in one place, of course.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcription by Lydia Crowe)

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It seems a difficult point to get through Sade's head but the lodge and the All-Star Marching Team is a big, touchy point for Vic. She continually pokes the sore spot and makes fun of it in her sly way.

To Sade, the Honorary Ladies' Auxiliary Marching Team really seems like a dumb idea, especially since there won't be any marching and the ladies are a hodgepodge of victims who probably detest the lodge as much as she but don't want to hurt their male counterparts.

Trivia:

+ Rush is not at home and not in this episode - he's at the Bijou.

+ Sade uses the word "trash" in her description of lodge activities, THREE TIMES.

Here's one occurrence where Sade refers to lodge activities as "trash:" {{{HEAR}}}

+ H.K. Fleeber seems to hold a special place in Vic's heart because he is the only known out-of-town member of the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way and employee of Consolidated Kitchenware.

+ Names that Sade gets wrong on the All-Star Marching Team:

• K.K.K.K.K.K.K.K.K. Somebody (J.J.J.J. Stunbolt)
• Jellyman (O.X. Bellyman)
• Larry Pie (Harry Fie)
• O. Epson Fox and I. Benson Ox and then I Edson Fox (I. Edson Box)

+ Here's a list of the women (and their man) mentioned who will represent the Honorary Marching Team:

• Vic and Sade
• H.K. Fleeber and his wife
• I. Edson Box and his grown daughter by a previous marriage
• O.X. Bellyman and his sister
• Homer U. McDancey and his grandmother
• Harry Fie plans to be married in 1948 to Gillie McDermott (remember, this episode aired in 1941!) and she will become a member
• Robert Hink and his landlady
• Slobert Hink and his landlady's cousin who lives in China!

+ There were numerous pops and clicks in the sound of this episode but I got rid of most of them.

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41-01-23 The All-Star Marching Team

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic: 4/16ths of a second elapses rapidly!

The lodge headquarters in Chicago has honored Vic by naming him to the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way All-Star Marching Team. Nine others in the country were also voted to the team and Vic is of course very proud of this.

It's not all peaches and cream though as the other team members are located across the country and practicing could be a problem. And there's always the problem of Sade and Rush making fun of Vic.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
 
What I love about this is, although Vic, Sade and Rush discuss most of the ridiculous aspects of Headquarters’ plan to have the Marching Team practice separately (the 4/16ths of a second, grown men all across the country marking up the street and marching back and forth all by themselves), they fail to acknowledge the single most ludicrous part of the whole thing, namely:

 ”In order that perfect rhythm be attained, each separate unit will train itself to march at the rate of one stride every 3 and 4/16ths seconds.”

Ish on the 4/16ths of a second. Forget the 4/16ths of a second. THREE SECONDS IS A REALLY LONG TIME! Try it yourself. Stand up and imagine yourself marching to a sprightly Sousa composition and count “one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi” before you take each step. It is a comically slow pace for a parade. 

For perspective, here’s a video of something I was lucky enough to see (and get stuck behind) during my Study Abroad travels — a Holy Week procession in Palma de Mallorca,Spain. Processions, of course, are not parades, but rather the slow and somber cousin of parades. Holy Week in Spain is a serious and mournful time during which Catholic fraternities fill the streets to commemorate the passion of Jesus Christ. These processions are not meant to be animated, but funereal, plodding and torturous. But count once: they are still taking less than one second for each stride! A parade at one stride every 3 and 4/16ths seconds would make a self-flagellating monk say “Can we please pick up the pace a little?”

This is an excellent trick of Paul Rhymer’s — dropping some absolutely crazy piece of nonsense on the listeners and then having the characters totally ignore it in favor of other minutiae.  I’m sure there are other examples of this in “Vic and Sade.” Can you think of any?

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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When Vic was selected to the Marching Team for his lodge, I just about had a fit.  I found this (and anything to do with the Marching Team) to be hilarious.

Vic, who is crazy about marching (and to him, it's serious business), has to not only put up with ridiculous "marching orders" (literally) but his own wife, who thinks the lodge, the Marching Team and his marching orders from the lodge is ludicrous.

The Marching Team never does work out for Vic or the lodge and further deteriorates as time goes along.  Just as Sade is crazy about washrags, she never buys any in the history of the show that we are aware of - and despite his love for marching, Vic never gets to march in any parades in the whole series.  

These are the kinds of jokes Rhymer liked to play on his audience.  He doesn't have the characters tell jokes - he has them live their lives as jokes. There are other examples of this as well - Sade swears she keeps secrets yet she tells Ruthie every detail about things - to her, this is not telling secrets; Rush can never tell the story about Smelly Clark's Uncle Strap - which is probably a good thing since the whole thing may be set up to be a very dirty story if you read between the lines; Uncle Fletcher who is really not hard of hearing nor senile uses both things to purposely draw attention to himself; Vic, certainly the smartest person on the show and a very intelligent, well-read person who probably had many of the same qualities and attributes as the show's creator, is really nothing but an overgrown, spoiled child  - much more childish than Rush or Russell.

I love the names of the other members of the marching team - to me, this is the absolute best collection of names in the series.

This episode certainly ranks in my top ten favorites. There are more episodes about the Marching Team in the future and the whole concept is hilarious.

There were many sound difficulties with this precious episode; I am pleased to report I fixed a lot of those problems and this may have been one of my better jobs at repair. That's a good thing considering that the sound of this episode is one that truly deserves to be cared for.

Trivia:

The members of the All-Star Marching Team for the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way:

• Y.Y. Flirch, J.J.J.J. Stunbolt, Harry Fie and I. Edson Box (all are from Lester, Nebraska)
• H.K. Fleeber (Grovelman, South Carolina)
• Robert and Slobert Hink (Hoopston, Illinois)
• O.X. Bellyman (Detroit, Michigan)
• Homer U. McDancey (East Brain, Oregon)
• Victor R. Gook (*Whatever City*, Illinois)

(Other than Detroit, all those cities are fictional, according to Google Earth.)

By the way, I really get a big kick out of Vic here... (listen closely to the tone of his voice. He feels like he must take up for each one of the members of the Marching Team because an "attack" on them is an attack on him.) It almost always cracks me up: {{{HEAR}}}

+ Vic got another delinquent bill from Kleeburger's. Recall that he was all paid up not too long ago.

+ Vic leaves at the end of the episode to go play indoor horseshoes at Ike Kneesuffer's place.

Here's a clip of both Rush and Sade reading the "Latin" in Vic's letter from the lodge. Near the end, hear Bernadine Flynn giggle as she reads (EDITED): {{{HEAR}}}

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