Again links are shared on Monday this week. But for a great reason. I had to get through the incredible oral history of the making of Airplane! before I could post.
I’m pretty sure that Airplane! was the first grown-up movie I was ever allowed to see at a theater. And aside from the adult language, drug references, and sexual content, the comedy is largely aimed at nine-year-olds, making me the perfect age to see it. I’m pretty sure I laughed the hardest at the “…the shit’s really going to hit the fan…” line, followed by the image of actual shit hitting an actual fan. That was high comedy to me back in 1980!
Anyway, spend some quality time with this wonderful look back at one of the all-time great comedies.
Surely you can’t be serious: An oral history of Airplane!
Continuing with classic cinematic comedies of my youth, there are fresh rumors that Fletch is getting a reboot, this time with Jason Sudeikis in the starring role. Which I approve of. Of course, we were pretty sure Kevin Smith was going to reboot the series with either Jason Lee or Ben Affleck about ten years ago. And then Bill Lawrence and Zach Braff were going to do it. We’ll see if this actually goes anywhere.
This goes back to when Smith was looking to put a movie together, but it’s an email interview with Chevy Chase about the original and his thoughts on new Fletch films. It reads about how every interview with him reads.
The NHL and NBA kicked off their playoffs this week. Deadspin’s Drew Magary ranked the playoffs of our major sports. You may be surprised at the winner.
My man Paul Pierce is approaching the end of his Hall of Fame career; he says next year will be his last in the NBA. He’s always been a bit of a different cat, and this interview with Jackie MacMullan does not disappoint.
Wizards’ Paul Pierce speaks the truth
Here’s a story about another once-great scorer. This time, it’s Jackie Stiles, who went from a small town in Kansas to becoming the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer. Then things kind of fell apart for her, at least on the basketball court.
Her story gets the Joe Posnanski treatment, which means it’s awesome.
Finally, this New York Times op-ed looking back at the end of the Civil War, which was 150 years ago last week, is a tremendous reminder that wars often lack clear, definitive, satisfying ends and generally require lengthy operations (and spending) after hostilities cease.
(Americans) wish that wars, like sports, had carefully organized rules that would steer them to a satisfying end. But wars are often political efforts to remake international or domestic orders. They create problems of governance that battles alone cannot resolve.