Buster Keaton -- Down to the Well

Weepingprophet did this amazing Buster Keaton montage to the tune of The Pixies' "Down to the Well". I'm trying to identify what movies all the bits are from. And a couple of them are very familiar but I can't place exactly what movie they're from. Help?

(Links take you to where you can watch the movie in question free online)



*"Smile" -- Go West (1925)
*Three mirrors -- The Playhouse
*Car bump -- Go West
*Proto bicycle -- Our Hospitality (1923)
*Collapsing car -- Three Ages (1923)
*Saying grace with one eye open -- Our Hospitality
*Swinging waterfall rescue -- Our Hospitality
*Phone booth window -- The Bellboy (1918)
*Boat under the bridge -- The Boat (1921)
*Clonking caveman -- Three Ages (1923)
*Changing scenes -- Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
*Bed in a stable -- Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) (Sorry about the cheesy soundtrack; all the freebies have that same one. Watch on Netflix if you want better, but it'll cost ya.)
*Bull's eye view -- Go West (1925)
*Boxing spin -- Battling Butler (1926) (All I could get was a clip, not the whole film. Sorry.)
*Dangling condiments -- The Scarecrow (1920)
*Stairway to Heaven/Slide to Hell -- The Haunted House (1921)
*Locomotive rail ride -- The General (1927) (Sorry about the intro and cheesy music. A much better one is available on Netflix.)
*Dive into the river -- Seven Chances
*Derailing car / Slow blink / Trestle collapse -- The General
*Kiss and topple -- The Navigator (1924)
*Passing car yank offscreen -- Cops (1922)
*Opening doors -- The Navigator
*Football scene -- Three Ages
*Thumbs down -- Three Ages
*Into the spout, onto the plank crash -- The Navigator
*"How to Be a Detective"/Following closely -- Sherlock, Jr.
*Railroad crossing/Looking back/Leering guy kicked thru wall -- Sherlock, Jr.
*Dive through the peddler's tray -- Sherlock, Jr.
*Two one-armed guys clapping -- The Playhouse
*Scene changes again -- Sherlock, Jr.
*Helping the horse -- Cops
*Conked by well handle -- Go West
*Wet fainting girl on ladder -- The Navigator
*Ghostly Buster smacks sleeping self -- Sherlock, Jr.
*Backing away from bad coffee -- The Navigator
*Startled handhold -- Sherlock, Jr.
*Sparring dummy -- Battling Butler
*Two dancing Busters -- The Playhouse
*Falling wall -- Steamboat Bill Jr.
*Ladder on wall -- Cops
*Slide into Hell redux -- The Haunted House
*Car into tree -- Seven Chances
*Monkey face -- The Playhouse
*Cowboy trip -- Go West
*Sidewalk tumble -- The Cameraman (1928)
*Cowcatcher toss -- The General
*Ride in spare tire -- Seven Chances
*Scaffold crane shot -- The Cameraman
*Run toward camera -- Seven Chances
*Punch clock/Broom into knothole -- The Playhouse
*Blown down street -- Steamboat Bill Jr.
*Sawing bass viol -- The Playhouse
*Landing on guy -- Cops
*Monkey ringing for service/Applauding couple/Conductor/Buster Keaton's Minstrels -- The Playhouse

Largest collection of WTF? pictures to date

Living up to the stereotype of inscrutability

Protect children from needless suffering: Winds of Hope

Winds of Hope is a Swiss organization founded by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, who had completed the first successful round-the-world nonstop balloon journey. They chose as their cause the prevention and treatment of something I'd never heard about until today: noma.

Noma is a true horror of a disease. It's no longer seen in the developed world, but plagues the poverty stricken villages of west Africa. Caused by poor nutrition and inadequate hygiene, noma attacks the soft tissues of the face. It is most commonly seen in small children between the ages of 2 and 6.

If identified quickly, noma can be treated with a simple disinfecting mouthwash, preventing disfigurement and death. If caught in a more progressive stage, it can still be treated with the sort of antibiotics we in the developed world take for granted. If allowed to progress, it is fatal in up to 80% of cases, and leaves the survivors with devastating facial disfigurement.

The goal of Winds of Hope is to train local health care workers so that they in turn can educate parents. In this way, noma can be prevented by improved oral hygiene, or identified and treated before it causes damage to the child's face.

Government demands local charity stop helping poor sick people

Koot Karts’ operator awaiting regulations

A local military hero who became successful in civilian life left a legacy to his small hometown: A van service to take the poor and elderly to medical appointments. The rides were free -- though there were donation envelopes for if a rider wanted to make a donation to keep the service afloat.

Now the state has its knickers in a twist. Somebody complained on two counts:

1. The van service provides rides to residents of the founder's hometown of Windber, Pennsylvania. Windber is right on the county line, so some of those people live in Cambria County, not Somerset County where the bulk of the town is. Evidently it's perfectly kosher to transport Somerset County residents to appointments in either county, but it's taboo to transport Cambria County residents to appointments unless they're in Somerset County. I think. It's hard to tell because the state is being very vague about what exactly is so horrible.

2. Because the vans have envelopes aboard inviting riders to donate to keep the service afloat, it's somehow not considered "free" -- even though the donations are NOT mandatory. A rider can use the van service again and again and again without contributing a penny.

They've been given a cease and desist order and threatened with fines of $1000 a day for every day they give free rides to poor, sick people.

What really makes it suck is that nobody's really clear on exactly what the van charity is doing wrong, and why suddenly after all these years it's a problem.

Windber is in a rural area, with very limited public transportation. This van service provides a vital link between needy residents and their necessary medical care. And it does it at no expense to the taxpayers of either county.

Which, it seems, is something the government simply can not tolerate.

Only to a bureaucrat is there some heinous problem with driving poor people to the doctor for free, just out of basic human decency.

And it's these bureaucrats that some people think should be in charge of our health care.

No, thanks.

If it was really a photo-op, where are the photos?

White House to Release Photo From New York Flyover

A photo. For over $300,000. Makes what photo studios do with their $8.95 loss leader packages look like total freebies.

I don't think it really was a photo shoot. I think somebody came up with that story. So what was REALLY going on?

NASCAR spectators need clean underpants

YIKES! My brother just told me about this doozy:

5 Days in May: Bringing safe water to children

5 Days in May is asking people to pledge to drink nothing but tap water May 1 - May 5, and to donate the money they save to Water Missions International, a charity that provides clean, sustainable drinking water where it's desperately needed. (Water Missions International is a Charity Navigator 4-star charity.)

This is one of my favorite bandwagons to jump on. Who's with me?

Pray for the release of Captain Phillips

I have a new hero.

U.S. Warship Arrives as Pirates' Options Dwindle

The crew of the USS Bainbridge fought pirates, and their captain, Richard Phillips, offered himself to the pirates as a hostage to save his ship and crew. He and the pirates are floating in a small boat, out of fuel. The shipping company is offering a $10 million ransom for his safe release. (And we can't afford a couple hundred thousand to take care of a sick baby in the NICU, but I digress....)

Prayers for this brave captain, his family, and everybody working (and fighting) to get him safely home again.

Here's two activities you probably never thought you'd see combined

But with the cost of cigarettes today, what smoker can afford to water-ski?

HT: Jim Lileks

Here's one, again courtesy of Jim Lileks, that leaves you to ponder what sort of tobacco they were putting the the Lucky Strike. Or were they lacing them with angel dust or LSD? And what the hell is LS/MFT?

Evidently Harold Lloyd taught my grandmother to drive

If you'd ever ridden with her, you'd understand. With Special Guest Star!



HT: Jim Lileks

Is this a great country or not?

Only in America: The Redneck Yacht Club. I love it.

Amazing "change blindness" video

A clever magician proves how little attention you can pay to one thing when you're focused on another. Sorry, embed is disabled so I'll just give you the link.

Cool! If you can type, you can make an animated short

This was an actual exchange between two of my friends, back during the Cold War:

Who sent the troops to Sampson, Alabama?

Army Investigating How and Why Troops Were Sent Into Alabama Town After Murder Spree

The U.S. Army has launched an inquiry into how and why active duty troops from Fort Rucker, Ala., came to be placed on the streets of Samson, Ala., during last week's murder spree in that tiny South Alabama community. The use of the troops was a possible violation of federal law.

We are being reassured that all the troops did was help direct traffic and keep people out of a massive crime scene. The cops were short handed.

Then you call in the fire department. It's a whole crew of trained local folks who are accustomed to directing traffic and keeping people away from areas where they don't belong.

Somebody is trying to get us used to the sight of soldiers patrolling the streets. I don't like it.

Old Calvin and Hobbes strip totally NAILS the bailout!

Here it is!

HT: Greg Mankiw's Blog via Fark.

There's just no pleasing some people

Instead of thanking God and Captain Sully that they're alive, a bunch of Flight 1549 passengers are bitching that they want free first-class upgrades for life in addition to the very nice $5,000 compensation, year of free upgrades, etc. that the airline has already bestowed upon them.

They survived the first successful ditching of a commercial jet in 45 farking years! And that isn't freaking good enough for them. They want somebody to wipe their asses with gold leaf.

Captain Sully made me proud to be an American. These people are an embarrassment. Gimme, gimme, gimme. No wonder people think we're assholes.



HT to my daughter for suggesting the Eagles' song. "You say you haven't been the same since you had your little crash but you might feel better if we gave you some cash."

PS. I can't blame anybody who found the entire experience traumatic. I'm sure it was terrifying. Especially since there was no way they could have realized that they'd all survive. But they DID. Which they never would have, had the airline not been so supportive of Sullenberger in his endeavors to become the best pilot he could be, and in his efforts to improve aviation safety.

Yeah, many of the passengers will likely have PTSD symptoms. They might be afraid of flying, have nightmares or flashbacks, have the jitters, be jumpy. But they're alive. And they're forgetting who they owe that to.

What just a bit of awareness and care can do

It started with a rock band. It spread to sports teams. Now the Federal government. And they're shooting to get state goverments involved: Give leftover food to the hungry instead of throwing it out.

So simple. No skin off anybody's teeth. But I bet it makes a difference. Wouldn't you rather have food that was prepared for a rock star's dinner, that he didn't feel like eating and gave to you instead, rather than standard soup kitchen food?

And it's great that the food isn't being wasted any more.

Kudos. And pass it along in your own workplace if you ever have leftover food that would otherwise be thrown away.

Not as pervy as it sounds

I was reading an article at Cracked.com, with some embedded clips from McGyver. My daughter could hear them from across the room. This one nearly knocked her out of her chair. Read the dialogue first, then watch the clip. Or just listen to the clip with your eyes closed:

NUBILE YOUNG WOMAN: Why are you taking your pants off?

MacGYVER: You got a better idea?

NUBILE YOUNG WOMAN: I'm still trying to figure out what yours is.

MacGYVER: (Grunts) Come here. Grab this.

NUBILE YOUNG WOMAN: Uuhhhh!

"Pub in Oxford allegedly sold condemned lobsters"

Sometimes the wording trumps the story, such as in this piece in the Boston Globe: Police see something fishy in 1/2 price meals.

I was first amused by the subtitle, "Pub in Oxford allegedly sold condemned lobsters". Isn't any lobster in a restaurant tank pretty much "condemned"? There he sits, on Lobster Death Row, waiting for his meeting with the executioner. He's not serving a life sentence there, unless you mean that he'll be there for the rest of his (presumably now short) life.

It seems a restaurant owner was charged with, among other things, "unlicensed possession of shellfish".

The whole idea that you could be prosecuted for unlicensed possession of shellfish ought to send a chill down your spine.

I get the point -- the guy lifted lobsters and sold them. That's theft. And the lobsters had been exposed to spilled fuel, so they could have been contaminated and not safe to eat. That's a public health violation. But "unlicensed possession of shellfish"?

The story is about more than contraband seafood. It is a tale of lobsters on a death-defying journey, one marred by tragedy and for some, redemption. First, thousands of lobsters onboard the overturned truck narrowly missed becoming road kill. And then, those that did not become two-for-one boiled lobster specials were rescued by state environmental police, who returned them to the sea.

I'm glad the surviving lobsters were freed rather than slain. If you're not gonna eat them, put them back where they belong.

Right on the first guess!

ME: (Reading Fark headline): Guess who Tripp is.

MY DAUGHTER: (Ponders a moment) A Palin?

Well, technically a Johnston, but we get the point.

I suppose it could have been worse. They could have named him Trap or Trade or Trill. But not Trickle because that violates the single-syllable rule.

Anyway, congrats to the happy parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

And good luck with that name, kid.