In this episode Sara Sibylle chatted with me about an odd pairing of films American Splendor, a biography, and the other, classic 70’s hi-jinx comedy, Animal House.
We get into all kinds of topics including TV resolutions, theatre positioning, cars, celebrity branding, the movies of 1984, and more!
American Splendor
Release: 2003
Director: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Stars: Paul Giamatti, Shari Springer Berman, Harvey Pekar
Animal House
Release: 1978
Director: John Landis
Stars: John Belushi, Karen Allen, Tom Hulce, Donald Sutherland, Kevin Bacon
Here is some stuff I had to look up during/after I did the podcast.
Harvey’s last time on Letterman
The Shakespeare quote I totally butchered.
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet;
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The little green alien on the “Mostly Harmless” book cover that looks like Mike Wazowski (or is it Mike Wazowski looks like it?).
Turns out it is true that he had no legs but it is not a cyclops as it doesn’t have an eye. I tried looking up what you call a creature without eyes but it just kept bringing up articles on blindness and I wasn’t gonna start scrolling through pages and pages to find it. So instead I went through the trouble of finding out the etymology of the word “cyclops” which essentially means circle-eyed or round-eyed that came from the Greek originally and then to Latin and adopted by English. Then I did the same thing.
I looked up the word “nothing” in ancient Greek which is οὐθείς (outheís) which literally means “not even one”. Then translated that to Latin –
neminem which means “no”. And kept “ops” meaning eye.
So my word for a creature with no eyes is “neminemops”.
Does a word, not made up by me, for a creature with no eyes exist? Most likely, English is a very wordy language. Would it have been easier to find it instead of making one up? No, i doubt it. Making up words is fun, I could have as easily called them “chazwazzers” (if you got that reference, good on you!)
If caught, is being a “peeping tom” a felony?
Apparently it is a misdemeanour that can get upgraded to a felony if you take photographic images which includes videos.
Also learned that the term “peeping tom” is names after a tailor who peeped at Lady Godiva during her infamous ride. All of this info is thanks to this page.