Plot A: Having received a shipment of five hundred thousand tongue depressors, instead of five thousand, Hawkeye decides to recreate the Washington monument with them, a patient's name on each depressor. Klinger leaks the the news to the STARS AND STRIPES newspaper.
Plot B: Klinger tries his hand at running a newspaper.
I watched this episode this morning, and noticed something that makes me agree with the characters' opinions of the mess tent. Potter brings Hawkeye out a tray when Hawkeye refuses to take time out to eat. Look carefully at the upper corner of the tray. The whole scene is shadowed, but that pile of whatever looked FURRY to me.
Another thing occurred to me as I watched this. That captain who came to interview Hawkeye (and kept calling him Ben, which sounded so peculiar) was wearing a soft cap with his captain's bars on it. I suddenly realized that I had never seen Hawkeye, B.J, or Charles ever wear such a cap. Henry wore one, Potter wore one, Frank, Radar, and Klinger. You'd see enlisted men in the background wearing them all the time. Has anyone ever seen Hawkeye, B.J, or Charles wear anything other than their dress uniform hats, combat helmets, or civilian hats?
Charles wore an army cap a good deal right after he arrived. It's a major plot point in "The Life You Save" when the bullet goes through his cap. I don't believe Hawkeye or BJ (or Trapper) ever wore one.
I believe Hawkeye wore an army hat of somekind when he made his trip into the mess hall in only his bars and boots.
I think the hat Hawkeye wore when he went for his "fresh air stroll" was called a garrison cap. I think. My dad has one that looked just like it from his tour just after Korea.
I'd forgotten about that bullet hole, and I just saw that episode recently!
Why didn't they use those garrison caps more often?
Don't know but then considering what it took to get Hawkeye or BJ even into anything resembling an Army uniform they probably were using their hats for wine bottle protectors or something. And remember Potter was Old Cavalry so he had his own hat.
How does the driver of the supply truck know Potter is a Colonel? The Colonel is not wearing any insignia. (He's dressed in his painter's outfit.) I can only assume the driver has been to the 4077th before. Then again, why does he ask Potter, "Where's your Company Clerk?" Why not, "Where's Klinger?" Potter certainly doesn't act like he's seen the driver before.
I love Hawkeye's soliloquy about the drepressors. The one where he uses the depressors as symbols of Trapper/B.J., Frank/Charles and Henry/Potter. It was very poignant.
Igor's last name is Stravinksky.
Could the excess tongue depressors be used for trading on the Black Market? At any rate, Potter seems awful blase about Hawkeye using the excess tongue depressors to build a tower.
Why does Klinger keeps flattering the Captain in the soft cap (Maurice something or another)? Max acts like the Captain is a member of the press. He isn't. He's basically a part of the Army's proganda division. The photographer, however, was from Stars 'N' Stripes.
Blowing up the tower is an awfully dangerous thing for Hawkeye to do. Even though it was composed of depressors, somebody could've gotten hurt. The support structure was not made out of depressors, was it?
One great subtlety in this ep, all throughout we see Potter dressed in his painter's smock and the cowboy hat he paints in. It isn't until the end of the show that we see what he was painting.
Notice that he kind of shrunk the tower. It should have been bigger than Hawkeye, not the same height.
That might not be a nit, D.K. If Potter is in any way using forced perspective, the Monument to Stupidity and Hawkeye could appear to be the same height. There is a nit in the painting, though. Previously, the Colonel has always been shown painting from life, that is, he's had his subjects pose for him. Hawkeye never posed for Colonel Potter. As a matter of fact, Pierce was surprised to see the painting. This is probably the only painting Potter did from memory.
Actually, Hawkeye did pose for Potter once. Can't remember the episode, but Hawkeye was leaning back in a chair, feet up on the desk, holding a martini glass in his hand. The most prominent feature of that painting was the sole of Hawkeye's boot.
I do know about forced perspective--they used it to very good effect in "Lord of the Rings--the Fellowship of the Ring". However, I still think that it looks like Hawkeye is standing right next to his tower.
Yeah, I know. But Hawkeye didn't pose for the painting in this ep. That's the difference. Potter has also painted Charles, Klinger and Father Mulcahy. (I'm not sure about B.J. Yeah, Aggie O'Shay gave him the sketch, but did Potter ever do a painting of Beej? I know he never did one of Margaret.) Yet in the episode "Picture This", he has Hawkeye, Charles, Klinger and Father Mulcahy (along with Margaret and B.J.) pose for him. It seems that even if he has painted the subject before, he still needs them to pose for him.
Just an observation, while I'm not sure if Potter ever did a painting of Radar, there is one "major" character he did not paint - Frank Burns. He even did a painting of Sophie. (It was a self-portrait with Klinger sitting in the Colonel.) But never once did Ferret Face pose for the Colonel.
BTW, Potter did do a painting of Radar. I can't remember what episode it was, but you can see the painting hanging in the office every now and then. Radar's standing up, looking rather self-concious, holding his clipboard.
Come to think of it, D.K., that does sound familiar. That still means Frank Burns is the only character that Potter did do a portait of.
What was Oldham doing with the Primacord in the first place? Wasn't it Government/Army property? Instead of giving it to Klnger, shouldn't Oldham have asked to have it sent back to his old unit?
Did the mimeograph machine come with some sort of typesetting kit? Otherwise, I don't see how Klinger got the different font sizes he used in his newspaper from his typewriter.
How does the driver of the supply truck know Potter is a Colonel? - me
When I originally posted that, I failed to notice the bird insignia in Potter's hat. That's how the Supply Truck Driver knew Potter was a colonel.
Note that Father Mulcahy paid Klinger $2 for the ad in MASH Notes. In American dollars, not military scrip.
Max tells Mulcahy that the "man-of-the-cloth" discount subscription rate is "$2 a month or $25 for a whole year." That mean the yearly rate is more expensive. Which is unusual for newspaper subscriptions.
B.J. also paid Klinger in American money. (Was the Army no longer using scrip at this time?)
Aren't the tongue depressors kept in their bags to keep them sterile? Didn't B.J. just waste a whole bag of depressors when he opened up the bag and poured them out? (Not that it matters, given what Hawkeye did with them later.)
From the point where Klinger says he's "On a mission of mercy" to the point where Margaret says, "Mission denied", the position of her head changes.
When Max tells Margaret what the subscription rate is, it's $3 a month or $50 a year. Why would anyone chose the yearly rate?
The positions of the tongue depressors changes from when Pierce first picks them up in the Officers Club to the next shot, showing B.J. asking Hawk why Pierce always sees the "oliver drab side of things?" When Hawkeye picks them up, one of the boards stands higher than the others. In the next shot, they're all flush with each other.
I think this ep marks the first time in a couple of seasons that Trapper and Henry have been mentioned. It's a nice bit of continuity for them to refer to the three previous characters like that. But why wasn't Radar also mentioned?
D.K., I think it was, in "A War For All Seasons" pointed out that Igor was merely the person who served the food in the Mess Tent. Yet, again, in this ep, Igor is refered to as the person who cooks the meals, too. Does this mean he's now doing double duty? And considering that in "No Sweat", Igor said he had to get up an hour before reveille to set up the Mess Tent to start serving, how much earlier does he have to awaken to start cooking for 200 people?
Igor's last name is Stravinksky. - me again
Ooops. Sorry. It's "Straminsky". I was off by one letter. (And going by memory at the time.)
Once again, Max raised the subscription price. For Charles, it's $5 a month or $75 a year. I'd really like to know if anyone was stupid enough to opt for the yearly rate.
Apparently everyone paid Klinger in real money. That's what we see him counting after his talk with Charles.
Just out of curiousity, but where did Hawkeye get all the paste for his Monument to Stupidity?
"Beaver biscuits!"