Plot: Trying to find a Yiddish word for "bedbug" in a New York Times crossword puzzle, Hawkeye calls on his friend Tippy Brooks, who's in the Navy. Tippy misinterprets the message as a real emergency and rushes to the 4077th, accompanied by his admiral. Their presence is invaluable when a terrible accident occurs with some civilians.
Plot B: Klinger's eating a jeep.
Which brings up a nit: When the Admiral and Tippy left the next day, Klinger was driving them. He recovered awfully quickly from having a gut full of metal and rubber. I can't remember the uncut version, so I don't know if they gave him castor oil or something to make him pass the stuff, or if they operated on him. Either way, he should have been in no condition to drive.
Great Line at the end:"You dragged me out here for the word vontz?"
Colonel Potter ordered Klinger to stop eating the jeep. "I need it for the prisoner exchange." I hope Klinger didn't eat any essential parts. Otherwise, the jeep would have to be fixed before it could be used.
Once again, the 4077th hears a message from Seoul City Sue. I assume the radio program she originates from is a North Korean one. If so, surely the Army would frown on them listening to a broadcast from The Enemy. It's surprising that Frank or Margaret never complained to a General about it. Actually, given that Potter is Regular Army, it's surprising they're listening to it period. Can't they listen to The Armed Forces Radio?
Occasionally the army personnel would listen to the enemy brodcasts as a diversion and to laugh about how wrong the enemy had gotten things. My grandfather was in WWII and talked about listening to Tokyo Rose and Axis Annie at times when they were bored or tired of AFRS broadcasts.
At one point, doesn't Klinger eat something covered in motor oil?
Petroleum products are highly volatile and should have burned his esophagus. I'm surprised that the doctors would let him do that.
BVC, yeah, I can imagine the scenario you lay out as being true and is the situation at the 4077th. My problem lies with Majors Burns and Hoolihan. Both are so strictly G.I. that it's hard to believe that the first time Henry Blake let the radio be switched over to Seoul City Sue, they didn't immediately lodge a protest with General Hamilton (or whoever was the General in charge of the Four-Oh-Double-Natural.) With Potter on the hand, they never once lodged a protest against him. Potter was regular Army. Margaret respected him too much. Frank went along with Margaret (I assume). It's just that as often as those two got uptight about treating the Enemy's wounded, I'm surprised they had no qualms about listening to the Enemy.
Scott, Klinger did indeed say he was eating bolts with oil. Potter watched him do it. I can only guess that Potter thought Klinger was bluffing about the motor oil - the same way Max was bluffing about the gasoline when was going to set himself on fire.
Benn and BVC, as I understand it, during the Gulf War, the US troops laughed at Baghdad Betty when she told them their girlfriends were going out with movie stars like Bart Simpson.
Oh yeah, I've heard that story.
I would suppose that Margaret and Frank would be told by the general to just drop it. Or maybe they called and the gernal had it on the radio in his office. F&M get worked up over a lot but they get cooled down just as quick.
Yep you gotta love the clue some people have about american culture. Bart simpson indeed. :-)
Good points, BVC. But I would have liked to see it happen. At the very least, just as Burns always complained about treating enemy wounded, I would expect the Major to remark on the fact that the 4077th is listening to Seoul City Sue. Something like, "Colonel, why are we listening to her again? She's The Enemy! It's unAmerican." Or something like that. It's seems out of character for him to keep quiet about it.
This one has bothered me several times in this ep.
OK... you can't get 38 across. What are the downs that go with it? (They know the V, so they have that one done), but there are 4 other words down that would be missing one letter... surely they could get some of those to bring it together.
Plot B: Klinger's eating a jeep.
Which brings up a nit: When the Admiral and Tippy left the next day, Klinger was driving them. He recovered awfully quickly from having a gut full of metal and rubber. I can't remember the uncut version, so I don't know if they gave him castor oil or something to make him pass the stuff, or if they operated on him. Either way, he should have been in no condition to drive.
Not only that, he shouldn't have been helping out in the OR! Just saw this episode, and I noticed that Klinger was helping out in the OR, shortly after being examened by the Admiral. And this was way before he drove the Admiral off. There was virtually no time for him to recover at all!
After watching this episode, I believe that Klinger legitimately qualified for a Section 8. Anyone who would knowingly eat oil, given how dangerous it can be if ingested, is either suicidal and/or has completely lost their sanity! Potter should have discharged on that basis alone, period!
Yeah, but knowing Klinger, it wasn't really oil. I mean, remember, in one ep, Klinger was going to set himself on fire by dousing himself with water. That is, until Colonel Potter had Radar switch the water for gasoline. I'm willing to bet that Klinger didn't really eat any oil.
It sure looked like oil he was eating to me.
Molasses, perhaps?
It's good on written reports, too!
Re: Baghdad Betty and Bart Simpson.
Alas, I was wrong. It's an urban legend.
Apparently, though, Dorothy Denning got caught by it too, and it made it into her book "Information Warfare and Security".
Saw this uncut last night.
Frank had received a child's game from a former receptionist. (The crossword was found on the wrapping.) One short cut scene was in the scrub room, where Frank was still playing with his toy. Margaret commented that it was very childish--and also pornographic, although the girl pictured was in fact wearing a (very skimpy) outfit. Frank commented that it was a good game for a surgeon, improving hand and eye coordination.
When they rushed outside after Father Mulcahy announced the accident, the cut version doesn't show that there is a second, open-top truck also full of civilians. Klinger comes up to this one, and the admiral says, "You're a corpsman?" Klinger boasts that he's the best in the business.
Turns out that an Army fuel tanker had overturned, spilling gasoline. The civilians were all out soaking up the gas with rags, so that they could use it as fuel for their lamps. It got so dark that they could not see and...someone lit a match.
The final scene is in the Mess tent. Frank is still working on his game, and finally gets the fourteenth and final bee-bee into the girl's nose. Proudly he holds it out for the others to see. Hawkeye promptly knocks against his arm, spilling the game. Frank complains, Hawkeye suggests that he start it all over again, and Frank is left looking at the game, muttering that it had taken him three days.
Oh, yes--regarding that one word in the crossword--it's possible that it was alone in the crossword, connected only by the letter "V", which would explain why it hadn't filled in automatically when they did the others.
>Oh, yes--regarding that one word in the >crossword--it's possible that it was alone in >the crossword, connected only by the letter "V", >which would explain why it hadn't filled in >automatically when they did the others.
But the New York Times crossword is never arranged in such a way that four letters are standing alone. No more than one or two spaces of any reasonably difficult crossword puzzle are ever without adjucants.
Hawkeye gives the clue for one across as "Member of the company". BJ gives the answer as "cast". The word cast refers to a group of people, while the clue asked for a singular word.
When Hawkeye's specialist friend learns that there is no emergency, he says that he's going to be hung from something which begins with a "y". Hawk supplies him with the word "yardarm," a naval term. Didn't Hawkeye make fun of Frank just a few episodes earlier for using that same word?
Didn't Hawkeye make fun of Frank just a few episodes earlier for using that same word?
But that's because Burns had a habit of using Naval terms even though he was in the Army. It was as if the Major was confusing the two military branches.
Horse hockey!
Oh, and Hawkeye's friend, Tippy Brooks was in the Navy. That makes a difference, Todd.
Horse hockey!
Would the crossword puzzle for The New York Times really be in the National News section of the paper?
Oh, yes--regarding that one word in the crossword--it's possible that it was alone in the crossword, connected only by the letter "V", which would explain why it hadn't filled in automatically when they did the others. - D.K. Henderson
Except just after Hawkeye and B.J. start the puzzle, the scene shifts to O.R. and there is a close-up of the puzzle. There are no free standing words. Moreover, if I’ve figured it correctly, they already have two letters of 38 across - the middle two letters.
One down is not a four letter word. It’s a five letter word. For that matter, one across is also a five letter word. (Looking at the puzzle Mulcahy is holding in O.R.) On the other hand, if I’m right about where 38 across is, it is not a five letter word. It’s four letters.
After learning that Klinger is eating a jeep, Colonel Potter makes several comments about Klinger acting as a magnet. Why would eating metal and oil magnetize Klinger?
For the record, the puzzle they were working on was clearly the Sunday edition, generally the most difficult of all of The New York Times’ puzzles.
"Mule fritters!"
ummm ok. it is a TV show. and I'm sure I love it as much as you do but to the person above me. Vontz was apart of the plot and the cut to the crossword was probably just one the crew had on hand.
calm down.
ummm ok. it is a TV show. and I'm sure I love it as much as you do but to the person above me. Vontz was apart of the plot and the cut to the crossword was probably just one the crew had on hand.
calm down. - Anonymous
If you don't mind, "Anonymous", I have a name. Benn. Got it? And I don't think there's any need to tell me to "calm down". Frankly, I kinda resent the the arrogance in thinking I need to "calm down." I was posting what was a nit. Nothing more, nothing less. That's what we do here, in case you haven't noticed. And yeah, I'm smart enough to realize that the prop people probably grabbed the nearest paper with a crossword puzzle in it. That doesn't mean it isn't open to nitpicking. It's the same as when the creators showed Radar reading copies of Amazing Spider-Man and The Avengers, comics that did not exist in the '50s. But the prop department used them because they were older comics and were something they had on hand.