Plot: A bad day in the OR, with wounded streaming in, and shells dropping close by.

Can anybody tell me what Sidney means when he says, "Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice!"? It's probably his most famous quote -- he even quotes himself in GFA, but I can't figure out for the life of me what he's talking about.

He's advocating freezing your buns?

He means that you should just go along with the crazyness and live with it.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I figured from the context, but now can you explain to me why he phrases it like that? Is there some sort of background to it, or a reference to something that I'm not picking up on? It just sounds nonsensical to me. This isn't the first place I've asked about this quote, and no one's ever had a definitive answer. Most people have told me that they're just as confused by it as I am, which then begs the question of why it's so popular. Any help would be appreciated -- it's been driving me nuts for a long time.

Maybe that's why he used it--just to drive all of us crazy. My boss has an expression, "Horse feathers" but whenever I try to pin her down on the source of such an odd expression, she has no answer.

Wasn't "Horse Feathers" an episode of the Marx Brothers, or am I confused?

My grandma, come to think of it, used "Horse feathers" too! The way she used it meant something was ridiculous, I guess like the idea of a horse having feathers. I never really thought of where the phrase came from.

My sister's mother-in-law says that the reference is to the "feathery" effect down by a horse's ankles. (Ankles? Fetlocks? Whatever; down near the hooves.)

Which still doesn't explain how it came to be used as an expletive.

At one point in this episode (I think it's this episode) a North Korean soldier is brought in. Margaret calls to another nurse to help her get the man undressed, then shouts that there is a wire across his chest. I was wondering why they waited to undress the man until he was in the OR. Isn't that something that should have been done in Pre-Op? Most patients we see are brought in looking bare except for the sheet; only patients with minor injuries are left dressed.

Also, when they got the grenade loose, Trapper yanks down a blanket covering a window so that Hawkeye can throw the grenade out. You'll notice that the grenade came perilously close to the window edge. Just a fraction closer, and it would likely have richocheted back into the room.

When the Puerto Rican nurse, Sanchez, got hysterical, Margaret slapped her and got slapped right back. I'm surprised that she didn't report the woman for striking a superior officer.

"Horse Feathers" refers to something non-sensical. "That makes about as much sense as feathers on a horse!" is how I've heard it used a few times, and probably derives from that.

I've been thinking of the wrong episode! The Puerto Rican nurse is not in this one, nor is the North Korean with the wire. They do have an Ethiopian (who kisses Hawkeye's hand) a business girl caught in the crossfire with $20,000 (or just $2000) in her stocking, Frank trying to remove a man's sole remaining kidney, Henry with the onset of arthritis (and not wanting people to know so that he can continue to stay at the war!)and a sudden fire, quickly put out by Trapper. They also have Klinger doing a Dracula imitation on being told to give blood, and Radar falling asleep in the Mess tent and being siphoned by two guys. (Shortly after showing faintness as a result, Radar is shown helping to haul a patient out of OR and showing no sign of weakness.)

I liked the fact that Henry could have used his arthritis as a way to get a discharge, but outright refused to do so, claiming that the medical work he was doing in Korea was more interesting and exciting then what he'd be doing if he went back to Bloomington. This, despite the fact that he hates it over there just as much as everyone else, and misses his family. The writers provided some interesting insight into Henry's character in this episode.

Please note that this is the only episode thus far for which the DVD does not have the "English Without Laugh Track" option. Larry Gelbart and the rest felt the OR scenes of the series should be the one place where the laugh track did not intrude. Only rarely ("The General Flipped at Dawn" and "The Novacaine Mutiny" for example) was this rule violated.

When Burns enters the OR to complain that his tortoise shell scrub brush is missing (again), he does not have his mask on. No one comments on this breech of OR etiquette.

There's an exchange I'm not sure I understand. Radar sees Hawkeye resting just outside of OR. He gives Pierce a razor and coffee. Hawkeye looks into the cup and then at Radar. O'Riley then informs the Captain that all the hot water had been used on the instruments. Hawk smiles and says that one of the things he'll miss about Korea is Radar. I'm not sure I get the significance of that exchange. And was Hawkeye really shaving with his coffee? What was he going to drink?

Okay, who in camp knows how to speak Ethiopian? From what I can tell, the Ethiopian patient Hawkeye operated on does not speak English. Yet, somehow or another, Klinger knows he wants to talk to the doctor who operated on him. How was this request communicated to Max?

Hawk's comment that Henry will die in his bed in Bloomington, Illinois has a sad irony to it, doesn't it?

I'm not sure, but it appears a bit of footage was reused during the scene where Hawkeye performs the open heart massage. During a close-up shot of Pierce, you can see a bloody sponge streak across the film frame. Later, in a very similar shot, another bloody sponge is seen flying through the air. It looks to me as if the creators reused the first shot.

After performing the massage, Hawkeye sits down and pulls his mask down. He should know better than that.

Some of the break time dialogue between Trapper and Frank has been cut for syndication. The remainder of the scene has Frank revealing that he became a snitch so he could talk to somebody. Burns also confesses that he snitched on himself for not snitching on a friend who was smoking. The scene ended with a tired Trapper John declaring a truce with Frank and that they were friends. McIntyre later reneges on that truce. BTW, Trapper is surprised when Frank reveals he's a snitch. Maybe he's being sarcastic, but surely by now everyone knows that Frank Burns is a snitch.

... a business girl caught in the crossfire with $20,000 (or just $2000) in her stocking... - D.K. Henderson

It was $20,000

This is the episode where Hawkeye claims he doesn't wear underwear in OR. However, in several episodes showing him prepping for OR, he does indeed wear briefs.

Couldn't Radar have picked a better time to tell Hawkeye that the massage patient had died? Was there really any reason to tell Pierce that while he was in the middle of surgery?

Trapper turned off the lights to extinguish the fire in OR. After the fire was put out, everyone goes back to work. What did they use for lighting?

I've read somewhere, that in the series, there is no reference to General MacArthur's retirement. However, in this ep, we are told that Big Mac has gone home to a ticker tape parade and that two other Generals had since replaced him.

Abyssinia!

Okay, who in camp knows how to speak Ethiopian? From what I can tell, the Ethiopian patient Hawkeye operated on does not speak English. Yet, somehow or another, Klinger knows he wants to talk to the doctor who operated on him. How was this request communicated to Max?

Actually it makes sense that Max was able to find out what he wanted. As a second-generation Lebanese-American, even if he were not fluent in it, he would be able to recognize and to some extent follow Arabic, which is one of the major languages used in Ethiopia.

But why doesn't he translate for Hawkeye when the Ethiopian thanks the surgeon? For that matter, why wasn't Klinger called upon to translate for the Ethiopian period?

Abyssinia!

O'Riley then informs the Captain that all the hot water had been used on the instruments. Hawk smiles and says that one of the things he'll miss about Korea is Radar. I'm not sure I get the significance of that exchange. And was Hawkeye really shaving with his coffee? What was he going to drink?

I always interpreted this as Radar's having saved some of the hot water back under the pretext of making coffee. He's evidently worked one of his minor miracles of scrounging, anyhow.

Makes sense to me. Thanks Kerrie!

Abyssinia!

I'm pretty sure it's shown in other places in the series that Klinger is completely fluent in Arabic. I remember in an episode where he is driving, and Potter offers to read to him a letter from his (Klinger's) mother, and Klinger responds something along the lines of "you can't, it's in Arabic." Potter looks at it, and says that it sure is a "funny looking language." Which pretty much states that Klinger is fluent in Arabic, and can also read Arabic script.

Pentalarc
Where Five Roads Meet He Stands

Though I think Potter calls it a "pretty-looking language" or something else more complimentary than "funny-looking." If I remember correctly, that's the episode where they organize the get-together for their families back in the United states.

Keep in mind that Klinger could have written total nonsense and said it was in Lebanese (not Arabic), taking a chance that the Colonel would have been ignorant of what foreign languages look like to the degree that he wouldn't know the difference.

"Abysinnia!"