4.1
"You were on a helicopter?"
"You're scared of
helicopters."
"Yeah, well. I'm right
there. *Truly* horrible."
"They have no wings.
You know that? :) They don't even have doors."
- Maggie and Joel
"I think you're in
denial."
"About what? Turning
30. That's ridiculous!"
"So heavily into denial,
you're denying your denial."
- Joel and Maggie
"I'm going to unzip
your trousers and I'm going to pull them down over your hips. I'll try
not to get turned on."
- Joel, treating Maggie
4.2
"I didn't know you
Jewish people were tall enough to care about Basketball.
- Maurice to Joel
"I've got to go home,
Coach Fleischman."
"I've got to do some
things."
"Like what?"
"Eat. Sleep. Things
like that."
- Ed to Joel after a long workout
4.3
"Joel, the concept
of random death in an indifferent world is one thing, but to be the instrument
of that death? A dogkiller?... I don't suppose you'd tell the owners?"
- Chris to Joel, after hitting the dog
4.5
"He's allergic."
"To what?"
"The twentieth century."
- Joel to Maggie, on Mike
"I think of myself
as a canary in a coal mine."
- Mike to Joel
"Gimme a break, O'Connell.
See, the bubble man is right out of Emily Bronte. He's handsome, flawed,
and totally inaccessible. He's perfect for you."
- Joel to Maggie, about Mike
4.6
"Words are a heavy
thing ... they weigh you down. If birds talked, they couldn't fly."
- Marilyn to the Flying Man
4.7
"I orbited the globe!
All you had to do was go to the copying machine, and what did you do?"
"Fail?"
"Utterly."
- Maurice chides Ed
4.8
"Death, like the white
man, wasn't happy in his own land. He didn't think his kingdom was big
enough. He wanted more. One night, when the good spirit was asleep, Death
attacked the world. He killed a lot of people, and he took the Chief's
prettiest daughter as his bride. She pretended to be a good wife, but one
day she secretly fed him a pumpkin seed. The pumpkin grew and grew inside
death. Finally, he exploded, and a million pumpkin seeds covered the earth."
"I still don't get
it."
"A lot of people died,
but a good thing came out of it, too."
"What was that? "
"It's the same with
white people. They cleared the forest, they dug up the land, and they gave
us the flu. But they also brought power tools and penicillin and Ben and
Jerry's ice cream."
- Marilyn explains the celebration of Death
"I'm amazed, Fleischman.
You actually have a capacity for pleasure."
- Maggie
"I may look white,
but I am not. I am Jewish. Okay? Jewish. A fellow person of color. A victim
of oppression."
- Joel to Marilyn
4.10
"Back in my competitive
days, Dr. Fleischman, you could drop a baton or mess up your statement
of personal goals, none of the men would blink, as long as you smiled and
displayed a well rounded personality. But the women; try to wear a lip
gloss they'd never seen before or dare to squeeze your well toned buns
into a size 4 swimsuit they couldn't wear on a bet, they'd mark you down
all over the place. It was brutal."
"Well, Shelly, I hate
to minimize your experience, but I hardly think that a beauty contest and
a court of law are analogous."
"Well maybe not. But
they're definitely the same."
- Shelly and Joel, on men & women as judges
I know black people.
I've been around black people, and I know how they talk. The say "thang"
instead of "thing." They say "ax," "I ax you this, brother, I ax you that."
Now, you don't say "ax." Neither does Colin Powell and that....that Denzel
fellow.
- Maurice to Bernard
"Although, admittedly,
you're a racist and what you said makes me uncomfortable, there is a kernel
of truth to it. Though, I suspect it has more to do with intellectual and
cultural standards than it does with racial distinctions."
"Why is it that when
I say something like that, I'm a racist, and when you say something like
that, you're just being thoughtful."
"Oh no, Maurice, I'm
a racist too. For a long time I didn't like being around white people.
But once I realized that imperialism, slavery, and genocide weren't exclusively
white institutions, it helped me loosen up a bit."
- Bernard and Maurice
4.11
"I wouldn't mind so
much if it made the slightest bit of sense. But this is just stupid."
"You can't look for
logic, Maurice. With women, it seems that rabid emotion is the justification
for everything."
"A woman uses her
intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition — G. K. Chesterson."
- Maurice, Joel and Chris
4.12
O woman! lovely woman!
Nature made thee
To temper man: we
had been brutes without you.
Angels are painted
fair, to look like you:
There's in you all
that we believe of heaven,
Amazing brightness,
purity, and truth,
Eternal joy, and everlasting
love.
- Chris reads Thomas Ottway: Venice Preserved. Act i. Sc. 1.
4.14
"Don't flatter yourself.
Your family is no crazier than any other American nuclear unit. Believe
me."
"Oh yeah? What would
you say to a father who at 58 years old quits his job and buys a Buffalo
ranch in South Dakota?"
"I'd say I would not
be surprised if he had a daughter who was a bush pilot in the wilds of
Alaska."
- Joel and Maggie
"So tell us Joel, how
did you and Mary Margaret meet?"
"Well, in a town of
849 people, I couldn't not meet her."
"Isn't that interesting!"
- Joel is examined by family members
"So is Maggie still
into those moonlight skinny-dips?"
"You and Maggie skinny
dipped, huh?"
"Well, I don't want
to tell tales out of school or anything."
"Can't be much to
tell."
"Why's that? Because
all the guys that got lucky are sprouting daisies about now."
- Jed tries to psych out Joel during the basketball game
"OK Romeo, balcony
scene is over."
- Joel to Jed, after Maggie interrupts their basketball game
"Why did you want to
see me Mrs. Stowe?"
"Oh, I've never met
a Jewish person before."
- Joel sees Grammy
"You're right. You've
got yourself a regular loony bin here. It's absolutely incredible that
you survived. I don't know. I guess you're made of something."
- Joel to Maggie
4.15
"I'm going to Seattle.
The gateway to Alaska. I want an adventure."
- Marilyn tells Joel she is going on vacation
"You did get traveler's
checks, didn't you?"
"No."
"Look, muggers. OK?
They smell cash on people. They do! They sniff it out and they lock on.
Alright? With traveler's checks you can get your funds replaced."
"I want an adventure."
- Joel advises Marilyn on travel
"I got to tell you,
Shelly, I haven't felt like this since I went bow hunting in the Territories
and brought down that barren ground caribou with a single arrow."
- Holling receives his diploma
4.16
"There was a desert
wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot, dry, Santa Anas
that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make
your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that, every booze
party ends in a fight. Meek, little wives feel the edge of the carving
knife
and study their husbands'
necks. Anything can happen."
- Chris, reading from Raymond Chandler
"I came here to play
an intelligent game, not to be victimized by some power freak with penis
envy."
"I ought to just punch
you in the nose."
"You and which army?"
"You think I'm bluffing?"
"Go ahead, O'Connell.
Right there."
*POW*
- Joel to Maggie, playing Risk
"Kamchatka has way
more strategic value than Siberia!"
- Joel, exasperated by Maggie's Risk tactics
They say it's an ill
wind that bloweth no man to good. I think our own Dr. Joel Fleischman will
attest to that. For those of you who missed it, Maggie scored a one round
decision over Dr. Fleischman last night. Right jab to the old honker. Pow!
T.K.O. What better sign that the coho winds are once again upon us... My
advice this year, don't fight them, embrace them. Know your enemy.
- Chris
It's an ancient concept.
Confucius once used that very word to summarize his entire philosophy,
and Muslims cherish the idea of mutual obligation. By their standards,
if someone saves your life, you owe that person until you save his. But
that notion is hardly universal. Certain native American cultures, for
example, believe that saving a life, that good deeds in general, are a
person's natural function and thus require no special reward.
- Chris to Maurice, on saving life
"Let's get this over
with once and for all. Come on. Damage this Fleischman!" (Maggie points
to her nose).
"O'Connell, you're
making a fool of yourself."
"Come on Fleischman,
give it your best shot."
"Hit her Doc."
"Chance of a lifetime
Fleischman. This is a one-time offer."
"O'Connell, believe
me, nothing would give me more pleasure than wiping that smirk off your
perfectly arranged face, but, ultimately, I'd rather own your plane and
your truck and your house and all other attachments."
- Maggie, Joel, and a bystander
"Fleischman, normally
I give 30 days. I thought in your case a week was *very* generous."
- Maggie serves Joel with an eviction notice
"What is it? The wind
that suddenly makes everyone think they can threaten the town doctor with
impunity?"
- Joel to Maurice
"This ain't New York.
It's not even the 20th century."
- Joel, about Alaska
"You know ever since
you've gotten here people have wondered when are they gonna do it; are
they gonna do it..."
- Maggoe to Joel
"We'll be here to answer
questions later."
- Maggie after Joel & Maggie's announcement of sex
"As far as I'm concerned,
we buried the needle."
"Discovered another
planet."
"You should have seen
the claw marks this morning."
"Beyond, beyond."
- Joel and Maggie, the morning after
4.17
"She's probably trying
to put the whole thing behind her."
"I beg your pardon?"
"That's what I'd do
if I had knowledge of you in the Biblical sense."
- Ruth Anne to Joel, about Maggie
"It's a tribal ritual.
Formal. Correct. This is what I'm talking about. This is what we are missing
from mainstream America, some perspective; some dignity; some structure
to make sense of this mating game."
- Joel, impressed by Ed's arranged marriage after his troubles with Maggie
"Take a good look,
though. Girls tend to turn into their mother and we're not talking about
a pretty sight here."
- Joel to Ed, about his arranged fiance Debbie
"It's not Debbie I
miss so much as the idea of her."
- Ed to Joel
"Look at yourself,
Holling. You used to go out and kill things. Now you're bivouacing with
an old woman and a zoom lens."
- Maurice, not impressed with birdwatching
"I don't know why,
but bourbon always tastes better out of a tin can."
- Ruth Anne, enjoying the outdoor life
"Pretending it didn't
happen won't make it go away. You can't close your eyes, click your heels,
and make it disappear. You're not Dorothy, I'm not Toto, and this is definitely
not Kansas."
- Joel to Maggie
"It must be like eighth
grade when I broke my leg skiing. The whole thing was so horrendous and
so horrible that my mind just blacked the whole thing out."
"Well, I'm flattered
and touched."
- Maggie and Joel
"More than once?"
"I stopped counting
when my fingers went numb."
"Oh God!"
"My guess it's some
sort of land speed endurance record for a man my age."
"What else?"
"We made a general
announcement at the Brick. You didn't want people talking behind your back."
"Oh, God."
"Yep, that pretty
much covers it."
- Maggie and Joel, admitting the truth
"Like what kind of
things did you forget?"
"Well. Uh. Maurice
almost fell off the roof of the Brick. Al Simmons' barn blew over. I had
sex with Fleischman, and a whole herd of sheep went through Cicely."
"What'd you just say?"
"A whole herd of sheep
went through Cicely."
- Mike and Maggie
"So, wait a minute,
let me get this straight. I'm expendable but he's not."
"Right. Well."
"You're saying it's
okay to have sex with me, because it's no big deal if I croak, but you
don't want to fool around with Mike because you're afraid that he'll kick
the bucket?"
- Joel and Maggie, about Mike and sex
4.18
"I'd guess you're homeless."
"I prefer the term
hobo."
"Hobo. Makes
sense. Lot less negative baggage to carry. Implies a life choice
instead of a state of being. Hobo. Howling up the open road,
riding the rails, shanty towns, nail soup? Very picturesque."
- Bernard and Lance
"See, what I realized
is ... a person has three choices in life. You can swim against the
tide and get exhausted, or you can tread water and let the tide sweep you
away, or you can swim with the tide, and let it take you where it wants
you to go."
- Joel to Marilyn, returning to work
Goethe's final words:
"More light." Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime,
that's been our unifying cry, "More light." Sunlight. Torchlight.
Candlelight. Neon, incandescent lights that banish the darkness from
our caves to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big
floods for the night games at Soldier's field. Little tiny flashlights
for those books we read under the covers when we're supposed to be asleep.
Light is more than
watts and footcandles. Light is metaphor. Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Lead kindly
light amid the encircling gloom, lead thou me on, the night is dark and
I am far from home, lead thou me on. Arise, shine, for thy light
has come. Light is knowledge, light is life, light is light.
- Chris, unveiling his sculpture, quoting Psalm 119, Dylan Thomas, JH Newman,
Isaiah
4.19
They say that blood
is thicker than water. Maybe that's why we battle our own with more
energy and gusto than we would ever expend on strangers.
- Chris
"We are definitely
not friends, O'Connell. Think about what friends do."
"What do they do?"
"They have dinners,
and they have conversations, and they go to the movies, and they help each
other move ..."
"So?"
"So? Well, friends
don't go into barns and tear each other's clothes off in an uncontrolled
sexual frenzy and then proceed to go at it in the dirt."
- Joel to Maggie
Marriage. You've
probably read in Time and Newsweek that it's a dying institution.
But, try brooking a reception hall in June. Like the proverbial lemmings
at the cliff, everybody's still lining up to take the big plunge.
- Chris
"How about desirous?"
"Desirous?"
"Mutually desirous
incompatibles."
- Maggie and Joel describe their relationship
4.20
"No man could move
his bowels in here!"
- Joel, touring a pink bathroom
4.21
"Maurice is having
a party? What for?"
"Because he's alone
and rich."
- Joel and Marilyn
"They're monuments
to himself. Maurice celebrating Maurice..."
- Ruth Anne, about Maurice's parties
"Who do we have here?
Cain? Abel?"
- Joel, meeting Eve's new baby
4.22
"You can dress it up
any way you want, but anthropologically speaking, we're only a nanosecond
away from spears, loincloths, and sleeping up in the trees."
- Chris, looking forward to a fight
"As close as we are
today, tomorrow when we come back from that battlefield, we will be as
close as two men can possibly be, sharing a bond that can only be forged
in the face of imminent disfigurement. We few, we happy few, we band of
brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."
- Chris to Bernard
"Here I am, a certified
public accountant, ready to sacrifice years of dental work for an ancestral
vendetta which I knew nothing about until yesterday."
- Bernard
"He moves like an Elk."
- Marilyn to Shelly, describing Holling
4.23
"You know what I prayed?
In February I actually prayed for spring to come to relieve us of this
oppressive, relentless, dismal, dark winter. What was I thinking?
I must have been out of my mind. How could I forget the mosquitos?
It's like the state bird of Alaska."
- Joel
"Fleischman, you're
so typically male!"
- Maggie to Joel
4.24
"It's like a Western
cultural thing. We think the whole point of sex is consummation, ejaculation.
Let me tell you, things go down a lot different in other parts of the world.
Take the Hindu Tantrics for example. These guys approach sex like
a process. It's touching, it's sexual connection on a spiritual level."
- Chris to Holling
4.25
"I'm the doctor, I
don't know anything about trees."
"Let us decide that.
We paid for your education, let us use it the way we see fit."
- Joel and Maurice
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