***The Official Friday Silliness Thread****

[Lucky9teen]

Get ready to send out those Christmas cards (and letters)....

The first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir John Callcott Horsley in London, 1843, and featured an illustration by Henry Cole. The picture, of a family with a small child drinking wine together, proved controversial, but the idea was shrewd.

Early English cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. Humorous and sentimental images of children and animals were popular, as were increasingly elaborate shapes, decorations and materials.

The production of Christmas cards was, throughout the 20th century, a profitable business for many stationery manufacturers, with the design of cards continually evolving with changing tastes and printing techniques. The World Wars brought cards with patriotic themes. Idiosyncratic "studio cards" with cartoon illustrations and sometimes risque humor caught on in the 1950s. Nostalgic, sentimental, and religious images have continued in popularity, and, in the 21st century, reproductions of Victorian and Edwardian cards are easy to obtain. Modern Christmas cards can be bought individually but are also sold in packs of the same or varied designs.

In recent decades changes in technology may be responsible for the decline of the Christmas card. The estimated number of cards received by American households dropped from 29 in 1987 to 20 in 2004.[1] Email and telephones allow for more frequent contact and are easier for generations raised without handwritten letters - especially given the availability of websites offering free email Christmas cards. Despite the decline, 1.9 billion cards were sent in the U.S. in 2005 alone. [2] Some card manufacters, such as Hallmark, now provide E-cards.

[Girlene]

[Bertram3]

What is your favorite movie chase scene (preferably pre-CGI) - car or foot?

The Bank Dick I couldn't find a clip. Here's the movie for your evening's entertainment. "The resale value of thes car is going to be nil."

The car chase from Bullitt

[lilylangtree]

The Mustang Ranch and The $750 billion bail-out

Back in 1990, the Federal Government seized The Mustang Ranch Brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it.

They failed and it CLOSED! Now, we are trusting the economy of our country and $850+ Billion Dollars to a pack of nit-wits who couldn’t make money running a whore house and selling booze.

Now, if that don’t make you nervous, what does?

[red-dawg]

[red-dawg]

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Bullitt still wins hands down. Oddly, with all the progress in technology since then, nothing has come close, and in fact all the CGI tricks have lead filmmakers to generate stuff that is less realistic than before - essentially cartoonish. The chase in The Seven-Ups was also not bad, and entirely realistic.

[BibChr]

The foot chase that opens Casino Royale is the best part of the movie.

[Jeff Chandler]

Best Car Chase Ever

[weegee]

What is your favorite movie chase scene (preferably pre-CGI) - car or foot?

I must say that the stunt scenes in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World play out great on a big screen if you ever get a chance to catch it in a movie theater. It really is a big movie.

You can also use a video projector at home (beam it on a big wall or on the back of your house).

The last 30 minutes or so of Jackie Chan's Police Story 3 (aka Supercop) is a non-stop chase as well. I think it was even trimmed for the US release but that may just be me (I saw the original HK theatrical release in America before the big push to dub, rescore, and edit down Jackie's films).

Bullit has a good chase on the streets of San Francisco.

[weegee]

I think it is a generic card. There is no snow on the ground and no sweaters even (for a Chicago boy?).

He can send it out all year round “Happy Holidays”. I wonder if he bought in bulk.

[Rummyfan]

Favorite movie chase scene?

It's a toss-up between THE FRENCH CONNECTION and BULLITT.

[weegee]

They used to have flea circuses in New York City. My dad tells me that the fleas are trained by walking them through a straw (they don't "jump" so much).

http://www.fleacircus.co.uk/History.htm

About the only advice I have in vaudeville is don't let the dog act FOLLOW the flea act.

[kevinm13]

Favorite Chase in a movie (pre-CGI): French Connection

[weegee]

If we are going to talk about horseback movie chases, none are more thrilling than The Terror Of Tiny Town (an all midget western):

[CFIIIMEIATP737]

Colonel Parker was Elvis’s manager.

Colonel Sanders has fried a few chickens.

[Designer]

"..filmmakers to generate stuff that is less realistic.."

LOL!

Like the fireball explosions. How many times have you seen an explosion that is supposed to be "high explosive", like C-4, and the explosion looks like a giant fireball! LOL! What a crock of crap!

And it seems like every car that crashes must have been carrying about 25 gallons of gasoline in glass jars.

How many people think it is real?

[weegee]

[weegee]

So, did she beat the rap?

I think she rapped the beat.

[CougarGA7]

I dont know if this really qualifies as a “car chase” but the scene from 9 Months when they are trying to get her to the hospital is one of the funniest car scenes I’ve ever seen.

[neal1960]

One of the WORST chase scenes ever. This was filmed near my house when I was a teen by a B-movie maker named Earl Owensby.
From the movie Death Driver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oVQiN764Xs