Jeff Fussell, Class of '66 - No Google need on this one! "Invaders From Mars" was without question my number one favorite cheesy sci-fi movie. Its plot has been recycled a dozen times and the rubber suits were a little lame even by '50s standards, but the look and feel of the movie was great. The head in the glass ball creeped us out big-time. I particularly liked the scene where the boy was looking out his bedroom window at the spaceship burrowing into sand pit. The "was it all a dream?" ending was worthy of Hitchcock.
It was a great time to be a kid.
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Bruce Fowler, Class of LXVI - The mystery photo is taken from the advertising for the 1953 Science Fiction Movie "Invaders from Mars". A remake of this movie was released in 1986.
The movie was part of a genre of the Containment Era with the Martians serving as entertainment surrogates of Communists. The mind control aspects of the movie are often associated with Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters published a couple of years before the original version of the movie was released. This connection makes for interesting contrasts between the Martians of the film and Heinlein's later depictions of Martians in (e.g.,) Stranger in a Strange Land and The Number of the Beast.
Another interesting contrast can be made between the original film and the 2002 film "Destination Mars".
especially in term of Terran ineptitude.
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'Rules of the South'
1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.
2. Turn your cap around right, your head isn't crooked.
3. Let's get this straight; it's called a "gravel road." I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.
4. They are cattle. That's why they smell to you. They smell like money to us. Get over it.
5. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $250,000 cotton strippers that are driven only thre weeks a year.
6. So every person in the south waves. It's called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.
7. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of doves are coming in, we WILL shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.
8. Yeah, we eat catfish and crawfish. You really want sushi and caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop.
9. The "Opener" refers to the first day of deer season. It's a religious holiday observed the closest Saturday to the first of November.
10. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.
11. No, there's no "vegetarian special" on the menu. Order steak. Or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the two pounds of ham & turkey.
12. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup!
13. You bring "coke" into my house, it better be brown, wet and served over ice. You bring "Mary Jane" into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.
14. College and high school football is as important here as the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch.
15. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards -- it spooks the fish.
16. Colleges? We have them all over. We have State Universities, Universities, and Vo-techs. They come outta there with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at everybody when they come for the holidays.
17. We have more folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. So don't mess with us. If you do, you will get whipped by the best.
18. The South is the greatest!! If you are from the South you are part of the best people in the USA!!
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