Benjamin Dreyer Profile picture
May 2, 2021 15 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Always happy to point out to Wizard of Oz watchers that the WWW's skywriting is addressed not to Dorothy (i.e., "Surrender, Dorothy") but to the citizens of Emerald City (i.e., give Dorothy to me). It originally read in full "Surrender Dorothy or die."
Also always happy to brood over the fact that the Witch's head monkey gets better billing than Aunt Em.
How many viewings did it take me to figure out what the Munchkin barrister says after "This is a day of independence / for all the Munchkins and their descendants"?

Many.
BTW I've decided that the witch we see Almira Gulch transform into is the Wicked Witch of the East, who, playing chicken with the Gale farmhouse, ends up getting crushed by it.

The Wicked Witch of the West is her identical twin.

YMMV.
It's "If any," which is a perfect thing for a lawyer to say.
There are so many great wordplays throughout (esp. "Oil can what?"), but the "You will be a bust" joke is pretty good too.
Note Dorothy's confusion as she's repeatedly told that she will be a bust and her relief when they add "in the Hall of Fame!"
My god, that g.d. wig. Image
And in conclusion: Decades before "Ideal, she avers," I'd already learned "aver" from The Wizard of Oz, so there, Stephen Sondheim.
"SOMEONE HIDE JUDY'S TITS."
Except this further thought, on the messiness of art: Read Aljean Harmetz's splendid book and you will learn that there were so many ways in which this film might have turned out to be a massive dunghill. That it's great seems almost a happy accident.
"What if Dorothy sings swing and Princess Ozma sings opera?"

Or something in that vein, as I recall.
I love the movie just as it is, but I wouldn’t mind, just once, seeing the version with Fanny Brice as Glinda, Gale Sondergaard as the WWW, and W. C. Fields as the Wizard.
[3,472 tweets later:]

And of course the Scarecrow's recitation of the isosceles triangle thing is 100 percent incorrect.
[A.D. 2,973:]

And what of the Witch of the South, you may ask? In this essay I will

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More from @BCDreyer

Oct 3, 2023
Before I abandon either this benighted website or this mortal coil, whichever comes first, I'm going to make sure that you all learn when the question mark goes inside the closing quote mark and when it goes outside.
You were all well taught that a question (and question mark) in dialogue are set like this:

Adelaide lamented, "How many times can I be expected to get off at Saratoga?"

Right?

Right.
But when the question mark is part of the overall sentence but not part of the quoted matter, it goes outside:

Did you really mean to say "ain't" when you might have said "isn't"?

Right?

Also right.
Read 12 tweets
Jun 17, 2023
Of course there’s no feminine for “cuckold.” Why would anyone have thought that a woman’s being cheated on was worthy of a special derogatory term?
What’s the feminine of “cuckold”?

I dunno, “wife”?
Though “laughingstock” is good enough for the likes of either Schlapp.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 17, 2023
I can't right now think of another once-strict rule of English that's gone so utterly forgotten/ignored than the differentiation between "will" and "shall."
"This is how you use 'will' and 'shall' in the first person, but in the third person you use them in precisely the opposite fashion...."

That's not a rule. That's a trap.
Or is it first and second person? Not much remembering (or caring enough to look it up).
Read 5 tweets
Jun 17, 2023
I still think of the time a leading American academic who posts here frequently and has a massive following plagiarized another twitterer's very clever joke down to the comma.
The "remove this follower" button is such a treat.
The originator of the joke called the plagiarizer out on it, as did numerous others.

Crickets.

1.3 million followers and counting...
Read 4 tweets
Jun 15, 2023
Goodbye to the incomparable Glenda Jackson. ImageImageImageImage
I saw Glenda Jackson onstage five times, starting with Rose back in 1981 and then her Lady Macbeth (with her and Christopher Plummer in two completely different plays), Lear in London, Three Tall Women, and Lear in NYC.

It was always an event. Image
It was not unamusing, on my way to London to see her in Lear in 2016 for her first time onstage in a quarter century, to explain my excitement to younger and savvy colleagues who had never so much as heard of her.
Read 10 tweets
May 15, 2023
OK, that made me want to vomit.

#HocusPotus
Dude's name still isn't spelled Jeryd, for pete's sake, but otherwise that was brilliant if by brilliant you mean it was like getting my hand caught in a garbage disposal for an hour.
Really hoping that next week Gerri will push Roman off the Edge observation deck at Hudson Yards.
Read 4 tweets

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