I know what you're thinking: that this is a trivial subject for a post. Well, maybe, but it might turn out to be a pretty important one. We'll get to that in a minute.
Believe it or not, upside-down houses aren't that uncommon now. I'll bet every big city has one or two (I claimed more than that originally, but Lester caught my exaggeration). Los Angeles has at least two, and probably has a bunch. I'm guessing that the reason is that lots of people built them thinking they'd be the only ones. Imagine their grief when they discovered that the world was packed with "only ones."
I think I understand why people built these things. Every kid lies on his back and imagines what it would be like if the ceiling was the floor. That may be the main reason kids think they're superior to adults, because they think of things like this and we don't. It's a stretch I admit, but this superior genius fantasy that kids have could've been a contributing factor to the whole youth rebellion in recent times.
The thing to understand is how many kids have had this reversed house fantasy, how many believed it was actually a good idea, and how deeply it effected their development. Lots of kids grew up thinking they were keepers of the flame of imagination. They were all so convinced of the genius of this house idea, that they developed contempt for what they considered dim-witted adults, who were obstacles to it. They reasoned that only a dinosaur-brained adult could fail to see something so obvious!
Actually I think it's kids who are the stupid ones. Imagine the staggering inconvenience of living in a house where all the furniture was on the ceiling, and you had to take an upside-down bath. The whole youth movement was based on a dumb idea. It's funny how things happen like that.
Maybe kids like the idea because they're so short that they don't have to worry about hitting their heads on the ceiling furniture.
Now if somebody ever figures out a way to actually walk on the ceiling.......
BEAULAH KRATZ: "I don't know Uncle Eddie...that's really a stretch, even by Theory Corner standards. You should take a rest."
I think I understand why people built these things. Every kid lies on his back and imagines what it would be like if the ceiling was the floor. That may be the main reason kids think they're superior to adults, because they think of things like this and we don't. It's a stretch I admit, but this superior genius fantasy that kids have could've been a contributing factor to the whole youth rebellion in recent times.
The thing to understand is how many kids have had this reversed house fantasy, how many believed it was actually a good idea, and how deeply it effected their development. Lots of kids grew up thinking they were keepers of the flame of imagination. They were all so convinced of the genius of this house idea, that they developed contempt for what they considered dim-witted adults, who were obstacles to it. They reasoned that only a dinosaur-brained adult could fail to see something so obvious!
Actually I think it's kids who are the stupid ones. Imagine the staggering inconvenience of living in a house where all the furniture was on the ceiling, and you had to take an upside-down bath. The whole youth movement was based on a dumb idea. It's funny how things happen like that.
Maybe kids like the idea because they're so short that they don't have to worry about hitting their heads on the ceiling furniture.
Now if somebody ever figures out a way to actually walk on the ceiling.......
But I shouldn't monopolize the conversation. Let's see what Theory Corner commenters think about this stuff:
BEAULAH KRATZ: "I don't know Uncle Eddie...that's really a stretch, even by Theory Corner standards. You should take a rest."
GLADYS PINWHIPPLE: "It's a dumb idea, but I've decided to believe it anyway. I like the thought of little rugrats buggering everything up because of a stupid fantasy."
haha wonderful Ed!:D Interresting!
ReplyDeleteIs this what they mean by 'flipping a house'? Hyuk! Hyuk!
ReplyDeleteI know you are a connoisseur of the funny walk, so here is a link to some slow-mo funny runs. Oh man, funny runs sounds like an uncomfortable medical condition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAxgpHWtLC0
Dear Theory Cornerites:
ReplyDeleteI consider it my duty to inform you that Eddie is kidding when he says that upside down houses are in every major city.
I'm sure this is obvious to most of you, but I always worry that Eddie's flights of surrealist humor will lure the weak-minded down the dusky bypaths of error.
One of the houses Eddie shows is in the tiny village of Szimbark, Poland (I know that sounds like another joke but it isn't). It was meant, not as a home, but as (in the words of a news story) "a profound statement about the Communist era". And maybe it was!
Uncle Eddie you are a wacko! I mean that with love, of course ♥♥♥♥. :D
ReplyDeleteThat last picture had me laughing so hard - it was terrific! Too funny!
Frank Lloyd Wright said: "Form follows function." But, as every cartoonist knows, mere practicality has to take a backseat to übercoolness every once in a while.
ReplyDeleteIn short, I want me an upside-down house!! (Or at least one of those sideways jobs that Ernie Kovacs had in Eugene - or better yet, a rotating room - like Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding...)
I'll worry about the thorny particulars (like for instance, using the bathroom) later. The concept has got a hold of my lapels. It's just too cool...
I attempted to write a clever comment, but I can't do it. This is just too funny. Who thinks of this stuff? why would you DO that?
ReplyDeleteCan't help but think of that Chaplin film "The Goldrush" when that log cabin is sliding all over the place and bending and twisting in the blizzard. Oh, also Keaton and that epic windstorm; Remember that falling wall and the precisely placed window. Too bad sets are not allowed to move anymore.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to put it on record that I was a youth once, and I *never* wished I could live in an upside down house.
ReplyDeleteBut I did always think it would be great if the water supply to my house were replaced with coca cola and the fact that all the stupid adults are still blind to the genius of this idea completely baffles me.
Kelly: Haw! My favorite was the Sumo!
ReplyDeleteThomas: Thanks!
Lester: Poland!? Son of a gun! But L.A. has at least two. I know because there was an article about it in the Sunday Supplelement magazine when I first came to L.A. And San Francisco has one that people told me about. It's one house that has the appearance of three row houses on their sides, so they look like a lightning streak lying down.
Jennifer! Shucks! Wait a minute.....Aaagh! How did you manage to print hearts in a letter column!?
Mike: Haw! Maybe you're right!! It is worth a little suffering to have something cool!
Jorge: I just read a little of Truby's Anatomy of a Story book (the best book on how to write plot that I know of) and discovered that he agreed with me that Aristotle, great man though he was, wasn't very useful on the subject of story theory.
Mal: Good idea if you can afford it!
Kaiser: Yuck! That means you'd have to bathe in it!
This reminds me of that Calvin and Hobbes strip about when Calvin's parents forgot to pay the gravity bill. I think you thought about him during the writing of this post.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gocomics.com/feature_items/explore?page=1&tag=12930&tag_name=gravity+bill
I wonder about the structural integrity of these houses during an earthquake or hurricane? Here in Japan we are wracked by earthquakes and hurricanes regularly, and we just endured our worst hurricane in 50 years, so I can't help but wonder. But I do agree about übercoolness.
Fun post!
To answer your question - I run Windows (don't throw things at me, techies!), and there's an option under system tools called "Character Map". You can select a character from the map and copy/paste it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure of the equivalent in Macs.
Jennifer: So THAT'S it! Thanks for the answer. I'm a huge Mac fan now, but I do miss some things about PCs. Windows XP came with a paint program that resized pictures up as well as down, and made it possible to add fancy titles to pictures. Boy, I miss that. I don't think you can do that on Vista or Mac.
ReplyDeleteThomas: Haw! Nice composition on that strip. You don't see that in most most strips now.
ReplyDeleteWould your lady commenters say the toilet seat is up or down?
ReplyDeleteKelly: Thanks for the inspirational spaz-runs! The shirtless sumo is a poem to drag, overlap & follow-thru.
Eddie, I just googled and read up on Truby's book/structure. Holy crap! It's so rigid! He has 22 building blocks! I love Aristotle so I'm sort of skeptical.
ReplyDeleteI also love Joseph Campbell but more for entertainment purposes, less for practical advice. I don't like rigid structures. To me, even the three act stucture is too rigid. Most great films don't fit into it. Pulp Fiction, Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Raging Bull, Citizen Kane, etc...